City Stadium reverberates with the kind of buzzy energy older fans may fondly associate with high school football games. It’s a sweltering summer Saturday and families mill about the nearly century-old stadium wearing matching red and black jerseys.

Teens clump together, necks straining to find their friends in the concrete stands below as music blares from speakers and soccer diehards keep checking their watches. Kick-off starts at 7:00 p.m.

One may forget that they are, in fact, attending a professional game if not for the folks balancing 32-ounce beers in their hands. The stadium may be old, but fans are here for the sport just as much as for the party.

For the love of a cold one

“Hardywood’s Richmond Lager is probably our best-selling can,” says Richmond Kickers’ Director of Stadium Operations Tom Pritzl. “It sells better than bottled water. Richmond loves their beer.”

The Wisconsin native has made it his job to know and understand the River City market. After using his sports management degree and hospitality background to secure positions at minor league teams from Montana to Mobile, Pritzl wound up at the Flying Squirrels in 2019.

He oversaw all the concessions at The Diamond for a season before the pandemic put a halt to public gatherings. Just down I-195, though, City Stadium had figured out a way to continue to host games, safely, during the 2020 season. Pritzl and a few other Squirrels staff headed its way.

“I never saw myself getting out of baseball,” admits Pritzl. “But Richmond’s been good to me, this is my third season with the Kickers. It’s funny how fast it goes.”

As director of operations, Pritzl is constantly running around making sure the well-loved stadium is maintained and clean, the stands are power-washed and plumbing and electrical are up to snuff. But his passion lies in the beverage department.

In three years, Pritzl has built up four bars where before there were zero, boasting a total of 34 taps with 27 different beers.

“Variety is so important to me. I want to make sure if you come to one of our games you can find what you want,” says Pritzl. From tropical lagers to canned wine to non-alcoholic beer, fans will find just about any libation they desire (except for the really hard stuff, of course).

Since Pritzl came on, the stadium has invested a “good amount of money” into new keg boxes, plus the new bars. “We have people cleaning the lines before every single game,” says Pritzl.

As long as Pritzl is in charge, whether you’re a footy-fan or not, by God you’ll have an ice-cold beer of your choosing at City Stadium.

Behind cold beer and clean lines, building relationships is the most integral part of Pritzl’s job. “I’m always open to a conversation,” he says. Pritzl welcomes feedback from fans, fellow staffers—even the team itself. “The first assistant coach is a big non-alcoholic beer drinker,” says Pritzl. “We started looking into it, one of our partners is Three Notch’d and they have a great N/A product, the demand is there, so we put that on this year.”

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The Kickers have even been able to build up an “uncool” happy hour around this line of N/A brews. Regular beer stops flowing at the 70th minute, but between the 70th and 90th minutes fans can snag a discounted Uncool can. “We sell a bunch,” says Pritzl.

Although he regularly does his own research, Pritzl says he relies on—and trusts—his beverage partners. “For example, I don’t really like sours,” says Pritzl. “But I listened to Three Notch’d who said ‘Hey, we sell a bunch of these—if you have it, they will sell.’”

And they were right.

Another new addition to the beer lineup this year is Midnight Brewery’s Rockville Red, the stadium’s first amber ale. Pritzl says that after many conversations with Brown, one of their two major distributors, they decided to give this small brewery outside of town a shot.

“We have the attendance to back up what we are doing here with our beverage selection,” says Pritzl. “If you only had 1-2,000 fans it would be too saturated. If we’re asking people to spend money with us, we want to do good by them and sell as much product as we can.”

Click here to read a sidebar interview with Arroz food truck owner, Keisler Baquiran, to learn more about this fan favorite, and why he took a chance on the City Stadium partnership three seasons ago.

Tasty innovation

As soccer works to build up its fanbase in the U. S. of A., America’s favorite pastime continues to draw crowds.

The Flying Squirrels long ago solidified themselves as Richmond’s beloved hometown team. Squirrels bartender Julia Miller says she keeps coming back every spring because of the energy of the crowd. “Compared to a major league game, it’s just so much more fun,” says Miller. “We have a lot of returning bartenders and we all socialize outside of work. I’ve never liked my co-workers so much.”

After clocking out at her day job, Miller pours beer for thirsty fans Tuesday-Sunday during home games, rotating between the busiest beer concessions and the slower stands with only three-four options.

A beer-lover herself, Miller says, “It’s fun for me to direct people who come up and say, ‘I’m not sure what I like,’ and give them samples and information about each beer we have.”

Miller and her fellow concessions staffers worked under a whirlwind of leadership between 2019 and 2022, but she credits the Squirrels’ current Director of Food and Beverage, Steve Bales, with getting everyone on the same page. “Having good management is the backbone of this whole experience,” she says.

Like Pritzl, Bales is not a Richmond native. Heralding from St. Louis, the Kansas City Chiefs fan has held positions at minor and major baseball teams, King’s Dominion and, most recently, the Richmond Raceway.

Bales started at the Diamond in 2022, the first post-pandemic season for the Squirrels. “The first season I was here we were just coming out of COVID, so I was really concentrating on the basics,” says Bales. “This year we felt we were in a good place to offer some fun stuff.”

Some of that new, fun stuff includes frozen margaritas, loaded nachos that come served in a take-home souvenir helmet, a buffalo ranch chicken Philly and pickle dogs.

Bales oversees seven food vendors including four traditional concession stands and three “walk-up” carts specializing in hot dogs, tacos and Philly cheesesteaks. There are booze options aplenty, of course, with local brews on tap, Belle Isle canned cocktails and all the solid domestics.

Bales doesn’t have to worry about the energy in the stands fading or the devoted fans skipping out on home games. He does, naturally, have some constrictions with the layout and age of the much-talked-about deteriorating Diamond. He makes the most of it, though.

“There’s something every day that you can do to make the experience better, to move the lines more quickly, to get creative with staffing, to try a new item,” says Bales.

That doesn’t mean he and his team aren’t looking forward to the new Diamond District which at this time is slated to be completed by 2026 (fingers crossed). “There have been some different plans floating around,” Bales says of how the concession stands will be set up at the new and improved stadium.

They haven’t delved into specific menus yet, but he says you can except to see a smoother system that allows for shorter, faster lines.

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For now, though, Bales is focusing on creating the best fan experience possible at the trusty ol’ Diamond. Like Pritzl, Bales recognizes that Richmond loves beer, yes, but they also swear by local vendors. The stadium’s hot dogs and signature Squirrely fries may fall under the “delicious but generic” concessions category, but the Squirrels still bring in local partners whenever they can.

At a recent July game, the team partnered with Duke’s, creating a Philly Duke’s “Hot Tomato Summer” sandwich special.

On Aug. 8, they’ll be giving away a signature “Go Nuts” ceramic peanut mug to the first 1,000 fans. Fans who bring a jar of peanut butter to donate to FeedMore will be entered to win a prize pack.

As Miller says, this ain’t your buttoned up major league affair. From souvenir cups dripping with frozen delights to silly peanut giveaways, the Squirrels know how to have a good time. And the fans eat it up.

“We don’t expect to sell a million specialty items,” says Bales. They could very well sell plain hot dogs and still bring in a decent profit. But, as Bales notes, “Sometimes it’s sales and sometimes it’s just a good picture.’

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