Delaware North history

Their baseball business grew quickly after World War I, expanding in 1919 into the ballpark occupied by the Baltimore team of the International League.

Sportservice was created in 1926 following contracts with minor-league ballparks in Buffalo and Syracuse, New York.

The company’s first major break came in 1927, when it was awarded its first major league concession contract by Frank Navin, owner of the Detroit Tigers.

In 1930, the company entered into its first major-league deal by signing an agreement with the Detroit Tigers to handle food service at Navin Field.

Although decreased baseball attendance due to the Depression pushed Sportservice to the brink of bankruptcy in 1932, the company was bailed out by a group of baseball owners led by Navin and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Barney Dreyfuss.

In 1937, Jacobs joined with a group of investors to help support the floundering Syracuse team of the International Hockey League.

Sportservice received a long-term contract in 1939 for the concession operations at Washington National Airport.

In 1948, Jacobs moved the headquarters of the Sportservice operation into a cramped second floor office at 703 Main Street in Buffalo, where it remained for decades.

Another example of this special tie occurred in 1951, when the legendary Connie Mack borrowed $250,000 interest-free from Jacobs to assist his financially struggling Philadelphia Athletics.

In 1952, the company began in-flight foodservice on planes bound out of Buffalo, an operation formerly handled by an outfit called Sky Chefs.

By this time, the company had grown to over 30 times its 1953 size.

Sportservice began running concessions there in 1954, and ended up controlling the facility when it came close to bankruptcy several years later, another episode that yielded bad press and corruption allegations for the company.

In 1961, Jacobs formed the Emprise Corporation, a holding company whose function was to keep separate the company’s proprietorship of racetracks and sports arenas from the operations of Sportservice, its principal subsidiary.

In 1963, the Jacobs family obtained controlling interest in the Cincinnati Royals professional basketball team and the Cincinnati Gardens, the site of the Royals’ home court.

Sportservice’s estimated gross revenues for 1968 were around $50 million.

A similar deal was cut with the Seattle Pilots, who, after their move to Milwaukee in 1970, awarded Sportservice concession rights for 25 years. $12 million in financing for Busch Stadium in St Louis resulted in another multi-decade concession arrangement for Sportservice.

In 1972, after negative press over alleged connections to organized crime in Sports Illustrated and the Arizona Republic, the Emprise company was convicted of federal racketeering charges over the purchase of the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas with members of the Mob.

However, the investigations of Emprise continued into this period, and by the end of 1976, the company’s fitness to retain its contracts had been challenged in eight of the 28 states in which it held liquor licenses, and six of the nine states in which it had pari-mutuel operations.

Although several states restored Emprise’s operating licenses on appeal, the company’s plea for a presidential pardon in 1977 was rejected, leading a number of states to deny Emprise licenses according to those states’ laws prohibiting convicted felons from holding liquor licenses.

The company’s revenue from foodservice alone in 1981 reached $174 million.

The company’s public image was enhanced by such programs as Sportservice’s temperance campaign of 1985, in which concession stand workers were trained to recognize intoxicated patrons and limit sales of alcohol to such patrons.

In 1987, the company acquired Sky Chefs, (now LSG Sky Chefs) a move that bolstered its airport business.

In late 1991, Delaware North, in a joint venture with a company based in the United Arab Emirates, won the food service contract for the fire-fighting and engineering efforts in Kuwait’s oil fields following the war there.

Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts was founded in 1992 following the company's winning bid for primary concessions at Yosemite National Park.

The company obtained the contract to provide visitor services in Yosemite National Park in 1993. under the terms of the largest concessions contract in the United States National Park Service.

In 1995, Delaware North won the contract to run the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

2004 saw the company beginning GuestPath, its companywide continuous improvement process.

In September 2008, Delaware North also recently unveiled uWink technology which helps make it easier for international travelers at Ft.

In 2008/2009, Delaware North got a contract to operate a 4,500 slot machine racino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. It lost the contract in 2009 when it could not make a $370 million upfront payment to the state of New York.

In 2010, the company acquired Jumer's Casino & Hotel located in Rock Island, Illinois.

The company’s operations also include the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Bruins, owned by Delaware North Chairman Jeremy Jacobs.

In February 2014, Delaware North announced it would acquire a majority stake Patina Restaurant Group (PRG), one of the nation’s leading multi-concept operator in the premium segments of the restaurant and catering industry.