Jacob Plourde
Equinox Staff
The Keene State Dining and Athletics Departments are doing all they can to make spectators feel at home while watching games at Keene State College.
“We want to provide a good experience for the spectators at our home games,” John Ratliff, the KSC Athletic Director, said.
There have been many upgrades recently to the KSC athletic facilities, the most recent being the concession stand outside the gymnasium on the second floor of the Spaulding Gym. Some changes include menu changes, new equipment, and perhaps the most popular change, the new paying system that allows spectators to use Flex, Keene Cash, or credit cards.
Ratliff said he can see the increase in sales already.
“I believe that our sales have about doubled since the new additions,” Ratliff said.
These new changes to the concession stand were put into motion by KSC’s Catering Director, Rick Kraemer, onto whom management put the responsibly of the stand.
“I am in charge of the concession stand now and it had been a while since anyone had looked at it, so I decided to make some changes to it,” Kraemer said.
The new equipment came from an idea by the head chef who works at the stand, who wanted to change the way they served pizza at the stand.
“The head chef wanted to change the way we made the pizza,” Kraemer said. “Before we made the pizza and then brought it over to the concession stand; the chef wanted to make the pizza at the stand for fresher food.”
Kraemer said that the new idea to have pizza ovens in the concession stand lead him to consider other ideas, which lead to the new menu items.
Kraemer said he wanted to add to the menu that consisted mostly of popcorn, nachos, hotdogs, candy and bottle beverages.
“We have added three new items, we now pizza sticks, which the new pizza ovens allow us to make, pretzels, and chicken Caesar salad wraps,” Kraemer said.
Ratliff also said the stand was very basic before, but the improvements have definitely helped. Ratliff believes the upgrade to the concession stand, along with the new floor and bleachers put in recently, make for a very good viewing experience for spectators.
Ratliff and Kraemer both said they saw an increase in sales, but still see the majority of the sales going to community members and not KSC students.
“There are definitely more community members then students using the stand,” Ratliff said. “I would say 60-70 percent of sales comes from community members.”
Kraemer said, “We would love to see more students participate and utilize the concession stand.”
The concession stand is finished with improvements for now except for a few small menu changes.
“We haven’t had any other request for additional menu items,” Kraemer said. “So we have no plans to add right now, we may remove some slow movers, but that would be it.”
Whether spectators are watching men’s or women’s basketball or volleyball, they now have the surroundings to make their experience the best possible.
Due to earlier improvements to the gym floor and bleacher, as well as the new upgrades to the concession stand.
Ratliff said the goal of the Athletic and Dining Departments have always been to provide spectators with the best experience possible and with recent upgrades, they are showing their dedication to that goal.
Jacob Plourde can be contacted at jplourde@ksc.mailcruiser.com