No better time than now to shoot out of the tunnel for a hot, steaming bowl of ... creamy coconut curry?
Who knew, huddling over the stadium's south end zone, football could be so exotic? From ground-floor booths to lofty food-court slips, game-time grub runs the gamut from ethnic to comfort food.
“One part of it is we are looking for a better overall experience for crowds that are becoming significantly bigger,” LoParco says. The other part centers around UM's worry over adequate staffing for an expanding stadium.
Attendance at the recent Griz-Cat match - the annual rivalry between Montana and Montana State - set a record with more than 25,000 fans, according to a fourth-quarter count by Montana football announcer Peter Christian.
“Remember, it requires a significant labor force to staff Washington-Grizzly Stadium,” LoParco says. “The truth of the matter is, if we did everything in there ourselves, I'm not sure we'd be able to hire and staff everything.”
And that means taking on partners.
Early on, Italian pie maker Pizza Hut and local bakery Wheat Montana became part of the food fray at the stadium. Both offer a departure from typical game-day wieners swaddled in starchy white buns.
Downstairs, at street-level on the stadium's north side, soup ladles cut a wide swath through vats of Texas chili and New England clam chowder next to a booth selling those battered and deep-fried meatballs on a stick called Vikings, usually found at county fairs.
Though not especially exotic, hot soup and chili is a hit on chilly afternoons, according to Matt Brophy, who also owns two Baskin-Robbins locations. Brophy says he already has a few concession contracts with UM, and is trying this out as a push toward creating other revenue streams in an uncertain economy.
The place seeing the most action recently featured smoking barbecues - chock-full of chicken thighs, noodles and cabbage - the size of toolsheds, located beneath the awning of an event tent that takes nearly two hours to set up on Friday night before kickoff.
This is Mua - Thai Spicy restaurant in disguise - serving plates of barbecued chicken teriyaki with stir-fried noodles and steamed rice. Owner Mao Moua has offered lunchtime alternatives to stadium crowds for three years now with the teriyaki meals her family serves to fans on game day.
“We thought it should be a different name, since we do events separate from the restaurant, and have a whole different menu,” says Moua, who travels across Montana in summer to feed festival-goers.
The family sets up as Mua for seasonal gigs at events such as the National Folk Festival and Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Missoula's River City Roots Festival and the Creamery Picnic in Stevensville.
The teriyaki chicken, served with noodles, rice and vegetables, for about $7 per plate, goes over well at events, says Moua. So well, in fact, that Thai Spicy recently installed a walk-up window to sate late-night bar crowds with the same stadium menu.
That's all in addition to home games at UM, she says, where she cuts the university in on profits at a rate of 32 percent - a fair price to pay given that it's so far been a successful partnership.
Moua pours funnel cake batter from a pitcher into hot oil that rises up like a frenzied sports crowd.
“It's something different,” she says of the crispy cakes, topped with either powdered sugar or whipped cream and strawberries. “Nobody else does them here, so we make money on them.”
Well before the halftime crunch, lines from the 20-foot wide booth run three deep, stretching across the walkway, and narrowly miss meeting up with one of UM's own concession windows - filled with Milk Duds, Dr. Pepper, and $3 dogs.
The only problem is, that line is facing the wrong way.
UM concession manager Jessica Crawford has time to take inventory as the counter help chats idly between occasional customers. It's the newer, more novel food now available to fans that sells the most, she says, while her concession offers more of the same each year.
“But we hold our own,” she says of the steady pop and hot dog customers.
Newcomers Sa-Wad-Dee and Lil' Orbits doughnuts sit high above the action in the university's new food court - a place school officials had hoped would continue to foster more food partnerships, and draw more profits.
“But we aren't seeing the traffic beneath the east side expansion we'd hoped to see,” LoParco says. “That means we aren't seeing the traffic for food venues, so we need to talk with them at the end of the season and see how things have worked for them.”
LoParco says new vendors in the food court pay less - just 25 percent to the school as part of an introductory rate to encourage giving Saturday concessions a try.
As posted signs at UM concessions remind patrons: “A portion of all sales at this concession stand directly benefits the U of M Athletics Program.”
Reporter Lori Grannis can be reached at 523-5251 or at lori.grannis@lee.net.
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