SBJ Facilities: Big decision coming in the Big Easy

Though I was stung twice, my cans of Raid and I rallied and prevailed (for now) over the local population of hornets, yellowjackets and wasps in my backyard this past weekend.

*(Cracks beer, totally self-impressed.)

The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (LSED) is voting Thursday on a contract for Legends to take over food and beverage service at the LSED-controlled Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. The switch from Sodexo Live, which ran F&B at the two ASM Global-operated venues since the late 1990s (originally as Centerplate) and whose contract is expiring July 14, has elevated anxiety and suspicion in a sports venue F&B industry already well supplied with both.

Let’s start here: Legends acquired ASM Global last August for $2.3 billion, and ASM Global would be centrally involved in any decision to switch F&B providers at the dozens of publicly owned venues it runs.

Then consider: Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center are publicly owned, but it’s pretty clear LSED didn’t conduct a public competition for the F&B business before going with Legends (which, if approved, would take over July 15; Smoothie King Center hosts UFC 318 three days later). Sodexo Live did submit a bid to retain the business that the LSED ultimately declined. The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which originally reported the concessionaire switch, found no evidence otherwise of an RFP. Providers in the industry say there wasn’t one. A May 15 statement issued by LSED referenced a “process,” but didn’t describe what it entailed.

Worth noting: The city of New Orleans is no paragon of political virtue. But owing to the murky nature of quasi-public stadium authorities, it’s unclear if LSED was legally required to run a public competition for the business. Its seven-person, governor-appointed board includes four lawyers, and they’d seemingly know better than anyone what was legally required.

Now consider: ASM Global sent a request for qualifications (RFQ), a copy of which was seen by yours truly, to at least two smaller F&B providers last week. The skeptical could construe the RFQ -- emailed on June 16 with an unusually short response deadline of June 20 -- as a cover your ass-type effort to say an official process happened. None of Legends’ five major competitors received the RFQ. In normal scenarios, an RFQ would officially commence a competition for an F&B account (and precede an RFP).

“It’s a trophy account. It’s the Superdome. We’ve had 400 Super Bowls there,“ one source told me. ”In today’s world, with everyone being so competitive, to not test the market value is interesting.”

Keep in mind: All else aside, Legends taking over this account is no surprise. Legends/ASM Global President of North American Venues (and all-around nice guy) Doug Thornton has worked out of the Superdome for over two decades. The company managed LSED’s $500 million-plus renovation of the Superdome during the last few years. Gaining the business of ASM Global’s client venues is one of the reasons Legends acquired the company.

The broader consideration: Sports venue F&B providers are wondering whether this starts a trend in which ASM Global-operated venues -- the list includes U.S. Bank Stadium and NRG Stadium (both Aramark Sports + Entertainment clients), EverBank Stadium (Delaware North Sportservice) and Target Center and Paycom Center (Levy) -- inevitably flip their F&B deals to Legends. A source told me they’re aware of a concessionaire at an ASM Global-operated venue asking ASM Global employees to leave the room when the concessionaire discusses what it deems proprietary information or issues.

Will the perceived conflicts of interest ultimately influence the responses that cities, counties, and stadium authorities receive when they issue food and beverage provider RFPs for ASM Global-operated buildings? F&B companies that are rivals to Legends may decide it’s not worth the effort to compete for business they perceive as settled.

Here’s another tricky scenario brought to you by vertical integration.

This story has been edited from its original version

Brazilian soccer powerhouse Palmeiras played a pair of FIFA Club World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium last week, and roughly 10,000 of its green-shirted fans took over the nearby American Dream mall before and after the matches against Porto and Al Ahly. At the mall, the club’s fan group set up Casa de Palmeiras, a Puma-sponsored area where supporters could pose for pictures with some of the club’s numerous trophies that it brought to New Jersey or play soccer on a mini court.

The staff at the 3-million-square-foot American Dream made the initial outreach to the Brazilian club, part of the entertainment and retail center’s concerted year-long effort to capitalize on its proximity to MetLife Stadium, which hosts the finals of the Club World Cup (July 13) and the 2026 World Cup. The mall -- connected to the stadium by one pedestrian bridge, and soon to be two -- is trying to become a beacon for stadium-related visitors and brands looking to activate during both tournaments.

