As athletic departments seek budget savings, many universities are choosing Red Card
to cut costs while maintaining or even enhancing service for student-athletes.
We utilize Red Card to provide a $20 meal to 100 athletes 5 days/week to eliminate outside catering and provide additional nutrition resources. With a usage rate of 65%, we expect to spend $6,500/week for these 5 meals. This is in contrast of $10,000+ per week with traditional catering. Not only does this solution save money, but it also saves on staff resources, food waste, and dealing with caterers. Student-athletes are more satisfied with a variety of options, we only pay what is utilized, and we have documentation on each individual meal purchased. We know exactly where this money is going!
We were paying $25 per person for training table meals. Our contract dictated minimums, and we generally estimated that 425 of 655 student-athletes would show up for a meal. We decided to switch these training table meals to Red Card for all our Olympic sport student-athletes. We provided them $15/meal on Red Card, which was enough to get a full meal from one of our many dining options on and around campus. The total cost of keeping this meal at training table for a 5 day a week, 13-week semester for our minimum of 425 was $690,625. We found with Red Card, the student-athletes used about 70% of funds they were provided, and we spent $447,037. Not only did more of our athletes eat, but we also saved $243,588 per semester.
Swapping a few training table meals for Red Card meals each week has saved us a lot of money! It eliminates food waste and significantly decreases staffing costs. We still support dining services through other on-campus meals, and we have on-campus retail vendors as a Red Card option, so our dining services still capture a portion of the meal in sales. With only switching 3 meals/week, we are saving at least $3,500. With last minute changes, weather, and facility issues, we use Red Card as an instant dining solution when emergencies arise.
As a leader in the athletics technology space, we have the solution to one of the most challenging aspects of funding — the per diem.
“As a DFO, I was continually tasked with trying to find creative ways to lower our budget number. Red Card was a game changer for us. Instead of paying inflated catering prices on campus, we allowed our SAs to visit restaurants that our strength coaches approved and that the athletes actually enjoyed. It ensured they were eating as opposed to getting to a buffet line and deciding they didn’t like anything offered that day. Red Card also afforded the SAs flexibility with regards to class schedules and practice times. Overall, Red Card is a must have for any school.” — Drew Robinson- former D-1 Director of Football Ops
