Every Saturday, the same scene plays out at youth sports complexes everywhere. Hungry kids. Hungry parents. A four-hour tournament block with nothing to eat except whatever someone remembered to pack. Families start wandering off to find food, missing games. Or they get hangry and irritable, which makes everyone's day worse.
The opportunity seems obvious: sell food where the hungry people are. Capture revenue that's currently walking out the door. Keep families on site longer. Fund your program with hot dogs and Gatorade.
But then reality hits. Permits. Health codes. Volunteers who don't show up. Cash handling that creates accountability headaches. Equipment that breaks. Inventory that spoils. A concession stand that was supposed to generate revenue becomes a time sink that barely breaks even.
Or you bring in a food truck, which sounds simpler until you're negotiating revenue shares, managing vendor reliability, and dealing with complaints about prices you don't control.
Concessions can be a legitimate revenue stream and a genuine service to families. They can also be a distraction that costs more in operational complexity than they generate in profit. The difference is going in with clear expectations, realistic math, and systems that don't depend on heroic volunteer effort.
The Decision: Is This Worth Doing?
Before you commit to any food service strategy, answer a few honest questions.
What's your actual opportunity? How many people are at your facility on a typical game day? How long are they there? A complex hosting 500 families for six-hour tournament days has a very different opportunity than a single-field operation with 40 families cycling through in two-hour blocks.
What's already available nearby? If there's a McDonald's across the street and a convenience store next door, your captive audience isn't that captive. If your facility is isolated with nothing within a 15-minute drive, you have pricing power and genuine demand.
What are your facility constraints? Do you have a permanent concession structure with power, water, and storage? Or would you be operating out of a folding table and coolers? Infrastructure dramatically affects what's feasible and profitable.
Who's going to run it? Concessions require consistent, reliable labor. If you're depending on parent volunteers, how confident are you in turnout? If you're paying staff, does the math still work?
What's your risk tolerance? Food service comes with health code requirements, liability exposure, and cash handling risks. Are you set up to manage those responsibly?
If your answers suggest a real opportunity with manageable complexity, keep reading. If they suggest you'd be creating a headache for marginal revenue, consider whether your energy is better spent elsewhere.
Option One: Run Your Own Concession Stand
Operating your own concession keeps all the revenue but also keeps all the work and risk.
The upside: Higher margins. Full control over pricing, products, and quality. Revenue goes directly to your program. You can align offerings with your values (healthier options, allergy-friendly choices, reasonable prices).
The downside: You're now in the food service business. Permits, inspections, inventory management, equipment maintenance, volunteer coordination, cash handling, food safety compliance. It's a real operation that requires real attention.
When it makes sense: High-volume facilities with permanent infrastructure, reliable volunteer base or paid staff capacity, and events that generate enough traffic to justify the overhead.
Startup requirements:
Permits and licenses. Requirements vary by jurisdiction, but you'll typically need a food service permit, health department approval, and possibly a business license. Temporary event permits may work for occasional tournaments but not for ongoing operations. Check your local requirements before investing in anything else.
Equipment. At minimum: refrigeration, warming equipment, a point-of-sale system, and food-safe storage and prep surfaces. Quality matters. Cheap equipment fails at the worst moments.
Inventory system. Know what you have, what you're selling, and what you're losing to spoilage or shrinkage. Inventory management is where margins live or die.
Staffing plan. Two-person minimum for most operations (one handling food, one handling money). More for high-volume periods. Build your schedule before you open, not as you go.
Cash handling protocols. Opening counts, closing counts, deposit procedures, dual-control for large amounts. Cash is where theft and errors happen. Systems prevent problems.
Keeping It Compliant
Food service compliance isn't optional, and violations can shut you down or create liability exposure.
Health codes. Temperature control for perishables. Handwashing stations. Proper food storage. Surface sanitization. Hairnets or caps for food handlers. These requirements exist for good reason. Follow them.
Food handler certifications. Many jurisdictions require at least one certified food handler on site during operations. Some require all handlers to be certified. Training is usually inexpensive and available online.
