I saw the news posted recently about a new smartphone app called “Bypass Lane” that will be available here at our Coca Cola Park this season.
The frenzy of excited fans created a buzz online and amongst each other about this new, tech saavy option to purchase concessions at the ball game.
A few things I noticed…
It’s called the Bypass Lane. Lane, that sounds like a line. The Turnpike has an Easy Pass lane, but you still have to go through the lane. A Bypass Lane… sounds like you are bypassing something. Are you bypassing the line? Bypassing the walk to the food stand?
This is how the announcement reads, from the Ironpig’s email sent out:
Fans now have the ability to purchase food and beverages straight from their Smartphones with Bypass Lane. Bypass is a convenient solution that affords all IronPigs fans the unique opportunity of ordering food and beverages straight from their seat.
Ah.. there we have it. We can purchase food with our smartphones. We can order food and beverages from our seats!
I did download the Bypass App into my iPhone. I looked to register and found that General Admission fans were out of luck. Only folks with a section and seat number could “Order food from their seats.” I opted not to proceed, partly because it’s not available to me as an outfield season ticket holder, but mostly because it asked me to enter a credit card number to register. (I don’t care to save my CC info on anything online unless it’s an immediate purchase)
So I wondered why the outfield wasn’t included. It’s pretty obvious why… try finding one person sitting on the lawn out of a few hundred. “I’m the one wearing the Ironpig’s hat and shirt… on the blanket.. with kids…” I completely understand.
Ok, so everyone is abuzz about having food delivered to their seats. I’ve heard it all going around and I thought to myself.. but it doesn’t SAY food will be delivered to your seat… it only says you can ORDER food from your seat. I suppose it would take an additional 50-60 full time game day employees to meet the demand of lazy fans. Also would imagine what we would pay for that privilege. As if the ballpark prices aren’t enough, we can add a few more dollars on for a novelty-like delivery of our food.
So you will be able to order food from your seat. What happens then? I suppose you would be notified via a response? Email? Text message? A push notification (That’s the fancy name for message from an app), a phone call? What happens if you don’t notice your food is ready? What happens if 200 people order via the bypass lane at the same time? I could imagine getting cold food and flat beer, but my questions remain unanswered for now. If anyone out there would like to share their experience using this service.. please share with us!
Personally, I think it is a cool idea. I wouldn’t use it as I do enjoy getting up and taking a walk now and then. The beautiful 360 degree concourse is ideal for taking a stroll on a warm summer night. Really, the best conversations I’ve had at the park have been waiting in the concessions lines. Met a lot of new friends there too. Granted, I usually don’t eat too much at the park. I am on the over side of my ideal weight and have been trying to cut back. It’s easier on the wallet as well. But when I do get a hankerin for a cheeseburger or Philly Pretzel, I don’t mind missing a little of the game. Most of the food stands have TV’s within viewing distance anyway.
So for my official stance on the ByPass lane… It’s not really for me, it may not last… but it’s a step in the right direction.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Honestly, I didn’t read the entire thing because I assumed it wouldn’t work from my rotary dial wall phone at home. But my impression was that you order the food and then they send you a text message when it’s ready. No delivery to your seats. You have to go pick it up in a separate lane (look at the picture with the article on the ironpigs website). You just don’t have to wait in the long lines for your food. From the article:
When the order is ready for pickup, a text message is sent to the fan from the nearest Bypass Lane. Fans can then avoid the line “by using the exclusive Bypass Lane at the designated pick-up areas located at the concession stands.”
No way I’ll be purchasing a cell phone for this. I’m not a phone person anyway, and our society is already way to impersonal.
I would think bypass should work for people in GA. I suppose you could just plug in a random section number and since they are not delivering the food to your seat it shouldn’t matter. I am thinking they have the section numbers included for statistical purposes and perhaps for future use if they decide to implement delivery to seats in the future.
Oh, no, I knew all along what this was. You can order food, but you MUST go pick it up once you get the text message. I think the reason that you cannot do it from a GA ticket is that they cannot route it to the appropriate location and generate the appropriate menu. Speedpass locales will be: Blast Furnace grill in the ATT Plaza (speculate sections 101-107), Home Plate grill 1B side (speculate sections 108-112) and the Lunch Box trio 3B side (speculate sections 113-120), as well as the Hog Heaven in the Club Level.
I’m sorry if my previous comments mislead. I confess that I do wish for a nice person (read: Hooters waitress) to deliver my ordered food. I would tip accordingly. Alas, that’s not to be. Not yet, anyway. Not until they install a “Lodge Section” in the club level. But that’s a suggestion for another day.
I confess as well: on Friday I took delivery of a brand new iPhone4 so that I could keep up with apps and benefits such as BypassLane. My old Blackberry would not comply. Perhaps I’ll have it activated by Tuesday.
Finally, here’s the real rub: $.99 convenience fee. Yup, you order and charge to your credit card, but also, you pay more. That’s the part that will keep me under control–I won’t be ordering individual hot chocolates for the kiddos all night from my seat. They can stand in line! 🙂
Surely Kram if you’re upstairs with the heavy rollers you can spring for the .99 cents.
Touche’ my friend. But consider the following math problem, rounding the $.99 to $1
2 kids x 3 trips each to the concession = 6 trips–if I combine two trips we’ll average = 4 trips per game.
x $1 per trip x 60 games = $240.00 in bypass fees for this season.
Golly, that’s almost enough to pay for my Morning Call subscription–and I haven’t even paid for the food yet. Oh, I’ll use it; let’s just say I’m going to be conservative in my use of the Bypass.
That’s enough to buy a full season parking pass…
It’s called the Bypass Lane because after you have ordered and eaten the burgers, porkers and such, you’ll need a bypass!
(rimshot!)
🙂
no service charge and no lines at philly pretzel–use the code “noise nation” amd recieve $1 off every pretzel
ONE DOLLAR PRETZELS!!! Good seeing you guys yesterday!
First, thank you so much for your detailed blog post regarding the Bypass Lane at Coca-Cola park. Our launch at the season opener last night was a great success. We had almost 100 people place orders via Bypass and everyone who we spoke with seemed to love the service.
I wanted to take the time and answer a few of your questions:
1. We do support the General Admission fan. Simply open the app and select “general admission” – you are then free to order from three of the concession stands(I think one is restricted to club level only).
2. We are “pick-up” only at this time. You are correct that labor is a major issue when talking about in-seat delivery. Bypass does support in-seat service, but that will be up to the team if/when they would like to look at that type of application.
3. You do get a notification(push or text) when your order is ready – usually within 5 minutes from the time you place your order.
4. 200 orders at one time would be great, and we hope to get there over time, but we were really happy with the 100 or so orders we got last night. And as long as you pick up your order in a timely fashion you should never experience any quality issues with your order.
I hope you get a chance to use the application the next time you are at an Ironpigs game. Please always feel free to email me direct if you have any questions/comments.
Best,
Brian Traudt
Director, Operations
Bypass
Thanks for the info! OinK!