Concessions Prices dropping for Iowa's final six home games

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
While the competition heats up inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, concession prices are coming down during six University of Iowa playing dates in February.

ARAMARK, the company in charge of all concession sales within Carver-Hawkeye Arena, is offering three Half Price Days and three Dollar Dog Days beginning with the men’s basketball game against Illinois on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

“Our primary goal is to provide value to guests at Carver-Hawkeye Arena,â€￾ said Gary Ward, general manager for ARAMARK at the University of Iowa. “Given the variety on our menu and the value the promotion provides, we encourage fans to try something new.â€￾

The three Dollar Dog Days, where hot dogs are $1, are the Feb. 3 men’s basketball game against Illinois, the wrestling dual against Northwestern on Friday, Feb. 12, and the women’s basketball game against Indiana on Thursday, Feb. 25.

Hot dogs regularly sell for $3.50.

The three half price concession nights will be the men’s basketball game against Michigan on Tuesday, Feb. 16, the women’s basketball game against Minnesota on Thursday, Feb. 18, and the wrestling dual against Ohio State on Friday, Feb. 19.

“ARAMARK and the University of Iowa athletics department have been partners for more than 35 years,â€￾ Ward said. “We coordinated with the university to determine which dates would enable the largest number of fans to benefit from the promotion’s added value.â€￾
 
imported_ankle23 said:
right, barta should be slashing ticket prices instead of strong-arming hot dog vendors.
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Generally speaking, these kind of concession rights deals are flat rate deals. In other words, a vendor like Aramark will pay the University x amount of dollars for y number of years for the concession rights in the facilities.

In other words, there is no guarantee of revenue or attendance. It makes the deal less valuable when it comes up. Aramark will be able to say, attendance was down in CHA, by x %, now the deal is worth less.

Aramark is simply trying to recoup as much as they can from a sunk cost.
 
I read Springsteen's post with interest but I still wonder if this promotion isn't being financed by the athletic department in some way. Barta boxed himself in (for good reason) when he said ticket prices for the general public would not be lowered mid-season. He needed to do that to appease season ticket buyers. Dropping concession prices is about all that's left to work with.
 
burky247 said:
Slashing ticket prices ticks off season ticket holders who have been supporting the team the whole time.
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This is why I don't think you can start cutting ticket prices now. ISU does this to what football fans they have and it is not a good way to build good will. Of course, if I were a season ticket holder, I wouldn't like the arena being 2/3 empty either. Think I would rather pay more for my seat than the guy next to me than have nobody sitting next to me...but I get lonely like that.;)
-Greg
 
I kinda disagree with lowering ticket prices...

When you do this, people forget what the ticket used to be, and raising it back up to respectable levels will be viewed as a massive increase. Single game reductions are fine though. If you allow something to hold less value, than it actually does.

But by cutting concessions they are able to make the game only slightly more expensive than going to see a movie. People always say by the time I have a hot dog and a coke... well now there goes that excuse.
 
I would love to go to my first Hawkeye bball game, but I also have 6 in my family and its hard to come up with that kind of cash right now. Some day though. My first love was Iowa bball, its been hard watching them over the past 7 years but I wont stop supporting the team so what do you do.
 
Lots of supply (empty seats), little demand = ticket prices are too high.

And I hate hot dogs anyway.

Something must be done. The attendance is an embarrassment. The feds are all about stimulus packages--how about some attendance stimulus? Lower the ticket prices, then refund the season ticket holders if you want. Heck, pay people to show up--give students a $5 bill and a T-shirt as they walk in the door. But lets fill up CHA. You can always raise the prices when the demand increases.

How about letting kids in for free? Invite every boy/girl scout troop in the state. Fill up the sections behind the baskets. Maybe a fun time at CHA will spark some interest in future Hawkeyes.
 
BA96MA99 said:
Lots of supply (empty seats), little demand = ticket prices are too high.

And I hate hot dogs anyway.

Something must be done. The attendance is an embarrassment. The feds are all about stimulus packages--how about some attendance stimulus? Lower the ticket prices, then refund the season ticket holders if you want. Heck, pay people to show up--give students a $5 bill and a T-shirt as they walk in the door. But lets fill up CHA. You can always raise the prices when the demand increases.

How about letting kids in for free? Invite every boy/girl scout troop in the state. Fill up the sections behind the baskets. Maybe a fun time at CHA will spark some interest in future Hawkeyes.
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letting in kids for free just makes too much sense. be careful posting such logic, some on this board don't take clear and logical thinking too well. they'd rather have the place 1/3rds full to protect their season ticket investment. Are you not entertained!!??
 
FreddyBrown said:
I read Springsteen's post with interest but I still wonder if this promotion isn't being financed by the athletic department in some way. Barta boxed himself in (for good reason) when he said ticket prices for the general public would not be lowered mid-season. He needed to do that to appease season ticket buyers. Dropping concession prices is about all that's left to work with.
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It's a good move. I ran a team on franchise mode on Madden once and I raised the concession prices too much and it caused the fans to stop showing up. When I lowered them, I got a lot of fans back.
 
okeefe4prez said:
It's a good move. I ran a team on franchise mode on Madden once and I raised the concession prices too much and it caused the fans to stop showing up. When I lowered them, I got a lot of fans back.
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I think you are onto something there. I never tried it on Madden, but we have a Sim Roller Coaster computer game and I noticed the same effect with concession prices. Wonder if either of these games is where they got the idea. Probably. The same economic principles should carryover from football stadiums to theme parks to basketball arenas. Very astute observation.
-Greg
 
"Hey Gary, these Hot Dogs are old and smelly and we have put them on the cooker 3 or more times now, is it ok if we just throw them away?"

"Hell no, we'll have a promo and sell them to the stupid Hawk fans for a buck each. You wouldn't throw a dollar bill in the trash now would you? Come on. What are you thinking? I bet we can even get the University to issue us a dadgum press release about it."
 
Right on BA96MA99 and imported_ankle23!!!

Let's also lower the price on tickets to free. Then we can have the food for free too. Then we can make money by...wait, how will that make money?

The thing is, movie complexes make most of their money off of concessions because if I am not mistaken ticket revenues go to the people that made the movie.

So in that example concessions are the key to making money. I have a feeling it is the same here. So if you allow kids to come in at a lower rate, as some would, and then you allow them to eat free, well, it isn't as logical as some Joe on a message board thinks.

So let's not try to make it out like everyone over here who has an idea is smarter than the people in charge, just because the team isn't good now and isn't drawing fans.

Or wait, I could be wrong, everyone on here is obviously smarter than anyone associated with the program currently.
 
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