Skip to content

Vere Suite - Smokers

This season there has been a change in the way the stewards on the door of the Vere on match days treat smokers. It used to be that you could pop out for a quick smoke and as long as you stayed by the door you could go back in. This season though The stewards "click" you out and make you join the queue to go back in.

A) Allow smokers back in without having to go to the back of the queue (as it has been since we landed at AP.
B) create a blocked off smoking area that would allow the smokers to do their thing away from the door with return access.

I realise it's a filthy cancer inducing habit and am ready for the waves of self righteous replies telling me to give up etc but I think the club should do something, at the very least go back to how it has been since we moved to AP. Confused as to why the sudden change this season.

I am a season ticket holder, a life member of the trust, a shareholder and member of the 500 club.......not asking for much, I just want to get back to my beer without having to queue for 15 mins everytime I fancy a snout.

Comments

  • Surprised you have any money left for fags after you've paid to be a member of all the other stuff.

  • Reality is that after many seasons with the place not reaching capacity it is now regularly full, more so with the Woodlands out of action. Not a smoker but agree something needs to be revised if we are going to regularly fill the place
    What a nice problem to have eh?

  • edited April 2018

    Are said smokers not capable of going an hour or 2 without partaking in such a dreadful habit? What do you do when working? Nip out every single hour?

  • Surely the stewards could issue a pass out ticket to anyone who had reason to pop out (for a breath of much needed fresh air, for example). I’m not sure I rank as self-righteous but I find it hard to sympathise with someone who persists with something they acknowledge as “a filthy cancer inducing habit”. I gave up smoking about 40 years ago. I didn’t find it hard but I never really inhaled and I do understand how difficult it must be for those who do.
    My wife, bless her Irish cotton socks, used to have one cigarette on Christmas Day (don’t ask) until one Christmas many years ago she said “that’s it, I’ve made up my mind. I’m giving it up”.

  • As a (very) occasional smoker (about 10 a year) I think @Malone you are missing the social side of smoking and how that is all tied up with drinking, socialising and in this case football as well.

    Of course it is an unpleasant habit for some (but pleasant for others) and an unhealthy habit for all but shouldn’t result in the partakers being completely ostracised.

    It’s right that smoking is not allowed in pubs, etc (saved me a fortune) but fine outside.

    And the faint waft of cigarette smoke in the breeze takes me straight back to Loakes Park circa 1974.

  • I don’t really care either way but if a customer popped out of the vere suite for any other reason (going to their car, the club shop, a breath of fresh air) they’d probably expect to queue again.

    Not sure why smokers should get preferential treatment?

  • I think, in the circumstances you describe, @OxfordBlue, that I would imagine the civilised course of action to be to readmit the person concerned immediately.

  • Can you not have a little smoke before going in, go an hour or so without, then smoke outside when you leave? Having no doubt smoked at half time too?
    Too simple?

  • Of course the steward should issue a pass out as the offending incumbent will be returning within a few minutes. Why would they make you queue again? Is this a new rule?

  • As I said, I really don’t have strong feelings either way but it feels like you’re forcing your personal choice to smoke hon

  • *upon other people

  • No he’s not. He got in earlier and is merely abiding by the law that states he is no longer allowed to smoke in a workplace.

  • I tend to think that if someone's popping out, for whatever reason, it seems somewhat unsympathetic and unwelcoming to expect them to queue to get back in again.

    That said, I've noticed the queue to get in has been very long in the past few weeks. I've no first-hand experience of this - I'm happy waiting on the terrace and not a drinker anyway - but I suppose it occurs to me that the stewards are responding to the additional demand for admission by taking a stricter line with those stepping outside. I'm not sure it's the way I'd go but I understand it if that's the catalyst for the change of policy. Why it is that there is such a long queue? Is the place simply full to capacity?

  • Put up a marquee in the car park for smokers - then there will be plenty of space in the Vere and monty’s

  • I can't shake this feeling I've got
    My dirty hands, have I been in Scores?
    The saddest thing that I'd ever seen
    Were smokers outside the Vere Suite doors

  • Those in the queue are eager to get in and spend a bob or two, whilst the smokers coming out will not be spending for 10 minutes or so. Is that the club taking advantage of the Vere capacity limitations and maximising takings? If I were in the queue I'm not sure that I would be thrilled by smokers being allowed back in ahead of me. Smokers have a choice - they can either remain fagless in the Vere or leave and let somebody else in.

  • I’m with @LordMandeville on this. But if you’re desperate, have a crafty vape in the toilets.

  • As I thought a mix of reason and self righteous opinions.

    Not a big point of stress for me but a pass out seems to be a fair solution I'll approach the club with the same.

    .....right off now for a crafty snout......

  • @johnkerrsdivingheade said:
    I can't shake this feeling I've got
    My dirty hands, have I been in Scores?
    The saddest thing that I'd ever seen
    Were smokers outside the Vere Suite doors

    Wonderful Editors reference, likely to go over the heads. Good work

  • I don't smoke but it seems reasonable to have a "smokers area" to allow people to have a ciggy without abandoning half a pint

  • How times have changed

  • What happens if some native American fans want to communicate with each other?

  • How about a compromise? A smoker comes out so the next person in line is allowed in. When the smoker wants to go back in he joins the queue, but at the front. When someone else comes out, smoker or non-smoker, then he’s allowed back in. That way the maximum number of people are always in the bar but smokers are not unduly discriminated against.

  • I think there should be a designated smoking area at the far end of the top car park

  • Muddy hell @eric_plant.
    Then they must leave their shoes at the door.
    Good idea.

  • In the past the fire doors by the real ale bar were open clement weather with a roped off area roughly where the yellow hatched lines are now. Couldn’t this be an outside smoking area still ‘in’ the Vere ? Probably some health n safety issue prevents this. Not a smoker myself but there are times when I would like to stand in the fresh(ish) air with my pint.
    On a tangential point, what time do all those old boys in the Verco quarters arrive to get the round tables by the windows! No matter how early I get there they are all taken, looks like they have some sort of debenture system and have occupied the same seats since the mid 90’s!!

  • Ozzy if you are still in the starting 11, definitely let you have a crafty fag, finish your pint before you get changed.

  • Mr Garner to you.

  • I've always been allowed to "indulge" my horrible vice outside the doors and come straight back in and didn't have any trouble or change last match?

  • @marlowchair it seemed to change half way through the season, when the guy steward left and the lady steward took over. Not having a pop at her btw she's a nice lady and I always have a chat with her.

Sign In or Register to comment.