LSU Baseball fans are spending less time at Alex Box Stadium as of 2023. Mostly owing to the new pitch clock which helps to speed up the length of ball games. Aside from players and coaches, concession stands, their employees and their french fries have also had to adapt to college baseball’s latest rule change.
“To put it in fan terms, I would say a cafeteria-style type line,” General Manager with Aramark at LSU, Chad Hunsaker said.
“They don’t have to go to a person or cashier to place an order, they can simply grab it out of hot slides, and head straight to the cashier where they checked out and can get back to the game,” Assistant General Manager for Sports and Entertainment for Aramark at LSU, Josephine Woods said.
Some fans are still adjusting to the new “grab and go” flow of the concession stands.
“There is a lot of confusion around like ‘Okay, do I have to talk to someone?’ or ‘If I have my food can I go forward and pay for it or do I have to wait?’,” LSU Baseball fan Ella Dierks said. “I feel like that will kind of ease itself out once people get more used to the fact that that’s how they are doing things.
As the LSU faithful continue to buy some peanuts and popcorn, the need for concessions have increased despite the news rules cutting games by nearly an hour.
“The demand for concessions stays strong, in fact, we have grown the number of employees over the last year,” Hunsaker said.
“With more employees we can make sure we are not putting 100 hot dogs in a hot welt just to sit and die,” Woods said. “We have people that can keep up with the demand of the shorter time period that we have to make sure that you are getting your items fresh.”
Meanwhile, shorter, self-served lines may have an effect on the extra incentive employees earn while working on game day.
“They might see a difference in the tipping process,” Hunsaker said. “Going from the traditional cashier if you will belly up, greeting customers to a grab and go, it is going to change a little bit.”
“There is a point of if I am grabbing everything myself and I am paying the guy when I swipe my card and I am tipping him I don’t get that,” Dierks said.
“With the tip differential that they may see from actually serving a customer we have made sure to take precautions to increase the wages from that lost revenue,” Woods said
So despite all the recent changes, LSU Baseball fans are still rooting for the home team and purchasing classic ballpark food at the old ballgame.
