The solicitation for RFQs is open now to short list future contracts. It opened May 22 and closes June 7. That is a little more than two weeks which is the bare minimum time required by State law.

My guess is they kept it to a minimum because there are only a small number of corporations that do this, and they are probably just fine with Levy. Levy provides good service to the suites, but for the rest of us proletariat Aggies, we get bad service and lousy food.

Link to the pdf of the solicitation is here.

https://solutions-selectsite-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/Sourcingevent/1147507-event.pdf

There is an email address for the purchasing agent in the pdf. She may not have input on who is selected, but she might be able to pass your opinion on to someone who does.

Second try on the link...

https://solutions-selectsite-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/Sourcingevent/1147507-event.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20230530T162150Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJ5HNJE5DFBZ5ONSA%2F20230530%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=c3202301ad6619cdb17a080d6d6c8d53a0e6fa7edbc8e3f03ecb0f4c397272e4

The food is mediocre at best and is way overpriced.

I also disagree that the service in the suites is good. You could get much better set ups for far more reasonable prices in the old tackle box version of Kyle.

Food is horrible and over priced with the Yankees getting the profits. I have never forgiven the 12th man for selling out to those tyrants in Chicago. Yes, Chicago.

Houstonag said:

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Food is horrible and over priced with the Yankees getting the profits. I have never forgiven the 12th man for selling out to those tyrants in Chicago. Yes, Chicago.

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Is Chicago considered Yankee? I'd characterize Chicago as Midwest. They have excellent Italian Beef sandwiches. They should serve those instead of chicken wraps.

UTEP has ultimate nachos and we don't.

If you have ever been on the reviewer side on an RFP process for a public entity... you know very well that the financials outweigh the quality by a large margin every time. I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone.

Bluecat_Aggie94 said:

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If you have ever been on the reviewer side on an RFP process for a public entity... you know very well that the financials outweigh the quality by a large margin every time. I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone.

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The current Levy contract had performance metrics and regular review. I always wondered if those reviews were actually being conducted as scheduled and if past performance was part of the RFP score.

So Slovacek Sausage couldn't take the whole contract??

For a second point of reference Levy operates concessions at COTA. We went to the NASCAR event in March, and the quality of the little food they had and the service sucked there too. I say "the little food they had" because they were out of about half the items on the menu before the event was half over.

Levy just sucks.

SSC has performance metrics in their contract as well. That they regularly do not meet. So there you are.

As one of the first astronaut said to his partner "how does it feel to be strapped a ton of tnt built by the lowest bidder?"- or something to that effect

Burdizzo said:

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Bluecat_Aggie94 said:

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If you have ever been on the reviewer side on an RFP process for a public entity... you know very well that the financials outweigh the quality by a large margin every time. I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone.

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The current Levy contract had performance metrics and regular review. I always wondered if those reviews were actually being conducted as scheduled and if past performance was part of the RFP score.

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Sharp would ask where is the check, they would hand him the check, he's said it looks good, performance review completed.

There isn't a single concession in any ball park or field that has good reasonably priced food. If you want good food for a high price go to Ruth's Chris.

I'd argue that Minute Maid does pretty well. One of the rare cases were concessions are decent and not over priced.

However - The crown jewel is the PGA Championship. All inclusive (water/soft drinks, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, snacks). Quality is not bad for the volume they put out.

https://www.pgachampionship.com/championship-food-beverage

The Masters is worth mentioning but there's no way they make money with the prices they charge. It's all made up on merchandise sales.

Scratch the contracts. Just have 500 food trucks each weekend dispersed throughout Kyle field with a goal of each serving 200 people.

Same model for baseball and basketball just scale it down.

Or what about high volume jerky cannons that fire on the crowd? All included in the price of a ticket. Delicious.

Or agree to let Grubhub provide carrier pigeon and drone delivery right to your seat from the most popular College Station restaurants. Imagine how exciting it will be to see the pigeons colliding with the drone blades while it rains Freebirds and feathers over 100k hungry fans.

