Sports Marketing Concessions Market Assessment The article I read for this analysis was Concessions Market Assessment, a brief overview of the current concessions market in sports stadiums. This article was published by the Sports Marketing Research Journal. The approach in this article was from an academic perspective. It broke down the industry under competitors and major suppliers. They estimate that game-day revenue from concessions, merchandise and parking valued 10.7 billion in the United States. The analysis was done on 122 major league facilities, including stadiums and arenas. It was interesting to see that a large majority of these facilities outsource their concession to third party, outside suppliers. Only 14 facilities handled concessions in-house. For those facilities that outsourced 41.5% of arenas and 28.3% of stadiums used Aramark as their food service company. Aramark has a strong lead, with the next closest company being Levy Restaurants. Levy holds 26.8% of arenas and comes closer to Aramark in stadiums, providing concessions for 25.4%. Also, of interest, this article noted the increase in scale of concessions at sports events. Many venues are now offering high class restaurants. This trend shows that people are looking forward to dining at sporting events, rather than avoiding stadium food. The addition of these upscale dining options also creates new opportunities for revenue. As opposed to pizza and nachos, stadiums can now offer high-end catering and event hosting. The one exception to this trend is Major League Baseball where the hotdog is still king. They estimated that in 2009 21.2 million hotdogs were consumed at the MLB ball parks. Overall, this was an interesting article that shed light on new trends in the concession industry, a key part (though often overlooked aspect) of revenue for athletic events. The article provided interesting statistics and figures that owners and concession managers could use to plan menus or new ways to grow. For example, if a stadium is not offering higher-end food options, they should consider adding a new restaurant that could grow their revenue stream and make fans more excited about coming for games. In addition, the article showed that Aramark is the leader in the concession industry. One question that remained after reading the article is: “Why is Aramark the leader?” Perhaps their food offerings are more popular or their prices are lower. The article did not make this clear. Perhaps the next edition they will have a follow-up article. Considering concessions and their impact is an important aspect of managing the financial aspects of a sports team.