Winnipeg Goldeyes-App8 ‘win-win’ partnership

Article posted by Coliseum, December 10^th, 2024

Image: App8 Solutions

The mobile ordering and payments solutions company App8 and the minor-league baseball team Winnipeg Goldeyes (Manitoba, Canada) are getting along like a house on fire.

The Goldeyes implemented App8’s mobile ordering solution in two key areas – concessions pick-up, in-seat delivery, suites pre-ordering + suites gameday, and patio ordering/delivery.

App8

Ottawa (Canada)-based App8 is an enterprise-grade digital dining and guest engagement suite for the large venues and foodservice brands.

Winnipeg Goldeyes

The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a minor-league baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Professional Baseball League which they joined in 2011. Their home ballpark is the 7,461-capacity Blue Cross Park in Winnipeg.

In an exclusive for ‘Coliseum’, Melissa Schlichting, Food & Beverage (F&B) Manager of Winnipeg Goldeyes shares her insightful digital growth story in a fireside chat with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of App8 Elias Hage on how App8 has helped the minor-league baseball team drive digital excellence and Schlichting asserts that “But most people, to be honest, they’re not huge baseball fans. And that’s okay. We aren’t necessarily selling baseball. We’re selling the experience a family, affordable, friendly experience that you’re going to have a great time.”

Elias Hage kicked off the conversation by stating, “Over the past couple of years the Winnipeg Goldeyes have embarked on an extraordinary journey to modernize their food and beverage (F&B) experience and we have had the privilege of working very closely with Melissa and the Goldeyes team through that experience.”

Melissa Schlichting and her team has implemented several exciting digitized experiences including concession pickup, in-seat delivery, the Skysuites pre-ordering and the Skysuites gameday ordering. And not only have they transformed the fan experience but they have also seen a significant growth in consumer adoption over the last few years in particular between 2023 and 2024.

Hage shot out few numbers – 129 percent increase in the volume of digital transaction and over 10 times more in-seat digital delivery order.

Maintained Melissa Schlichting, “App8 helped us make this transformation possible. We wanted to do away with the long concession queues and an outdated suites pre-ordering platform. We approached App8 and today we have dedicated staff for App8 orders. We do not have to pause orders anymore and it has helped to elevate the fan experience.”

To make the fans aware about App8 ordering, Schlichting stated that the signages will have to be “more in their faces. The people like to be treated like VIPs so we decided to start the in-seat food and beverage service. The fans realizing that they are having in-seat food delivered to them on a regular basis and no more standing in serpentine queues pull them back to the venue again.”

The Goldeyes also decided to have more staff so that they could deliver everywhere in the ballpark and even serve people who congregate in the patio.

Hage was curious to know what prompted Schlichting and her team to consider digital F&B ordering.

Schlichting narrated that it all happened when COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill in 2019 – “With social distancing being the norm we could not afford to have people stand in queues for long. So, we wanted to ensure that we had other options for people to be able to get food and beverage without them having to wait in long lines.

App8’s mobile ordering concession pickup allows the fans to scan a QR code, order and pay instantly from their phones. The fans receive realtime SMS notifications when their orders are ready for pickup drastically reducing wait times and enabling them to get back to the action in no time.

Suite Experience

She added, “We wanted to ensure that people had the opportunity to pre-order so App8 designed a system to be able to pre-order all of those different platters of food. With App8’s suites ordering solution the guests can pre-order online while maintaining the ability to order additional items from servers throughout the game. The guests can pay onsite and all ordering is seamlessly integrated with the stadium’s point of sale system (POS).”

Hage maintained that it was a high-tech service environment at the Blue Cross Park “where you are leveraging technology and the facility helps your operations and also help your guest experience”.

Schlichting revealed that fans should be aware as regards App8 mobile ordering solution and “our next goal is to add stickers to the back of the chairs so that it is in everyone’s face, we have them all on the pillars, we have T-stands all over on the concourse, have them at the concessions but there are a lot of people who don’t see those. We have to put in more signages and keep on hammering. The QR code we can display it on our scoreboard and people can scan it from their seats. Just having every facet covered for them to be able to have those offerings available. So, operationally it is just having those signages in place and training the staff to know what it is all about.”

She stated that the App8 product was very easy – “it is very straightforward and the training involved in it is minimal and since it is not a complicated product so training the staff was a cakewalk for us. “Our labor costs have maybe gone up a little bit more because we have more dedicated staff for App8, but the sales are there. Enough volume to support having those dedicated staff. That just means to me that we’re now selling way more, which, you know, the numbers speak for themselves.”

Patio Plus

Hage wanted to know from Schlichting more about the patio experience from a fan experience perspective.

Schlichting shared, “Most people, to be honest, aren’t huge baseball fans. And that’s okay. We are selling an affordable, family-friendly experience where you are going to have a great time. This focus on experience over the sport itself has led the Goldeyes to create patios that feel more like a gathering place than just seats in a stadium.”

She added, “We realized in the last five to eight years people have really wanted to have that more of a co-mingling experience when they are at events. They don’t want to necessarily sit just in the stands and the hardcore fan base they might be just focusing on the game and they are happy to do just that then talk to their friends or family in between innings but the majority of people to be honest like to hang out and mingle. We are not only selling baseball. We are selling that experience and these patio spaces allow the fans to move around, mingle and enjoy the game from unique vantage points. Ideal for the casual visitors and the social events, they’re open for anyone to enjoy during the game. If the patios aren’t rented out, anyone is free to go there. You don’t need a special ticket, you can hang out there for an inning or the whole game. This flexibility is central to making the game experience welcoming to a broader, younger audience.”

App8 helped Goldeyes in making the patio spaces more vibrant in regards to the F&B experience and “we now have in all of the patios stickers that are on the tables, along the bars, the railings, they have the QR code, they scan it, and then they say they want it delivered to their table. That fan experience is what matters. They might not know what the score was, they might not even know Goldeyes won or not but they had a good time and that is going to bring them back and that’s why we have people returning time and time again.”

Sum-up

Elias Hage wanted to know about the future plans and Melissa Schlichting summed up by stating, “We just want to have signages all over the venue so that more and more fans know about the App8 ease of ordering mobile solutions and we will also be expanding our staff and it’s a win-win situation for us.”

Thanks to App8 mobile ordering and payment solutions the Winnipeg Goldeyes have had an incredible growth matrix and a big jump of 129 percent digital orders and this transformation has all been possible due to the total commitment of Melissa Schlichting and her team.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes’ partnership with App8 has not only boosted sales but has also propelled cutting-edge technology to the forefront.

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