Permits and inspections. Display permits visibly. Be ready for inspections. Keep records of your compliance efforts.
Allergen awareness. Know what's in your products. Be able to answer questions about common allergens. Consider signage for items containing nuts, dairy, gluten, etc.
Insurance. Confirm your general liability policy covers food service operations. You may need additional coverage. Ask your broker before you start serving.
Staffing That Actually Works
The volunteer concession stand model works until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, it fails at the worst possible time: a packed tournament Saturday with three hundred hungry people and two volunteers who showed up.
Assign ownership. Someone needs to be responsible for the concession operation, not as one of seventeen other duties, but as their primary focus on game days. This person manages volunteers, handles problems, and ensures the operation runs.
Schedule aggressively. More volunteers than you think you need, with confirmed commitments and backups. Send reminders. Have a plan for no-shows.
Make shifts manageable. Two-hour shifts are easier to fill than four-hour shifts. Shorter commitments mean more willingness to volunteer.
Train everyone. Even simple operations benefit from brief training: how the POS works, food safety basics, what to do when something goes wrong. Don't assume people know.
Consider paid staff for high-volume events. If tournament revenue justifies it, paying a few reliable people to run concessions may be more cost-effective than scrambling for volunteers. Calculate the true cost of volunteer unreliability.
Create incentives. Volunteer credits toward registration fees, recognition, small perks. Make it worth people's time to help.
Option Two: Partner With Food Trucks or Vendors
Bringing in outside vendors shifts the operational burden but also shifts the revenue.
The upside: No permits (they have their own). No equipment. No inventory. No food safety liability. Professional operators who know what they're doing. You collect a fee or percentage without running the operation.
The downside: Lower revenue per transaction. Less control over pricing, quality, and offerings. Vendor reliability becomes your problem. Complaints about the vendor reflect on your program.
When it makes sense: Programs without permanent concession infrastructure, limited volunteer capacity, or desire to offer more diverse food options without the operational complexity.
Revenue share models:
Flat fee. Vendor pays a set amount for access to your event regardless of sales. Simple to administer. You get predictable revenue. Vendor takes all the sales risk.
Percentage of sales. Vendor pays you a percentage of gross sales, typically 10-20%. Aligns incentives (you both want high traffic). Requires trust or verification of sales figures.
Hybrid. Minimum flat fee plus percentage above a threshold. Gives you a floor while sharing upside.
Negotiate based on your leverage. A high-traffic facility with exclusive access can command better terms than a small event competing with nearby options.
Managing Vendor Relationships
A vendor agreement should cover:
Exclusivity. Are they the only food vendor allowed? Can you also operate your own concession? Can other vendors participate?
Schedule and reliability. When do they need to arrive? What happens if they don't show up? Build in accountability.
Pricing guidelines. You may not control prices, but you can set expectations. "Pricing should be comparable to local quick-service restaurants" prevents gouging that generates family complaints.
Product requirements. Any items you require them to offer? Any items prohibited? Minimum healthy options? Allergen-friendly choices?
Insurance and permits. Verify they have proper licensing and adequate liability coverage. Get copies for your files.
Payment terms. When do they pay you? How is revenue share calculated and verified?
Termination. How can either party exit the relationship? What notice is required?
Put it in writing. A simple one-page agreement prevents misunderstandings and gives you recourse if things go wrong.
Choosing the Right Vendor
Not all food trucks are created equal. Vet vendors before committing.
Check references. Have they worked other youth sports events? What was the experience? Were they reliable, professional, and family-friendly?
Review their menu. Does it fit your crowd? Is pricing reasonable? Are there options for common dietary needs?
Verify licensing. Confirm they have current health permits and food handler certifications. Don't assume.
Assess reliability. A food truck that's flaky about commitments will leave you scrambling. Ask about their cancellation rate. Talk to other organizations they've worked with.
Do a trial run. Before committing to a season-long partnership, try them for a single event. See how it goes before you're locked in.
