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I recently read an article by Gary Masters that appeared in a Journal of Crowd Safety and Security Management about ingress flow in the NEC Arena in Birmingham, UK.  The Green Guide published in the UK in 2008 suggests a natural ingress flow of patrons into stadia at a rate of 660 per lane. Masters indicated that on average over 900 per hour was achieved at the NEC. The actual flow rates didn’t interest me much but it lead me to thinking about what the commercial opportunities were with so many people streaming into our venues. I observed at our last field fixture how crowds steamed into the stadium and straight through the ingress (vomitories) points onto the stands.

I wondered if we were missing some opportunity with such a large volume of people rushing to find their seats. Perhaps the answer lies in the way retail outlets set up their stores and the psychology behind buying behavior.

Supermarkets, which have quite steady ingress rates, have what they call a “chill” or decompression zone where people entering are made to slow down, either with a display or some barrier (a stack of beer) or specials. This makes people intent on getting their items slow down, relax and quite often buy something.  Psychologists will tell you that patrons will stick or turn to the side on which they drive, right in the US and left in the UK for example.  Perhaps we could be looking to create these zones in our venues. This would be a good place to have some specials or BOGO (buy one get one free), packaged deals or 2-fer deals in our food concessions.

I remember so well entering Minute Maid Park in Houston and been hit with the wonderful smell of fried onions as I walked into the park. I am sure they position their carts at every entrance just to entice me to buy something to eat, which I immediately did by the way. Smell or scents are other enticements that are used in retail outlets and supermarkets to entice shoppers to purchase. The smell of baked goods; fresh brewing coffee and other aromas all make us hungry and buy more stuff.

If we carefully monitor what it is we are selling most of we can position these items to force patrons further into the stadium and to walk past a whole variety of other concession stands from which they may partake. It is not by mistake that bread and milk are always at the back of stores forcing customers to walk past every other item they may not need to buy.

I wonder if we run our merchandise stores with the same psychology insights as seasoned retailers do.  Have you noticed how messy clearance item areas are? They designed to make you stay there longer, they always at the back of the store so you have to walk through all the other wonderful displays on your way there.  Retail outlets always have fitting rooms; shops with fitting rooms have a conversion rate of 85% as compared to those that don’t who convert only 58% of us to purchasers.  The one big advantage venues have over retailers have over retail shops is that people seldom come to the game alone and people who shop together buy more than those who shop alone and apparently much more.

The retail environment is a tough one and they are always looking to improve their spend per head. Psychologists are now looking at what influence color has on our moods, feelings and most importantly our need to purchase. They say we are programmed to stop on red and go on green. It is interesting that ingress and exits channels (vomitories) into our stadium are painted green by the construction team. They say that red, orange and yellow make us stop and feel hungry; maybe some fast food stores know this?

Venues are always trying to extend their retail window.  Outside of the US Rugby and Soccer games have much shorter retail windows compared to sports such as Baseball and Football. I believe venues are going to have to look much harder at how they develop entertainment areas outside the venues to grow this window, in a similar vein to the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

The use of digital displays and screen content management, which influence our buying behavior and the ability to offer meal and merchandise deals in real time are already being used to good effect and with proven results in many stadiums.

Well earlier this week we hosted a soccer match between a team wearing orange and the other yellow. I can’t wait to get back the catering figures so I can see if the spend per head went through the roof.