Jeremy Tripp

Part 3: the feedback loop. There’s a quote from Matt Sebek in Sauce Magazine that stuck with me: “We are probably the only stadium in global sports with 100% local food vendors. At this scale, that’s incredibly hard.” As you've probably gathered from Part 1 and Part 2 of this mini-series, hard is right. Fully local means operational complexity. 25 local businesses operating 25 different ways with 25 different menus. But it also means deeper relationships. That’s where the real work happens. Over the years, we've gotten to know these restaurant partners. We've watched some of their kids grow up running around the concourse during pre-match prep. We've been in the trenches together through rain delays and tornado warnings, through climactic wins and devastating losses. We end up forging connections that go beyond matchday. We want them to succeed as partners and as friends. That often means rolling up our sleeves and helping them understand what’s happening in their business on matchday. We hold periodic sales reviews with every restaurant partner. Of course, I never critique menus. That would be like giving Da Vinci painting advice. But we do share patterns. How demand shifts by stand. Where service speed limits throughput. How mobile ordering changes behavior. What small operational tweaks might unlock growth. One of my favorite recent moments was a 90-minute call with Chef David Sandusky from BEAST Craft BBQ. We talked top sellers, bottom sellers, ribs strategy, fan demographics, YoY trends, food cost, bottlenecks in production, pricing ideas, and who had the best pretzel in the building. For that hour and a half, I was a sounding board, analyst, ops consultant, marketing manager, behavioral psychologist, and probably a few other things. That call made my week. Not just because it was fun talking BBQ through a product lens, but because it’s a reminder of what fan experience actually is. It isn’t just software. It’s the environment. The flow. The choices people make under time pressure. The confidence created by a photo. The control created by self-service ordering. And sometimes, it’s just talking burnt ends with a local chef and figuring out how to help their team have a better matchday. Anyway. Speaking of matchday... Let’s eat.