Industry expert: Sports report

Jason Mumby, client development director for Freemans Event Partners, updates us on a busy summer of sporting events...

There’s nothing quite like the busy, British sporting events calendar – a sub-sector of the hospitality industry that generates more than £20bn in sales from May through to September, with £3.5 billion purely attributable to food and drink. This summer, we’ve been treated to a bumper edition that has provided a wealth of memorable moments, as well as a mixture of joy and despair, the two emotions that are so familiar to sports fans.

From our standpoint, as one of the leading catering and multi-service event solution providers in the UK, it’s certainly been a busy three months. Our standout event has always been the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which is one biggest showcases in Europe and one that is continuing to grow every year.

This year’s edition brought the largest crowd ever seen at Silverstone, as a record-breaking 480,000 Formula One fans were on site over four days. They not only enjoyed the thrill of the motorsport activity, but also the wide range of off-track entertainment, including a performance from Calvin Harris who headlined the launch party on the first night. In total, there were more than 90 different cuisines spanning over 260 outlets surrounding the iconic racetrack – with more than 40,000 burgers, 35,000 glasses of wine and champagne, 65,000 portions of chips and 1m drinks being sold.

There was also the Major League Baseball London Series, held at the London Stadium, which brought some North American flavour to the British sporting calendar. For the match-up between the Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals, we worked with Delaware North to create a one-off, all-American menu that went down an absolute treat.

Standout dishes included the St Louis Donut Burger (a glazed doughnut bun stacked with two 4oz burgers, topped with a bacon crumble, cheese, dill pickles and bacon mayo) and the Chicago Cheesy Brisket Sandwich (smoked brisket pulled and layered with American cheese, caramelised onion and dill pickle). This was a fantastic event to be a part of, and we can’t wait for next year’s.

Another huge success, not just for event providers but also for the profile of the game of cricket, was the men’s and women’s Ashes series that were played out alongside each other. Never before has a women’s Ashes series garnered so much attention, with record-breaking attendances at every game. The action out on the field will have helped inspire the next generation of cricketers, while the sell-out crowds no doubt provided a healthy boost in food and drink sales.

Our partnership with the MCC Lord’s Cricket Ground, where we lay on food and beverage, branding and payment tech solutions, provided us with an extremely memorable test match in the men’s series, as well as a sell-out crowd across the five days. It yielded a 234% increase in sales on the previous test match held at the venue.

While it’s been a summer to remember, the fast-paced nature of the sporting events industry means that we’re already fully focused on what’s coming up in the months ahead. Planning is well and truly in place for the likes of the Ryder Cup in Rome and the Paris Olympics, with the latter set to be the largest organised event ever held in France, as well as other blockbuster events that make up the calendar. This industry really is non-stop, which is exactly why we love it!  

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