FAQ

In exchange for staffing a concessions stand or beverage cart at one of our UMD College Park athletic events, groups can receive a commission of sales from their location. 

We work with all sorts of groups! As we are located on a university campus, many of our groups are student-affiliated. Athletic clubs, religious groups, PTSAs and school booster clubs, charitable organizations, as well as many other groups fundraise with us, and any and all non-profit organizations are welcome!

We have locations of many sizes at our Football and Basketball games, so all groups are encouraged to reach out! However, small locations usually fill faster. Most locations require either 10-15, 15-20, 20-25, or 25-30 people. If you are interested in fundraising but are not certain you can reach these amounts, we encourage you to reach out regardless as we may be able to find a suitable location.

It is very important to communicate the realistic size of your group before signing a contract, as not bringing the required number of people on your contract to an event will reduce your commission, and repeated shortages may result in your group being suspended or barred from working with Concessions in the future.

For football, check in time is 3 hours prior to game time, the game takes anywhere from 3 to 3.5 hours to complete and it takes roughly an hour to clean up, count money and check out. An average gameday is usually a 7.5-8 hour day all together. Unfortunately due to security reasons we cannot allow members to rotate out throughout the day, the members who initially check in on gameday must stay the whole time. Basketball games are similar, but typically end about an hour earlier for 6.5-7 hour shifts.

Your group will be serving food and beverages out of one of our many concessions locations on campus. This includes preparing food, cooking on a grill or fryer, running a cash register, pouring and serving beer, and serving guests. (Think of it as running a fast food or fast casual establishment). You will have a manager from our department with you to ensure everything runs smoothly.

The point of contact for your group will be responsible for finding volunteers for each event, keeping up to date with information we send out about upcoming events, and completing onboarding steps prior to the season. These onboarding steps include finalizing and signing the contract and attending a group leader training.

Anyone 14 years or older who is willing to help your group fundraise is eligible to volunteer. In order to sell alcohol, group members must be over 18 and TIPS-certified. Not all members need to be certified, however the more the better. For football games, we do have some locations which do not serve alcohol if that will be an issue.

Average payout is anywhere from $600 to $3000 per event worked, not including cash tips, with larger locations typically providing higher commission. There is a minimum payout of $200 per event, or larger depending on group size, not including tips or the per-game bonus which is paid out at the end of the season.

We pay all groups 10% of net sales on alcohol and 12% of net sales on non-alcoholic items per concessions stand, or 6% of net sales per beer portable, from every game that you work, in addition to any cash and credit tips earned. We also give groups an end of season bonus upon completion of your contract, which is based on number of group members provided. All payments are made through paper check and are disbursed from the state comptroller in Annapolis. They typically take about 6-8 weeks to arrive.

If your group is based in College Park (Zip Codes 20740 and 20742), as of the 2024 season, we will be arranging check pick up rather than having checks mailed to your address. This will not affect time to arrive, but is meant to reduce risk of loss in the mail.

If your group has a Kuali Financial Services account, we may be able to direct deposit payment, which is significantly faster. Direct Deposit takes about 2-4 weeks to arrive after the event, and is only available for KFS accounts. (This will apply to KFS accounts that will be transitioning to Workday in the fall as well).

In addition to completing and signing the contract specific to the events which you have chosen, we require an up-to-date W9 with your organization's FEI/EIN number. 

In order to complete a football concessions contract with us, your group should be able to work all seven Maryland home games and one non Football event throughout the school year (Maryland Basketball, Lacrosse, Maryland Day etc), unless you also sign a full contract for basketball season. For basketball, groups sign up to work at least seven games, men's or women's, throughout the season. You pick which of these games your group would like to work.  There are partial contracts available for both seasons, but they are harder to secure. 

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have!

Email Madeleine at concstaffing@umd.edu, and let her know your group is interested in fundraising!