Aramark’s first move after taking over from Levy in April was to renovate the terrace club. Courtesy of Aramark Sports + Entertainment
The Oct. 25 opening of the renovated Agave Club at the San Antonio Spurs’ Frost Bank Center will double as the unofficial unveiling of Aura, Aramark Sports + Entertainment’s new premium hospitality framework for sports and entertainment venues.
Premium hospitality service isn’t new to Aramark. The framework, which addresses every aspect of a fan’s premium hospitality experience, is.
Aramark took over premium concessions at Frost Bank Center, formerly known as AT&T Center, this year after handling just general concessions for more than two decades. The arena’s Agave Club will be the first space to embody the codified Aura concept. By formalizing its premium approach through Aura, the concessionaire, whose parent company groups its prisons business with sports and entertainment and is sometimes more synonymous with its now spun-off uniform business, can more firmly combat competitors’ narrative that it isn’t a premium caterer.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Aramark Sports + Entertainment President and CEO Alison Birdwell said. “A, one-stop shopping makes a smart move, but B, [the Spurs] believed our premium product and service would elevate what they already had.”
Aura will be available to any current and prospective Aramark food and beverage clients. Its approach is focused on enhancing four key areas — food, beverage, service, and design of the physical spaces.
“As we see this proliferation and our clients are undergoing more renovations of their premium spaces, we thought it was a good time to reprogram our approach to premium hospitality and meet where the market is,” said Alicia Woznicki, Aramark vice president, design and development.
The Philadelphia-based concessionaire’s 18-month development of Aura is another reflection of a sports industry where premium hospitality offerings and competition are heating up significantly, especially in F&B.
Earlier this year, Oak View Group bought premium events caterer Rhubarb Hospitality and Bruin Capital took a majority ownership stake in Proof of the Pudding, a concessionaire that positions itself as an elevated option. Liberty Media recently bought premium experiences purveyor QuintEvents at a valuation of more than $300 million. And Levy Restaurants’ DNA comes from the restaurant and premium world, while Sodexo Live’s client roster includes high-end, premium-heavy Formula One and global tennis tournaments.
“Premium is definitely something we’re focused on,” said Joe Loomis, Spurs Sports & Entertainment senior vice president, finance, technology, and culinary operations. “You’ve seen for the past couple of years, your premium clients aren’t coming just for the game, they’re coming for an experience. That’s really the big thing where we’re leaning on Aura and how they’ll impact the overall premium experience.”
Birdwell maintained that Aramark already provides that same level of high-end F&B, but the creation of Aura puts a framework around those efforts that will be easier to communicate to current and potential venue clients. It also will allow them to replicate the process across the concessionaire’s existing portfolio, which includes top-level premium amenities at Citi Field, U.S Bank Stadium and Wells Fargo Center, for example.
“We do this stuff — not this defined — all the time when you think about the spaces we operate,” said Birdwell. “What we’re trying to do is formalize exactly how it works to help our clients as they master plan renovations, new spaces, as we’ve seen with the Spurs.”
The company’s approach focuses on food, beverage, design and specifically service.Courtesy of Aramark Sports + Entertainment
Aura is a response to forces in the marketplace, including new ownership groups pouring into sports. New owners’ attention often lands first on the team’s stadium, and accordingly its revenue-generating premium offerings.
“There is pressure,” Birdwell said. “We’ve had several teams that changed ownership. They may have a completely different approach to the business.”
The Denver Broncos, Aramark customers, are a good example. Their owners spent this past offseason renovating every suite at Empower Field at Mile High, the first time in the venue’s 22-year history that the suites had been substantially altered.
Design and aesthetics expert Rachel Herpich is leading a team of six people primarily focused on Aura. She’s joined by Dashawnda Brown (hospitality experience), Jeremy Nicholson (innovation and technology), Richard Grab (culinary development), Jeanette Rolla (adult beverage programming), and Nicole Cooprider (sales consultant). Stephen Starr, a Philadelphia-based restaurateur who has a restaurant at Aramark-serviced Wells Fargo Center, has been advising the concessionaire on translating restaurant-like experiences to the sports venue world. Aura has a dedicated budget though Aramark but wouldn’t share details.
Of the four focus areas, service is the one where Aura’s creators think Aramark can differentiate itself most. Aramark GMs and managers will go through in-person training from the Culinary Institute of America to create a premium service environment where employees are empowered to make decisions on their own without hunting down a supervisor to ask permission. As Herpich said, “there is a difference between serving someone and providing hospitality.”
Aura has several goals spelled out in a pitch deck shared with Sports Business Journal, including the introduction of a “robust hierarchy of experience” that increases premium variety from entry-level and more approachable products for younger generations of customers to the highest tiers of luxury in a sports venue.
Aura’s existence enables the company to bid for sports venue F&B jobs that include both general and premium concessions, or solely premium business RFPs. The company has live bids of both kinds in the marketplace now.
Frost Bank Center will be the sports industry’s first look at Aura in action. After Aramark took over premium concessions from Levy in April, its first move was to renovate a terrace club now called the Agave Club.
The Agave’s guests could come from anywhere in the building, including the two rows of ledge seats (featuring all-inclusive F&B) directly in front of the bar, but also through per-game reservations open to any fan in the building. Seats at the bar are also available to reserve.
“It’s a great example of having these all-inclusive moments that make it feel exclusive but not stuffy in any way,” Woznicki said.
More hospitality-related renovations are planned for the 2024-25 season, Loomis said, as Aura’s influence spreads throughout Frost Bank Center.
