Fiserv Forum Is Clearly Not Capitalizing On Marquette Crowds

An exterior view of Fiserv Forum before a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum on March 04, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. — Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

I had extra free time on Saturday, so I thought I’d document what I anecdotally had seen and heard about concessions at MU’s home arena.

On Saturday, January 18, an announced crowd of 17,881 packed themselves into Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee in order to watch #7 ranked Marquette host Xavier in a Big East battle. The game had already been announced as sold out back on January 13, and having nothing else going on Saturday morning, I decided to test out something I was pretty sure was true.

See, I’m a Marquette season ticket holder going all the way back to the 2001-02 season. I can easily say that Fiserv Forum’s amenities surpass those available at the Bradley Center back in the day. That’s not up for debate. But, I’ve noticed that sometimes not quite every concession stand is open for Marquette games. I’ve talked to friends and known associates that sit in places in the building other than my season tickets and they’ve told me the same thing.

Since I had the free time to get to the arena not long after the doors opened on Saturday and I was going to have my trusty Four Factors notebook and my iPhone with me anyway, I decided to document exactly what was and was not open on Saturday for the Xavier game. After all, it was announced as a sell out, right? Lots of notice to Fiserv that there will be 17,000+ people in attendance, lots of chances for the Milwaukee Bucks — the official operators of the building — and Levy Restaurants — the official concessions operator at Fiserv — to get their ducks in a row and maximize the potential sales available, right? After all, Marquette hasn’t had a game at Fiserv so far this season with less than 14,000 people as the announced crowd in the building. No reason to even plan to shortarm the thing in the first place, but you’d think that you want to really take advantage of having a sellout crowd coming to see the #7 team in the country riding a six game winning streak, right?

As you can guess because I’m actually writing this blog, my suspicions were correct. There was a lot of stuff that was unmanned or not open on Saturday. Let’s start with acknowledging what was open, in fairness to everyone involved.

The four major sponsored bars in each corner of the main concourse that look out onto the arena, plus the bar in the Panorama Club in the top level and the Door County Distillery bar on the second level, as well as the “swipe credit card, walk in, walk out” beverage vending area near 120
Smoke Stack BBQ outside section 121
The popcorn vendor outside the Kohl’s Kids Court near section 119
Johnsonville Sausage stands outside 118 and 222
MECCA Burger Bar stands outside 117 and 222
Captain Morgan mixed drinks stand outside 113
12 Point Taproom bar outside 112 and 101
Flourchild Pizza stand outside 108
Chik-Fil-A stand outside 105
Auntie Annes pretzel cart outside 103
The Johnsonville Sausage Test Kitchen with unique items not found elsewhere in the building outside 209

I had the brisket hot link from the Test Kitchen and a 3 Sheeps Wisconsinitis. Delicious, and the sausage was prepared to order, which is nice.

I’m comfortable with you taking my word that all these things were open. That’s not the point here, y’know? With that in mind, I have photographic proof of each stand or cart that was not open and operational and ready to take money from 17,000+ Marquette fans.

In chronological order as I went through the building, taken between 12:10pm and 12:38pm ahead of a 1pm start……

Cedar Crest Ice Cream outside 121

A Cedar Crest ice cream stand at Fiserv Forum.

Right at the top of the escalator up from the Deer District entrance and everything.

Flourchild Pizza outside 119

A Flourchild pizza stand at Fiserv Forum.

The Cluckery (chicken sandwiches & chicken tenders) outside 115

A closed The Cluckery concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

FUN FACT: All of The Cluckery locations in the building were closed, but the Chik-Fil-A stand was open. Weird!

Nachos & Casamigos Margaritas, across from each other outside 115

A closed Casamigos margarita stand at Fiserv Forum

Brew City Grill outside 112

A closed Brew City Grill concession stand at Fiserv Forum

Sorry about the bad angle on this one, but the Big East Road Trip was set up directly across from the counter (along with the Marquette pep band) and so I couldn’t have gotten a wide straight on angle. I’ve never gotten food here, so I don’t know what their usual offering is.

Cookie Dough stand outside 110

A closed Cookie Dough Shoppe concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

See, there’s the Big East Road Trip.

MECCA Burger Bar outside 106

A closed MECCA Burger Bar concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

This is the weirdest closure for me, seeing as this is a counter that’s co-branded with the bar that’s out in the Deer District. Feels like you wouldn’t want to tell arena patrons that the place that’s 50 yards from your front door isn’t a reliable operation.

Captain Morgan mixed drink cart outside 104

A closed Captain Morgan beverage concession stand at Fiserv Forum

Bucks Pro Shop outside 103

A closed Milwaukee Bucks Pro Shop at Fiserv Forum

As you can see, right at the top of the escalator coming up from the Deer District entrance. “But Andy, it’s a pain in the butt to move all the Bucks merchandise out and move all of the Marquette merchandise in!” Yeah, well, I went to the Chicago Blackhawks/St. Louis Blues Home-Away-From-Home preseason game at Fiserv, and they had no problem selling all the Blackhawks merch you could shake a stick at in there, and that was for a one off event, not an ongoing rental concern.

