I don't think you can have pizza, pies, nuggets, burgers, dogs and every single other wish but 5,700 punters (5,500 of them Chairboys) at the end of July suggests that crowds are on the up, perhaps as demand increases so will supply of at least one or two edibles. I gave up eating at AP about two decades ago, lunch before arriving, dinner upon my return, but a vending machine full of water would perhaps tempt me at half time - are these sorts of refreshments still considered a lethal weapon and therefore requiring a minimum age worker to dispense 'sin tapon'?
The experience probably is very good in some areas of the ground, i'm sure the areas that used to be free that you now have to pay for have received a big upgrade.
An American owner is never going to say, 'you know what, the experience is pretty middling, but y'all come on anyway.'
I am happy having an excellent squad of players and not bothering eating at the match as I know what is on offer. But as @floyd has said, having both shouldn't be impossible.
This very thread suggests that there is appetite for better catering, but the view of TK as a former supplier suggests that that isn't the route the new owners want to go down.
My only gripe is that whilst there is room for improvement, I'd rather not be told that the off field service was "spectacular"
Don't think there is any harm in a little bit of honesty - "We know we have work to do to provide the world class experience that we are aiming for, but we are getting better" seems pretty fair reflection. If we do get decent quality catering at siome point then I am going to be sceptical of it as we've been told the current offering if amazing when it clearly isn't.
Exactly. Just say catering is a bit tricky for us right now and not our top priority. Everyone would understand and plan accordingly.
I would rather WWFC make some money out of me, as opposed to Moto Service Stations, but if they don't want to that's fine. I just thought increasing revenue helped put better players on the pitch.
Last Saturday, for the first time ever in 50 years of watching, I brought a packed lunch to a home game. I now sit in Monty's, where last year's Honours Lounge members have been moved to. We can't go in there after the game.
Before the game Neil Peters explained to us why the club can no longer serve us hot food, because the numbers of us who bought were too variable, and because the catering team did not have the capacity to provide for us. Fair enough.
It was a hot day, I didn't fancy a burger, for example, but in future I may buy one from outside and bring it in, or I may bring my own food.
I like to make a day of it at football, get there early to catch up with friends, it's an hour's drive, so I need to have lunch when I am there.
I guess it a very big balancing act with regards to the 'experience' and atmosphere.
If the selection of food is shocking & too expensive, this is going to drive some families (with younger & very older supporters) and while it is clear that the club is trying to reach out in the community, it gives the impression of 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. We all know that apart from free wifi, another way of getting children's attention is through exciting football & their stomachs! Kids will put up with a 0-0 bore draw if they had something (they think is good) to eat whereas they won't if they are only left with the view that the team is awful (on that particular fixture).
Another idea would be the club focusing on the hospitality in the family stand & frank adams stand as they know thats where families will be and close / keep the reduced staff in other parts of the ground?
Surely great/good/best, (fill as appropriate), stems firstly from the goods on the pitch? Put on a winning team that plays wonderful football and the fans will put up with nearly anything.
Only got to look at what the crowds put up with in the 70's, IE: no roof on the stands, (modern example is Gillingham) yet still away fans travel! Crap and limited food offerings, violence at half the grounds, overcrowding etc, yet the supporters attended in droves.
Speaking as someone who has been to a ton of American sporting events (though mostly in the west - may be different back east @floyd ?), overpriced bad food appears to be more the norm than the exception. I recall making the mistake of buying slices of poor quality pizza and fizzy drinks for my wife and myself at a hockey game and paying around $30, long before the current run of inflation.
The "experience" here tends to be more a constant stream of noisy (and often fun, to be fair) distractions such as quizzes, jumbotron games, random contests in the crowd, t-shirt cannons, and burritos falling from the sky.
Each year after the Twyford Donkey Derby a fella flys over in a small plane dropping bags of crisps from the air, raining down on the park below. The kids rampage around grabbing them frantically like a cross between Lord of the Flies an Mike Reid’s Runaround.
