Text from the Leader article above about the Superdome, 1976
Ever since the Louisiana Superdome began rising like a giant mushroom into the New Orleans skyline, the massive new
sports and entertainment colossus has inspired many a quote (or “super” quote, if you will) among writers and others attempting to
relate its gargantuan size.
Newsday, for example, described the enormity of the downtown complex by saying:
“Houston’s Astrodome compares to the Superdome like Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis to a 747 jumbo jet. The entire
Astrodome could literally be contained within the Superdome’s interior.”
The aircraft analogy may be a bit far-fetched, but it does portray the awesome feeling one gets from touring the Dome, especially when
it’s empty. A tractor-trailer hauling equipment into the infield looks like an earthworm from five levels up, and spectators given to acrophobia
admit to nausea after climbing to the top tier of seats.
Indeed, there is plenty to write about. Built at a cost of $163 million, the Superdome has rightly been labeled “a monument to man’s
imagination.” Its statistics are staggering. The structure is 273 feet high, 680 feet in diameter, contains 169,000 cubic yards of concrete and
20,000 tons of structural steel. It has 9,000 tons of air conditioning, and some 400 miles of interior wiring are threaded over, under and
around the “Mardi Grass” playing field, which is 27 stories beneath the Dome’s 9.7-acre roof.
The versatility of the Dome is such that 10,000 people can attend conventions in the halls circling the stadium without being disturbed by
the cheers of 78,000 fans under the same roof watching the New Orleans Saints play football.
But that’s not all. There are 32 additional meeting rooms that will accommodate several thousand more, plus restaurants, lounges,
shops, offices a bank and even a medical clinic. “It’s not unusual to have two major sporting events, four conventions,
and a few dozen meetings and private parties occurring at the same time,” says Francis L. Fry, General Manager of the Ogden Food
Service Corporation concession at the Superdome. Feeding the Superdome masses is the charge of Ogden, a diversified
organization whose headquarters are in Boston and whose operations The Louisiana Superdome is at crossroads of downtown New Orleans.
stretch nationwide into numerous stadium, race track, airport and institutional accounts.
Ogden won the account through competitive bidding after submitting an elaborate, three-volume proposal followed by an oral presentation to the Superdome Commission. As a microcosm of the food service industry itself, Ogden needed suppliers who could help meet the challenge at the Dome. Among the prospects was the Zetz Seven-Up Bottling Co., Inc. Organizationally, Zetz 7UP is structured so that take-home and cold drink accounts are on the same routes. There are four route managers, who report to Joseph (Inky) Ingargiola and to Francis J. Schiro.
Ingargiola and Schiro are sales vice presidents who are 40-year veterans of Zetz (New Orleans) 7UP. Although the Dome is under Inky’s route jurisdiction, he and Schiro work closely on selling major accounts, irrespective of the territory. “Inky” began the groundwork as soon as he learned that Ogden hadthe contract. The Dome was the biggest thing yet to happen to New Orleans in the city’s 257-year history, and if its potential was 100,000 people a day, it meant millions of 7UP impressions a year once the complex was operative and fully booked.
It also meant a prestige account, not only for Zetz 7UP, but for 7UP everywhere, since patrons would include conventioneers, tourists, and heads of state, not the least of which were President Ford and French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who were guests there during the middle of May.
Further, the Dome meant continuity in a long standing company goal of achieving 100% distribution for 7UP. With the support encouragement of the Zetzmann brothers — Bill and Bob (chairman and president, respectively) and their father before them, New Orleans 7UP sales personnel have traditionally pursued opportunity. The take-home market has always been fully covered, and several years ago the company’s vender/pre-mix program was recognized as one of the best in the country.
As fountain products gained more widespread use, the company began making inroads to that market, cultivating the fast food trade and acquiring such big-name accounts as the amusement park at Ponchartrain Beach.
Ingargiola’s interest in the Superdome was not his first contact with Ogden Foods. One of his better vending accounts was Charity Hospital, and it was there that he met a man named Morris Auerbach, who a few years back headed the Ogden concession at the hospital and who now is director of food service at the Dome. He’d also made calls on a Mr. Frank Pinto, who is Ogden’s regional manager for all theater and full-time vending accounts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Through Auerbach, Inky learned that another Ogden regional manager — Dick Walsh — was the man to contact regarding the Superdome. He and Schiro made an appointment, contacting Walsh some nine months before the Superdome officially opened on Aug.3 of last year.
Walsh, according to Inky, had done a little homework on his own, and was sufficiently impressed with per capita consumption of 7UP in New Orleans to outline specifications that had to be met for Ogden to take on 7UP at the Dome. Several meetings later they closed the deal.
