Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 24 national championship wins! Over 170 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I am joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our production manager, the Daedalian Lowry. And today we're going to have some fun as we talk about food, talk about, you know, one of the big things at athletic events is concessions or the smell of food. And so I thought we'd have some fun and even branch off the local food in our area for those coming to Lansing and visiting and listening to this podcast and we can give them some ideas. No payday advertisement today and no, hopefully don't offend anyone as we talk about this. But you know, one of the big things at athletic events is concession stands and we don't have concessions at Lansing Community College since the pandemic. I believe we had it before and we had a club that ran it. But you know, when you think of athletic events, a lot of people think popcorn, hot dogs. You know, you and I, as usual when we prep for these things, we talk a lot of food topics and you know, you had some interesting ones we'll hit on. When you think of concession stands and as an athletic director, I think I've done every role in a concession stand from popping popcorn, to wrapping hot dogs, to loading pop or beverages and to helping people at the counter. And it's a very intricate part of an athletic program and it takes a lot of volunteers and that's one of the toughest things in athletics is staffing and finding people to help with the concession stand because there's a lot of behind the scenes work of ordering product and being there to get the product, understanding, inventory and money handling. But it could be a very valuable resource at the high school level with a very significant fundraiser for our athletic program.

I think we'll probably talk a lot about the good in concession stands, but there's also the other side of it that as you as an athletic director, I'm sure understand really well and that's the product that comes from those concession stands. Once the product been consumed. And a lot of times those don't make it back to the trash cans or receptacles or whatever. And, you know, you're left with bleachers and, you know, grounds that you need to clean up. So if you do have those, there's also the other side to it as

well, and the very difficult side of cleaning up. And at some schools, they do not allow pop or beverages in the gym or food in the gym. And people get mad like, I just bought this and I can't go in and watch the game with it. You're going to make me sit outside and watch it. And you know.

You came from Mason. What was Mason known for? For their concessions.

Pizza.

Really?

Yes. We had a local pizza eatery. It was a nice size slice at a, at a good rate. We had a friend of mine who was in Andy at another school. He just, it made him, whenever he came to this area, would go to that pizza place and, and buy pizza because he liked it so much from having it at our, our basketball or football games. So it was a, it was not a chain pizza. So it was just, just straight pepperoni

or you mix it up a little bit.

We had pepperoni and ham. And then during some seasons, cheese became a big popular item over the last couple.

I will say that the particular. Because I, I went to high school in Mason and that that particular establishment that you were referring to was actually a destination point at lunchtime. So there you go. That's how good the pizza is.

And it is good.

There is a slight hack on the pizza. If you're going to serve it, if you actually cut it into squares, you'll have more pizza to get out. And it's also easier for people to eat versus the large triangles. And then the side note on it is it actually tastes better too.

Gee, that's an interesting perspective.

Wow, you're gonna lay down the taste better. That might be the tip of the podcast right there, Coach Cutter. But the piece, the slice of that Mason were rectangular. They were large, but.

And a lot of cheese.

A lot of chees.

Yeah.

And you had to be careful with the grease and how you wrapped it and the protocols from the health department, the wrap it and such and making sure it didn't sit too long. And then all the toppings stuck to whatever wrapping you put it in. But very interesting since most slices are triangles out there, especially when you go to other places and you go to the generic chain. Again, it's a difficult model. I mean, there's very busy times at Athletic events, halftimes in between games, and you got to be ready for those rushes and, you know, making sure everything is set. You know, one of the biggest events we hosted at Mason with our competitive cheer invitational, we had lines out the door, you know, in between rounds. And pickles was a big one that we came on the last couple years. Large pickles, we just put them in a bag and sold. Nachos and pretzels were other big selling events. And you have to be careful of too much and too little. We've talked on previous podcasts. My love of candy and the different varieties you have, but sometimes it's just keeping it simple. Even brands of drinks, you know, that people tea was a popular item recently. Sweet tea and regular tea has grown. You know, obviously you want some healthy things for student athletes when they come and you know, some people are coming right for work. So you got to balance. Are they eating a meal there? So it's pretty intricate.

