Advancements bring flexibility and profits to modern stadiums.

Dan Gallery V, President, Gallery, Greenwood Village, Colo.,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.From professional sports stadiums to college and high school arenas, facility building continues to be a huge business. Between 2000 and 2010, more than 45 sports stadiums were either built or renovated at an average cost of $412 million each, according to a study from NCSL (the National Conference of State Legislatures). Add to that new and upgraded concert venues, ballparks, or other entertainment sites and it becomes easy to understand how experts estimate the market size to be more than $50 billion.

Building or renovating arenas and stadiums requires an extensive amount of upfront capital with the promise of returns over the course of many years. Skeptics often question, however, whether a new stadium is worth the investment. To maximize the potential revenue of a new facility and recoup costs as quickly as possible, stadium design must allow operators to adapt to audience needs and easily accommodate different uses.

Design

Gone are the days of the traditional hot dog cart. Instead, many operators use mobile stations with modern materials that elevate the overall appearance and align with the aesthetics of the designated facility. For example, when renovating Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, a main goal was to create carts that reflected the state’s history and culinary traditions. Consequently, carts were created featuring bases inspired by keg barrels.

Configuration

Another way mobile stations provide important flexibility to stadiums is their ability to fit into unique spaces. Stadiums often have empty or underutilized areas. Operators turn to modular mobile stations that they can combine in different footprints to fit into unusual places. In this way, mobile stations transform blank areas into revenue-producing locations.

Food

Concessions and merchandise are important revenue streams for sporting and entertainment venues. Therefore, operators constantly look for new ways to augment standard food fare with unique items that meet the particular demands of visitors. Yet, offering new menu items can be expensive and risky. Mobile stations reduce this risk by not only making it possible to place unique food in otherwise dead spaces, but they can easily be reconfigured to accommodate different food options should a menu item have lower volume demand. For example, a station could serve sausage one day and transform overnight to serve Philly Cheesesteaks the next.

Statistics show that viewing entertainment and sporting events from home is on the rise and is considered a major threat to venue attendance. To attract spectators and keep them coming back, stadium operators must give them what they want, when they want it and where they want it. Whether it is optimizing all floor spaces or varying food options to find the ideal offerings, mobile stations provide the ultimate flexibility that facilities need.