Vendors and Coaches Feud Over Concessions at Oriole Field View Full Caption

NORWOOD PARK — For more than 20 years, fall Sundays at Oriole Park have been about youth football.

This season, though, the coaches have found themselves battling not only on the gridiron but also on the sidelines.

Coaches from the Oriole Park Youth Football program say a concession vendor has bullied them out of their most beneficial fundraiser, concession stand sales, forcing them to find alternate ways to pay for league expenses.

"We have the cheapest fee in the neighborhood because of the concession stand. It's just a shame that one guy is ruining that. We're a not-for-profit organization and every coach is a volunteer," said Sam Filpi, head coach of the Junior Pee Wee Falcon Team based out of the park.

Coaches said in previous seasons the concession stand averaged about $1,500 per game day, which they used to pay officiating fees for eight Falcons teams and nearly 300 kids.

But the vendor who holds the license from the city to sell concessions at the park, City Dawgs, said the league's concession stand makes much more than $1,500, and every dollar they make is a dollar out of his pocket, according to James Kirby, who acquired the license from his brother last year.

"They just want to show up on game day and make the money. That's the old school way. [You] can't do it anymore," Kirby said, explaining he spent thousands of dollars before he was even able to open his stand.

John Swank, president of the Oriole Park Youth Football Program, disputed Kirby's assessment of the league's finances, saying all of its financial details are available in a treasury report, which can be seen every second Wednesday of the month at the park's field house.

"We have nothing to hide," Swank said. "He's trying to justify what he's doing. We make a $1,000 on a good day. If we were making it we'd gladly pay him the kind of money he's looking for."

"I wish we made $3,000," he said, adding the team's average per-game revenue from the stand was about $1,500 per game.

"There's a couple weekends where grandma and grandpa come out there and some opposing teams travel deeper than others," he said, estimating they could pull in maybe $2,000 on a sunny October Sunday.

City Dawgs acquired a license to sell food at the park in 2011 but allowed the Falcons to keep operating.

Last year, Kirby fell on hard times when his brother threw his back out and was unable to work, so he sold the rights to sell concessions to the Falcons' program for its four home-game Sundays.

The Falcons paid Kirby $3,000 to open the stand last year and were the only concession stand operating during their games. This year Kirby asked for more money and gave them a list of foods they weren't allowed to sell, so the team decided not to sell concessions at all, Filpi said.

This year Kirby "wanted more money for us to open, and he pretty much wouldn't let us sell anything where we would make a profit, just coffee and donuts," said Filpi, noting most of the food they were allowed to sell were breakfast items.

"Who's going to buy a breakfast burrito at noon?" he asked.

Kirby denied trying to raise the price this year — in fact, he said he never asked the league for any money this year — and said the league still had plenty of things it could sell.

"Anything that's not on my menu they can do it," said Kirby listing the items he sold: hot dogs, polish sausage, tamales, nachos, chips, candy, pop and Gatorade.

The Falcons could sell anything else they wanted, including cheeseburgers, coffee, breakfast foods and Italian beef. The Italian beef was one of the stand's most popular products last year and sold for about $4, Kirby said.

Despite the problems, both sides were on board until four days prior to the first home game, when the Falcons told Kirby they would not be selling food at their games, he said.

At the game visiting fans told him they were emailed that the concession stand would not be open, and Falcons coaches confirmed they sent the visitors an email saying so.

Kirby believed the email was a ploy to undercut his business and convince opposing player's parents to bring their own food to the game.

"Why are they trying to hurt a business trying to support them? It's like seventh-grade stuff. I don't understand. That's a low blow, man. That's ridiculous," Kirby said adding he was supporting the team by allowing them to operate under his license.

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