Last week we looked into an app that can help you find the perfect sports bar for your favorite team, but what about if you attend a game at a foreign stadium and have no idea what food and drink options are available or what you should order?
Hungry Fan is looking to solve your problem.
Hungry Fan launched last week in the App Store, and is the only app for sports fans and stadium goers to find, discover and explore menus and locations for all food sold at stadiums and arenas in the US.
Co-Founder Daina Falk, whose father David Falk is most famous for being the agent for NBA legend Michael Jordan said:
“Prior to the launch of HungryFan™ there was no single place to find this information easily. Partial information was buried on websites, or not optimized for mobile phones, which is the way that people needing it most (those at stadiums) will look for it. Now, we put all of the stadium food information in one place, making it easier to find the food you want to eat, so you can get back to your seat.”
Food options over the past couple of years have greatly improved in stadiums all around the country. Gone are the days of only being able to find hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken fingers at a game.
As stadiums and arenas have improved their food concession offerings to include foods as diverse as sushi, Mexican food, and BBQ, they have become increasingly difficult to keep track of and know what options are available in stadiums all across the country.
Acquiring the food data proved to be a difficult task for Schafer and Falk. They said that while teams like the Buffalo Bills were upfront with the food information, most were vague and didn’t give lots of data. They resorted to TaskRabbit and other user-to-user apps to try to get all the food information for other NFL venues. Falk said:
“In Soldier Field, our guy got thrown out,” says Falk, referring to the home of the Chicago Bears.
Additionally, an increasing amount of stadium goers are gluten-free, kosher, vegan, or have other dietary restrictions. So they need to find the foods that fit into their lifestyle even when they go to the ballpark.
HungryFan is trying to end the “eater’s remorse,” when you would walk back to your seat with food, only to see someone walking by with something you really wanted.
All one has to do is simply open the Hungry Fan app on an iPhone, fans can see which foods are available at any stadium, where they can find each concession, filter by nearly any criteria from “salads” to “fried” to “gluten-free,” leave comments, and of course, share with their friends. This will end the long walks around the stadium trying to find the best food options, and gives you more time to do what you came to the venue to do…Watch the game!
While the app has had six figure startup costs, Schaefer and Falk are confident the app will soon be profitable. They recently got their first sponsor in Pepsi.
Schaefer told Mashable:
“It took several months to coordinate and gather the info,” says Schafer. “And now we’re going to have to do it all again.”
New stadiums and arenas are being added daily, and menus will be frequently updated as changes are made to facilities and the app will be coming to other mobile operating systems soon.
Hungry Fan Details:
You can find Hungry Fan online here, on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.