That said, what's more likely to get people flocking to Adams Park? A successful football team, or a truffle-infused venison burger topped with caviar?
I agree that getting crowds above 5k will most likely be thanks to the number of away supporters and it's easy to take home support for granted when the team is doing well (or is expected to do well). But the club is more likely to hang on to supporters during bad times if they treat them well during the 'good' times - i.e. not overcharging for food and car parking and serving 2nd rate drinks I don't mean this to sound quite as critical as it probably does but if things start to go wrong on the pitch the chance to fix things off it is gone - people will start voting with their feet. That said, I thought considering the opposition (and how many they'd) bring) and it being holiday time, the crowd today was pretty good.
The van outside the ground was very busy surely it can’t be that hard to produce a good burger / hot dog even if it is more expensive then the van outside. Would have eaten yesterday but time wasted waiting to buy a beer. At least another £10 lost from me.
For all the talk of wanting to improve the match day experience for fans, they really seem to be approaching it in a bizarre way.
At the moment the approach all seems to be about what is more convenient for the club.
Less choice (in beer and food) and significantly more expensive.
Take the move to cashless inside the gates. I get it in the main bars and club shop (although it needs to be advertised a lot better) but the simple pleasures (for some) of buying a programme (difficult to find and then long queue) and 50/50 draw ticket (gone for good) have been sacrificed for a ridiculously single minded approach.
I get that the club wants and needs to make money but please be honest that they are treating us like the reliable punters most of us are rather than trying to con us that it is all about making it better for us as that level of dishonest will piss me off and make me determined to spend as little money at the ground as I can.
I appreciate that after 18 months away there may be things brought in that were visualised working better but it’s difficult to see from what is happening anything that will balance the losses (as I perceive them).
Can anyone out there (quality of football excepted) say that their match day experience has improved from the start of the season say three years ago?
Tbh, I thought the 'village' was better pre covid. Though I am willing to cut them some slack as it's early days coming back, and hopefully will learn quickly. Starting with a lot more bar staff !
@bookertease one lady in the club shop was certainly feeling the irritation about the programme issue. Screaming "we have no programmes" repeatedly, having no doubt got sick of fielding 100s of questions about them.
Not sure why they can't just have the same hut as per other seasons but give them a card reader?
That's not difficult tech right?
Unless it's simply the supermarket technique of Bury them somewhere within another area meaning you get tempted to buy other stuff while you're moving through!
Can anyone out there (quality of football excepted) say that their match day experience has improved from the start of the season say three years ago?
It would surprise me if there are many 'YES' posts. I've given up on the pre-match supping at AP. Don't want to queue for ages to buy a pint of IPA at an extortionate price. Same goes for post match supping. I'll be drinking in town where there is greater variety and cheaper prices - and if I need to eat I'm sure I can do better than pay £8.50 for a burger.
@bookertease said:
Can anyone out there (quality of football excepted) say that their match day experience has improved from the start of the season say three years ago?
Nope, although I pretty much always get there after 2 and leave on the final whistle, so bars etc. don't affect me personally. But little things like the programme being much harder to get hold of and kiosk prices going up astronomically have made what 'experience' I did have slightly worse.
When they realise that not all of their “great” American ideas of money making work in this country things will move on nicely. Improve the food and drink at sensible prices and people will spend their money. The grounds location will always be the biggest test get that working as well as the style of football which is getting there then the £ will follow.
The trouble is with all this is that the Couhigs have repeatedly stated that this "matchday experience" is what they are experts in and what is going to be the best in the country.
If you set expectations like that and then serve up inedible burgers for 8 quid, or can't serve fans a beer without them having to stand in a queue for ages it puts you under pressure to improve it really quickly
Many things have clearly been improved but as an older fan I'm not sure I notice an upward change in my experience apart from increased cost. It felt better pre Covid in terms of choice of Village or Caledonian for a beer (often Caledonian if wet and I'm also not keen on music belting out whilst I'm trying to chat). Also post match, the Caledonian was a mecca for me as I could grab a quick beer and enjoy the player interview with John Taylor. Somehow made me feel close to and part of the club. Always seemed to catch up with folk in there and so many occasional visitors would say what a wonderful experience to finish the day. I guess that we could do this as a 'small' club but now we we have grown into a commercial enterprise the £ is king and you have to fork out £2K to be in the same room as your team hero's. Feeling a touch disenfranchised somehow but even as a dinosaur I do realise we have to be self supporting. Prawn sandwich anyone? ?