“We’re open for business,” said Gregg Schwartz, director of PR for American Dream and a former 15-year communications exec with the Knicks. “We have hundreds of thousands of guests on normal days and now add in the soccer audience. We’re the rare space that has more people than the stadiums. There are a lot of unique things we can offer and that’s what we’re pitching to the brands.”

American Dream has 11 restaurants, a food court, bars, an indoor ski slope, ice skating rink, waterpark and 250 retailers (with more to come). It’s the second biggest mall in America behind the Mall of America (they’re both owned by Triple Five Group). The mall is working toward hosting official FIFA World Cup watch parties next summer in the waterpark (yes!?!), illustrating the commercial opportunity that exists for large, non-affiliated gathering places during the World Cup (the official FIFA Fan Fest is at Liberty State Park, with views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline).

Surveying Qualtrics’ sports team clients’ fans about post-COVID conditions introduced Scott Ahlstrom to working with ASM Global in the sports venue operations world. Ahlstrom left Qualtrics last year after 15 years to found SwitchBase (it was originally called GuardIQ but recently rebranded), which provides venue operators with a single platform (for example, via text message) for operations communications and incident management.

These types of venue ops tech solutions often operate through a security lens but Ahlstrom’s Qualtrics-inspired desire for human feedback majorly colors SwitchBase’s platform. Fans can access the portal and report problems or provide feedback via, for example, QR code or team/venue app.

Still just months old, SwitchBase venue and team clients already include BYU, the Magic, the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, Delta Center (Jazz and Mammoth) and other NFL and MLS stadiums.

The product is very much a living thing (Ahlstrom ❤️ feedback, remember?), especially with the Bees, who are serving as SwitchBase guinea pigs while opening their new venue this season, The Ballpark at America First Square. The MiLB team previously used almost a half-dozen platforms and communication methods for operations teams, including custodial, security and F&B teams. The Bees needed “all that communication to exist in one place,“ said Cameron Coughlan, the team’s SVP/ticketing and guest experience.

This season, five different lines of the Bees’ business (and several third-party providers) are using SwitchBase.

AI summarizes an event’s entire SwitchBase chat log and produces a report for clients, which they can use to improve future events. As soon as an incident is logged, SwitchBase tracks the response time, enabling the team to go to third-party providers with data and ask for quicker response times. BYU’s response times to spills at LaVell Edwards Stadium quickened by 70% last fall, which is crucial late in the college football season when spilled drinks begin to freeze.

SwitchBase is closing a pre-seed funding round this summer. The company is still in its infancy, but its SaaS revenue model, flexibility and Ahlstrom’s connections in the sports industry suggest it has plenty of growth runway.

“We don’t tell you, ‘you have to use this system this way to make it work right,’” Ahlstrom reiterated.

The “Jaws” milkshake is made with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce (faux blood!), topped with whipped cream, blue gummy sharks and Life Savers. It sold for $17.99 in a commemorative cup last weekend at Yankee Stadium (the Yankees and Legends acquired official advertising rights, along with some other MLB clubs) in honor of the 50th anniversary of the movie that’s responsible for so many Americans’ oceanic phobias.

This story about government-mandated, ground-floor retail in new residential buildings and its struggles in Denver caught my eye. I see a lot of this where I live in a rapidly developing part of urban Charlotte.

Outside of American’s most densely developed cities, there seems to be a long-ingrained expectation from consumers that shopping destinations look more like Target, fronted by huge parking lots and with obvious and easy access.

• My colleague Ben Fischer writes about how the NFL is tinkering with revenue-sharing rules to allow more ticket discounts.
• The Fire unveiled more renderings of their proposed $650 million riverfront MLS stadium in The 78 development.
• Levy will oversee the F&B program for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, running this year July 5 and 6 through the city’s historic Grant Park.
• The Oklahoma City Council approved a deal to extend Legends/ASM Global’s management of Paycom Center for three more years, plus the first five years of the new $900 million arena that the city is building and will open in 2028.