Guide · October 21, 2026

Mobile ordering for stadiums and arenas: what the counter needs

A concourse stand has to work differently from a bar a guest is standing at. What each counter needs printed, plugged in and decided before doors.

A stand is not a bar with a different sign

In a bowl-shaped venue the places that sell food and drink are fixed, numbered and spread around a concourse, and a guest's route to one of them is decided by the gate they came in through and the section they are sitting in. That changes what ordering from a phone has to do. The guest is not standing in front of the counter when they order. They are in a seat, on a stair or walking a ring of concrete, and what they need back from the page is a plain statement of which stand to walk to and what name to ask for when they get there.

The model is collection. The order is paid on the phone, it prints at the stand that makes it, and the guest walks up and collects it under their own name. Staff never leave the counter, so a stand can be judged on one thing: did the paper come out, and can somebody read the name on it from the other side of the counter.

What each stand needs in front of it

What has to be on the paper

The guest's name belongs across the top, large enough to read at a glance while somebody is talking to you. Under it, the items, one per line, with any note or choice on a line of its own rather than buried at the end of a sentence. Staff read a ticket while their hands are busy, so a layout that reads cleanly lying on a counter is worth more than one that fits more on the roll.

Print the stand's own name on its own ticket too. A venue with a dozen near-identical counters will send guests to the wrong one, and when that happens the person holding the paper can read where it was meant to go and point them round the concourse instead of starting an investigation. The same goes for an order split between two stands: each prints its own ticket, both carry the same name, and neither counter waits on the other.

What to settle before doors

The last of those is the whole of it. A page that opens and shows a menu proves almost nothing about a building with twenty counters in it. What proves the path is an order paid on a phone that printed at the right stand with a legible name on it - one test per counter, not one test for the venue - and somebody being told the moment a counter stops printing, rather than hearing it from a guest already standing at one.

See it on your venue's menu

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