@eric_plant said:
The trouble is with all this is that the Couhigs have repeatedly stated that this "matchday experience" is what they are experts in and what is going to be the best in the country.
If you set expectations like that and then serve up inedible burgers for 8 quid, or can't serve fans a beer without them having to stand in a queue for ages it puts you under pressure to improve it really quickly
I try not to be as moany as some on here, but this is on the money.
From everything I've seen of and heard from Rob Couhig, I expect the matchday experience will become an actively good one in time (as it was becoming two seasons ago, what with the range of food offerings outside the ground and the beer tent) and that things like queue times and ordering methods will improve as they figure out what works and what doesn't. The wifi is a nice thing to have available in the ground. Everything else - toilets, ground access, general state of the place - was no better, which is OK for now at least, or worse - accessibility and price of food and drink, no 50/50 (perhaps it was making less money but it makes for a nice bit of community feel), programmes and, more generally (and I accept this is almost certainly transitory) a slight but growing sense of becoming slightly alienated by the mechanisation/internetisation(?!) of things.
I think RC to be a fundamentally good bloke, am glad to have him as the club's owner and expect, as I said, things to improve. Just my two bits at the moment.
A couple of questions. Is the burger story as follows? That we had crap burgers at cheap prices, then artisan burgers at expensive prices and now we have got rid of the artisan burgers, we have crap burgers at expensive prices? As per @eric_plant above, I'm just confused, given that this was the stuff the new rtegime was apparently focusing on.
And secondly, have they actually dispensed with the player interviews post-match, or is it just a Covid precaution?
And as @Right_in_the_Middle says, why so difficult to get a progamme? I never really read the programme I bought at every home match, with a cheery word with Sandy (a sad note to a happy day yesterday) and co., but was happy to buy one to support the club and add it to the pile at home. But to make it remotely difficult to get one just means I won't donate that few quid to the club. Strange.
I'm just confused about the strategy, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I'll just focus on the football, which was excellent yesterday and has got me quite excited.
At the end of the day what will get more punters into the ground is attractive and successful winning football on the pitch, not the standard of the catering.
If any one wants high class food, or a wide choice of beverages, surely these can be consumed before or after the game at restaurants/pubs.
@mooneyman absolutely that is what will attract new fans but we all know attractive and successful football can never be guaranteed over the long-term, which is where the rest of the ‘experience’ matters.
Making the environment at the ground pleasurable to meet with friends, etc can go a long way to making people still come along even if the football (as it was not that long ago) is a tough watch
Apologies I’m suddenly realising I am sounding depressingly negative.
In balance (and finally having dried out from my walk back to the station…) it was great to be back and the stadium inside looked (and sounded) great. After Accrington scored the atmosphere in the (quite packed looking from where I sat) terrace was superb.
The football (which is ultimately what it’s all about) was good and we are in as strong a position on the football side as we probably ever have been, so lots to be positive about.
@bookertease said:
Apologies I’m suddenly realising I am sounding depressingly negative.
In balance (and finally having dried out from my walk back to the station…) it was great to be back and the stadium inside looked (and sounded) great. After Accrington scored the atmosphere in the (quite packed looking from where I sat) terrace was superb.
The football (which is ultimately what it’s all about) was good and we are in as strong a position on the football side as we probably ever have been, so lots to be positive about.
Totally agree but a real lesson for the Couhigs that if you promise you need to deliver. I’m more than happy to just have a great team on the pitch but when the owners talk so much about experience it opens up the criticism. Interesting that the clubs online Twitter poll on ‘how was your match day’ was overwhelmingly positive when I last looked.