But I think if you're going to really want to sell quite a bit, you got to find a way to be unique. You know, baseball and sporting venues in general just found ways to have very unique items that you might not find at every concession stand, but they have, you know, they might be creating a special burger or some kind of fries or something like that. I think at the high school level you can really do that too. You know, I really believe that it's not a concession stand unless they have walking tacos. And so that's. That's one of those things where it's. They're not super hard to do, but they do take a little bit of effort. But, you know, just. Just being a little bit more unique than having hot dogs and popcorn at a bare minimum, that's always good, but you want to stand out a little bit. You got to be a little bit

different and going to different concessions and that. At Mason for homecoming we do a bulldog burger or we had done walking tacos before. We were known also for our hot dogs and brats because it was a local meat place that actually donated them to the concession stand. But to your point of uniqueness, going to a game this year, deep fried Oreos was there, like unique and special. They actually ran out. You couldn't even go figure them.

That does not surprise me at all.

Go figure.

And you can get Oreos from them, but they couldn't deep fry them by the end of the game. And you know, when you talk about, you know, fair food, you know, like elephant ears or, you know, people are

getting pretty creative I haven't heard giant pretzels yet, guys. Giant pretzels are my thing.

Yeah, I have giant pretzel down here with it. We tell them at Mason with salt or.

Oh, yeah, definitely got to have salt.

Yeah, we added cheese. You could get a packet of cheese with your pretzel for extra cost. And pretzels were a hit and a tough one to maintain because if they got too hot, they would harden. But if they weren't hot enough, they were cold or, you know, getting enough salt. You know, people want salt or not salt on them. But they were a pretty popular item too. And I agree they're a nice meal. I think people have put pizza on their pretzels. Now I sell at a concession stand mozzarella cheese with pepperoni on top of a pretzel. So to your uniqueness point there. Yeah, A lot of people out there are, you know, adding their own spin to it, which, you know, makes it fun. But it is an important part of, of an event.

It is. And you see it in restaurants too. The ones that are really successful, they have something unique that they're doing. Some, you know, whether it's the type of food or specialty item, I mean, those are the ones that really, really draw people in. So I think the same applies for the concession stance. You know, we were talking the other day a little bit about the food and different stuff and you mentioned and. And I see it too, because I'm in high school gymnasiums and watching different sporting events and things like that. And a lot of times you walk in and you can smell whatever it is, and usually it's popcorn, but you. You can smell it. And then, you know, at LCC, when you walk in it, you don't have that smell. Do you envision bringing food back here?

It's a college decision. And I think there's a number of factors that we've talked about. One is management of the program, staffing. Two is cleanliness of the facility. Three is come down to money too. Is it worth it? I mean, for the crowds or. You know, we have a very intricate vending system here where, you know, and I think they're looking at adding that to the third floor. So can you kind of do a hybrid of that and add some of those concession items or that are self serve or is it more just vending items? That's what we currently do. All our people go to the first floor and buy chips or candy or drink that we have down there. You're just missing kind of those hot items which we're missing on campus in general, as we've talked about. So definitely something I keep in the forefront of what we want to do or not do, because it is an important part of the event. Plus, it could make a little money. I mean, it could make a lot of money depending on how you. How you manage me. I was just at a pro stadium a couple weeks ago, and for that same size pizza at mason that costs 325, $4 with nine bucks at the Pro Stadium and $9 for the. The fountain drink. So that's 20 bucks just for me. And I had my daughter.

What's he getting Cleveland?

All those pickles. I was thinking about Cleveland.

I'm not even gonna go there.

Those pickles. I could only imagine how much you'd be able to make off of that. I mean, because you're talking about what you don't. You don't have any cooking or anything to do there. No, just put it in, I assume, receptacle of some sort.

We put them in a Ziploc bag, and it was a. You bought a big jar of pickles from Sam's or somewhere, you know, and just. Yeah, we probably five of those. And. Yeah. The other thing is markup. That's what's so nice about popcorn and hot dogs is they're relative.

Cheap popcorn. Way cheap.

Yeah. Yeah. For. And people love popcorn. I, you know, we've gone to caramel corn or other corn. They're the local place that sell different varieties to school that, you know, you could probably even come up with your school color in that popcorn and sell it.

Gray and blue.

Gray and blue popcorn. They're definitely blueberry blue popcorn out there.

I don't know if they're sure about eating gray popcorn.

Yeah. Here you go, stars. Enjoy your.

Enjoy your gray popcorn.