Beyond quality, price and the loan of 20 portable pre-mix units for basketball games and special events, a maintenance agreement covering Ogden’s fountain equipment clinched the sale.
But winning the account is only half the victory; keeping it is the other half. Service and attention to the customer’s needs are the catalysts. “I can show you a list of approved purveyors we have here,” Frank Fry volunteered. “There are a lot of people who are crossed off the list already
because they weren’t able to deliver the service and didn’t really care to see that the specifications we layed out were being followed.”
Fry’s needs come into sharper focus when considering that he’s responsible for three restaurants, 33 cocktail lounges and 44 concession stands. Dome restaurants not only are available t o satisfy appetites, but compete for business with the famous Antoine’s, Brennan’s, Commander’s Palace and others that have long contributed to the New Orleans tradition for fine food.
Particularly critical is the efficiency of the concession stands and the vending operation. At football games, spectators have little time or even the inclination to leave their seats for snacks while there’s action on the field, meaning that a return on Ogden’s food and investment dollar is linked directly to the company’s ability to serve them while watching a game and to handle the crush of business at the concessions during half-time.
For whatever reason, inadequate food and beverage inventories, equipment malfunctions and poor product cannot be tolerated.
Fully cognizant of the problems, Inky and New Orleans 7UP route manager Matt Ventura see to it that there are none with 7UP.
Fry and concession manager Andy Perry agree that because price and product quality among top brands of food and beverages are reasonably parallel, service is the most important selling point a supplier has to offer.
Said Fry: “If you get good service, really, that’s the most important thing because when people buy from us, regardless of whether it’s 7UP or you name it, if the service isn’t there and we have to substitute another product, there isn’t that much
negative comment from the buying public.”
Ventura makes weekly calls on the two men, and runs a check of
Ogden’s pre-mix, Fountain 7UP and 28-oz. bottles (often requested for meetings), matching the supply against a schedule of Dome events.
In addition, he, route manager Felix Sherman, and route salesman Bill Turley work as part-time supervisors for Ogden, a gesture that Fry and Perry consider the ultimate commitment to an account.
“We pay them of course,” said Fry, “but the fact that they feel strong enough about the account that they’re here — that’s the kind of thing that makes it good for us. It’s always a lousy time — an evening, a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon when they could be fishing or spending the day with their families. That’s the kind of thing that means a lot to us, because even though their jobs are to supervise the stands, if we have a problem with 7UP, they’re here and can take care of it.”
The part-time work began when the Dome was completed. Ogden needed supervisors, and since Ventura, Sherman and Turley had experience at Tulane Stadium, they volunteered.
Their services, and the soft sell of Inky and Matt, not only have helped build an excellent relationship between Ogden and Zetz 7UP, but have paid off in additional distribution. Ogden is the concessionaire for the Rivergate (a convention hall), the Municipal Auditorium and the Theater of the Performing Arts, all of which sell 7UP as a result of the company’s performance at the Dome.
And this fall — for the first time — 7UP will be sold inside the stadium as well as at the concession stands, restaurants and cocktail lounges. Andy Perry explained one of the reasons he agreed to the move:
“We had a very difficult time here when we first set up. The building was not complete and we had a lot of problems,” he said.
“At that time Matt and Inky had come up and said they wanted to meet with me on the possibility of vending 7UP (selling it through hawkers). I told them at the time, `Do me a favor, don’t bother me. I’ve got enough problems and I don’t even want to think about that one right now.’ And I didn’t hear anymore about it.
“If they had come to me during this time and badgered me on going into this, there’s no way that 7UP would do anything,” Perry said. ” I ‘ m the kind that once I say something, I mean it. If you lay off, you’re much farther ahead. They did — they gave me the soft sell.
“I’ve been in the business long enough and I’ve got the highest per capita in the country, and I really don’t need a salesman coming in and telling me how to merchandise my product. I need him here when we’ve got a problem with his product or if there’s something he can do to help me serve more people.
“Now we’ve got an operation that I think is one of the smoothest in the country. We’ve gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. We’ve gone from the heartaches to where now — to a great extent — it runs itself.
“Several weeks ago,” h e continued, “Matt and Inky came to me and mentioned that they would like to get into the vending operations. I said I would. We’re going to start with the first football game this season, and I’m looking forward to it.
“What sold me was that they were thoughtful enough to let me alone when I had to be let alone, and yet I still got the service. I got service plus — anytime I needed something I had it from 7UP.” ■