Not an eater and only an occasional drinker on matchday, but I am not sure how (it sounds) they have got it all so wrong. If the tech was supposed to improve service and satisfaction while reducing costs it sounds like they've got a lot to sort out quickly!
I understand Pete’s response and probably frustration. But what I would say is that there were a lot of things at AP that we’re working. There was no need to start from scratch. A tweak, an adjustment, an improvement absolutely. Starting from scratch was always going to be a massive challenge.
One more thing. Did anyone see / try the Bratwurst food truck? From the offal site …
We also welcome Brat-Bros Catering - a food truck truck based in London and founded in 2020 by duo Frederick and Alexandros, serving a series of hotdogs including bratwurst and bockwurst accompanied by fries.
I’ve yet to attend a home match, as we are away on holiday. I did however attend as a volunteer cleaning the seats. Didn’t attend the Leicester friendly either. My impression the day before the Leicester friendly was that they wouldn’t be ready in time for the next day, but it wouldn’t matter as it wasn’t going to be a big crowd. I am somewhat disappointed that the club still had many issues that weren’t sorted, for example the Fetch app, toilets not appearing to be refreshed, very long wait times for a beer etc. The downloading of season tickets left until the very last minute add to this the car parking season ticket. It all appears to be very “last minute.com”.
The perception to the average punter may be, “you’ve had 18 months to sort this out, so how is it possible to f#*k it up?”. I can only imagine that a lot of the problems may be because, like a lot of number crunchers, they didn’t want to part with the funds until they were as close as possible to having the income stream to start clawing it back. Problem with that of course has shown in the last two matches, being very far short of the “improved match experience “ that was promoted.
Now of course, the pressure is on, as a lot of fans will already be planning alternatives leaving little to zero opportunities to mess up again. I for one, (that on a matchday is three) am saddened by the dropping of the extra food outlets. Whilst they weren’t cheap, given the circumstances of where they were & timings, I was ok with paying the premium for the variety. I personally loved the curried goat etc, my son liked his burgers and my wife the veggie van. I can’t see us now being content with the current offerings and pricing.
Over to the owners now whom surely will be concerned about the negativity and looking to address the issues hopefully.
I think the issue with lack of staff and the queues isn’t going to be easy to solve.
The hospitality industry generally is really struggling for staff, and paying low wages combined with guaranteed work only once a fortnight means we will always have high labour turnover.
Comments
I agree that getting crowds above 5k will most likely be thanks to the number of away supporters and it's easy to take home support for granted when the team is doing well (or is expected to do well). But the club is more likely to hang on to supporters during bad times if they treat them well during the 'good' times - i.e. not overcharging for food and car parking and serving 2nd rate drinks I don't mean this to sound quite as critical as it probably does but if things start to go wrong on the pitch the chance to fix things off it is gone - people will start voting with their feet. That said, I thought considering the opposition (and how many they'd) bring) and it being holiday time, the crowd today was pretty good.
Yeah forget we don't have an away drinks area now..going to be chaos when a team with a big following rock up.
The van outside the ground was very busy surely it can’t be that hard to produce a good burger / hot dog even if it is more expensive then the van outside. Would have eaten yesterday but time wasted waiting to buy a beer. At least another £10 lost from me.
For all the talk of wanting to improve the match day experience for fans, they really seem to be approaching it in a bizarre way.
At the moment the approach all seems to be about what is more convenient for the club.
Less choice (in beer and food) and significantly more expensive.
Take the move to cashless inside the gates. I get it in the main bars and club shop (although it needs to be advertised a lot better) but the simple pleasures (for some) of buying a programme (difficult to find and then long queue) and 50/50 draw ticket (gone for good) have been sacrificed for a ridiculously single minded approach.
I get that the club wants and needs to make money but please be honest that they are treating us like the reliable punters most of us are rather than trying to con us that it is all about making it better for us as that level of dishonest will piss me off and make me determined to spend as little money at the ground as I can.
I appreciate that after 18 months away there may be things brought in that were visualised working better but it’s difficult to see from what is happening anything that will balance the losses (as I perceive them).