One of our biggest arguments was water bottles. Do we want our label on them? And at the school out of that, we chose not to because why add cost to one of our best selling items? But there are many schools that had their personal label on a water bottle that most people didn't keep anyway. If you're selling a cup or a mug or something, then we did do those too. There are different ways of branding, too, with concessions.

Well, you mentioned it. With just. With the branding, there's souvenir cups that you'll typically find at most venues. And a lot of people bring them home and they overflow and. But I mean, that's. That's another piece of it, definitely.

And there's lots of avenues and whatever you can do to make it your own. I think does does help people and you know, people are hungry when they come to athletic events. You know, we talk about how much business we bring into the local economy. Can people come and eat maybe before they come to the athletic event or after the athlete? We know our teams do, but we also know parents and other people do. And that's important to have a good variety in town such as local establishments, chain restaurants and even fast food restaurants. I mean when you leave a game, it's crazy. I mean you're going to be waiting in line at probably a, a local restaurant for people to eat or get something quick on their way home. And we're fortunate here. The tough thing being downtown though is if those businesses are open that later night or on Saturdays. Like we had an event last Saturday and I called ahead just to make sure they were open because those aren't as busy hours now for downtown Lansing. But you go five miles east or five miles west and there's a ton of, ton of options too and we try and support our local ones. I put those on our information that we send out to support local private owned establishment that have, you know, really good food and really good options and are special to Lansing or the other communities I worked in. I don't know if we have a favorite place around downtown but you know, there are options and some clever ones.

Yeah, for sure. Any, you know, food places that want to sponsor the stars certainly could become our favorites as well. So you guys kind of piqued my interest a little bit. You're talking about a pizza place in Mason and I currently live in Mason as well and really, you know, struggled to find any good pizza since moving to mid Michigan and you know, have different standards, you know, and high school, you know, the Dalian was talking about a little bit. But we had a pizza place where I grew up in and it was, you know, called Heart Pizza and it was where everybody would go after middle school dances and you know, after football games and you know, whatever it might be and they just happen to have incredible pizza and you know, when I can still get back up there, I go there to get their pizza. It's still really good down here. I haven't been able to find that yet. And just kind of curious like what

first of all, what made made it good? What are you looking for in a pizza? That the software sauce, Is it the crust, is it the topping?

Usually a combination of things, you know, and I'll lean more towards like a deluxe style pizza, something that has ham, pepperoni, green peppers, you know, that kind of stuff on it.

But I'm glad you stopped before mushrooms.

One of the things that I find is with a lot of the small town or like those independent pizza places like there's one in Williamston that I can tell you has very, you know, like the bacon is just genuinely bacon. It's just true ingredients. It's not like processed or anything like. Well I mean I'm sure the bacon really is processed but you know what I'm saying, not a package, it's just very genuine. Yeah, not, not a packaged. Here you go. It's throw it on like bacon chips. We're dancing around trying not to say anything particular chains. I think we can.

But yeah it was, it was impactful enough that I know for a Christmas present one year my mom who still lives there, you know, went and bought multiple pizzas and they froze them and she gave them to me as a Christmas present. So I had frozen pizzas and they were, they were pretty good for sure.

But it's crazy is you can't find one around here so we have to work on that. We've learned some new ones over the last couple weeks and it's usually those small towns, one that seemed to you know, give a little extra care and

special care Then I think anybody like doing an independent chain in like Lansing itself is going to struggle a little bit just because you've got so many different chains and it amazes me how many chains come from Michigan specifically.

Yeah, yeah, Detroit and there used to be a. I mean I didn't have it and it's not open anymore. But delucas used to be a very popular Lansing.

Somebody uses their recipe. I know and we got sent there and it wasn't quite there yet.

Yeah, delucas was probably about the closest that I can think of specifically where it was like an independent pizza joint that you go yeah, that's good pizza. I'm not going to say that there's got to be something here we just don't know about.

Yeah, well it's all to individual preference for sure. Even if you really like pizza or you just like it a little. It depends on how picky you are are.

And then if you get it cut in squares it tastes better.

I do prefer square, I prefer a deeper dish pizza. But you know, going to New York last year I really started to value the thin crust and then the New York style pizza. I mean going to Chicago I like their deep dish but I mean it's hard not to like pizza and Pizza is actually not a bad meal for student athletes to eat it. I mean, it's not, you know, a high end one, but there are some carbs and some, you know, the bread

Now isn't the square pizza. Isn't that what they kind of consider Detroit style pizza?