MYSTERY STAND outside 103

A closed concession stand at Fiserv Forum

I’m being overdramatic, but there’s no signage as to what this is supposed to be other than a beverage stand. Out of service in any case, right next to the Auntie Annes pretzel stand.

Moving to the upper deck………

Pretzel/Nacho cart outside 227

A closed pretzel & nachos concession stand at Fiserv Forum

You can see the pretzel warmer & cheese dispenser.

Beverage cart outside 225

Flourchild Pizza outside 224

A closed Flourchild Pizza concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

Just look at that expensive pizza oven sitting there, quiet, cold, and unloved.

12 Point Taproom bar outside 224

A closed 12 Point Taproom concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

It is weird to me that you went out of your way to build a fancy looking specialty beer stand upstairs and then just leave it closed.

The Cluckery outside 220

That’s a lot of dead space in the building that’s going unused at the moment.

Nachos cart and Casamigos margaritas cart outside 219

A closed nachos concession cart and a closed Casamigos margarita concession cart at Fiserv Forum.

I know there’s no signage on the Casamigos cart, but you can clearly see the branded mixer machines.

Bucks Pro Shop outside 218

Cotton Candy cart and beverage cart outside 218

A closed cotton candy concession stand and a closed beverage concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

Jack Daniel’s bar outside 215

A closed Jack Daniel’s themed bar at Fiserv Forum.

I coulda gone for a frozen Jack & Coke, to be honest, even with the chilly weather outside.

Beer cart outside 212

A closed Cold Beer concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

Craft beer stand and Old Fashioneds stand outside 209

A closed craft beer concession stand and a closed old fashioneds concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

Not gonna lie to you, I was kind of legitimately disappointed that I couldn’t get an old fashioned.

Pretzel & Nacho stands outside 207

A closed nachos concessions stand and a closed pretzel concessions stand at Fiserv Forum.

I just want to point out the special signage on these two, which means that someone in charge of something wanted cool signs on these stands that don’t exist at other nacho or pretzel stands in the building……… and they’re not open.

Cinnamon rolls cart and Cedar Crest ice cream cart outside 206

I just want to point out that the cinnamon rolls and Cedar Crest ice cream were hailed as NEW ADDITIONS TO FISERV FORUM back in late October. Mid-January, and we’re not even bothering to open them up when the building’s sold out.

Casamigos margaritas outside 203

A closed Casamigos margaritas concession stand at Fiserv Forum.

If this was the only Casamigos station that was open, I’d at least understand devoting the energy to the special fancy Casamigos stand. Alas.

25 closed stations in all.

Now, sure, yes, some of them are just beer or soda stands, and perhaps the demands for beverages at those stands are in fact being met by the other concession stands that were open as well as the moveable big ice bucket vendors set up around the building. There was one of those by the Deer District entrance as well as by the Skywalk entrance from the parking structure across the street.

But all 25 of these stations are just sitting there unused, even though Fiserv/the Bucks/Levy Restaurants knew that the building was sold out. At the very least, they could have guessed that there would be at least 15,000 people attending the game, and that’s pretty dang close to sold out anyway. I get that there’s a cost of paying employees to work these stands, and I certainly don’t have access to the financials for the entire operation to tell me whether or not Levy Restaurants is making a smart business decision here. However, I know for a fact that Fiserv and Levy are not accepting non-profit groups to help man the concession stands as fundraisers for Bucks games this season, as my son’s high school marching band regularly participates in that, and we were advised that was Not A Thing this year. I also know that there’s fewer employees needed than ever, as your Johnsonville sausage stands and Mecca Burger Bar stands are cafeteria style where you grab your hot dog, your popcorn, and your drink off a rack, and then it’s self-check out at the end of the line.

As a result, what I see is Marquette’s landlord not maximizing the possible profit of the rental. That seems like a poor financial decision, doesn’t it? If that’s the case, I would certainly hate to find out when it comes time to renew a rental agreement — oh, hey, look, the current one expires after this season, what are the chances — that the Bucks are trying to tell Marquette that because they only make X amount of money per person on concessions, and so the rent has to be Y dollars per game. If I were a Marquette person in charge of negotiating that new agreement, I’d probably love to point out that Fiserv Forum isn’t doing their best to make sure they’re bringing in as much money as possible per game.

Hey, wait a minute, what’s in that Journal Sentinel article I just linked to from 2017?

[Marquette University President Michael] Lovell said the lease with the Bucks is a “different arrangement” than the lease with the Bradley Center. Marquette stands to receive a new revenue stream from concessions and suite rentals, he said.

Marquette actually gets money straight from concessions sold during MU games, you say. And there’s 25 stands not open during a sold out Marquette game? That’s interesting, isn’t it?

There’s a catch to all of this, by the way. I don’t know what the building looks like when the Bucks are playing a game because I’m not a Bucks season ticket holder. If you find yourself at Fiserv for one of the remaining 19 regular season games on Milwaukee’s schedule, pull your phone out and take a few pictures of these concession stands and send them to anon.eagle at gmail dot com, won’t you?