Changes made by Virginia Tech's athletic department to improve fan experience
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech football fans wait in shorter lines at Lane Stadium on Sept. 30 after the athletic department introduced 'beverage-only' lines following the 45-minute lines during the North Carolina game on Sept. 3. Now, fans wait at most five minutes for a beverage and 15 minutes for food. Photo: Chris Hirons.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A Lane Stadium concession employee serves a gentleman a drink at one of the new 'beverage-only' lines as Virginia Tech's football team played host to Richmond on Sept. 30. Photo: Chris Hirons.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A Lane Stadium employee grabs a beverage from the refrigerator at a 'beverage-only' stand at Lane Stadium as Virginia Tech hosted Richmond on Sept. 30. Photo: Chris Hirons.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Two fans stand in front of the Lane Stadium sign, taking in the emotions after Virginia Tech's last-second loss to Notre Dame on Oct. 9. Photo: Chris Hirons.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A Lane Stadium concession employee serves a gentleman a drink at one of the new 'beverage-only' lines as Virginia Tech's football team played host to Richmond on Sept. 30. Photo: Chris Hirons.
By Chris Hirons
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October 12, 2021
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BLACKSBURG, Va. — Trevor Jackson stood behind the cash register near the north endzone in a concession booth at Lane Stadium, awaiting to welcome a new group of Virginia Tech football fans coming in to kickoff the 2021 college football season against North Carolina.
The Lane Stadium concession worker didn’t expect the calmest of nights while working, it was a 66,000-person capacity crowd after all. But he didn’t expect the stampede of customers that came through the concession lines.
Fans waited as many as two hours to get into the stadium, then they pushed and shoved each other once they were in. Forty-five minute wait times for food, alcohol and water. Students sitting in seats that belonged to season ticket holders.
“[The concession staff] didn’t prepare enough food for the crowd, nor were there any ‘beverage-only’ concession stands to lessen the blow,” Jackson said in an interview.
Those were just a few of the problems the Virginia Tech fan experience faced when welcoming fans back into the stadium for the first time since 2019 on Sept. 3.
Since then, though, that same fan experience has changed. For the better.
“I know [Virginia Tech] prioritizes fans more than anything,” Tech student John Allen said. “After a lost year of revenue to covid, I’m sure they’d do anything to please the fans.”
In terms of the long concession lines, Virginia Tech’s athletic department hired more workers and raised the starting pay, as well as the current pay of current employees, after a few considered quitting following the debacle in early September.
The department also added 12 ‘beverage-only’ concession stands to alleviate the long wait times for food. Now, after the Hokies hosted their second capacity crowd when Notre Dame came to town over the weekend, wait times for food don’t exceed 15 minutes. And, for fans that only want beverages, their average wait time is about five minutes.
“We were only about 70% staffed for the [North Carolina] game, and not all of us were properly trained,” Jackson said. “The ‘beverage-only’ lines make my job so much easier. [My co-workers and I] were all so stressed during the first game, but now we’re pretty relaxed.”