The History Of Stadium Concessions Moves From Peanuts To Fan Experience

Early Concessions

Stadium food began as an extension of street vending, bringing the likes of peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs and beer into the venue as early as the late 1800s. With minimal stadium infrastructure supporting concessions, most food came from roaming vendors. Premium hospitality was virtually nonexistent 100 years ago, so low-cost portable items were delivered directly to the fan.

What eventually became Aramark started in 1936 when 25-year-old Davre Davidson placed peanut vending machines around Los Angeles, using his Dodge truck to stock the sites. Feeding peanuts to the fans evolved, but the early days, whether for the precursor to Aramark or the work of Stevens, were all about a few simple items. That didn’t change much over the next decades.

“What we served [three decades ago] versus what we serve today, the old-timers lament the day of the Vet in Philly in 1997 when you stocked bear and hot dogs and you were ready,” Birdwell says about the focus on a few items. “Now the breadth and evolution are driven by the expectations of what the menus have become.”

Standardization and Scale

In the 1960s the fixed concession stand started to become a standard practice across sports venues. The core menu of hot dogs, soda and beer remained common across the country and soon nachos joined the mainstay list, first introduced into sports stadiums in 1976. During the ‘60s through ‘80s, the introduction of brand partnerships kicked off and we began to see the change in seating types.

The 1965 opening of the Astrodome introduced luxury boxes with in-seat catering, a first for the industry. Catering became more prevalent in all sports—Aramark first served an Olympics in 1968 in Mexico City as it expanded it concessions and catering business with menu standardization and has had a role in every Olympics since—and the rise was only beginning.

“We are pioneers in the sports concession business,” Marc Bruno, COO at Aramark, tells me. “With that has come some neat experiences and we’ve had a front row seat to watching how concessions and hospitality has evolved.”

Experiences and Tiered Hospitality

In the 1990s through the early 2000s, as new stadiums continued to come online, owners placed a greater emphasis on the fan experience. They offered venues with club seating, lounge spaces and new premium hospitality packages beyond the suites. Each unique space came with its own food experience, often including high-volume service for general seating, elevated concession options for the clubs and catering for suites.

Before the premium boom, food and beverage wasn’t part of the game, just something that had to be done. It was the early ‘90s, Bruno says, when the concept elevated into a piece of the gameday experience.

Segmentation Explosion

In the 2000s, fan segmentation took off. From loge boxes to party decks and field-level clubs to themed lounges, every space became tailored to create a distinct fan experience. The food had to follow the trend, tailored to meet specific spaces and audiences.

The building boom of the early 2000s redesigned stadiums focused on the fan experience, allowing concessions to become part of the game. “That evolution ultimately allowed customization into different tiers of fans,” Bruno says. “That has been the type of evolution that has been quite exciting to witness.”

Now teams are renovating more frequently, and not just new builds or major overhauls, but small renovations of club or premium spaces. “There is a desire to create fandom and provide an experience that maximizes that,” Bruno says. With fans exhibiting a pattern of spending for experiences, whether a concert, special event or game, Bruno says, concessionaires must provide a value and an elevated food offering.

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These changes couldn’t happen without stadium redesigns. “There is only so much you can do in an existing building,” Birdwell says. “With new builds, you see so much more attention to flexibility.” With that Aramark has become heavily involved in new building plans, using data and analytics to help the team determine what information is important now and to help define the future.

A Food Revolution

In the 2010s the focus on the food really took hold. The decade of Instagram made picture-worthy special-edition food items a norm. The appreciation for craft beer and local ingredients upped restaurant partnerships. Every level of the stadium saw a need to keep up with the times, with premium spaces focused on experience and placemaking identity and restaurant-quality menus the norm in the premium seats.

Birdwell says she’s really seen premium expand and customize, and the food itself has grown in both variety and quality. “Uniqueness and customization between sports and even teams become more apparent,” Birdwell says. What the Red Sox do in Boston, for example—lobster poutine, anyone?—is going to focus on the city, offering a different experience than, say, any of Aramark’s partners Philadelphia. “How do you know you’re in Boston or Philadelphia? We customize by geography more so than sport,” Birdwell says.

The Technological Age

From the late 2010s through the pandemic, frictionless service became key with a focus on mobile ordering, self-checkout and frictionless transactions. Birdwell and Bruno agree that the next evolution of stadium concessions expands this trend. Birdwell says she dreams of the day technology makes the stadium a barrierless environment that speeds the service so people feel like they are in their own home. Bruno concurs, saying the next step is an all-inclusive stadium—still with different levels of service. He believes it will happen in the future, creating a truly seamless environment.

From roaming workers serving a limited menu to the highly technical multi-tiered approach focused on experiences, stadium food has changed. But some of it has remained the same. “Serving 50,000 to 75,000 to 100,000 people in the span of a couple of hours at scale is still one of the more complex things,” Bruno says. “Doing it safely and in a way where people can enjoy themselves and at scale and speed so they can experience what they came for, that challenge will continue forever.”

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