Can anyone out there (quality of football excepted) say that their match day experience has improved from the start of the season say three years ago?
Tbh, I thought the 'village' was better pre covid. Though I am willing to cut them some slack as it's early days coming back, and hopefully will learn quickly. Starting with a lot more bar staff !
@bookertease one lady in the club shop was certainly feeling the irritation about the programme issue. Screaming "we have no programmes" repeatedly, having no doubt got sick of fielding 100s of questions about them.
Not sure why they can't just have the same hut as per other seasons but give them a card reader?
That's not difficult tech right?
Unless it's simply the supermarket technique of Bury them somewhere within another area meaning you get tempted to buy other stuff while you're moving through!
It would surprise me if there are many 'YES' posts. I've given up on the pre-match supping at AP. Don't want to queue for ages to buy a pint of IPA at an extortionate price. Same goes for post match supping. I'll be drinking in town where there is greater variety and cheaper prices - and if I need to eat I'm sure I can do better than pay £8.50 for a burger.
Nope, although I pretty much always get there after 2 and leave on the final whistle, so bars etc. don't affect me personally. But little things like the programme being much harder to get hold of and kiosk prices going up astronomically have made what 'experience' I did have slightly worse.
When they realise that not all of their “great” American ideas of money making work in this country things will move on nicely. Improve the food and drink at sensible prices and people will spend their money. The grounds location will always be the biggest test get that working as well as the style of football which is getting there then the £ will follow.
The trouble is with all this is that the Couhigs have repeatedly stated that this "matchday experience" is what they are experts in and what is going to be the best in the country.
If you set expectations like that and then serve up inedible burgers for 8 quid, or can't serve fans a beer without them having to stand in a queue for ages it puts you under pressure to improve it really quickly
Many things have clearly been improved but as an older fan I'm not sure I notice an upward change in my experience apart from increased cost. It felt better pre Covid in terms of choice of Village or Caledonian for a beer (often Caledonian if wet and I'm also not keen on music belting out whilst I'm trying to chat). Also post match, the Caledonian was a mecca for me as I could grab a quick beer and enjoy the player interview with John Taylor. Somehow made me feel close to and part of the club. Always seemed to catch up with folk in there and so many occasional visitors would say what a wonderful experience to finish the day. I guess that we could do this as a 'small' club but now we we have grown into a commercial enterprise the £ is king and you have to fork out £2K to be in the same room as your team hero's. Feeling a touch disenfranchised somehow but even as a dinosaur I do realise we have to be self supporting. Prawn sandwich anyone? ?
I try not to be as moany as some on here, but this is on the money.
From everything I've seen of and heard from Rob Couhig, I expect the matchday experience will become an actively good one in time (as it was becoming two seasons ago, what with the range of food offerings outside the ground and the beer tent) and that things like queue times and ordering methods will improve as they figure out what works and what doesn't. The wifi is a nice thing to have available in the ground. Everything else - toilets, ground access, general state of the place - was no better, which is OK for now at least, or worse - accessibility and price of food and drink, no 50/50 (perhaps it was making less money but it makes for a nice bit of community feel), programmes and, more generally (and I accept this is almost certainly transitory) a slight but growing sense of becoming slightly alienated by the mechanisation/internetisation(?!) of things.
I think RC to be a fundamentally good bloke, am glad to have him as the club's owner and expect, as I said, things to improve. Just my two bits at the moment.
A couple of questions. Is the burger story as follows? That we had crap burgers at cheap prices, then artisan burgers at expensive prices and now we have got rid of the artisan burgers, we have crap burgers at expensive prices? As per @eric_plant above, I'm just confused, given that this was the stuff the new rtegime was apparently focusing on.
And secondly, have they actually dispensed with the player interviews post-match, or is it just a Covid precaution?
And as @Right_in_the_Middle says, why so difficult to get a progamme? I never really read the programme I bought at every home match, with a cheery word with Sandy (a sad note to a happy day yesterday) and co., but was happy to buy one to support the club and add it to the pile at home. But to make it remotely difficult to get one just means I won't donate that few quid to the club. Strange.
