Food & Beverage Renovations Upgrade Fan Experiences
at Wells Fargo Center and Capital One Arena

Arenas are the beating heart of many communities, with a wide swath of fans who love sports like hockey and basketball. Along with National Basketball Association or National Hockey League events, arenas regularly host live concerts, which are predicted to generate $38 billion by 2030, up from about $28 billion in 2021.

But whether they’re attracting sports or music fans, attendees will expect top-notch food and beverage service. That’s why the Wells Fargo Center and Capital One Arena upgraded their concession stands with the help of their food and beverage partner, Aramark.

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The Renovation Methodology

To execute renovations of their food and beverage concession stands, the Wells Fargo Center and Capital One Arena employed Aramark’s renovation methodology. This is a multi-phased approach that tests new concepts and innovation and builds on successes. The methodology includes these six steps:

Step 1:
Identify opportunities
Step 2:
Establish goals
Step 3:
create masterplan
Step 4:
implement and Test
Step 5:
Measure and react
Step 6:
expand successes

WELLS FARGO CENTER SUCCESS STORY

The Wells Fargo Center is a pillar of Philadelphia, both culturally and economically. Its $350 million, multi-year renovation will ensure it remains the City of Brotherly Love’s premier destination for hockey, basketball, lacrosse, concerts and events for decades to come. Among the upgrades is a renovation of the arena’s concession stands.

Wells Fargo Center — Renovation Activations

Targeted New Food and Beverage Options

The Wells Fargo Center renovation plan identified the following opportunities to be gained from a strategic redesign of its food and beverage services:

popular-items
Expand availability of popular items like fries, burgers and tenders
point-of-sales
Expand building food and beverage point-of-sales
adult-beverage
Increase adult beverage POS for non-sporting events

Set Key Objectives

The arena’s primary goal was to customize the food and beverage experience for its fans. It planned to achieve this goal through these tactics:

led-screens
Leverage LED screens to create flexible concession stands
cooking-capabilities
Increase the number of concession stands with cooking capabilities
socialization
Capitalize on the socialization trend by leveraging under-utilized spaces

Wells Fargo Center — Renovation ResultS

Wells Fargo Center’s renovation introduced flexible F&B concepts and new socialization areas with premium offerings improved fan experience and significantly increased sales.

The Assembly Room

The Assembly Room

To address fans’ requests for areas in which to socialize, the arena created innovative socialization areas by using unused box office and balcony spaces. These areas also provide premium food and adult beverages.

18% adult beverage per cap vs. PY (total building NBA and NHL)
10% of alcohol per cap (beer boutique and sportsbook bar)
Jakub Concession

Flexible Concepts

At one concession stand, overhead digital signage was added to allow the arena to change F&B concepts based on event types — a crucial capability in multi-sport, multi-event venues.

+9% per cap at mid-season concept conversion from fan favorites to taco stand
+26% sales/POS
+18% avg. check
Food concession stand with various sodas

Built-in Stands

Throughout the building, built-in concessions stands were added to make room for expanding the concourse to reduce crowd movement friction.

16% per cap growth among key categories (fries, tenders, burger, pizza, hot dog)
47% growth in chicken tenders
77% of per cap vs. 69% PY in key categories
Food concession stand with popcorn

Stand Ventilation

The arena added ventilation or ventless cooking equipment to nearly all concessions stands to expand the availability of popular items and improve food quality.

CAPITAL ONE ARENA SUCCESS STORY

Ahead of the 2019 and 2020 seasons for the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the $70 million renovation of Capital One Arena was completed — including an overhaul of its concession stands with its food and beverage partner, Aramark.

Capital One Arena — Renovation Activations

Targeted New Food and Beverage Options

The Capital One arena’s renovation plan identified the following opportunities to be gained from a strategic redesign of its food and beverage services:

balance
Balance building concessions offerings
key-categories
Expand distribution in key categories
increased-speed
Increase speed of service and throughput
popular-items
Introduce premium offerings and customization

Set Key Objectives

The arena’s leading goal was to drive higher food and beverage participation from fans. It planned to achieve this goal through these tactics:

point-of-sales
Optimize POS by determining core concepts that drive consumer participation
customer-throughput
Leverage technology to drive increased customer throughput
customization
Leverage customization to drive premium fan experiences

Capital One Arena — Renovation Results

Capital One Arena’s renovation leveraged technology and customization to achieve its targeted goals. New additions such as a grab-n-go self-checkout venue and customizable food items improved fan experience and significantly boosted sales.

District Concession Stand

District

In this stand, the arena created new branding and converted fan favorites, grills and bars to strategically balance the concessions and allow for flexibility.

+34% sales/game at the optimized grill and fan-favorite stands
Federal Favorites Express Concession Stand

Federal Favorites Express

The masterplan called for converting a fan favorite into a grab-n-go express model with Mashgin self-checkout. It also called for converting one concession stand location into a self-serve market with premium product offerings.

At Mashgin-enabled express stands:
+14% sales/game
+16% throughput
20% staff reduction
General Concession Stand

Customization

The arena extended dining options at premium brand concession stands by offering higher quality menus that allowed for customization.

+64% in main meal revenue between both stands
84% of customers chose to customize

Are your concessions accelerating customer throughput, delivering the food and beverages guests crave, and boosting sales and the overall fan experience?

Contact us today to discuss plans to make your arena’s concessions a fan favorite.

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