I thought they were all about "The Match day Experience" if so then they need to address this problem.
Think you have hit the nail on the head, you can't force anyone, usually young kids or students, to turn up once a fortnight or so, without the proper supervisory support, to get abused and get £25 for their troubles. Went to the Leeds Arena over the weekend and the problems were the same, luckily there were more of them but still no supervisory support, and thus the waiting times were longer than they should be.
Need to get those fast fill units in to get the liquid refreshment over to fans in a limited time space. And keep a reasonable quantity in barrels
I've not even tried to buy food or drink in the ground for decades. I'd gladly pay at times for something of quality, but a cows lips and arseholes burger, or a nuclear pie with liquidised god knows what.... i'm good ta. The ponty is a very narrow concourse (and to be honest, in due course if we do develop the ground, I can see that stand getting rebuilt) and its not that easy to get kiosks in there and not have congested queuing. The ESL though has so much room it would be so easy to have multiple kiosks all serving different types of food and catering for whatever tastes on the day. Its really about time football grounds served something edible that doesn't shorten your life just by looking at it. Drinks wise... it really should be easy. The oval on a t20 night have 23000 going for a beer every half an hour. Only once have they got it wrong (and they gifted 4 free pint vouchers per person to make up for it).
Sorry about that, I was thirsty. Like a bit of an aperitif That is fine for you, i'm sure, but the club is missing out on a lot of revenue from folks that would buy food / beer / soft drinks, if they were provided efficiently & were of a decent quality. With things like the beer festival we can see the new owners are looking at revenue streams & I can only hope when the current contracts expire, these useless ******** that are currently not running a p!ss up in an ex Brewery Stand are gone & some innovative ideas are employed instead.
The caterers are lucky that some fans are prepared to pay for overpriced crap . People should vote with their feet and pocket , they'd soon have to shape up or ship out . Maybe the owners think the revenue gained isn't worth the trouble of sacking them off .
Economics tells you, if things can be run better, for greater reward they will be & other businesses will go under. Bad decisions have been made on the retail level. Patrick wasn't that kind of bloke. He saved the club & he is a total legend, and always will be. I think he sold the club to people who could take it to places he couldn't. Football isn't just football. It is not the days of 30 new pence for a junior (1974/5). The world has changed. You look at Watford. 20 years ago, (I used to go out with a lass from there & we went to a match, just after we had gone down & we were at least as "big" a club as them). They have had a weird policy of sacking good managers, but it has worked. If you look at ambition, Watford, Burnley, Brighton & Bournemouth say it can be done. They have an economic model. I'm not dreaming of being in the Premier League, although for me that was a brilliant season. Happy to be supporting BFC & I think we have a brilliant new management team.
I can't believe that when the catering goes out to tender, they don't approach the big nationals like Greggs or Subway for the food, or J.D.Wetherspoons for the drink. Yes, we are only 'little old Barnsley' but we have plenty of folk want a drink or food on a Matchday, and if it caught on nationally at many grounds, it would be very lucrative for these big companies allowing clubs to negotiate the rental income upwards or work on a profit share. My eldest used to work in the food bar. She was one of the young girls attacked by the rampaging Man Utd 'fans' (I believe seven of those charged were from Yorkshire so fans is a term used loosely), but it was a terrible job with no leadership, irregular hours and very little financial reward, it just put a bit of experience on her CV to get another job to fit round her college hours. So, yes, the staff are young, inexperienced and possibly uninterested, but if full time Greggs (for example) staff were drafted in on match days, to oversee staff in the club franchise, I think it would be a step in the right direction.
Can’t see anyone giving lectures or brow beating fonzie. Just opinions on wether it’s worth the effort. Think everyone is of the opinion if service was so efficient and no one would miss any of the game. (If that ever happens) . Mines a pint.
I just think it cant be very lucrative at all or the owners and previous owner would have given it more attention . Its basically a fast food outlet that's open c26 days (2 hours per day ) for eight months of the year .
The profit on beer is potentially huge. I was chatting with an investor in Southwark Brewing Co about a year ago and he said roughly the cost for them to make a pit of Beer was currently about 10p. Obviously that's the brewer. I'd be inclined to speak with more regional breweries (and hopefully this beer festival is the start of it) and get their supply in. Most breweries have a lager alternative, so the difference to drinking a known mainstream brand would be negligible. We're also surrounded by farms galore. A hog roast is pretty cheap to do. Real farmers made fresh ground mince burgers also very easy to do. Look at local producers of sauces and jams. A local bakery. Or a local curry house. Companies could have short term trials to see if they made enough from it. But a few grand every other Saturday to a small independent is a much bigger deal than it is to a faceless uncaring outsourcer. Sadly what the big food companies and outsourcers typically do is drive down quality and cost, and try and inflate margins by having low paid staff, cheap bought and frozen products and high prices. For whatever reason, Patrick seemed to favour outsourcing and passing the issue to a company. Sadly, whether club shop or caterers... they've never really been held to account. I very much hope things change. One other point.... at the san siro in the very steep high stands... they had vendors walking aisle to aisle at various stages. No idea what they were selling (probably gelato knowing the Italian love of it!), but you could even do that in some parts of the ground, East Stand especially.
Has anyone tried the service they have in the East Stand Lower concourse, where you can order your half time food and drink before the start of the match and then it is ready at half-time. Like a theatre service, but with pies n pints instead of gin n tonic and those stupid small tubs of Pringles.
Now then GG this thread is a cue for you, food for thought as they say in England, hope you are drinking it all in.
To be fair, a steady stream of people all night at t20 is much easier to manage than trying to serve folk at a football match within a 15 minute period (half time). If 500 fans in the Ponty want food and drink at half time then this needs each person to be served every 1.8 seconds to do it within the 15 minutes. I'm not saying this can't be improved but if you're that desperate for food and drink at half time then you have to accept that waiting is inevitable. Either that or go early and miss part of the match. Personally, the quality of the food and beer is so crap I wouldn't wait 2 minutes for it let alone 15-20 so I can't see the attraction.
Completely agree, will undoubtedly be a surge of demand, but must be so many who just wont even try because of quality (lack of) and organisation. I'd be very interested to see what volumes are actually sold.
It's a shame you're not allowed to take your drink to your seat. That would help spread it out a bit as well I think.
That I agree with but I can’t see anything changing in the near future. It works really well at rugby matches but the majority of football fans, who are generally decent folk, are still paying for the behaviour of dickheads past and present.
Don't know about Gregg's, but Subway, Taco Bell, KFC and a few of the other big name food chains are franchise based - with large costs to take out a franchise.