Charlie Curnow

For many live sports fans and businesses, increasingly, it’s either go big or go home.

Sports arenas are rethinking their premium seating, offering a much wider range of options. And it’s leading to millions more in money made for teams, Forbes reported.

To begin with, the shift does mean fewer traditional suites in many arenas. But the suites that remain are now becoming more customizable and available in more configurations. Including sometimes as many as five different types of suite offerings, in different sizes and featuring different amenities.

The suites are also reaching new levels of opulence, with new spaces at modern stadiums going beyond marble countertops and fancy meals from celebrity chefs. Experiences now often even start outside the actual building with VIP parking or drop-off, and dedicated arena entrances.

Premium customers are also getting access to otherwise restricted areas of stadiums. And in some premium experiences, guests can even fly with teams to games, or get visits from team mascots or legendary retired players. Not to mention purchase limited-edition merchandise, or find other smaller perks such as in-suite ice machines.

In some cases, the suites are meant to elevate an already-desirable location, such as the 50-yard line. But in others they’re helping turn arena dead zones with less-than-ideal sight lines into hot spots.

An increasing emphasis on business-to-business marketing and corporate hospitality is helping fuel this luxury suite trend, according to Forbes. With the Super Bowl and its NFL House members-only hospitality space, among other offerings ranging from cocktail parties to brunches with Hall of Fame players being a major locus for this type of corporate activity.

But teams are currently just as excited about premium seating opportunities at lower price points. Or what some are calling “entry-level premium.”

These offerings, sometimes called “mini suites,” can have a capacity of 10 or 12 rather than the usual 18 to 25. They can also include even smaller semiprivate groups of seats, an increasingly popular offering that can go by many names, including “loge boxes” or “opera boxes.”

Loge tickets are significantly pricier than what teams could command for a regular ticket. Often requiring six-figure leases for a typical season-long or multi-season reservation. But they’ve also opened up opportunities for arenas to reach a whole new type of upmarket customer.

Typical profiles for these customers might include small business owners who want to entertain just a client or two for a sporting event. Or HENRYs, a marketing term meaning “high earner, not rich yet.”

The exact approach of these offerings differs by sport, due at least in part to the wild variance in the number of home games among leagues. With NFL team schedules featuring eight or nine home games per season, for example, and those of MLB teams featuring 81.

But across all leagues, premium offerings still mean a major source of additional money. Leading to $54 million in yearly revenue on average per team in the NFL, $45 million in the NBA, $41 million in the MLB and $35 million for NHL teams, according to the most recent season of Forbes data. Which is an increase of between 14% and 36% over the last pre-pandemic season.

For 15 teams across the four leagues, premium seating revenue during the most recent season actually exceeded general ticket sales. And two teams, the Golden State Warriors, who opened their Chase Center in 2019, and the Los Angeles Kings, who play at Crypto.com Arena, made more from premium seating than from any other revenue stream, including media rights.

The premium spaces also open up additional revenue streams by, for example, giving sponsors another place where their names can get featured.

Which could all chalk up to one more reason for teams to update their arenas regularly, should the trend last.

Right now, sleep seems to be anything but a snore for the hotel industry.

An ongoing boom in “sleep tourism” has created a $640 billion global market that may top $1 billion by 2028, Fast Company reported, referring to findings from an HTF Market Intelligence study. And so far, the trend has been embraced by everyone from luxury boutiques to industry giants like Hilton and Marriott as they seek additional ways to stand apart from short-term rental options.

Park Hyatt properties now offer sleep suites furnished with Bryte smart beds whose AI-powered mattresses are claimed to “unlock restorative sleep,” Fast Company noted. Other offerings from hotels and resorts worldwide include sleep analysis from medical professionals, pillow menus, and special diets and services to help restore the body’s rhythms and help guarantee an exemplary rest. Sleep meditations, trackers and playlists are also offered by discerning hotels around the world.

The idea of sleep has been a focus for the hotel industry more or less since its inception. With the Westin hotel chain’s Heavenly Bed campaign of the late 1990s serving as one example from recent history.

It’s also been a focus for hotel customers. A 2019 JD Power survey found that of the 29% of hotel guests who experienced a “better-than-expected” quality of sleep, 78% said they “definitely will” return to that property and 71% say they “definitely will” return to that brand.

