Big league nothing new for K’s concessions chief

Big-name celebrities are no big thing to Scott McGinn anymore.

More than a decade of managing concession operations at major league sports venues has offered plenty of opportunities for the new Overland Park resident to bump into star players and other prominent personalities.

“You get pretty star-struck at first, but as time goes on you almost get numb to it because those kinds of encounters become so frequent,” McGinn said.

Still, some encounters stand out a little more than others.

While managing food and beverage services at Minute Maid Park in Houston, McGinn was responsible for overseeing a gala dinner five years ago to celebrate former president George H.W. Bush’s 80th birthday. He took it upon himself to personally handle the drink orders from Bush and a couple of his guests, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former British Prime Minister John Major.

That was special, said McGinn, who also considers his new job here pretty special.

As district manager for Aramark, McGinn is responsible for leading food and retail operations for the Royals and the refurbished Kauffman Stadium.

Though he had similar responsibilities for the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, Aramark’s new contract with the Royals made this job particularly appealing.

“It was an opportunity to open an operation from the ground up and head up a new facility,” McGinn said.

That opportunity also offered some unique challenges. It meant assembling a corps of 1,000 seasonal employees, working around a major construction project, and scrambling to meet some uncommon deadline demands.

“Typically in these types of projects we’re often on the ground a year to 18 months in advance. This was compressed into six months because the major part of the construction didn’t get started until the 2008 season was over,” McGinn said. “We worked some pretty serious hours.”

From the first of the year until opening day, the management staff of 26 typically worked 12- to 15-hour days six or seven days a week getting organized, training employees and securing merchandise for the 11,000 square feet of retail space in the stadium.

Though the construction project posed challenges, it also presented opportunity for McGinn and Aramark to participate in molding stadium’s facilities.

“Most of the design was laid out, but the Royals allowed us to lend our expertise with the food, beverage and retail spaces to enhance it and improve the operation,” McGinn said.

Though the Kauffman kickoff was unique, this kind of work hardly is new to McGinn.

Since graduating from college 15 years ago, he has worked for Aramark. With his degree in hotel and restaurant business, McGinn could have chosen a variety of directions for his career. But Aramark offered something others did not.

Being a big sports fan, McGinn liked the fact that the company did business with sports franchises. He has not been disappointed with his choice.

McGinn has been involved in managing concessions at a World Series, a Major League Baseball All-Star game, a National Basketball Association championship series and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Though a fan of many sports, McGinn said his favorite is baseball. And while he retains some loyalty for his old hometown squad, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Royals now are his favorite team. But then, the Astros were his favorite team when he worked with them, and the Braves were his favorite when working in Atlanta.

“You spend so much time with an organization, there’s no way you’re not going to be a fan. Of course, a team’s performance often greatly dictates our (company’s) performance. So you become a fan both for personal and professional reasons,” McGinn said.

If there is any drawback in the profession, McGinn said, it is the long hours during the season that can limit the amount of time he and other staffers spend at home with family. He and his wife, Audrey, have two children, daughter Bailey, age 3, and son Sheamus, 20 months.

Contact Loren Stanton at 385-6068 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment