Open Day - Comments please?

[Tigerbeat]

Cooperman: I went to the open day and was somewhat disapointed with the new stand.
Firstly the Bar on the ground floor could be more inviting in fact it was just like the crisp bowl surely we are better than that it was just like drinking in a concrete tunnell and the prices charged for a glass full of chemical muck were over the top.
There was also alot of signs which were completly in the wrong place which was very confusing this coupled with no one who knew the correct answers to any questions was not very satisfactory.
Another thing which was very evident is that is NOT finished there is alot of work to be done before next weeks fixture.
Were we in the Catipillar Stand ???????if I worked for Catipillar I would be straight on the phone asking were's our name,surely you put our name up just for the day.
Also it would have been good to have the food outlets open in the new stand so we can see what we might expect in the future.
Well done to the players who made themselves available and didn't mind how many babies they had to pick up...and also to TigerMan who made a whole lot of young kids day.
But a message is "Don't pack yourself on the back too hard" it could have been better


Response from Charles Rayner:
We’ve always said that the new Caterpillar Stand will be ready for the first home game on the 19th September. A tremendous amount of work went into Sundays Open Day and we managed to get the new stand into some sort of readiness for the open day even though there is still a week to go until official handover. We wanted to use Sunday as a ‘’soft event’’, a trial run. The day was a great success with over 12,000 people coming through. We had tremendous feedback from everyone which was invaluable. The day highlighted some snagging that we need to address for the first home game such as incorrect signage to the seating decks, missing Toilet signage and so on. Far better to flush (pardon the pun)these things out now than wait until the first home game.

We are mindful that the £14.5m Caterpillar Stand has remained broadly within budget but we intend to apply some further enhancement to the public concourse areas over a period of time once we have taken possession.

If you look at the webcams you will see the Caterpillar branding being installed now, it was agreed with Caterpillar that the seating deck signage would be ready for the first home game.

[GrumpyDad]

Interesting to read the comment from Charles Rayner, although I think that it will be an interesting "test" to get everyone into their seats on time for the start of the game against Newcastle. Would it not have been useful to use yesterday to train the Stewards, & make sure that access & egress arrangements works, I'm sure that there would have been loads of volunteers to help. I'm not sure that the same degree of patience will be evident on a matchday when kick off is rapidly approaching & half the stand is still trying to get into their seat!

[pipkoi]

This was the first one that Nigel & I had attended and jsut wanted o say what a great day we had. Intended to stay for a couple of hours maximum but actually were there 5 hours. Everyone was extrememly helpful, players nevercease to amaze me in as much as how genuine, ploite and patient they are with everyone. The new stand looks amazing.
Just wish the organisation had been a little more polished - either on the ptich or not - but not off after the first hour - very frustrating for the fans.
Overall though fabulous and roll on Saturday for the first home game

[TigerS2]

Even though I am staying put in the A&L Stand,(It is great when the scrums are infront of you) I had a look at the disabled areas in the new stand and found that to my surprise the views were better than I thought. and not too far away at all. However, I do not understand why the two lifts only have enough space each for one wheelchair. That could be time consuming for everyone involved.

[fogba]

Well done, the PA system was working well and I could actually understand what was being said. Please, please, please, when music is being played, turn the volume down. We don't go to a rugby match to listen to music and we do like to talk with other people about the rugby. Please don't fall into the ridiculous situation at Twickenham and the Millennium where the organisers think they are running a disco rather than a sporting event.

I also noticed that there were some spotlights facing back into the stand. I assume these will not be on during a match as they were quite blinding.

[Antony D]

We spent about 3 hours at Welford rd on Sunday at Open day – overall great day – my son took one of his friends from school who supports a more local team to us even he was impressed!

To get close to the players was a real treat – nothing to much trouble very great ambassadors’ for the club – I was quite surprised just how tall Billy Small forest is – good to chat to the new signing’s – they must realised now if they did n’t before the level of expectation is!!