But the Covid-19 pandemic helped kick interest in sleep within the broader culture into overdrive with its stay-home orders, as well as its enhanced focus on wellness according to Harvard professor and researcher Rebecca Robbins, who was interviewed by Fast Company. Together, these dynamics led to an estimated 25 minutes on average of extra sleep for most people during the first few weeks of the pandemic.

The overall result was what Fitt Insider, a wellness industry newsletter, has called more investment in, and spending on, the “sleep stack” across the economy. Including wearables, bedding, apps, therapeutics and other tools to get better rest. But it’s also led to a larger market for sleep tourism.

According to Mark Kovacs, VP of health and performance for Canyon Ranch resorts, treatments and techniques used for training elite athletes have now filtered down to the population at large. Five-night sleep training retreats at Canyon Ranch’s Lenox, Massachusetts location cost as much as $8,800 per person in 2024.

The Grand Wailea resort, a Hilton property in Hawaii, offers wellness rooms with various sleep-optimizing amenities. Including sleep-inducing meals, specialized jet-lag reducing spa treatments and lectures on the science of restfulness, for just over $1,000 a night. Which is roughly $300 more than standard rooms.

All of this does beg a couple questions, though. For example, if hotel guests are so busy getting their eight hours, does that mean they’ll have less time to spend money on pay-per-view? Or the mini fridge?

Better, faster but not necessarily cheaper?

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol shared more details about the brand’s ongoing turnaround strategy during the company’s latest quarterly conference call, CNBC reported.

Many of the coffee chain’s planned changes are intended to help its stores deliver a custom drink to customers in under four minutes, according to CNBC. Right now, about half of its orders fall within this threshold.

The plans are being unveiled as Starbucks has now reported three straight quarters of declining sales. The company is also planning fewer new locations and renovations in order to free up capital in 2025.

Among the coffee chain’s specific plans are changes to its mobile app ordering experience. In order to help reduce the crowding of counters with mobile app orders, Niccol seeks to improve the accuracy of the app’s timing so people have a better idea of when their drinks will be ready. He also seeks to physically separate mobile order pickups from in-restaurant orders within store locations. And to curtail how much customers can customize drinks.

Niccol, who was previously CEO and chairman of Chipotle until August 2024, says he plans to slim the Starbucks menu to “fewer, better” offerings to help baristas make every drink more consistently. And hopefully make them quicker, as they’ll have fewer drinks to remember.

As a criteria for what to eliminate from its menu, the company says it will look at items that they wouldn’t have offered if the four-minute standard wasn’t already in place.

The coffee chain’s plans also include steps to make its cafes feel more like a “third place” for customers again. Including through the return of ceramic mugs, and of Sharpies markers for writing customer names and other messages on cups instead of printed labels.

Starbucks is also reviewing its store designs with a focus on returning to more comfortable seating and amenities. Newer pickup-only locations could even see design changes to help make them more inviting.

In addition, the company is looking to bring back condiment bars so customers no longer need to ask baristas directly for something as simple as adding milk or sugar to a drip coffee. And it’s dropping extra charges for milk alternatives, which can currently add as much as 10% to the cost of drinks.

From a marketing perspective, the coffee chain also plans to place less emphasis on discounts under its Starbucks Rewards program. These deals-based initiatives are currently seen as “ineffective” according to Niccol, and as overburdening baristas. The chain additionally plans to give baristas more hours and consistent scheduling to help improve staff retention.

And so what’s the upshot of it all? If you miss the good old “third place” days of Starbucks, it looks like there might be a cup with your name Sharpied on it sometime soon.

This Month in History

Grateful Dead, “Nightfall of Diamonds”

October 16, 1989

Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

This double-disc set released in 2001 highlights the Grateful Dead’s final performance of their five show 1989 run at Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. The night of the recordings, October 16, 1989, was guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir’s 42^nd birthday.

The Grateful Dead’s fall tour of 1989 coincided with the release of “Built to Last,” their 13^th studio release. Loosely structured and perpetually evolving set lists during this period allowed the integration of newer tunes with more established songs from the Dead’s 200-plus strong repertoire, AllMusic notes.

