Sports venues: Different places for company outings

By Leah Garris, correspondent

When businesses trim costs, employee and customer entertainment are often among the first line items cut. But local sports venues are starting to see the number of corporate outings rise again after a few rough years due to a sour economy and the 2008 floods.

“People are opting for cheaper options than they were a few years ago due to budgets, but they're still doing these outings,” said Jessica Fergesen, Cedar Rapids Kernels director of corporate sales and marketing.

Mark Meyer, corporate partnership director for the RoughRiders, is seeing similar growth at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

“We're starting to see people come back - almost 400 more people per game than last year,” said Meyer, who has been with the organization for five years.

Local venues are seeing a range of companies arrange outings for employees and customers, from Rockwell Collins, AEGON, Procter & Gamble, Oral-B and Mercy Hospital to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

GETTING NEW BUSINESS

Because these venues present such specific experiences, Fergesen and Andrea Murphy, Kernels director of tickets and groups sales, said it doesn't take long for corporate outing offerings to sell out at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Because company budgets start at different times, there's never really a downtime for sports venues when it comes to getting customers involved in corporate outings, they said.

“Every year when our new schedule comes out, people want to jump right on it and schedule their outings,” Murphy said. “We have clients who come year after year, ever since the new stadium opened in 2002.

“We send renewal letters to current customers. People call me back and we rebook them,” she said.

“But it also takes a lot of outgoing phone calls to get people motivated and let them know that options are disappearing quickly.”

Meyer follows a similar process: Once the RoughRiders's schedule is released, he contacts repeat customers to offer them first dibs. After they've made selections on suites or group tickets, he then approaches new customers.

As part of a Kinnick Stadium upgrade in 2006, the University of Iowa added 46 luxury suites, 1,150 outdoor club seats and 110 indoor club seats to the new Paul W. Brechler Press Box. The UI is at capacity for all of these areas, said Jess Rickertsen, UI director of premium seating.

The seats are pricey and require a donation to the UI on top of the ticket price.

For first-time customers, the marketers agree face-to-face meetings work better than a phone call to explain corporate packages.

“With the Kernels, we've got two pavilions, the pregame picnic area, the mezzanine, groups in the stands, plus a variety of suites,” Murphy said.

Because of these options, the Kernels can host more than one corporate outing at a time. Fergesen estimated the Kernels sell almost 1,000 corporate outings each season, and sometimes see more than 20 groups in the stadium in one day.

Corporate groups can buy tickets in the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, Meyer noted. The RoughRiders also offer three types of suites that hold 20 to 85 people.

ON GAME DAY

Planning for corporate events starts four to six weeks out, with dates for the outings booked months in advance.

“We have to make sure we have details right, get the tickets printed, get the tickets to the customers and get the menus worked out,” Fergesen explained.

On the day of the event, managers are on-site in each group area. Each area at Memorial Stadium also has a dedicated concession staff of 5 to 10 people.

The RoughRiders have 15 to 20 RoughRiders staff on-site at all games, in addition to concession staff members. (The same staff handles Kernels and RoughRiders concessions).

“We're usually here by 9 a.m., but if we have a larger corporate outing of 1,000-plus people,” Fergesen said, “those obviously take a lot more time, so we're here earlier.”

Her day will last until well after games are over in the evening.

Even though sports venues such as Memorial Stadium, the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena and the UI Brechler Press Box may be hosting a few dozen groups on any given day, each customer expects to be No. 1, of course - no matter how many other groups are there.

To make customers feel cared for on game day, Meyer's team first completes prep work in the suites, such as placing giveaways in the room, turning on the TVs and arranging furniture to accommodate the group.

All-you-can-eat-and-drink packages are gaining in popularity.

“It helps customers take the guesswork out of trying to figure out and plan for how much people will eat and drink at an event,” Meyer said.

Fergesen said that the Kernels sometimes host corporate outings when no game is being played.

“If a company has people in town for a conference, and we don't have a game that day, they still want to be here to take part in the atmosphere,” she said.

So Fergesen and Murphy work with those customers to come up with an appropriate package in terms of food and other entertainment options.

Catering to special dietary requests is also something local sports venues are doing more often.

“When I started here eight years ago, nobody asked for gluten-free food,” Fergesen said.

In addition to dietary requests, customers are also asking venues to create meals that might not be on the menu.

“There are people who have money to spend, and they want to do something nicer than a hot dog or burger, like steak sandwiches, prime rib or shrimp,” Murphy said. “Whatever people want, we try to accommodate them in any way we can.”