How to Cater a Football Tailgate Party

With the start of football season only a few weeks away, a palpable excitement can be felt growing throughout the country. Whether we’re talking about high school, college, or pro football, fans everywhere are anxiously awaiting that first game. Thousands of spectators will flock to stadiums, all in the name of supporting their local team.

While there’s no denying these fans love the sport of football, they’re almost certainly looking forward more than just the 60-minute game. Many people will gather in fields and parking to tailgate with friends and family for the hours leading up to each game. Eating, drinking, and playing games to their heart’s desire, these large groups often take great pride in preparing their own food. But not all of them do. If you your foodservice is in a college town, NFL city, or anywhere in Texas, the football season presents an opportunity to expand the scope of your businesses and bring in new customers.

Food Offerings

Tailgaters often take their food choices almost as seriously as they take their football fandom. As a result, it’s your responsibility to offer everything they could possibly want. As long as your specialty is barbecue, you should be alright. Offering a menu that includes steak, burgers, chicken, pork, ribs, sausage, hot dogs, and chili is will help ensure all parties have food they can salivate over. For side dishes, consider offering corn, fries, onion rings, nachos, and maybe even a small salad—as blasphemous as that may sound.

The Right Equipment

If you want to feed dozens or even hundreds of people at a time, you’re going to need the proper restaurant equipment. Your equipment choices should depend on whether you plan to cook on site or prepare food in a commercial kitchen beforehand and transport it. For cooking onsite, one or several portable outdoor grills can help you maintain a rapid pace of food output. Propane-powered units are ideal, as they don’t require hookup to external gas or electrical sources. Storage and transport items like ice transport buckets and insulated food carriers  are also necessary to ensure food remains preserved at an ideal temperature. Other essential tailgating tools include turners, gas steam tables, cold food tables, and soup wells. If you’re planning to prepare and serve alcoholic beverages, bar blenders will also be necessary. A large truck or van will help safely and efficiently transport equipment.

Foodservice operators that prefer to prepare meals in the comfort of their own commercial kitchens would benefit from insulated food holding and warming equipment. These units help keep prepared food hot while its transported and waiting to be consumed by hungry football fans.

Catering to Every Need

Football fans expect more than just delicious food and refreshing drinks from a tailgate experience. People are there have fun, so part of your job will be helping ensure everyone has a good time. By going the extra mile and supplying fans with popular tailgating games like Cornhole, KanJam, and Ladder Toss, you’ll give customers every reason to have you cater future home games. Make sure to bring footballs too, as fans will likely want to toss a pigskin while they work up their appetites. Each tailgating game you bring can be branded with the name of your foodservice, enabling you to achieve further notoriety among eaters.

For owners that really want to spoil fans, make an unforgettable impression by bringing a booming sound system for music or an enormous TV so fans can watch other football games. It’s even feasible to bring both, and put the TV on mute while the speaker plays music.

Thousands of Hungry Fans

Universities like Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Tennessee LSU, Alabama, and Texas have football stadiums that can hold 100,000+ spectators. Consequently, football games being held at these and other similarly sized stadiums attract no shortage of hungry fans—a large of portion which will be tailgating before the games. NFL stadiums are a generally bit smaller than the behemoths found in college football. Regardless, NFL games remain great candidates for catering tailgates. High school football games are also excellent options—especially in Texas, where many stadiums have seating capacities that exceed 15,000.

Marketing

Spreading word of a new business offering is never easy. Luckily, the customers you’re trying to reach are all fans of the local team. If you want to reach tailgaters at college games, marketing on college campuses is a fantastic way to contact your desired market. You can also hand out fliers at the entrance to games, where you’ll rapidly come into contact with thousands of potential in customers. Online forums and social media accounts associated with teams also provide a medium by which you can reach a multitude of fans. Another option is to hire an ex-player to help promote your business. Once fans hear that one of their heroes made an appearance at a tailgate of yours, they’ll be lining up to book your catering service.

Labor

Especially if you’re going to be preparing meals on-site, it’s of paramount importance to employ experienced workers who won’t be distracted by the game day excitement. Your chefs should be capable of consistently cooking large quantities of food to perfection while also wearing a smile when interacting with tailgaters. Knowledge of the local football team certainly wouldn’t hurt either, as it would only further endear your chefs to passionate tailgaters.

Local Regulations

Before committing to any business plan, check your local bylaws to see what’s allowed and what’s not. Each state and county have their own rules as to what’s acceptable, and some locations might not be as conducive for operating a successful tailgate catering business.

Only a Few Days per Year

Since football seasons are so short, foodservice owners have minimal time to capitalize on the opportunity to earn new business. But by showing customers that you can consistently deliver delicious food and outstanding customer service, you’ll be more likely to be hired for other catering jobs throughout the year. This also means that your business’s performance on a few select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the football season can potentially have a significant impact on your business. Much like the players on the field, how you respond to that pressure will determine your success. Just make sure to prepare thoroughly, work hard, and always wear a smile.