One year there was a wind gusting (citation for @micra needed) and the pilot must have miscalculated as he crisp bombed one of the local’s gardens. Much hilarity ensued as dozens of kids ploughed through his pristine hedges to grab their quarry. The owner wasn’t happy!
The Kerridge pie was good. But it wasn’t 8 quid good.
It does seem to me that no matter how good the offering is if it relies on 2 school kids turning up to serve you are ****ed. With the best will in the world and with the best efforts of staff in the FA at the weekend they were overwhelmed.
For someone who doesn't like change my matchday experience has definitely changed in the last few years. The little things that were once part of the routine have gone. Paying a fiver on the day for the car park, picking up a programme from the hut, nibbling on a portion of chips in the Caledonian and waiting for Mr Cecil to hand out the team sheets. However, I do see a thriving village and tell myself to move on.
The Tunnel Club Experience £2500 (plus VAT) includes:
Private dining experience for 16 people in the club’s tunnel club with a one-way window into all the action taking place in the tunnel, pre and post game.
Three-course dining
Visit from a player
Inclusive house beers, wines and softs
Team sheets
Pre-match access to the dug outs (if on site at 12pm)
Half time tea and coffee
Right lads, have we got 16 gasroomers who reckon they could drink £156.25 worth of free beer each?
Comments
I don't think you can have pizza, pies, nuggets, burgers, dogs and every single other wish but 5,700 punters (5,500 of them Chairboys) at the end of July suggests that crowds are on the up, perhaps as demand increases so will supply of at least one or two edibles. I gave up eating at AP about two decades ago, lunch before arriving, dinner upon my return, but a vending machine full of water would perhaps tempt me at half time - are these sorts of refreshments still considered a lethal weapon and therefore requiring a minimum age worker to dispense 'sin tapon'?
Agreed on both counts. I'd prefer we didn't get told endlessly how amazing the "experience" is when it clearly isn't there yet though.
A lot of us just like to go to the game, don't need to eat in a couple of hours spell, don't particularly want to hang about before or after.
However, if everyone was like that, our profits would be pretty poor, so you can understand why they're trying to embiggen the overall experience.
Is that not something that as fans we'd all accept?
The quality on the pitch being the absolute key thing, over having a lovely feed outside the ground?
What happened to the Tom Kerridge pie?
Did anyone else see that pie carcass in the middle of Hillbottom Road on the way home on Saturday. Looked like it had escaped the ground.
The experience probably is very good in some areas of the ground, i'm sure the areas that used to be free that you now have to pay for have received a big upgrade.
An American owner is never going to say, 'you know what, the experience is pretty middling, but y'all come on anyway.'
I'm not buying 'to be successful in football, you need to stop selling snacks'.
The Kerridge pie almost seems like a value product compared with the current offering. It was spot on - simply heat up and sell.
I am happy having an excellent squad of players and not bothering eating at the match as I know what is on offer. But as @floyd has said, having both shouldn't be impossible.
This very thread suggests that there is appetite for better catering, but the view of TK as a former supplier suggests that that isn't the route the new owners want to go down.
My only gripe is that whilst there is room for improvement, I'd rather not be told that the off field service was "spectacular"
Don't think there is any harm in a little bit of honesty - "We know we have work to do to provide the world class experience that we are aiming for, but we are getting better" seems pretty fair reflection. If we do get decent quality catering at siome point then I am going to be sceptical of it as we've been told the current offering if amazing when it clearly isn't.
Exactly. Just say catering is a bit tricky for us right now and not our top priority. Everyone would understand and plan accordingly.
I would rather WWFC make some money out of me, as opposed to Moto Service Stations, but if they don't want to that's fine. I just thought increasing revenue helped put better players on the pitch.
Last Saturday, for the first time ever in 50 years of watching, I brought a packed lunch to a home game. I now sit in Monty's, where last year's Honours Lounge members have been moved to. We can't go in there after the game.
Before the game Neil Peters explained to us why the club can no longer serve us hot food, because the numbers of us who bought were too variable, and because the catering team did not have the capacity to provide for us. Fair enough.
