No expansion now, no need. Tweaks to game day experience would help.
The BBQ upscale food is awesome, but they only have TWO check stands open. Doesn't make sense, they must not trust their workers. 8-10 people in back, 2 in the front. More cashiers would shorten the wait, and increase sales. (Many people leave when they see the wait.)
Strategically located benches would help, esp for older individuals.
Losing the grass end zones for a minimal seat increase doesn't make sense.
What ever happened to the team store located near the ticket booth entrance opposite the scoreboard side? It used to be open and sell all sorts of apparel. Has been locked up for at least two seasons. I heard the players use it to store their gear in now. I bought a nice hat there once. Seems like UCD would want an opportunity to sell gear, but guess not. They had a lot of folks in the Foster room at the UNI playoff game buying playoff clothes.
I believe the entire Bob Foster Team Center, and likely all that store space you're talking about, is to undergo major renovations when the new UC Davis Student-Athlete Performance Center is built.
the Bruce Edwards room was the memorabilia store for the playoffs. The old Aggie Outlet is used for locker space for various teams. As Finn said, the Team center and the outlet/locker spot will undergo major renovation with the next phase
That is great. But I do think the Athletics dept should consider a space dedicated to apparel sales. The makeshift sale they did in the Edwards room had a ton of folks at it. They could sell a ton of gear and paint the town blue and gold again!
1. Bringing students out
2. Rebuilding Aggie Pack
3. Cultivating Aggie Pack leaders
4. Cultivating support groups
5. Educating students new to football
6. Cultivating a support network to get the Aggie Band to more away games - I have to believe they helped being at EWU #2...
7. Can you say full Banduh @ Cal and FargoDome?
AggeFinn and I got stuck in a concession line starting at halftime through the 3rd quarter. UNI fans behind us were remarking they travel to a lot of places and were not impressed by this experience. Lots of places for improvement. Beer only lines would be a start.
I am surprised that no one sees the problem, and raises the issue. Great food, great beer, and only TWO check stands open. Opening four check stands is just step one.
I was at every home game this year, and most of the away games. The concession lines were reasonable at all home games (IMO) except the UNI game. My wife got stuck in line during the second quarter and missed most of the quarter. One issue is that it is multiple vendors. There's the Buckhorn group, the pizza group, and then our food concessions. The latter seems to be staffed by student groups. They do have a cash only line, which seems to help. With limited concession stand spaces, I am not sure how you would streamline the process when the stadium is full.
Buckhorn for UNI, Homecoming, and at least another game was out to the edge of the cement, and then the line bent. Over 15 - 20 deep. Small item, but they ran out of Gunrock beer in the 2nd quarter.
Same for the pizza and beer line, maybe over 20 deep in 1 line. And then there is a nice canopy shade, but a missing a few standing tables.
The large water jugs were a great addition for the early hot games, but they could be checked on, refilled.
Buckhorn has plenty of room for 4 registers, some of their workers were standing idle in back, bottleneck up front. Plenty can be done to speed that up.
Pizza line? For big games, sellouts, why not 2?
<Avoiding lines> You are right - I am sure we would sell more concessions with shorter lines.
I think that any improvements and expansion should include shade structures with picnic tables and lots of trees so fans have somewhere to get out of the heat and enjoy themselves before the game during the hot months.
Great progress has been made improving the overall game day experience. Concessions are the exception. What surprises me is that Dr Blue and associate ADs can be seen walking around the stadium during games...surely noticing long lines and long faces of those standing in those lines....yet during the season it did not appear any adjustments were made. The operation appears to be in slow motion. How about hiring a consultant to take a fresh look at the whole thing?
The product on the field has improved dramatically. It is time to do the same for the food and beverage operation.
In regards to shade, I’ve chatted with folks about some sort of awning over the student section. It gets so darn hot during the first few games, if I were a student I wouldn’t want to come back for another game and roast out there. But then again, no clue how they’d do it and it would probably obscure the view.
I imagine that ICA would have to schedule all early-season home games for 7pm, television be damned, and then construct a wall of sorts on top of the press box like they have over at Raley Field on top of the suites along the 3rd baseline.