FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas officials spent months addressing potential football game day issues that would be caused as a result from the construction on the north end of Razorback Stadium.
But when Arkansas played its first on-campus game against TCU three weeks ago, the biggest complaints centered around an area that was unexpected - the concession stands.
Fans left as upset with the bottled water as the the 28-7 loss, complaining of long lines and inadequate supplies. Some claimed to stand in lines from the second to third quarters, with halftime in between, only to return with an unsatisfactory product, such as hot water.
"Concession lines were ridiculous," one poster, who requested their name not be used, wrote on the message board at WholeHogSports.com. "It makes you wonder if the new vendor has ever done anything on this scale before. I would think, and I may be wrong, that most fans want some degree of swiftness when it comes to concessions. When you look at the cost per minute of game time for purchasing tickets, donations, etc., I would think most fans envision actually watching the game, not having to spend inordinate amounts of time standing in line just to get water."
Arkansas officials reacted quickly to the fan complaints. Athletics director Jeff Long addressed the problems during a speech at the Little Rock Touchdown Club two days later, and Long and Razorback Foundation executive director Scott Varady co-wrote a letter to ticket buyers later that week.
"This past Saturday, quite simply, we failed to live up to providing a quality fan experience, specifically related to our stadium concessions," Long and Varady wrote in bold letters.
"We talk about these things for hours and hours, and days and days leading up to the season, and when it rears its ugly head you've got to be proactive," said Chris Freet, an associate athletics director at Arkansas.
"Inevitably, any time you get 72,000 people together there are going to be issues. We accept there are going to be those issues, but more importantly our fans need to know that we're going to fix them."
The game was the first at Arkansas for Levy, which replaced Sodexo as the concession vendor earlier this year when it submitted a winning bid to the university. Levy, based in Chicago, is considered a market leader in the concessions industry, with contracts at colleges such as Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Wisconsin, and at several professional venues such as Wrigley Field and Churchill Downs.
So what went wrong?
Freet said a number of issues contributed to the poor fan experience. Most notably, Razorback Stadium is an older venue with structural drawbacks that present challenges to food service personnel - challenges Levy officials likely underestimated on their first game day.
From a food services perspective, the stadium's biggest obstacle is to serve so many fans with only one kitchen, located on the east side. There are limited pantries in other areas of the stadium that are used to stock supplies such as bottled beverages.
"The expectation of sports fans nowadays is a more prepared product, not something that is being heated in a bag or that has been sitting under a heater for a long time," Freet said. "The west side is a difficult proposition because there's not a kitchen and not a lot of storage and pantry space over there, so you're having to take it from the east, go up elevators and that just creates a bunch of logistics when there are 72,000 people."
Other issues at the home opener were caused when more than 50 part-time workers did not show up. Levy workers on game day can be as young as 16 years old. Many are from groups such as high school bands that use the money earned to pay for trips later in the school year.
No-shows are not uncommon, so Levy had staffed its concession workers to 120 percent of expected need. It will increase its staff by 250 workers for the remaining games, beginning with the New Mexico State game this weekend.
Levy also has hired subcontractors to sell items such as cotton candy and funnel cakes, and assigned line captains to help buyers with questions as they approach the concession windows. Hawkers will be mobilized to walk the steps inside the stadium and temporary concession stands will be added to the concourses.
Some of those features were planned for the first game, but workers were pulled away from those jobs to staff the overwhelmed main concession areas.
"You pull from one area and it creates another hole and another problem," Freet said.
As for beverages, drink-only concessions will be located at various points throughout the concourses and more drinks will be kept in the pantries at all stands throughout the stadium.
"It's one thing to run out of water; it's another to stand in a line that is longer than you expected and get a warm bottle of water," Freet said. "In those drink-only areas, the only thing they will have to worry about is replenishing the liquid product and not fulfilling food orders."
As part of its winning bid to the university, Levy committed to spend $5.5 million on improving concession areas inside the Razorbacks' venues over an 18-month period. Some of those investments, such as an in-stadium market and a pizza-by-the-slice store, were operational for the first game. More will be in place next season.
The stadium renovation also should help improve concessions, Freet said. Part of the expansion includes a second stadium kitchen, more elevators and concession stands, and the new 360-degree access will alleviate some concourse congestion caused by the current horseshoe configuration.
The question is whether some of those turned off by the TCU experience will be back to experience the new features.
"If they're not going to come to a game, we hate for the reason to be because of the concessions and because of the food offerings," Freet said. "We've heard that from fans who say, 'I'm going to stay home and do my own thing,' and we've got to correct that."