I'm not sure.

Yeah, not either. I think a Detroit style pizza is a square pizza.

I'm gonna do a little research while you guys continue on.

But the, the pizza you like growing up with a thin crust or whether in round triangles. Yeah.

Detroit style pizza, deep dish, square cut pizza that's baked in a rectangle steel pan.

I've heard some call it a party cut.

Party cut.

I like that. I like that. Yep.

Because Detroit's a party town?

You know, the, the other thing, as we're talking about food and concessions, the other thing that you're starting to see more and more schools start using is. Is food trucks.

Yeah.

Yep.

You know. Yeah, they can bring some very unique stuff in with, when they come in as well.

During the pandemic, at the high school I worked at, we brought in a food truck to help. Concessions are some of our largest events. And I know other schools have done it for their homecoming. They have. All the local ones come. Even here at LCC, we've done a better job, I think, of having food trucks on campus.

So you think we could get a food truck on the third floor of Gannon for kids?

Well, you see a lot of food trucks that move into. To permanent restaurants. If that's their goal.

Yeah, if they do well, you definitely see that.

And there's some good. I mean, there's some good ones out there. There's TV shows made about food trucks. So I've had some luck with it. At the one one time at Mason, the food truck broke down, so we had to leave it there for a couple days till they could come and get it fixed. So we had to like monitor it, make sure no one messed with it that couple of days that it was stuck in our football stadium, inside our football stadium. We had put it there. So always a topic. And again, concession stands, how big or small you want to make them, you try and support local businesses. I mean, it'd be tough to, you know, get a pizza from a different community, or at least not one that's not adjacent. It happens depending on if you have pizza places and your town or not. But

I know that winning kind of plays into it too. I'd read some stuff, I think it was out of Stanford that said as they were doing These studies that the teams that were winning or were winning that day or that night, the concession sales were actually higher than if they weren't. So they were kind of studying home teams more or less and whether the home team won or lost.

Interesting. I had not heard that before. My philosophy was always like on the admission price, everyone argues like keep increasing emission prices. But I thought no, keep those down and whatever money they have left over, they'll send their kids to the concession stand and spend money there. So you'll get your money somewhere at the event that night. Because parents usually like send. I mean it's crazy the number of repeat customers at a concession stand and they're usually, you know, younger kids and you know, kids that are hungry or just want a snack or an item to share with their friends. But I had not which that changes

it a little bit too because we're semi cashless society at this point. So how many kids are coming up with credit cards? So that probably limits it as well.

That'd be an interesting trend to see if that is impacting. A lot of schools are going to cashless at their concession stands and you know, how did that impact the, you know, parent giving a kid a credit card to go get a candy bar or something? So I think, you know, it might be more convenient for parents. So you mentioned. So I was going to ask you, what's your go to? Pizza. The deluxe pizza.

Yeah, yeah.

What about you? Daedalian?

I'd say if I get to. Well, first of all, there's one, there's a local chain that I won't mention, but they got the chicken Mediterranean. That is pretty darn awesome.

Okay.

And then if I'm doing my own ingredients, usually pepperoni and jalapenos.

Okay.

That's my favorite. Nice.

That's another interesting thing. Like my kids favorite pizza is chicken barbecue pizza. And that's not even like pizza to me. I mean with barbecue sauce and chicken on it.

You're talking about feta cheese, banana peppers, chicken, bacon. I put bacon on it.

I mean they're.

We should go to lunch. Sounded pretty good over there, there.

And I, you know, I'm a cheeseburger guy and they have cheeseburger pizzas out there now of all the cheeseburger ingredients. And is that your go to? No, my go to is probably pepperoni.

Really branching out, getting crazy.

Yeah. Keep it simple. But it's hard to go wrong with a pizza. I could even have jalapenos on it. Mushrooms are the one thing I wouldn't do without on a pizza.

I do love me some mushrooms from time to time, as long as they're not the slimy ones.

But we gotta eat. We gotta be. Nutrient concession stands are important part of an athletic event, and pizza is an important part of our society. A lot of people enjoy it in our society. A3 sounds like it's included, so maybe one of our podcasts will be off site at A Pizza, a local pizza place. But until then, Go Stars

And Eat Pizza.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!