An already disastrous year for the concessions industry got worse last week as the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences postponed their college football seasons and the three other Power Five conferences said they would play abbreviated schedules.
“It stinks,” is how Spectra’s Jay Satenspiel simply summed matters up. “Look, this is what the reality is, and we’re trying to make the best of it.”
Spectra’s clients in the Power Five include Colorado State, Illinois, Texas Tech and Wake Forest. Satenspiel, the company’s senior vice president of food services and hospitality for the West region, said Spectra is using the time to strengthen its relationship with clients and become a stronger organization when the pandemic eventually passes.
“So for the schools that have moved their fall sports to the spring, it doesn’t mean it’s doom and gloom, it means OK, we have to get creative now and we need to partner with the universities,” Satenspiel said. “If it’s not sports, can we do things to help with the students, to help in the community. Again, it’s negative, but we’re trying to put a positive spin on it, and bring something out that can benefit us all.”
At Illinois, Spectra is staying relevant by working with the athletic department to makes sure athletes are still being fed properly. Spectra has also set up a drive-through warehouse where it sells food at wholesale cost, Satenspiel said. He declined to disclose the revenue drop that Spectra expects to take during the pandemic.
“With no sports there’s obviously going to be a revenue hit, we all kind of expected it,” Satenspiel added. “We’re still trying to tally the damage. Obviously those numbers change on a daily basis.”
Aramark offered a glimpse at what concessionaires are facing when it reported this month that revenue in food service operations for sports, leisure and corrections was down 71% year-over-year. Aramark’s revenue from sports, leisure and corrections slid from $681.4 million in June 2019 to $194.3 million in June 2020.
Mike Plutino, founder and CEO of consultancy Food Service Matters, said the industry is looking to the ACC, Big 12 and SEC to still play football this fall and to hold the CFP national championship game at the Rose Bowl.
“With the bigger concessionaires, they have had milestones baked into their projections before the pandemic and their biggest challenge right now is that they can’t see tomorrow that clearly,” Plutino added.
Spectra clients that still intend to play football this fall plan to do so in front of smaller crowds. In Lubbock, Texas, for example, Spectra is preparing for a football season at Texas Tech’s Jones AT&T Stadium with only 25% capacity. The company is working with the school to space out concession stands and to reduce fan touch points.
“Spectra’s approach to this is we’ve got to emphasize how we can become a better company, a better partner, better employer when it’s all said and done,” Satenspiel said. “We want to use this as a learning experience to come out of it, as a whole, as a better overall organization.”