The Hybrid Approach
Some programs run both: a basic concession stand for drinks, snacks, and staples, plus food trucks for hot food and variety.
This can work well. Your concession captures high-margin items like bottled water and prepackaged snacks while vendors handle the complex food prep you don't want to manage.
Be clear about territory. What does your concession sell versus what vendors sell? Avoid direct competition that frustrates vendors while still capturing the easy revenue.
Cash Handling Done Right
Whether you run your own concession or collect vendor payments, cash creates risk. Minimize it with systems.
Start and end with counts. Count the drawer before opening. Count it after closing. Document both. Discrepancies should be rare and investigated.
Dual control for large amounts. Two people count. Two people sign off. This protects both the organization and the individuals handling money.
Minimize cash on site. Regular deposits to reduce theft risk. Don't let large amounts accumulate in a cash box anyone could walk off with.
Consider card payments. Square, PayPal, and similar systems make card processing easy for small operations. Many families prefer cards. You reduce cash handling risk and may increase sales.
Receipts and records. Track every transaction. POS systems create automatic records. Paper operations need manual logs.
Segregate concession funds. Deposit concession revenue separately from registration and other fees. This makes accounting cleaner and discrepancies easier to identify.
Doing the Math
Before committing to any concession strategy, build a realistic financial model.
Revenue projections. Estimate attendance, purchase rate (what percentage of attendees buy something), and average transaction size. Be conservative. First-time projections are usually optimistic.
Cost of goods sold. What do your products cost? Food typically runs 25-35% of sales price for well-managed operations. Higher if you're buying retail instead of wholesale.
Labor costs. Even "free" volunteer labor has a cost: your time coordinating, the opportunity cost of volunteer burnout, the value of their time that could be directed elsewhere.
Equipment and supplies. Initial investment plus ongoing maintenance, replacement, and consumables.
Permits and compliance. Annual fees, inspection costs, certification renewals.
Spoilage and shrinkage. Some inventory will expire or disappear. Build in a realistic allowance.
Net margin. After all costs, what's left? Is it worth the effort? Would that effort generate more revenue directed elsewhere?
If the math doesn't work on paper, it won't work in practice. Better to know before you're stuck with equipment you can't use and a volunteer schedule nobody wants to fill.
Making It Sustainable
Concession operations fail when they depend on unsustainable effort. Build for the long term.
Document everything. Operating procedures, vendor contacts, equipment maintenance, compliance requirements. When the person running things moves on, the knowledge shouldn't leave with them.
Rotate leadership. Don't let one person become the only one who knows how things work. Build depth.
Review annually. Is this still worth doing? What should change? Adjust based on actual results, not just inertia.
Celebrate the people who make it work. Volunteers running concession stands are doing real work that generates real revenue. Recognize them.
The programs that sustain successful concession operations are the ones that treat them as real operations, with real systems, rather than afterthoughts that someone figures out each week.
The Bigger Picture
Concessions and food service are means to an end, not ends in themselves. The goals are generating revenue to support your program, keeping families on site and engaged, and providing a service families appreciate.
If you can accomplish those goals with a well-run concession stand, great. If a food truck partnership achieves the same thing with less complexity, that might be better. If the math doesn't work and families are fine bringing their own food, maybe the answer is no food service at all.
The worst outcome is a concession operation that consumes volunteer energy, creates compliance anxiety, and generates minimal net revenue. That's not serving anyone.
Do the analysis. Make an intentional choice. And if you commit, commit to doing it well.
Ian Goldberg is the CEO of Signature Media and the Editor of the largest and fastest growing sports parenting newsletter. He’s been recognized as an industry expert by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, the US Olympic Committee’s Truesport, and the Aspen Institute's Project Play. Ian is also a suburban NJ sports dad of two teenage daughters and has over 2,000 hours of volunteer time coaching them (which he calls the most fun form of R&D for his newsletter content). Ian and his team provide players, coaches, parents and program directors with the articles and content they need to have a great sports season. Ian has spent most of his career in digital product development and marketing and got his start at the White House where he worked for the economic advisors to two US Presidents.
