Whitecaps Food & Beverage Operations Internship

Who we are: We’re the West Michigan Whitecaps, High-A Minor League affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. The Whitecaps are in the fun business and our mission is to provide affordable family entertainment that strengthens the West Michigan community. We create memorable experiences by offering a fun, friendly and inclusive environment. We pride ourselves on our excellent customer service and our dedication to providing awesome opportunities to our fans. We’ve been here for over 30 years and are ready to be here for at least 30 more.

Why we want you: You’re a College or University Junior or Senior, within 3 semesters of graduating. You need an internship for academic credit, and you’re pursuing a degree in Hospitality, Business, Sports Management, or a related field. You’re interested in learning what it takes to operate food & beverage in a professional sports environment. You work hard, play nice, enjoy being around people, and appreciate a good joke.

Why you want to work here: The Whitecaps internship program is designed to provide an extensive hands-on career development training and job shadow program. We provide internship positions that are meaningful and help you get a feel for the sports business world. As a Food & Beverage Operations Intern, you’ll get an inside look at one of the busiest parts of a professional sports organization and learn how concessions, hospitality, inventory, staffing, training, and game-day operations all work together. We work very hard but we don’t take ourselves too seriously; we realize how important things like puppy visits and staff happy hours are. Plus, an opportunity for free shared housing, a monthly stipend, free baseball tickets & food (your friends will love you!), a free health club membership, and opportunities to get discounted or free tickets to events in West Michigan. We’re also pretty great people to work with.

What you’ll do: Your primary focus will be learning the ins and outs of professional sports food & beverage operations. You’ll spend significant time learning about our warehouse and F&B Support Team, including storage area organization, inventory, daily stocking, and game-day preparation. You’ll shadow scheduling and training processes and learn how employee availability, event needs, shift check-in, onboarding, and training support a seasonal workforce. During game days, you’ll gain hands-on, supervised experience by observing concessions, hospitality, guest experience, and the many moving pieces involved in serving thousands of fans. You’ll also get exposure to inventory analysis, ordering concepts, forecasting, sales reporting, food and labor cost calculations, and other operational data. Along the way, you’ll research industry trends, participate in supervised training exercises, complete an educational project, and learn about special events and catering. No two days will look exactly the same, and that’s part of the fun. You’ll spend time throughout LMCU Ballpark learning from our F&B team, probably get a little dirty, definitely walk a lot, and leave with a much better understanding of what it takes to feed a ballpark full of baseball fans.

What you need: You need solid availability from March through September – you’ll be working full-time, including evenings, weekends and holidays during the baseball season. Non-event days are generally M-F 9am to 5pm. Event/game days generally begin in the morning and end after the event. You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, spending time on your feet, and working both independently on assigned learning activities and alongside the F&B team. You need a valid driver’s license.

Let’s do this: If you’re ready to apply, we look forward to getting to know you. Submit your resume and drop us a cover letter letting us know why you’d be a good fit and what you hope to learn from a career in sports food & beverage. We’ll be in touch!