How do we get people to Wallace Wade on Saturday?

[HereBeforeCoachK]

The time of the game also matters. You’re going to need more food for a 6:00 game than a 3:30 game. In any case, Duke has plenty of experience doing this and should do better. How come no one came down my aisle selling drinks until the 4th quarter? That doesn’t take a lot of planning. Sending drink vendors down the aisles for the whole game would take a lot of pressure off the concession stands and would certainly pay for itself.

I"m telling you...setting aside K, Cut and their assistants, there are clearly knuckleheads in the athletic administration, the hidden jobs, where you can never get fired...it's a bureaucracy with all the untoward attributes of a bureaucracy.

[budwom]

I mean, I don't think the concessions people are employees for the most part. Aren't most of them volunteers, where money goes to whatever group/organization they are volunteering with? I don't think that's a recipe for quick/fast/high quality service.

Yes, that is absolutely true (at least for the East side people I grew to avoid)..and you're right on the money, it's no recipe for quick, high quality service...clearly other schools know how to run things far better.

As I told Corrigan, Duke is leaving a lot of money on the table by running such an amateurish operation...just about every other aspect of college football has become a business (look who gets to set the game times) yet we bumble along with third rate concessions.

But if you don't really care about taking care of your fans down in the stands (vs. The Tower) you keep doing what you've always done.

[budwom]

I"m telling you...setting aside K, Cut and their assistants, there are clearly knuckleheads in the athletic administration, the hidden jobs, where you can never get fired...it's a bureaucracy with all the untoward attributes of a bureaucracy.

Absolutely true. I know you've had far more dealings with them than I have, but one can't help but get the overall impression of genial incompetence when you deal with them...

[duke2x]

But if you don't really care about taking care of your fans down in the stands (vs. The Tower) you keep doing what you've always done.

This holds for the entire gameday experience from the time you exit I-40/NC 147. There's not a lot of incentive to compete with the modern home experience (40" TV, climate control, etc.).

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Absolutely true. I know you've had far more dealings with them than I have, but one can't help but get the overall impression of genial incompetence when you deal with them...

We know K is great and we all think Cut is great...both men are very organized and they quickly resolve issues of incompetence in their organizations. But there is obviously a bureaucracy that exists at Duke that is clearly immune to even someone like K and Cut cleaning it up. I don't know if this includes AD White or not. It's a lot harder to win at Duke in FB or to win national titles in hoops anywhere...than it is to organize decent concessions, decent security, decent organization of the student allottment...and on and on. And yet...

Can you imagine how long someone at Bama or Clemson would last making these kinds of mistakes? SEE YA!

[budwom]

We know K is great and we all think Cut is great...both men are very organized and they quickly resolve issues of incompetence in their organizations. But there is obviously a bureaucracy that exists at Duke that is clearly immune to even someone like K and Cut cleaning it up. I don't know if this includes AD White or not. It's a lot harder to win at Duke in FB or to win national titles in hoops anywhere...than it is to organize decent concessions, decent security, decent organization of the student allottment...and on and on. And yet...

Can you imagine how long someone at Bama or Clemson would last making these kinds of mistakes? SEE YA!

A perfect example of that (about which I communicated with Cut when he first joined Duke, and he fixed it quickly). For YEARS, the gates at WW parking lots would not open for tailgating until one measly hour before kickoff for noon games (and maybe others), pretty much killing the notion of tailgating..and even then, we had occasions when the gates were still locked at 11:15. Almost impossible to believe...

That's when it got interesting...the "security" guys standing at the gates said they had no authority to open the gates, it was up to the athletic dept...we called them, they blamed it on the campus security people. So cars backed up for as far as you could see while the dolts inside fussed with themselves.

[DU82]

As the one who started this part of the piling on, I will say that I got a hot dog during the beginning of the third quarter. The issue was, I was in line right after we went ahead 14-10 in the second quarter. This is at the concession window behind section 29. I didn’t get the sense that any of the other stands were faring better.

The “problem’ was that they gave out vouchers to many of the employees with tickets for the game. So...you give out the vouchers, but either didn’t tell the concessions staff, or they ignored the fact that thousands of people would line up for the free food.

They also sold out of pizzas early, which asks the question if the local vendor of pizza, Pie Pushers, has enough capacity for a decent crowd? Papa Johns and Dominos, locally have multiple stores, so they have more theoretical capacity (I’m pretty sure the pizzas are transported to WW and Cameron from off site.)

There appears to be a new transaction system based on tablets, but doesn’t seem to be faster - the concession staffer still has to take the card and run it through, rather than a faster system that has the customer do that, meaning the card never leaves the owner’s hands.


They did add a taco/burrito stand that didn’t appear to run out. It’s not my kind of food, but others liked the non-gluten options there.

Solutions? Push the concession staffers to move faster (I appreciate that they’re volunteers, but they still need to provide the service that their organization is getting money for.). More training is likely needed, and if they don’t meet certain standards of service, I’m guessing there’s other groups that would jump at the opportunity.

Better supply system and planning. Make sure the resources are close by. As advertised during basketball games by UPS, logistics!

For quicker service, I’d suggest separate “express” drink lines since those are much simpler, and more frequent (it was hot, even after the sun went down.)

I’d also organize the lines better. The lines blocked flow below the tower, since they extended back to the stands (same on the concourse in the horseshoe.). Use posts with rope/ribbons to organize this, and reduce the space the unorganized lines take. That would mean one line per stand, with 3-4 stations serving the “next guest” pulling ideas from fast food restaurants.

[arnie]

Yes but in this very thread we've been assured that they don't run out of concessions. 🙄

It's astounding that a University with an $8B endowment can't manage to adequately provide concessions at football games. Like, dumbfounding. It's not as if 100K people are there at the game like at Michigan or Ohio State, either. I know many of us keep broken-record saying this, and I'm sure people are tired of hearing it, but it's utterly baffling. It stays baffling.

