Ticket and cup fiasco

Forum to discuss everything that is Tigers related

Moderators: Tigerbeat, Rizzo, Tigers Press Office, Tigers Webmaster

Coops
Silver Member
Silver Member
Posts: 608
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:59 pm
Location: Coalville

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by Coops »

tigerkaine wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:08 pm
That's a shame for people working there. Can't do much good for their morale either. Clearly something needs to change with regards to to management strategy
Of Centreplate. Remember these are the guys which LFC have subcontracted the work to, and they work with a number of medium sized clubs:

http://centerplate.co.uk/venue-partners/
mothy
Tiger Cub
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:16 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by mothy »

I have to agree the bars are pathetic !!
Staff have no clue how to poor pints ,what to charge and why do they have pints pre pulled and never use them ?
The pizza and hot drinks stand had no pizzas at half time nor any Bovril.
all in all for a club which is so good in so many areas how can they continue to get this so wrong !!
Please please will somebody listen.
ellis9
Super User
Super User
Posts: 4187
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by ellis9 »

ourla wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:04 pm
tigerkaine wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:43 pm
ourla wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:41 pm
This is where I disagree. If I employed you in my factory at a young age, on a low wage, gave you little training and minimal supervision and set you to work. And if you made an Horlicks of it. Would it be your fault or mine?

Btw, I don't own a factory!
Oh I agree with you 100%! However, you'd think that some kind of training must be given to those working behind the bars? If that is the case then something should be done by the employment team.
There was some guy on facebook whose daughter got a job there and he was saying they got very little training. When I was 17 I worked alone in an attended service petrol station, even cashed up and locked the place up at the end of the night. Sorry but it's down to management.
Agreed! Letting a 17 year old work alone, be in control of all that cash and having to lock up at the end of the night is very bad management! Worse management than the one you are criticising about a bit of catering. You being on your own was a security risk, the management you're criticising have just got a bit of food and drink organisation wrong.
ellis9
Super User
Super User
Posts: 4187
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by ellis9 »

mothy wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:43 am I have to agree the bars are pathetic !!
Staff have no clue how to poor pints ,what to charge and why do they have pints pre pulled and never use them ?
The pizza and hot drinks stand had no pizzas at half time nor any Bovril.
all in all for a club which is so good in so many areas how can they continue to get this so wrong !!
Please please will somebody listen.
I said what needs to be done but apparently it was a ridiculous idea.
If everyone boycotted buying food and drink for just one or two games, Tigers would have to take action but apparently people are incapable of going to a match without buying food and drink. Sad really.
dunks43
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 295
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:34 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by dunks43 »

We stopped drinking at the ground a couple of years ago now , Reasons being .. a lot of the staff couldnt work out how much was due if you bought a glass back. Very rarely actually got a full pint , Time taken to actually get a drink was horrendous.

I understand why the £1 glasses was introduced , Tigers would have had to buy thousands of disposable cups and paid someone to collect all the empties and put them in the bin after the game and then paid someone to take them all away, so its a no-brainer having chargeable re-usuable cups to encourage people to return them( They even have them at Grace round now !!).

But now not being able to return one when you buy another is a ridiculous situation and can not believe the person who thought this up is still employed
Scott11
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 829
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:54 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by Scott11 »

Jeez Ellis youre righr miserable so and so!
TTRITH
Super User
Super User
Posts: 2971
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:31 pm
Location: WGC
Contact:

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by TTRITH »

I don't understand why the club don't just do away with their catering "partners" and bring everything back in house.

Have the same bar staff every match; get them to learn the system and as a team work out the best way to get the drinks out quickly. Separately negotiate with Dominos to keep the pizza stall in, and maybe a couple of local businesses.

I've not eaten anything in the ground for a couple of seasons now, mainly due to the price, and I think this year will stop drinking alcohol in the ground, with bovril for when we get 7.45 in December/January/February.
Richard Burnett
:axe: :smt100
Tiglon
Super User
Super User
Posts: 3887
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:54 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by Tiglon »

I think the re-usable cups are to do with limiting waste and environmental impact as well as cost.

I agree with most of the comments on here, but I can't think of any sports ground I've been to where it was any better.

When you have X thousand people wanting to buy food and drink at the exact same time and a space available for serving limited by the dimensions of the structure and the need for other facilities, there is always going to be a queue. Waiting times are inevitable. There is then a cost implication - there are only so many people you can employ to serve food and drinks with the whole operation still being financially worthwhile.

In terms of staff training, we are talking about employees working on a casual basis. They are working a few hours a week, for maybe 20 weeks per year. A highly trained team of professional bar people is not a realistic expectation.

When it comes to running out of products, you have to consider the available storage space, particularly at the bar outlets themselves - while they may have loads more Bovril in the main store room, there is only so much that can be stored at the bar itself, and restocking is always going to take a little time. Products have a (sometimes fairly short) life, and you can't afford to overstock and throw things away - sometimes demand will be higher than predicted and you will run out. It is realistically unavoidable.

