This week ESPN's "Outside the Lines" released its in depth report on health code standards at professional stadiums. This study investigated every stadium, arena or ballpark in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. One of the local findings in the D.C./Baltimore area was quite disturbing.
Verizon Center in Washington D.C., home to the Capitals and Wizards, had a 100% fail rate at its concession stands. 100%. Think about that for a minute. For every time you ate at a Caps or Wiz game last season you had an extremely good chance that you were eating contaminated food. What was the biggest shock of the report? Ten...TEN concession stands inside the Verizon Center had mice droppings. Not even one stand having a problem like that is possible, but ten? How can that many areas serving food in one building be that disgusting?
How can any professional stadium have this kind of problem? Before shrugging it off and thinking 'oh well, it will be fixed by next season', think about if it isn't. You are taking your wife and kids to go see John Wall. Or you're going with your college buds to see Ovie dismantle his next opponent. Instead of grabbing some food at the jam-packed Turtle, you figure you'll just grab some grub inside. You get a hot dog, pretzel, nachos and a couple of sodas. The next morning you wake up violently ill. You are re-tracing what you did the day before that could have caused this. Then you suddenly remember that ESPN report from earlier in the summer...oh yeah, you just had a big, hearty serving of mice droppings for dinner.
What's equally disturbing is that Verizon Center, the Capitals and the Wizards haven't released a statement on this (at least I haven't been able to find one). And the local media isn't covering this catastrophe at all. When the report came out and the Dallas Cowboys had a 72% fail rate and Tropicana Field had a 100% fail rate both clubs immediately said they were taking steps to improve their concessions. Where is Leonsis or anyone else high up that deals with the concessions at Verizon?
Ted Leonsis is a good man and a great businessman. He will surely work hard at fixing this problem even if he hasn't said anything publicly. But one thing is for sure: when I'm at Verizon Center this fall to catch some Wizards and Caps games, I certainly won't be partaking in the food at the big phone booth.
Teddy boiii released this statement on his blog 7/26...
ReplyDeleteI was surprised and disappointed by ESPN’s recent industry-wide report and ratings related to the cleanliness of professional sports venues, including Verizon Center. Since we acquired Verizon Center from Washington Sports and Entertainment six weeks ago, we have been planning and making improvements. Please be assured that we take the complaints of our customers extremely seriously, and quality and cleanliness are paramount.
We remain in the early stages of our evaluation process, and the ESPN report touched on some of the elements we have been examining and will be vigilant in improving. We will redouble our efforts immediately and review all facets of the issues identified. Once we have the facts, we will embark on remedies.
From what I understand, the ESPN report stems from incidents in 2009. These professional inspections are conducted several times throughout the year, are unannounced and are public record. When and if issues arise, we will take appropriate action, and from what I understand we have done exactly that in the past.
Aramark and Levy are our concessionaires at the arena. We have had a good relationship with both of them throughout the years, and we count on them to maintain a clean, safe, courteous and responsible service environment for our customers. Aramark recently launched a website to demonstrate and highlight their continued commitment to food safety, www.aramarkqualityfood.com.
The past couple of weeks I have talked about my plan to walk a mile in our employees’ footsteps and participate in the cleaning process. I now will step up those efforts and make this a top priority. I will personally get involved in the process and the solutions. We are on it; we’ve already started. We will move this issue from one that appears shocking to one that is a source of pride. I promise.
Good call. I didn't see that. Thanks for the post. I'm also not surprised that Aramark is involved in this. Hopefully he follows through.
ReplyDelete