West stand catering

Exactly, they must have to predict numbers for supporters, staff and stock but they seem to continually get it wrong. I know there’s been past fan forums where it’s been mentioned that the club will talk to the caterers, maybe that can happen again

 

Taking a check at the start of the season, is still not an excuse for looking the other way.. its the club that outsources the work. The caterer will answer to them..

 

Hi,
My name is Lee and I run the concourse catering here at Oakwell. I would like to address a few posts on here regarding yesterday’s game v Peterborough.
West Stand - Yesterday we were 2 staff members down from what we had booked. In total we were 12 staff down around the ground; for one reason or another. We don’t under book staff or under stock kiosks and we work on trends from previous games (similar crowds). It’s quite upsetting to read comments that say we are exploiting our staff, we treat our staff with respect and value everyone of them as we do you the fans. We work with challenging conditions here at Oakwell but continue to try and improve our match day operation.

A few things listed below:

Alcohol on West stand,
Express bar on Beckett stand,
Extra bar on East lower,
Express bar on upper east,
Coors light introduced on stands,
Staropramen draft on Beckett stand,
Chicken products available,
Open away concourse early to generate extra revenue from away fans.

I know these are small steps but they are all done with the fans in mind and hopefully improve the overall match day experience.
I am open to meeting fans or replying to questions and will continue to try and improve what we do here at Oakwell.

Thanks

Lee

 

Well done for coming on Lee... Fair play.

 

I'm just grateful that flasks are permitted unlike some grounds where we've had to take extreme measures of concealment to smuggle in a water bottle.

 

Thanks for your reply Lee as the original poster I dont agree with what others have said regarding exploitation.

My original post was aimed more at the club missing out on what I thought would be a great revenue stream (I am no businessman may I add). Not thinking that the catering was outsourced.

Obviously everyone needs to make a profit and while putting 10 staff on may pay off on one matchday the catering company could take a massive loss the week after.

 

No worries at all, and I think your original post was correct we really could have done with all our staff turning up yesterday, 2 extra on the West would have made a big difference. Not only in revenue but also fans getting back to their seats to see what they had come to watch. The West stand has its limits and moving forward we need to come up with something other than one kiosk, maybe a beer express bar would help in the interim. The express bar on the Beckett has certainly took the pressure off the main kiosk.
I may work for an external catering company but I live in Barnsley and my main concern is improving the match day experience as is everyone that works at Oakwell.

Thanks
Lee

 

Lee in your opinion would it be worthwhile the club taking back the responsibility for catering with folk who know what they are doing running it or is outsourcing the best way?

 

Hi,

That's a good question, but unfortunately not easy answered. There are many clubs/sporting venues that use contract catering for a number of different reasons (not only financial). For example Man City use a catering company as do Spurs in their new home. In my opinion the football club have lots of things to worry about on a day to day basis, so if the deal is right and the club are guaranteed a set income without any risk then the external company is a good decision. If you had a full house week in week out and had people employed by the club who knew what they were doing and cared then doing inhouse makes sense, along with this way offers greater reward but also greater risk - example we can sell 2000 pies one Saturday then 750 the following Saturday.

Sorry if that seems like I am sitting on the fence, just my honest opinion. The one thing I can say is that the Barnsley FC and the catering company really care as I do about Oakwell and we will carry on trying to improve the fan experience.

Lee

 

Always thought it should come back in house myself, without knowing all the ins and outs of it. Thanks for the reply nice to know your thoughts in amongst it like.

 

The more I think about it the more I understand why the club would outsource it, they want to offer fans the option but have nothing to do with it at the same time, at the end of the day catering on matchdays is just a tiny peice of the puzzle so paying someone else to do it is probably cheaper for the club in the long run.

 

Knowing how busy it is at half time i went for a bovril after 30mins of 1st half, service was rapid but jesus wept it was still stupidly hot at half time. Why the hell are they trying to give us 3rd degree burns in the mouth ?