Fenway Park T-Shirt Vendor

This case is one of dozens of cases from our Bain case library. Dive in to the prompt now.

Case Prompt

Fenway Park is home to the Boston Red Sox, a major league baseball team. Many vendors operate single-cart businesses (e.g., hotdog carts, ice cream carts, t-shirt carts, etc…) immediately outside ballpark grounds for pre-and post-game sales.

Here is some more information on the games and attendance:

• Average game attendance: 30,000
• Average game duration: 5 hours (includes pre-and post-game)
• 160 games per season: 50% home, 50% away
• Average ticket price: $40 per person

The client’s intention is to operate a single vendor cart outside of Fenway Park on Yawkey Way, where people come to enjoy the festive pre-game atmosphere.

Do you think this business might be profitable?

Case Overview

In this sports-related case study from the Bain case library, the client is a single-cart vendor looking to operate outside Fenway Park in Boston. Your job is to dig in to the profitability of the business, answering the question, “Will this business be profitable?”

The Profitability Framework is a good place to start when creating your framework for the case, but the best casers blend frameworks and their own business experience to create a custom framework tailored to the specifics of the case.

The case contains several math exhibits for you to interpret. With a qualitative difficulty score of 1/4, this is a beginner-level case study that will set you up for a Bain first round interview.

Bain Interview Tips

Bain is looking for case interview candidates that are able to step out of the case, and into real life. The firm wants to be able to see how you would react to and navigate complex business problems in real life.

Don’t get so focused on cracking the case that you lose sight of the bigger picture.

In this case, focus on creating a structure that you think would translate to a real-world environment.

Need a leg up with your Bain case prep? Work with one of our ex-MBB interview coaches today.

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