Fans Bar

guinnessaddick said:

How about being able to order drinks for HT before the game has kicked off? They take you order and you pay for, then have an area for collection. 

It’s a good idea - won’t be agreed ..

Table service could be an option in the fans bar. Lots of pubs and restaurants elsewhere have nailed that to take pressure & queues away from their main bar(s).

ME14addick said:

I hope that everyone who has posted on this thread contacts the club to complain. The only way to effect change is to complain directly to the person who has overall charge of the catering contract. In the 'get in touch' section of the website, the email address for hospitality and commercial is sales@cafc.co.uk . If the club receives a lot of emails, it should take action to make sure the contract holders are doing their job properly.

I haven't used hospitality services for a few years, but I was amazed to see that if you are not a member of CAFC, you cannot access the hospitality section of the website, this seems a very strange way to increase sales.

Well I’m not sure the club would want supporters of visiting club able to purchase hospitality! Not sure how  load of Millwall would go down in the lounges 

RodneyCharltonTrotta said:

Permanent, long term catering staff on payroll and pension would probably pay for itself. Having competent, motivated people working the bars and kiosks would probably see increased revenue in the thousands. 

Even some sort of revenue share scheme to encourage faster service.

Someone at the club must be accountable for this and club is literally turning away money every match day through sheer incompetence/ apathy which is criminal when running a business in not being able to meet the demand of punters literally queuing up to hand over huge sums of money. 

Needs to be prioritised from a commercial point of view. Also will put many off the "match day" experience of modern  football when attracting families and floating fans if you want to get bigger crowds regularly etc. 

Regardless, club should be doing everything to facilitate cash coming in on match days when people are literally queuing to spend it.

If I could give this post multiple likes I would. It’s really quite simple and the club needs to get a grip on it. 

For a slightly different perspective 
I respect the views of many yesterday
I used the Fan Zone and even Paul Elliot was a little surprised at the one out one in policy when clearly there was extra capacity available
TBF the Fan Zone is a good idea and can get better 
I understand the frustrations of many re comments about the Fans bar but still worth a visit if only for a view of the pitch and stadium 

Maybe I’m easily pleased and I am sure the club should and will be looking at all of the comments to max out on revenue and increase the fans day experience

However I believe just like what’s going On the pitch -things Off the pitch will get better

i think there are enough people on here with contact with many of the ‘powers that be’ to be able to express the views of many and make a difference.

BTW
We won yesterday and I’m proud to have our Club back
The Only Way is UP

garfield said:

iainambler said:

Service in Fans Bar before the game and lower north bars at half time was shocking. But not a surprise either.  Suspect it’s going to take a while for the commercial success of CAFC hospitality to recover from the likely awful state the current owners inherited. 

Running out of Peroni is appalling. I do appreciate there’s an art to not ordering too many kegs of beer which could spoil if not used - but wouldn’t you have bottles as a fallback option? I mean it’s a hot day and football fans are a thirsty lot - hardly unexpected is it?

There were one or two staff who really got it and were working through their queues well. A lot of the other had no sense of urgency, but they may well not have a clue what to do either. What I didn’t understand was that there were some pre-poured pints at the back of the lower north at HT but no one seemed to be selecting them…. 

Left and right hand, etc. 

Peroni in kegs will have six month shelf life, so unless the stock rotation is appalling it’s extremely unlikely to “spoil” the first game of the new season is always a challenge for the catering team, hopefully it improves for you as they get into the rhythm of the season. 

88 pints in a keg, how many pints sold on match days?  500 -2000? Someone forgotten to order or they had them and no one to connect them up.

guinnessaddick said:

garfield said:

iainambler said:

Service in Fans Bar before the game and lower north bars at half time was shocking. But not a surprise either.  Suspect it’s going to take a while for the commercial success of CAFC hospitality to recover from the likely awful state the current owners inherited. 

Running out of Peroni is appalling. I do appreciate there’s an art to not ordering too many kegs of beer which could spoil if not used - but wouldn’t you have bottles as a fallback option? I mean it’s a hot day and football fans are a thirsty lot - hardly unexpected is it?

There were one or two staff who really got it and were working through their queues well. A lot of the other had no sense of urgency, but they may well not have a clue what to do either. What I didn’t understand was that there were some pre-poured pints at the back of the lower north at HT but no one seemed to be selecting them…. 

Left and right hand, etc. 

Peroni in kegs will have six month shelf life, so unless the stock rotation is appalling it’s extremely unlikely to “spoil” the first game of the new season is always a challenge for the catering team, hopefully it improves for you as they get into the rhythm of the season. 

88 pints in a keg, how many pints sold on match days?  500 -2000? Someone forgotten to order or they had them and no one to connect them up.

I would imagine somewhere between 6 & 7000 pints sold based on a 20,000 plus crowd

garfield said:

guinnessaddick said:

garfield said:

iainambler said:

Service in Fans Bar before the game and lower north bars at half time was shocking. But not a surprise either.  Suspect it’s going to take a while for the commercial success of CAFC hospitality to recover from the likely awful state the current owners inherited. 

