THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Unlike the 74,000 revelers who invade Sun Devil Stadium today to watch Super Bowl XXX, Ken Young won't have to study the menu before ordering his food and drink. He wrote it.
Young, president of the Norfolk Tides and a successful concessionaire, and his brother-in-law were hired by the NFL as consultants to Fine Host Corp., the food-service contractor for Sun Devil Stadium and today's game between Dallas and Pittsburgh.
Young's in-law, also a food-service contractor, has been in Phoenix for most of the last six weeks. Young, who attended the Redskins-Cardinals game this season as part of his research for today's game, flew to Phoenix last Monday. Since then, he's spent 12 to 15 hours a day at Sun Devil Stadium. He's worked on everything from making sure commissioner Paul Tagliabue's thousands of fat-cat guests receive their steak tartar before Diana Ross' halftime extravaganza to helping the guy with the obstructed-view end-zone seat get a hot dog and beer without missing a quarter of the game.
It's harder than it sounds. Sun Devil Stadium is a college field, home to Arizona State. Opened in 1958, its food-service facilities are outmoded. The NFL tenant, the Arizona Cardinals, draws between 40,000 and 50,000 for a game. Including media and others, the food-service staff will feed close to twice that many today, many of them special guests and sponsors the NFL wants to impress.
Young said he recommended that 500 vendors work the stands today, 3 1/2 times the normal number.
``On a regular-season Sunday, you might do $6.50 to $7 a head,'' Young said of per-person food and drink sales. ``A Super Bowl, you might do $15 a head. You're doubling your growth and you're doing that with not a lot more points of sale. One of the major differences at a Super Bowl is the huge amount of catering. You might cater for 3,000 bus drivers. The media catering is probably 10 times bigger than at a regular game. The suite catering is so much more huge.''
Plus, a Super Bowl is a festival. Whereas Sun Devil Stadium might have one or two dishes with a Southwestern flavor, the idea is to give ticket-holders a thorough introduction to the Valley of the Sun. That means adding more Tex-Mex selections than usual, which means trimming some traditional items, or at least the usual variety of sizes and prices in which they come.
The Super hot dog will come five-to-a-pound, slightly larger than usual. Young estimates 45,000 will be consumed. Beer? Between 90,000 and 100,000 cups, 24 ounces, will be purchased. The NFL told Young to drop the 32-ounce brews Cardinals fans ordinarily quaff.
Young attended his first Super Bowl in 1983 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., because Tampa Bay was hosting the game the following season. He spent the week at the Rose Bowl, learning tricks of the trade he continues to employ. In 1984, his company, New Vista Service, was responsible for concessions. In 1985, New Vista had the novelties concession in Palo Alto, Calif. Young handled concessions again in 1991.
Everything about a Super Bowl crowd is different, he said. You have to plan accordingly.
``They spend more time in the facility,'' Young said of the crowd. ``The gates open three hours and 20 minutes before kickoff. When they open (today), we'll have something like 15,000 or 20,000 right there, right then. Those people are going to buy an extra beer.
``And your next 45,000 or so get there a lot earlier than the normal pro crowd, which tends to walk in 15 minutes before kickoff. One hour and 15 minutes before game time, the stadium will be at least two-thirds full.''
So there's time to kill. You eat. You drink. But that's expensive.
It doesn't matter, Young argues.
``I bet that 75 percent of the people who come to the Super Bowl are on an expense account,'' he said, laughing. ``Or maybe they're corporate guests. Or won employee awards from their company.
The game? ``A party. Except for people who come directly from Pittsburgh and Dallas this year, the majority of that crowd won't care who wins.
``There's a mentality to a Super Bowl. People come to spend more.''
Young will give them that chance, as quickly and tastefully as possible. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ken Young
by CNB