The mishaps with concessions and the whole experience (parking, etc.) is no longer baffling to me. Duke simply doesn’t care. We must have a football team to remain in the ACC and collect the conference revenue cut.

That box is checked: game over.

[DukieInKansas]

I mean, I don't think the concessions people are employees for the most part. Aren't most of them volunteers, where money goes to whatever group/organization they are volunteering with? I don't think that's a recipe for quick/fast/high quality service.

Interesting -during 29 seasons at Arrowhead, I typically found that the stands manned by volunteers was better run than one run ny employees. You could tell them apart by the badges. :V on the badge with no picture meant volunteers and picture on the badge meant employee.

[uh_no]

The mishaps with concessions and the whole experience (parking, etc.) is no longer baffling to me. Duke simply doesn’t care. We must have a football team to remain in the ACC and collect the conference revenue cut.

That box is checked: game over.

if that were the case, roof would still be the coach, and our stadium would still be a dump. unless the ACC threatened to kick them out unless things improved (as BE did with temple at one point).

The number of people in the department actually responsible for game day experience is exceptionally small, and likely even fewer are ones who are actually enabled to make changes to deliver it.

[CameronBlue]

I lived in a quadraplex in Chapel Hill for several years while attending grad school. One of my housemates was a manager for the company that held the contract to provide concessions at all UNC sporting events. Her company also staffed the banquet kitchen at the Friday Center and catered all functions there, ran the alumni club dining facilities, one of which at the time was just across from Kenan, which are effectively full-service restaurants and catered many other university functions. All concession workers were paid full-time staff. She was responsible for staffing, training, scheduling, transportation and vendor management. The contract was rebid annually, if memory serves. From my reading of the posts in this thread it seems as if Duke concessions is far less than a profit-driven enterprise.

[Steven43]

This holds for the entire gameday experience from the time you exit I-40/NC 147. There's not a lot of incentive to compete with the modern home experience (40" TV, climate control, etc.).

40”??? Try 90” 4K of gigantic awesomeness! Regardless, you make a very valid point.

[hallcity]

I don’t know what to say about this. Duke has posted a list of all season ticket holders inside Wallace Wade.
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[OldPhiKap]

that's funny in a sad way...I mean, wouldn't you theoretically be aiming for a hot dog to bun ratio of roughly one to one? How tough could that possibly be?

Vegans. They ruin everything.

Maybe they’re counting on a lot of gluten-free patrons.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

From my reading of the posts in this thread it seems as if Duke concessions is far less than a profit-driven enterprise.

Apparently, which is 1940s 50s 60s thinking...you know, have some hot dogs for convenience...and some cokes...when clearly today the economics of all sports and entertainment venues depend on dynamic, interesting and profitable concessions. Those places know how to get the fans in and out...which is profit, and gets the home team support back in the seats sooner.

Not exactly rocket surgery...

[budwom]

Ha, did anyone else get the gameday survey from Duke today in which the link doesn't work? Someone else on the Devils Den had the same experience, so it isn't just me...

[DeweyDevil]

Ha, did anyone else get the gameday survey from Duke today in which the link doesn't work? Someone else on the Devils Den had the same experience, so it isn't just me...

I also received the Duke Football game day survey with the link that doesn't work.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I also received the Duke Football game day survey with the link that doesn't work.

I wonder if the irony is lost on the AD bureaucratic structure.

[jwillfan]

I also received the Duke Football game day survey with the link that doesn't work.

I got the survey and my link worked. I was (*licking chops*) ready to give them an earful!! But they clearly don't really want any meaningful feedback. The questions were milquetoast, the text boxes only for responses to questions such as "Who is your favorite Duke Football player of all time?" (I kid you not). They wanted to know what would get me to a game - and the responses were limited to a list of things like "Ticket offer" and "Concession Voucher" with no "Other" option where I would have really let loose.

To chime into other parts of the convo here - my son is a local HS student, on an athletic team, and working concessions is a big fundraiser for the athletic department - they work both FB and BB games. I volunteered with him 2 years ago for the Friday night game vs Miami and got an inside look at the chaos. Since it was a dinner-time game we were pretty well slammed the entire time, not slowing down until the 4th quarter. We were continually running out of things but the Duke staff kept showing up with more pizzas, dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches, etc. Mostly it was the kids working the registers but it went fairly smoothly given limited training. There was no time to slack off, everyone was hustling, and the school earned their $$ that night. However - no way would I go back to do that again, it was pretty hard work and my feet and back ached for days after. Helped me to appreciate a few things.

So when I read that they were out of food for a 6pm game and didn't refill things in a timely manner, that means I agree with other posters that Duke simply doesn't care enough - meaning they won't invest the time/$/planning to do this well. Forgetting the $8B endowment, athletics has a ton of $ on its own, they don't want to spend it. Think not serving alcohol is a "moral" choice? Nah, it's just that it would be too hard and too costly to start up and I'm sure Duke's lawyers are stressed over how to prevent underage drinking. C'mon - NCSU *and* UNC figured this out!

And don't even get me started about stadium security and the no pass-out policy at halftime!

</rant>

-JWF

[uh_no]

I got the survey and my link worked. I was (*licking chops*) ready to give them an earful!! But they clearly don't really want any meaningful feedback. The questions were milquetoast, the text boxes only for responses to questions such as "Who is your favorite Duke Football player of all time?" (I kid you not). They wanted to know what would get me to a game - and the responses were limited to a list of things like "Ticket offer" and "Concession Voucher" with no "Other" option where I would have really let loose.

it would take effort to process free-form responses.