This includes “Picasso Moon,” the up-tempo rocker that opens the first set. “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo,” paired with “Feel Like a Stranger,” provides another first-set highlight with some strong ensemble playing. And a pairing of “Let it Grow” with an engaging performance of “Deal” concludes the opening set on the same energetic high on which it began.

A psychedelic rendition of “Dark Star” envelops most of the second set, which ends with the acapella encore “We Bid You Goodnight.”

Over the space of less than 80 minutes, every genre and stylistic approach of the Grateful Dead is uncovered. And put on forceful, reason-tattering display.

A brand update of Southern California based casual dining restaurant chain Sizzler could represent a “modern heritage” approach to re-finding the company’s way, according to a Fast Company report.

Originally launched in Culver City, California in 1958, Sizzler helped invent the casual dining chain restaurant, and was once known as much for its endless salad bar as its affordable steaks. But today there are just 75 Sizzler locations, according to Fast Company, down from 270 at the chain’s peak.

Sizzler filed for bankruptcy in 2020 as the pandemic forced the company to close restaurant dining rooms, and it has been bouncing back since.

A video created by the restaurant chain in 1991 to attract franchisees went viral online in 2015 after getting posted to an “obscure media” Reddit board. The chain has also been featured in movies, and on TV’s “South Park” and “Saturday Night Live.”

Working with the Brooklyn, New York creative agency Tavern, the restaurant chain has now taken a number of steps to refresh its brand spanning from its website to its physical locations. In large part by leveraging assets found in its archives, such as a steak-shucking cartoon bull rendered in a Hanna-Barbera-esque style named Ribby Ribeye.

The Ribby Ribeye character was in turn supplemented by Tavern with a cadre of supporting characters representing the brand’s other best-known menu offerings. Including cheese toast, the unlimited shrimp, a lobster tail, and the Salad Barbarian, an amorphous blob on a plate representing all the goods available at the chain’s beloved bar.

In addition, the Tavern agency team looked to the Sizzler brand’s past to refine its fonts, referencing the Windsor and Carlson Black Swash cuts it used through the mid-80s or so. It also cleaned up the brand’s logo through some slight changes, ditching a black background and dialing it back to a single color. And placing the text a slight angle to bring home the idea of a cattle-brand element.

Tavern also worked to update the Sizzler restaurant interiors, plates, and staff uniforms, as well as the living “brand” of how workers talk and embody the restaurant, and more. Through some of these updates, they additionally sought to resurrect Sizzler’s ownable red color in order to separate it more from competitors like Outback, Chili’s, and Applebee’s. Aiming for a bright and friendly overall vibe.

The redesigned Sizzler website is now live, and changes will reportedly be rolling out to physical restaurants in phases.

Overall, these updates might seem like an attempt by Sizzler to solidify its appeal with its apparent traditional target audiences of families, as well as value-conscious, nostalgic, and casual diners. While also attracting younger demographics, including through the use of social media platforms.

When it comes to social media in particular, Sizzler could take the current refresh as an opportunity to build buzz for its recent changes and share stories drawn from the restaurant chain’s history. But also to invite customers to share their own Sizzler memories, helping strengthen a sense of community around the brand.

Sizzler restaurant interior design refreshes reported by Fast Company in 2023 led by the studio TNI Design included new finishes, tile flooring, and reclaimed wood accents throughout locations. A prominent fireplace was placed under a big Sizzler logo near the front counter, and digital boards displayed new menus. More high-seats were also added and some four-seater booths expanded to hold six people.

Under the redesigns, some locations also saw possible structural changes to accommodate delivery orders fulfilled by third-party providers like Grubhub and DoorDash.

The first Sizzler restaurant to feature these redesigned elements was in Corona, California, in March 2023. Sizzler planned for all of its locations to have remodels underway by April 2024. In order to implement these changes, TNI Design’s plans reportedly had to work across the casual dining architectural spectrum, from 1970s mini-mall locations to brand new builds.

Additionally, the chain planned for every location to receive a refreshed salad bar with more airy space above it, as well as hanging planters and food-spotlighting pendant lamps. Utilitarian stainless steel crocks and trivets were also replaced with clean white surfaces and a black holding area for multiple pots of food and condiments. New surfaces and glass were also added to salad bar sneezeguards.

But while the redesigned salad bars looked new, their overall shape and central location, which had been Sizzler standards for 30 years, reportedly weren’t planned to change.