All of these options are better than Levy.

I love concession stand food.

But, when I go to Aggie games I no longer eat from the concession stand because LEVY SUX,.

Did anyone actually pay $24 for a chicken wrap?

Grossly overpriced to the point of me being able to afford it but refusing to buy based upon principle.

I remember when an outside vender sold caramel corn in the old Kyle Field tunnel area. Everyone wins. Just bring in local vendors.

They lost me when they went to ass....err...pepsi

I miss the large collectible soda cups.

And I never but food. Way too expensive.

I say just tailgate before/after the game and you don't have to worry while there. Problem solved. And yes, even those without a major tailgate setup can easily do it. I recall packed sandwiches and beer worked well for many years before we had a tailgate. I'm there for the actual game, not premium food. The only caveat to this would be those in clubs, suites, etc. They pay for it and should get a better faire.

What's wrong with hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, nachos, peanuts, candy, water, drinks and beer? Just do that all cheaply, quickly and with sufficient quality. That should cover it.

I'm sure they have plenty of review/performance metrics reporting/logistics analysis.

I am also 110% certain that "does the food taste good" does not make the top-50 factors considered.

The Ben's soft pretzels are good. Most everything else is trash and takes too long.

I was on a panel to review RFPs for a coffee shop at one of the nation's largest airports a few years ago. The airport got 15% of gross sales period. Our incentive was to make sure whomever was installed would be popular and successful. All of the bidders were going to charge a lot of money (its an airport duh), but we were specifically incentivized to make sure good product was going out.

It doesnt have to be this way.

Houstonag said:

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Food is horrible and over priced with the Yankees getting the profits. I have never forgiven the 12th man for selling out to those tyrants in Chicago. Yes, Chicago.

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Agsncws said:

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I was on a panel to review RFPs for a coffee shop at one of the nation's largest airports a few years ago. The airport got 15% of gross sales period. Our incentive was to make sure whomever was installed would be popular and successful. All of the bidders were going to charge a lot of money (its an airport duh), but we were specifically incentivized to make sure good product was going out.

It doesnt have to be this way.

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It's this way because Sharp wanted it this way. He wanted cash money up,front. So he doesn't care if levy sucks

TXAGBQ76 said:

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As one of the first astronaut said to his partner "how does it feel to be strapped a ton of tnt built by the lowest bidder?"- or something to that effect

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One of the first astronauts or one of the actors in Armageddon (Steve Buscemi)?

Supposedly one of the astronauts

All I'm going to say is that if the quality was good and the prices were decent, there WOULDN'T be hundreds of smokers and grills cooking up food before and after the games.

While the food at athletic events is awful, that has nothing to do with all of the tailgaters. That is a way of life- even a culture for Aggie football. It is a social event to fellowship, laugh, share memories, imbibe in adult beverages, etc. other stadiums have much better food- and still have tons of tailgaters.

Out of the last probably 15 games we've attended, we bought food one time. It wasn't any good and over priced.

Like someone mentioned, the food at your tailgate is much better.

TXAGBQ76 said:

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While the food at athletic events is awful, that has nothing to do with all of the tailgaters. That is a way of life- even a culture for Aggie football. It is a social event to fellowship, laugh, share memories, imbibe in adult beverages, etc. other stadiums have much better food- and still have tons of tailgaters.

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Stop logicking us. Won't work.

Frankly the quality and the prices are both hampered by the deep concession share paid to the school. That's what rentseekers do to protect their monopoly.

Absolutely agree, but crappy food and business model has little to no effect on tailgating.

TXAGBQ76 said:

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Absolutely agree, but crappy food and business model has little to no effect on tailgating.

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You can't guarantee that. But there is plenty of evidence it is true. And the likelihood that for a reasonable cost an alternative could be made available is how we always end up with government mandates and restrictions on commerce. Therefore we should leave bad enough alone lest it becomes worse…