I'm just confused about the strategy, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I'll just focus on the football, which was excellent yesterday and has got me quite excited.
At the end of the day what will get more punters into the ground is attractive and successful winning football on the pitch, not the standard of the catering.
If any one wants high class food, or a wide choice of beverages, surely these can be consumed before or after the game at restaurants/pubs.
@mooneyman absolutely that is what will attract new fans but we all know attractive and successful football can never be guaranteed over the long-term, which is where the rest of the ‘experience’ matters.
Making the environment at the ground pleasurable to meet with friends, etc can go a long way to making people still come along even if the football (as it was not that long ago) is a tough watch
Apologies I’m suddenly realising I am sounding depressingly negative.
In balance (and finally having dried out from my walk back to the station…) it was great to be back and the stadium inside looked (and sounded) great. After Accrington scored the atmosphere in the (quite packed looking from where I sat) terrace was superb.
The football (which is ultimately what it’s all about) was good and we are in as strong a position on the football side as we probably ever have been, so lots to be positive about.
Come on Rob. Listen to the comments and sort it out PLEASE
Totally agree but a real lesson for the Couhigs that if you promise you need to deliver. I’m more than happy to just have a great team on the pitch but when the owners talk so much about experience it opens up the criticism. Interesting that the clubs online Twitter poll on ‘how was your match day’ was overwhelmingly positive when I last looked.
Get Chris (think that was his name) back. The blond chap who managed the bars a couple of years back.
Where is this restaurant?
Fair enough, but maybe tone down the "best stadium in the country" chat leading up to it then
Not an eater and only an occasional drinker on matchday, but I am not sure how (it sounds) they have got it all so wrong. If the tech was supposed to improve service and satisfaction while reducing costs it sounds like they've got a lot to sort out quickly!
I understand Pete’s response and probably frustration. But what I would say is that there were a lot of things at AP that we’re working. There was no need to start from scratch. A tweak, an adjustment, an improvement absolutely. Starting from scratch was always going to be a massive challenge.
One more thing. Did anyone see / try the Bratwurst food truck? From the offal site …
We also welcome Brat-Bros Catering - a food truck truck based in London and founded in 2020 by duo Frederick and Alexandros, serving a series of hotdogs including bratwurst and bockwurst accompanied by fries.
I didn't see it
I’ve yet to attend a home match, as we are away on holiday. I did however attend as a volunteer cleaning the seats. Didn’t attend the Leicester friendly either. My impression the day before the Leicester friendly was that they wouldn’t be ready in time for the next day, but it wouldn’t matter as it wasn’t going to be a big crowd. I am somewhat disappointed that the club still had many issues that weren’t sorted, for example the Fetch app, toilets not appearing to be refreshed, very long wait times for a beer etc. The downloading of season tickets left until the very last minute add to this the car parking season ticket. It all appears to be very “last minute.com”.
The perception to the average punter may be, “you’ve had 18 months to sort this out, so how is it possible to f#*k it up?”. I can only imagine that a lot of the problems may be because, like a lot of number crunchers, they didn’t want to part with the funds until they were as close as possible to having the income stream to start clawing it back. Problem with that of course has shown in the last two matches, being very far short of the “improved match experience “ that was promoted.
Now of course, the pressure is on, as a lot of fans will already be planning alternatives leaving little to zero opportunities to mess up again. I for one, (that on a matchday is three) am saddened by the dropping of the extra food outlets. Whilst they weren’t cheap, given the circumstances of where they were & timings, I was ok with paying the premium for the variety. I personally loved the curried goat etc, my son liked his burgers and my wife the veggie van. I can’t see us now being content with the current offerings and pricing.
Over to the owners now whom surely will be concerned about the negativity and looking to address the issues hopefully.
As is often the case, you can just skim the rest of this thread as long as you pay attention to what @eric_plant and @our_frank have to say.
I think the issue with lack of staff and the queues isn’t going to be easy to solve.
The hospitality industry generally is really struggling for staff, and paying low wages combined with guaranteed work only once a fortnight means we will always have high labour turnover.