Went to the Q&A with Ben Kay, Toby Flood and Arron Mauger – interesting half hour – lots of fun, mentioned in prev post would have been good to “open” to fans questions at the end for a few minutes

Caterpillar stand is pretty impressive – hope people who are seated at the top are OK with vertigo – although great views of the stadium – let’s hope the atmosphere better than before – little too much concrete for me – I hope the club personalise the walls with photo’s etc when the time is right it’s very plain at the moment

Only little gripe – the two boy’s wanted to go on the F1 simulator, and were told around 20 mins wait – so just over an hour later they got on but gave me chance for a good wander around!

Can’t wait until Saturday to see Welford rd full!!

[tigermad]

Hi
Can anyone tell me about what facilities I can expect in the Caterpillar Stand for the Newcastle game this weekend? bars - food outlets - merchandise - match programmes - ticket office - etc?

Thank you.

[rob81]

Took my 2 daughters aged 8 and 3 to the Open Day, they loved it. Think my 8 year old had her picture taken with about 28 players in the end, although my 3 year old decided she only wanted her's taken with Boris Stankovich and George Chuter. George was very good with them. In fact the only player who I thought didn't seem to want to be there was Brett Deacon. My 8 year old is now massively excited about going to the game on Saturday and my 3 year old now keeps trying to show me how big she is so that she can come and is annoyed with me that she can't. A great day was had by all, apart from the missus, but she doesn't count!

[beech]

Can I assume that Charles Rayner's comment about 'incorrect signage to levels' means that people will seats in the lower level will not have to enter the turnstiles to the upper level. Sorry for the moan as we are very pleased with our seats in the new stand and everyone at the open day was very helpful.

[valerie]

[nice one
quote="BJ."]All in all, we had an enjoyable day but I have one adverse comment, i.e. we were not allowed on the pitch.

Now I'm sure this was to prevent it being cut up by countless brat buggies being wheeled over it but it led to everyone being pushed to the edge. This made movement around the ground difficult at times because some folk seemed incapable of moving at more than half a mile a fortnight or they would always congregate to speak at the narrowest point.

Best laugh of the day (besides Castro's catwalk performance) - the woman in the Cat stand who moaned at me for opening a door. She, and others, were gathered like sheep, trying to move in both directions through one half of a set of double doors. I pushed open the closed door and walked through to be greeted with a sarcastic, "Oh, don't mind me." as she was on the other side. Madam, if you're reading this please note that if you are incapable of understanding the basic mechanics of a door, perhaps you shouldn't be allowed out on your own.

The walk of legends was good but why had Deanos (sic) brick only got two other bricks around him?? (sic) Is this a deliberate ploy to nail him even more?

I feel sure BJ asked this question earlier but his post vanished!

I did but my original information was slightly incorrect so I deleted the post.[/quote]

[valerie]

as it was a open i will foregive the supporters for climbing over the seats but if on match day they looked for there vomitry to there seats they will find it quite easily ,and there should be no climbing over seats.

A great day out, & a big thank you for all the organisation that must have been involved to make things run as smoothly as they did. The players were fantastic, great sense of humour displayed by so many of them which was great to see.

I'm not too sure about the new stand though & I'm quite relieved that we are still in the Crumbie (which reminds me I must get one of those cushions). I think that there are going to be a few issues with regard to people getting to and from their seats, the number of times that we saw people walking up from pitchside only to find out that if they wanted to get further than a third of the way up they would have to divert all the way along a row of seats and then climb over to get higher up to where their seats were located was unbelievable. Internally things looked a bit new & sterile & it was hard to find the stairs to get between levels (almost as if they had forgotten that stairs might be necessary). If we were sitting in the non-corporate sections I think we would be feeling distinctly second class & unloved. The standard of finishing suggests that there will need to be a huge amount of snagging to get everything finished to a satisfactory standard by the final handover date. For instance the seals on the curtain walling looked as if they had been completed with off-cuts instead of single lengths. Areas of painting still to be completed, carpet to be stuck down in the corporate area (revolting pattern, is it temporary, why not Tiger heads as other areas?).

Other than that, Jolly Good Show!

[Gate]

Impressively large number of cask Tiger pumps in the big and noticeably unfinished breeze-block bar.

Joe Duffey is a legend to Gate Junior I already. Top man.

Audible PA!!! Quite remarkable.

Lots of pumps for cask Tiger.

Herring's beard wants a bit of braiding, and he could maybe carry a double-headed war axe.

Did I mention the increased availaibility of cask Tiger?