Fans Bar

timken said:

Plaaayer said:

I’ll punch your face in mate 

 Not sure if this is a joke but what is the procedure for reporting a post to admi n

@ibborg he'll sort it out

Simple solution. Get rid of those behind the bar and the crap they serve. Move Larry in with his selection of drinks. Job done. 

Belv said:

Didn't even bother on the concourse as it's been dreadful for years but thought I'd pop into the fan's bar straight after full time.

Was one of the first in there, so maybe third in the queue, despite this I still waited at least 10 minutes to get served.

Get to the front, ask for two pints of Meantime Dial as this is all they had available, the girl takes my order, tells the fella next to her who then starts pouring and I tap my card and pay. She walks off. The guy pours two lagers, leaves them sitting on his of the bar and walks off before returning a few seconds later with an empty bucket (?????) looks at me and says "Are you waiting?". "Yes mate, they're mine" pointing at the two he has just poured, "Oh, have you already paid?."

I walked off with my beers, eventually, completely bewildered. What is going in their heads? and what was the empty bucket about!?

I actually think the chaos and incompetence in the Fans Bar is part of the Charlton match day experience now. I’d miss it if they ever actually sorted themselves out. 

 I have emailed the club this morning. The North lower bars were an utter shambles!

Which email?

Saturday got the fan zone at 11.14 and took 20 mins to get a pint of peroni which was awful. 
half time had a pint in crossbars which was fine and in a proper glass. 
afterwards went to Bartrams and was fine( do think they are missing a trick with closing so quickly after ft ) as was plenty that would of happily stayed in there. 

generally the issue this season i see as a bigger issue is the lack of trains following ft, an entire away end trying to get back to london doesnt help.  

Chunes said:

eaststandmike said:

Chunes said:

It sounds like there have been real concerted, individual efforts to get the club to take action on this and it's never happened. It might be time to organise around this in some way. 

Very easy to do, just stop eating and drinking in the ground. I did this two seasons ago and haven’t regretted it.

That option depends entirely on the group that you meet up with, though. And I'm not sure it's going to have an impact on improving services at The Valley. They can't even serve half the people who want serving, so a few less people in the queue is likely not going to register.

I was referring to your “organise” comment, if enough people boycotted the in ground facilities and word spread I am sure it would make the club wake up 

Chunes said:

Gather & Gather actually have a contract until 2027. 

"The new deal will see Gather & Gather invest a substantial amount of money into supporting the club continuing to improve the matchday catering experience at The Valley.

Owner and CEO Thomas Sandgaard said: “Since I have taken over, one of the important bits of feedback from supporters has been around improving the quality of food and drink on a matchday. We have taken that feedback and worked with Gather & Gather to make improvements"

LOL

I went to the fans bar for only the second time on Saturday. I ordered a bottle of London Pride (I didn't ask for bitter as I knew that would be met with a blank look), obviously it is far too cold, as it's been in the fridge. They should have a few bottles available at room temperature as well, but I appreciate that having one fridge at cellar temperature behind each bar probably isn't practical. As always, I had to ask for a glass. The second one I had to queue for over ten minutes, this was at the point when the Peroni was running out, so staff were utterly confused and kept wandering in and out of what I assume was the stock room, others stood there looking blank - at one point a young lad was staring into space as his mate served the bloke at the front of the queue, no attempt made to serve the next person in said queue, he just waited until that person got to the front himself before asking what he wanted... Almost all of the staff could be cover stars of "Unenthusiasm Monthly". I noticed that they had a separate bar serving stout, so hopefully the person manning it was actually a trained barperson? After the game I snuck into the Vista Lounge. Three or four staff were behind the bar to serve about fifteen people. I had intended to just have a half of Meantime IPA but there was no draught beer available at all, so I had another bottle of Pride and had to ask for a glass again of course. 

jose said:

In the past I have tried contacting Gather and Gather directly about their offering. They didn’t come across as giving a damn, presumably because they had been granted a long contract.
I imagine any contract with them doesn’t include anything to do with catering for the end users of their services or products.
It brings to mind building developers saying they will provide ‘affordable’ housing, but if pressed they can’t explain how they will do it.
Gather and Gather probably only had to say they will be caterers. 

It is the club that spins their offering into words like ‘delicious’ and so on.
Wouldn’t it be great if Charlton Athletic were able to cancel the contract with Gather and Gather on the grounds of rank inadequacy?

 I think they'd be well within their rights to. Surely representatives of the club are down in the stands checking how they perform? It happens at every bar I've been to at various parts of the ground so not difficult to see it happening.

I believe G & G provide the lowest paid agency staff and on that basis provide staff that are clearly not even close to being adequate (most not all).

I'm presuming that if the club want staff with a semblance of knowing what they are doing, they may need to pay G & G more, unless the wording of the contract is sufficient that it can be demanded on the basis of 2/3 years of gross incompetence.

Chippycafc said:

Simple solution. Get rid of those behind the bar and the crap they serve. Move Larry in with his selection of drinks. Job done. 

We missed you all on Saturday ! I know with a last minute win demand for a celebration cocktail would have been as enthusiastic as Nathan Jones’s celebration ! 

Take a hip flask, put a decent single malt, or brandy, even cognac into said flask, And your drink problem is solved.

Something they need to get right, especially lack of pubs close to the stadium now.. Big revenue stream, if they can get people served quicker and people staying longer after the game, with the fanzone, Bartrams and Crossbars! 

With crowds going to increase as the season goes on, if we put a run together, it will get worse unless they sort!