@Glenactico while I agree that the club could do better with traffic management along Hillbottom Road. I'm not sure they can be held at fault for shutting the top car park at 7:30 if the conditions were such that cara could no longer safely drive up the slope.
The moral is if you arrive at the chippy at 7:00 and yet still miss 12 minutes its maybe time to start forgoing the chips ...
@Twizz said:
Glenactico while I agree that the club could do better with traffic management along Hillbottom Road. I'm not sure they can be held at fault for shutting the top car park at 7:30 if the conditions were such that cara could no longer safely drive up the slope.
The moral is if you arrive at the chippy at 7:00 and yet still miss 12 minutes its maybe time to start forgoing the chips ...
Very true @Twizz, I'm retired so it's easy for me but may not be so simple for all those who work so hard nowadays and struggle to make the game and eat. I'm personally very grateful to everyone who manages to support a midweek game. Too many chips, however, WILL eventually make you fat and thus even less likely to get to AP!
I parked in usual place on the industrial estate about an hour before kick off, but it was filling up quickly. The price to pay for getting a crowd I suppose. Luckily access to Adam's park is no worse than anywhere else ;-)
@Wendoverman said:
As for chips is it me or are the turnstiles shrinking? I have to shuffle in sideways these days.
I agree.........definitely shrinking. It's a plot by the health police but I'm glad we've sussed it. don't eat many chips but get excess calories in liquid form.
I'm waiting for @Glenactico to comment that my fondness for chips and beer is a contributing factor to me suffering gout all last week. I tried to blame my red, swollen foot on my exuberant celebration of Beany's winning goal but it wasn't; I'm to old and fat to run down to the front when we score ...
@Vincey I got to Sands about 7.15, thought the top car park would be the best bet at that time. Queued until 7.37pm, got to the gate and was told the car park was closed (presumeably full). Drove around trying to find a space but eventually gave up.
AP has always been a ground you can't get to less than an hour before kick off, my fault for trying really.
Ticket office told me they had sold a lot of tickets when I sorted mine on Monday so I got there 20 mins earlier than I normally would on a Tuesday evening. Normal parking space was full but got into the next one OK
I tend to park 2/3mile away, and was walking down Hillbottom with 15mins to kick off.
I did fear for all those 100s of cars queued up when seeing an animated steward running with a "car park full" sign.
If he only placed that outside the gate, then you have to feel sorry for people sitting there for 30-40mins to get to the front only to see that!
It's not like you'd then have great options to park, as presumably all the factories and suchlike are full, meaning you'd have a stressy drive down a few sideroads, all of which are surely full, or even if you found one, would require a 20-30min walk back!
No wonder people just went home!
The next time we have a "big" game, the club probably need to make more of a thing about stressing to arrive in good time, or park elsewhere.
I also noticed that we only opened a second gate for the away fans with about 10mins to go, having finally noticed one monumental queue!
@Malone said:
I tend to park 2/3mile away, and was walking down Hillbottom with 15mins to kick off.
I did fear for all those 100s of cars queued up when seeing an animated steward running with a "car park full" sign.
If he only placed that outside the gate, then you have to feel sorry for people sitting there for 30-40mins to get to the front only to see that!
It's not like you'd then have great options to park, as presumably all the factories and suchlike are full, meaning you'd have a stressy drive down a few sideroads, all of which are surely full, or even if you found one, would require a 20-30min walk back!
No wonder people just went home!
The next time we have a "big" game, the club probably need to make more of a thing about stressing to arrive in good time, or park elsewhere.
I also noticed that we only opened a second gate for the away fans with about 10mins to go, having finally noticed one monumental queue!
This is more-or-less what happened to us. Thankfully @Twizz was able to alert us to the closure before getting to the gate. With people arriving later than they would for a 3pm kick off and the added challenge of a slightly larger gate than usual I do sympathise with the club but I think it could be better managed. More direction and communication further down the road is needed, rather than just managing the cars once they are on the site itself.
The Woodlands Food Outlets were woefully under resourced last night. Felt sorry for the staff trying to make some kind of service out of a poorly resourced product.
Heard the stewards talking about cars sliding in the top car park so they had to shut it. Not much you can do about that but it was pretty chaotic on the roads last night with the lorries and the later arrivals inevitable at the midweek game. Not sure if that's anyone's fault at all.
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No ritchie?
Well done @bigred87 BTW!
@Glenactico while I agree that the club could do better with traffic management along Hillbottom Road. I'm not sure they can be held at fault for shutting the top car park at 7:30 if the conditions were such that cara could no longer safely drive up the slope.
The moral is if you arrive at the chippy at 7:00 and yet still miss 12 minutes its maybe time to start forgoing the chips ...
Very true @Twizz, I'm retired so it's easy for me but may not be so simple for all those who work so hard nowadays and struggle to make the game and eat. I'm personally very grateful to everyone who manages to support a midweek game. Too many chips, however, WILL eventually make you fat and thus even less likely to get to AP!
I parked in usual place on the industrial estate about an hour before kick off, but it was filling up quickly. The price to pay for getting a crowd I suppose. Luckily access to Adam's park is no worse than anywhere else ;-)
As for chips is it me or are the turnstiles shrinking? I have to shuffle in sideways these days.
I agree.........definitely shrinking. It's a plot by the health police but I'm glad we've sussed it. don't eat many chips but get excess calories in liquid form.
I'm waiting for @Glenactico to comment that my fondness for chips and beer is a contributing factor to me suffering gout all last week. I tried to blame my red, swollen foot on my exuberant celebration of Beany's winning goal but it wasn't; I'm to old and fat to run down to the front when we score ...
@Vincey I got to Sands about 7.15, thought the top car park would be the best bet at that time. Queued until 7.37pm, got to the gate and was told the car park was closed (presumeably full). Drove around trying to find a space but eventually gave up.
AP has always been a ground you can't get to less than an hour before kick off, my fault for trying really.
At least I missed a dull game.
Ticket office told me they had sold a lot of tickets when I sorted mine on Monday so I got there 20 mins earlier than I normally would on a Tuesday evening. Normal parking space was full but got into the next one OK
I tend to park 2/3mile away, and was walking down Hillbottom with 15mins to kick off.
I did fear for all those 100s of cars queued up when seeing an animated steward running with a "car park full" sign.
If he only placed that outside the gate, then you have to feel sorry for people sitting there for 30-40mins to get to the front only to see that!
It's not like you'd then have great options to park, as presumably all the factories and suchlike are full, meaning you'd have a stressy drive down a few sideroads, all of which are surely full, or even if you found one, would require a 20-30min walk back!
No wonder people just went home!
The next time we have a "big" game, the club probably need to make more of a thing about stressing to arrive in good time, or park elsewhere.
I also noticed that we only opened a second gate for the away fans with about 10mins to go, having finally noticed one monumental queue!
This is more-or-less what happened to us. Thankfully @Twizz was able to alert us to the closure before getting to the gate. With people arriving later than they would for a 3pm kick off and the added challenge of a slightly larger gate than usual I do sympathise with the club but I think it could be better managed. More direction and communication further down the road is needed, rather than just managing the cars once they are on the site itself.
The bus was only a single decker as well for some reason.
That could have been a problem!
The Woodlands Food Outlets were woefully under resourced last night. Felt sorry for the staff trying to make some kind of service out of a poorly resourced product.
Heard the stewards talking about cars sliding in the top car park so they had to shut it. Not much you can do about that but it was pretty chaotic on the roads last night with the lorries and the later arrivals inevitable at the midweek game. Not sure if that's anyone's fault at all.