No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s prank. Why CCU will offer some free food at football games
He’s not an actor, but Chance Miller got Coastal Carolina’s message across with the short video it posted before April Fool’s Day 2025.
Many social media users thought that CCU’s announced free concessions at home football games in 2025 was part of the annual celebration of pranks and trickery. However, Miller affirmed in an interview with The Sun News that the promotion is real.
“That’s why we released it yesterday,” Miller said. “We did get that a lot, though.”
As CCU’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics and university recreation, Miller let out the occasional chuckle when speaking to The Sun News April 3, 2025. However, the move is part of a serious effort at CCU to increase fan engagement and bring Grand Stranders who aren’t CCU fans yet to games.
“Let’s try here with football. This is something we’re still trying to build. We’re trying to build to grow the fan base and to get people that have relocated to this area out to a game,” He added. “I think this will help.”
Now, fans inclined to get soda, water, nachos, popcorn and or hot dogs on home game days during the 2025 season will be able to do so free of charge.
Want to have a hot dog eating contest with your friends or family? You’ll have to eat them four at a time but go for it. CCU’s concessions will be nachos-galore, barring logistical headaches or lines slowing to a crawl like one’s digestive tract after eating an unencumbered amount of hot dogs.
Miller first came up with the idea for free concessions while working at the University of South Carolina. He thinks lines will speed up and has a solution to ensure they move quickly. Fans will scan their ticket code to receive their haul of free food and be on their merry way.
The speed at which fans get their free concessions isn’t the main concern some had following Coastal’s announcement.
Many wondered if the school would lose revenue by forgoing some concession sales and if the shortfall would fall on Coastal’s students to cover.
The Sun News reported in 2024 that Coastal Carolina students pay some of the highest fees to subsidize athletics in college football, which the university disputed. Even though social media users met the announcement with excitement, others questioned whether this new program would be a money pit for the Chants.
Miller said students will not be on the hook for lost revenue. He added that a possible increase in ticket sales should make up the difference.
“This is not going to cost the students anything in terms of our promotion on how we’re running it,” Miller said. “athletics is part of the university. We’re going to help this university grow and be perspective and keep giving back to the community as well.”
Making concessions free also doesn’t impact the athletic department’s revenue.
The sports business publication Sportico reported that Coastal’s athletic department doesn’t receive direct revenue from its game day concessions in part due to its deal with vendor Aramark. Miller confirmed this and added that the university will not lose money on the plan.
What other changes has Chance Miller made at Coastal Carolina? Quite a few
The change is one of many Miller’s shepherded during his tenure at Coastal Carolina. For an administrator known for his love of winning, Miller has moved to reshape CCU into his vision for the athletic department’s future.
Since Miller’s hiring in 2024, CCU revamped its communications staff for the athletic department. Miller brought in new hires for the ticketing staff to improve the renewal rate for season pass holders, which wasn’t where he initially wanted it to be.
Brooks Stadium’s scoreboard and score ribbons around the stadium had an upgrade for the 2024 season, along with the team’s entrance that emphasized everything teal from LED lights to fire.
Miller gives his predecessors credit for many of the athletic department’s improvements. Planning for Coastal’s new, under-construction indoor athletic facility project started long before the former Gamecock administrator traded Columbia for Conway, South Carolina.
However, the free concessions are Miller’s idea, and it’s for a simple reason. CCU wants more fans to go to home games and spend money on other items to provide funds for the athletic program to help stay competitive in sports.
The move to provide free hot dogs, sodas and popcorn had the intended effect. Miller said April 1, 2025, was CCU’s highest day of season ticket renewals and new sales, although he didn’t provide specifics.
“It’s been a good day,” Miller added.
It wasn’t even the first discount event Miller ran during his time in teal —the greenish-blue hue that helped win him the job in the first place. Coastal offered season ticket holders a full refund if the men’s and women’s basketball teams combined for a certain amount of wins, which they didn’t.
Coastal Carolina wants to keep winning on the field. Raising money and cutting travel costs will be a part of that effort
Miller’s efforts at CCU in his first year aim to keep Coastal competitive in the Sun Belt Conference despite facing hurdles that its rivals, such as Appalachian State and James Madison, do not. CCU is one of the youngest schools in the NCAA, with one of the smallest enrollments and alumni bases in the Sun Belt Conference.
The university planning website College Raptor reported that Coastal Carolina had the second smallest endowment fund in the Sun Belt Conference based on data from 2021-22.
Raising money for athletics was an issue for Coastal Carolina in the past, despite a recent large donation for an undisclosed amount to the baseball team announced by the university in March 2025.
Almost all university athletic programs didn’t make enough revenue to match expenses before NIL existed. Considering a proposed lawsuit settlement involving the NCAA could involve universities paying players a maximum of $20.5 million a year for their name, image, and likeness, garnering revenue is more important to CCU and other schools than ever before.
While Miller declined to provide specific details, he said Coastal is working on a new strategic plan with “lofty” revenue goals. Working on improving seasonal ticket holder retention is a point of emphasis, as are new premium fundraising options.
The school may also consider playing more games against Power Four football teams, who typically pay Group of Five schools like Coastal to participate despite usually guaranteeing a loss for the Chants.
The strategy has already worked for Coastal. Despite losing 27-13 to UCLA in 2023, CCU received $1.1 million for their California football excursion.
Cost-cutting will also be part of the strategy. Miller said the athletic department will look at how it spends money on recruiting, traveling to away games by bus or plane or arriving on gameday or earlier is best.
“All these decorations, do you really need that now?” Miller asked. “Because that’s not what recruits and transfer student-athletes are looking for.”
Regardless, Miller wants Coastal’s teams to win. That entails baseball, softball and women’s basketball continuing their streak of success. It involves men’s basketball building upon first-year head coach Justin Gray’s inaugural campaign., and football returning to its winning ways with a dynamic offense in 2025 after last season’s campaign left Miller and others at CCU with dour faces following the Chant’s loss in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
He also expects CCU to make a bowl game appearance and compete for a conference title while Chanticleer fans watch the action, hopefully, while eating a hot dog or four free of charge at Brooks Stadium.
“You don’t know what other teams look like, but I do want to see an improvement on the football field. I want to see more of an exciting game,” Miller said. “I want to see an improvement ... take those JMU’s that we’ve been competing against and start beating those teams.”