I'm sure there are improvements that can be made, but I do think most people accept that you're not likely to find a slick, polished food & drink service at a sports ground. Ellis has a point, while demand for the food & drink remains high there is little motivation to do more than fine tune the existing setup which, if I'm honest, is probably all that's realistically needed.
ellis9
Super User
Super User
Posts: 4187
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by ellis9 »

Scott11 wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:59 am Jeez Ellis youre righr miserable so and so!
Me miserable? I'm not the one moaning about catering like most on here are!
Scott11
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 829
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:54 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by Scott11 »

Just joshing mate 😉 I'm gonna take your advice and just use my hipflask in the ground
ellis9
Super User
Super User
Posts: 4187
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by ellis9 »

Scott11 wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:40 pm Just joshing mate 😉 I'm gonna take your advice and just use my hipflask in the ground
People should listen to me more often :smt023
Scuttle
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 887
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:13 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by Scuttle »

I do not often complain and people who know me think I am very calm, but I am now moved to write to Mr Cohen; as the CEO of an SME he will want to know, correct and reply.
I will be brief and and if I lose you in the brevity I apologise, but your confusion will also highlight how badly Tigers have got this wrong.
Last season we encouraged friends to take a season ticket at Tigers, extolling the virtues of a great club and how well the overall match day experienced was organised; they duly booked tickets in January (important) even managing to get 2 seats next to us following detailed coordination between us and the club; the male half was delighted from his workplace in the UAE and looked forward to his retirement in March. All seemed well........
At this point I should mention that the nice chap who sat next to us last season (and importantly for later in the story only last season) told me at the last home match of the season that he had not renewed his ticket and might go back to the Crumbie ( I hear the hurrahs from some but he had hence missed the cut off date for guaranteed renewal).
Our friends tickets duly arrived and their seats were elsewhere in the ground! At the first home match we tried to sort it out. The club said the people in the seats next to us had been there for 4 years (not true, see above); they also said our friends had onlying booked their tickets in March (not true, see above). All this.meant we missed some of the game trying to sort.
Perseverance meant the club agreed to look into it and the upshot was new tickets nearer to us but not where originally booked. We arrived last night and our friends duly found someone else sitting in their new seats. Back to the ticket office and more of last night's game missed.
Our friends have now been given 4 paper tickets for the next 4 matches and who knows where their permanent seats will be but apparently the club will look into it.
There is more but I wanted to give you the general idea of a ticketing fiasco. I my view the club has 3 elements of core business it must get right to be a succesful business; the squad; the ticketing and membership; and the match day experienced like refreshments. They really need to focus on these 3 things and various of us have raised concerns about all 3 but the latter 2 are not rocket science and should be right.
I accept sitting with friends is not essential but I am embarrassed having built the club up. I do hope our friends stick with it, wherever their seats end up being and the club sort what really is just basic stuff.
I will be writing to the club, not least because I have been invloved throughout the whole process and am not happy that the club is trying to say that what actually happened did not happen.
As Good As It Gets
trendylfj
Super User
Super User
Posts: 2386
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:16 am
Location: MARKET HARBOROUGH

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by trendylfj »

I, stupidly, was full of optimism after the club statement issued regarding what many fans had said following the Treviso game. I turned up at my regular bar in the crumbie excited at the new improved match day experience and of course was disappointed. When will someone on our board realise that they have a lot of disgruntled members and fans regarding what is going on in the bars. The youngsters operating the bars do not really stand a chance as it is beyond their experience. I would love to know the following:
1. How many of our bar staff are employed every week and how many are new each week?
2. How long before the game are the new staff met and trained?
3. How many of the people behind the bar are full time employees of Center Plate?
4. Why can a till not have a series of buttons which are for beer served with a return and beer served without a return?
5. Finally, why do we not operate the bars ourselves? - BRING BACK CAROL - she was brilliant in the ABC
Hehehehehehehehe
johnthegriff
Super User
Super User
Posts: 2013
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:37 am

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by johnthegriff »

I was pleased that the club listened to the fans and the system for returning the used glass to the bar when purchasing a second drink has been reinstated. There are obvious problems with casual employees and of course the labour source is students who obviously will lack experience. The catering company whoever holds the contract will have a certain number of permanent experienced staff to use at Tigers and other venues however for about sixteen days of each year for a few hours they require a large number of casuals at Welford Road, I know they have to over book staff because a percentage fail to turn up, some having benefited by some training get jobs in pubs with more regular hours. If the club took all this back in house or if they moved the contract to a different company the labour source problem would still exist. In the past we had just the clubhouse bar for the general public and much smaller crowds. We now have several bars and much bigger crowds unfortunately the numbers staying behind after each match is reducing because of the quality of service. I drink pre-match in the Droglites bar and have no complaint the young lady who appears to be in charge is very good it is in the much larger Final Whistle bar where I think they are both over staffed and ineffectively staffed. I have never run a bar but I have managed production and I believe that fewer people working under pressure are more productive than more staff with time on their hands. I find it annoying waiting for service when there are people including managers behind the counter who appear to be just chatting.
BFG
Super User
Super User
Posts: 3347
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:19 pm

Re: Ticket and cup fiasco

Post by BFG »

Agree with the above and the nature of casual staff is that some will simply not care quite as much as permanent staff but it's a two way street IMO and when customers are rude they'll care even less!
I've literally seen the will to be here drain out of staff as customers are very rude to them.
I've even stepped in myself and told people they are out of order and actually holding up the queue behind them whilst they question staff for an explanation about the waiting time in the queue, being the cause themselves of the very thing they are complaining about!
A moderate cover charge on the plastic cups at source would be acceptable IMO whilst providing strategically placed plastic cup recycling bins around the ground and at exits.
Two things when recycling, don't try and make money for nothing and don't make folk queue any more than necessary!
Post Reply