It was a hot day, I didn't fancy a burger, for example, but in future I may buy one from outside and bring it in, or I may bring my own food.
I like to make a day of it at football, get there early to catch up with friends, it's an hour's drive, so I need to have lunch when I am there.
I guess it a very big balancing act with regards to the 'experience' and atmosphere.
If the selection of food is shocking & too expensive, this is going to drive some families (with younger & very older supporters) and while it is clear that the club is trying to reach out in the community, it gives the impression of 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. We all know that apart from free wifi, another way of getting children's attention is through exciting football & their stomachs! Kids will put up with a 0-0 bore draw if they had something (they think is good) to eat whereas they won't if they are only left with the view that the team is awful (on that particular fixture).
Another idea would be the club focusing on the hospitality in the family stand & frank adams stand as they know thats where families will be and close / keep the reduced staff in other parts of the ground?
Surely great/good/best, (fill as appropriate), stems firstly from the goods on the pitch? Put on a winning team that plays wonderful football and the fans will put up with nearly anything.
Only got to look at what the crowds put up with in the 70's, IE: no roof on the stands, (modern example is Gillingham) yet still away fans travel! Crap and limited food offerings, violence at half the grounds, overcrowding etc, yet the supporters attended in droves.
Shouldn't be, if we could take people's money and make a profit it could go into the team. Obviously not that easy.
In his RITBs interview Rob said something along the lines of ‘the concessions worked everywhere and you know I always care about that’.
Speaking as someone who has been to a ton of American sporting events (though mostly in the west - may be different back east @floyd ?), overpriced bad food appears to be more the norm than the exception. I recall making the mistake of buying slices of poor quality pizza and fizzy drinks for my wife and myself at a hockey game and paying around $30, long before the current run of inflation.
The "experience" here tends to be more a constant stream of noisy (and often fun, to be fair) distractions such as quizzes, jumbotron games, random contests in the crowd, t-shirt cannons, and burritos falling from the sky.
That last random distraction does sound fun!
I didn't even make that one up! Burritos with little parachutes getting dropped from a blimp small enough to cruise around an arena.
A Little airship dropping a packet of cheese and onion crisps onto the terrace would be like throwing a chicken leg into a tank of piranha
Each year after the Twyford Donkey Derby a fella flys over in a small plane dropping bags of crisps from the air, raining down on the park below. The kids rampage around grabbing them frantically like a cross between Lord of the Flies an Mike Reid’s Runaround.
One year there was a wind gusting (citation for @micra needed) and the pilot must have miscalculated as he crisp bombed one of the local’s gardens. Much hilarity ensued as dozens of kids ploughed through his pristine hedges to grab their quarry. The owner wasn’t happy!
The Kerridge pie was good. But it wasn’t 8 quid good.
It does seem to me that no matter how good the offering is if it relies on 2 school kids turning up to serve you are ****ed. With the best will in the world and with the best efforts of staff in the FA at the weekend they were overwhelmed.
For someone who doesn't like change my matchday experience has definitely changed in the last few years. The little things that were once part of the routine have gone. Paying a fiver on the day for the car park, picking up a programme from the hut, nibbling on a portion of chips in the Caledonian and waiting for Mr Cecil to hand out the team sheets. However, I do see a thriving village and tell myself to move on.
Still don't understand why the 50:50 draw was killed. That was free money.
completely agree
agree and also completely agree...
Kiosk problem solved https://twitter.com/wwfcofficial/status/1555151433460219904?t=3957pER9e7VhqNekULa-6Q&s=19
The Tunnel Club Experience £2500 (plus VAT) includes:
Right lads, have we got 16 gasroomers who reckon they could drink £156.25 worth of free beer each?
Bit sexist
"All the action taking place in the tunnel".
Does much action take place in there, beyond the players lining up for a few seconds, and walking in and out?
The occasional scuffle maybe?
Interviews?
I know someone who's a season ticket holder who did it once last year, wasn't that impressed, and won't bother again.