Running out of Peroni is appalling. I do appreciate there’s an art to not ordering too many kegs of beer which could spoil if not used - but wouldn’t you have bottles as a fallback option? I mean it’s a hot day and football fans are a thirsty lot - hardly unexpected is it?

There were one or two staff who really got it and were working through their queues well. A lot of the other had no sense of urgency, but they may well not have a clue what to do either. What I didn’t understand was that there were some pre-poured pints at the back of the lower north at HT but no one seemed to be selecting them…. 

Left and right hand, etc. 

Peroni in kegs will have six month shelf life, so unless the stock rotation is appalling it’s extremely unlikely to “spoil” the first game of the new season is always a challenge for the catering team, hopefully it improves for you as they get into the rhythm of the season. 

88 pints in a keg, how many pints sold on match days?  500 -2000? Someone forgotten to order or they had them and no one to connect them up.

I would imagine somewhere between 6 & 7000 pints sold based on a 20,000 plus crowd

Then there’s no reason to run out of beer on the first game of the season, two hours of opening.

blackpool72 said:

Chippycafc said:

ME14addick said:

I hope that everyone who has posted on this thread contacts the club to complain. The only way to effect change is to complain directly to the person who has overall charge of the catering contract. In the 'get in touch' section of the website, the email address for hospitality and commercial is sales@cafc.co.uk . If the club receives a lot of emails, it should take action to make sure the contract holders are doing their job properly.

I haven't used hospitality services for a few years, but I was amazed to see that if you are not a member of CAFC, you cannot access the hospitality section of the website, this seems a very strange way to increase sales.

We did this a few years ago, One of our party took a list of all our grievances and had a meeting with the hospitality manager. They promised to sort it our, they didn't so we have taken our custom elsewhere for half the price.

Really dont understand why people use this facility, things wont improve whilst people keep using it in the numbers they do. 

You now drink in a rather exclusive club along with my good self.
A few wrongun's come in including a cardigan wearing hooligan.
But you can't have everything. 

Lol i agree always a downside. Lovely beer in the Harry yesterday 2.89 a pint a no brainier. The rad won't open earlier than 11 so they have missed out. I believe those that went in at 11 and tried it, it was 3 deep at the bar. 

As someone who travels away a bit, I can confidently say that the staff we have to deal with in the covered end bars are comfortably the worst in league one and I would guess the same will be the case in the championship. Totally uninterested and zero common sense l

Croydon said:

As someone who travels away a bit, I can confidently say that the staff we have to deal with in the covered end bars are comfortably the worst in league one and I would guess the same will be the case in the championship. Totally uninterested and zero common sense l

Watford fans weren't to impressed from what I've read on FB....bogs blocked, no food and beer to frothy etc.

ME14addick said:

I hope that everyone who has posted on this thread contacts the club to complain. The only way to effect change is to complain directly to the person who has overall charge of the catering contract. In the 'get in touch' section of the website, the email address for hospitality and commercial is sales@cafc.co.uk . If the club receives a lot of emails, it should take action to make sure the contract holders are doing their job properly.

I haven't used hospitality services for a few years, but I was amazed to see that if you are not a member of CAFC, you cannot access the hospitality section of the website, this seems a very strange way to increase sales.

You are spot on. I emailed the club last season to complain. but it was forwarded to G&G and we had productive exchange. I was advised they have a beer "expert" in the Fans Bar to ensure quality. He/she obviously thinks that serving warm Peroni yesterday meets quality standards,,,

I asked the fella behind the bar for a pint of Lager. He looked at me puzzlingly. "Don't think we do a drink called Lager?"
Kid you not!

Weegie Addick said:

Think we all have to raise it through as many channels as possible. 

Personally I was v disappointed with pre match Fanzone experience after promises that it would be “bigger and better”. The beer queues from quite early on were much worse than last season and no IPA on offer. 

The email contact at the club is fans@cafc.co.uk which goes to the SLO, Izzy Rogerson. From experience Izzy takes things seriously and will raise appropriately within the club. Don’t underestimate the Gather & Gather contract though. 

Weegie, who is in charge of this at the club?
They are who should be contacted not a fans rep, who will be fobbed off.

I can safely say that having been to thousands of pubs, clubs, football grounds, gigs, race courses, cricket grounds, theatres etc etc.
Charlton are comfortably the worst by a considerable distance.

How the fans can be served by individuals that have no clue what a lager is, pour pints of wine, pour pints of neat cordial, over charge for drinks, stand around aimlessly staring into space and have now done so for years is beyond my comprehension.

We go in their occasionally on a needs basis, but basically stopped going in there a couple of years ago.

Ed Warrick is the board member heading up overall operations. However, it actually does make sense for fans to contact the SLO who can collate and escalate. The club are certainly aware that things aren’t perfect and I’m hoping that they will be committed to improvements  - not least because of missed revenue opportunities. We should absolutely be benchmarking ourselves v other Championship clubs on this.