How to Bid On a Ball Park Doggin’ Gig

HI MIKE! Welcome to the concession world. We started off with an E-Z built hot dog cart, had a great first season and were headed into our second season when the opportunity to do concessions at our local ball field opened up to us.
Our main issue with the bidding process was that everyone was so afraid of violating the bidding rules that no one would tell us ANYTHING!! SO, that made us have to bid blind, and we ended up bidding too high. (still made a ton of cash, and had a LOT of fun. I am going back this year, too.)
After our season started, I found out that the coaches for each league knew all about the concessions, even what the guy who was there the year before was paying and what his menu was. So here is my advice to you: ask who the coaches for the league are, get their numbers and call them up. They are talkative guys, its the nature of the game. They will tell you all you want to know. Main question: What is the main source of food at the ball field? What food bags do you see in people’s hands the most? We were competing with mcd’s and a sheets. (until they got a taste of my Texas Cheesesteak Sandwich, then there was no more competition.)
So find out who you will be competing with to feed these guys. 2nd question: on the 7 fields, (we had 3) are all of the fields close enough for the players to come to the concession stand, or are they just too far away? (we had one field that was way down the street in our park, we got very little business from that field) You can’t feed those who are not close enough to eat #3) how fast are you? the players have just mere minutes to get to the window, eat and get back out to play. You HAVE to be able to move food at light speeds.
4) what are you going to do if it rains? We lost a week last season to the weather, put a hurting on my bank acct, I want you to know. I had fresh produce and fresh bread and lost a lot of it to the wait. Not fun.
5)Are there going to be tourneys at your park? If there are, you will rake in cash (and you should have 2 menus with different prices, one for the local guys who are your bread and butter, one for the tourneys with higher prices. 14 year old girls will eat you out of house and home.) But it means that you will have to hire help for the tourneys. I am lucky, I have my teenage kids that I can bring and work. It took all 4 of us to handle the tourneys. Worked our butts off, but we made a lot of cash.
6) Are you willing to work every day, 7 days a week? Our games were 7 days a week, all summer long. I felt like I lived in my concession stand. 7) ask about the guy who was there before you. The guy we followed didn’t know the meaning of the word sanitation, and we had to live his rep down before people would eat with us. That cost me about a month of customers before everyone found out that I wasn’t him. Hit me up with an email if you have any questions. I will be glad to share my menu and pricing with you. (recipes, too, if you need them)
God Bless, Hope you do great!

PS, don’t park near the fields. Baseballs dent cars. Found that out the hard way…

Thanks for the solid advice Wanda.. May have an opportunity to bid this spring, your advice will be handy.

Youth athletic fields are a great opportunity to make families happy. It is a rewarding venue. Parents want to make kids happy and kids love buying candy and other vendor friendly food. I have been servicing a park in my local community for a few years. It has three fields. Every particpant has to pass by my locale to get their fields. This is the ultimate scenario. First note thte rushes at baseball fields are between games. One game is ending and the people are leaving while the other is getting ready to start and people are showing up. BY biggest consumers are the ones leaving. They reward their young athlete with a snow cone, candy or get them the hot dog they promised before the game.

My average revebue was approximately $100/day/field in use. Please note your best days will be when it is a bit chilly ot overly warm. Perfect days are surprisingly the least good ones. Hot days, think tons of water and gatorades. Parents will be these for their athletes to have in the dugout. Cold days, think coffee and hot chocolate for the parents and young spectators to get through the 1-2 hour grind. I pay 15% of receipts. We are supposed to pay this off gross before any expenses. When it rains, I am rained out.

I have found that keeping the menu simple is key. Your audience is kids and their eager to please parents and grand parents. A bsic quality hot dog will suffice. Simple condiments as well. The gourmet stuff for adults will work, but so will the basics. I also suggest having candy. Keep some bags of the bulk mixed candies. You can buy these from WalMart or Target quite easily. You can sell 2 for $25. Many parents will send their younger children who are watching the games with a $1 to buy something. Your biggest margins are the mixed candies. Also Sunflower Seeds are a must! But the fancy Spitz flavored stuff and sell for $3/bag and buy the bulk old style seeds and sell for $1.50. These are huge sellers and nice margins.

My experience is the hot dog is the draw but I actually only sell approx 5-10/field/day. 90% of my revenue was in the drinks and snacks. IF you do snow cones, do them on warm days. Bring a helper and see the revenues and margins grow. I seel for $2.50/snow cone and sell upwards of 40+ on a warm/hot day.

E-mail me with any other questions and good luck. I am totally jealous of your opportunity to get 7 fields.

Just starting this spring…. Love the information you all share… Thanks to each of you, your shared knowledge will help to make me a success. I look forward to the day when my experience/knowledge will assist someone else!

One thing to think about is if you have left over food and produce(still packaged) check out your local food bank. On Mondays all my leftover buns found their way to ours. Plus a donation always makes you look good!!
I only have a small cart. I only sell plain dogs, drinks, chips. Last year I did a car show and sold almost 100 dogs an hour!!! for five hours, by myself. The trick is to have a system. Like others have said it has to be fast(I was competing against food wagons, etc.) Make sure you have enough food, at the above gig all the food people informed me that on Sunday to make sure to have enough food (since it was my first year). I had to laugh the sellers who told me that ran out food hours before the event ended!!
Also, I would not have two price lists, people DO
remember what you charge. I am in one show (last 3 years)and the people come up to me and say I remember you from last year and your prices are the same, not like the others who have raised theirs. Who gets the new business. As long as I have my 66-70% profit, prices stay the same. I think sometimes my tip jar speaks for itself!
Everyone have great year selling the dogs.

1. eating outside is greater when the weather cooperates, 60 – 80 degrees people will eat more, (fact) national restaurant assoc.
2. when visions of grandure disappear, always include a minimum dollar volume and then a %, and when a higher dollar volume is met then a different % is paid. I always keep the door open and pay my fees with a business check for tax purposes.
3. Getting the acceptance of the “Team Spirit” I have made it a policy to give free dogs when a home run is hit and acknowledged by the coach.
4. Workers paid or volunteers always get a discount.
5. When I inform the powers to be of many of my perks, I seem to be busy.
joe