Ok folks last night’s meeting went well. I met with 3 members of staff, 2 from the external catering firm and Neil Worcester, MCFC Catering & Operations manager.
Neil had read this thread yesterday morning when it was at around 3 pages long and had looked through the suggestions that some of you had made. He basically agrees with pretty much everything mentioned. They are fully aware of the issues, obviously my complaint wasn’t the first and no way will it be the last. Neil has his hands tied with this at the moment due to GMP & Manchester City Council (who own our ground). Neil also mentioned that this was recently brought up and discussed at Points of Blue, which Prestwich_Blue previously said.
Queuing – The council will not allow the club to put in queuing rails for health & safety reasons. However Neil insists they are doing their utmost to find an alternative that will be allowed by the council. They looked into installing state-of-the-art LED ‘runway-style’ lighting for queues but this couldn’t be implemented before the current season.
Extra staff/Tills/Pint-pourers – Again, health & safety. The space behind the bar is not big enough and the council are putting their foot down on this.
The staff – This is a concern for Neil as it seems a lot of the staff cannot speak/understand basic English. They are also aware that there are issues in certain instances with the speed and attitude of the staff and they are going to be having meetings with each member of staff to try and resolve this.
Bottles – There are, or were, current plans to introduce more bottle stations, however due to the events at the Arsenal match GMP have now put their foot down on this. I noticed last night the bottle bar near block 110/111 was closed.
Cellars – They have employed a full-time cellar manager to get the job done properly. He previously worked at Budweiser. This should prevent getting a pint of pipe-cleaner. I was actually shown one of the cellars, and I must say they are working in terrible conditions. A very small & cramped room with no floor space to move. This cellar fed 3 bars. The room was so narrow is was shocking, feel sorry for the guys who have to change a barrel at the back, means lifting the barrel over about 18 others to get to the back. Not practical at all. The cooling system is shite too, keeping the beer over the temperature it should be. Which is another reason why the beer isn’t perfect. They got people in to sort this out, however got pulled away due to H&S again. A joke really!
Backpacks – One thing we will hopefully see soon is what you see at the gigs/concerts, which has already been suggested. The guys topping up beer with their backpacks on. This hopefully should take some pressure off the bars. However again the council are holding us back on this. The club are just waiting for the green light.
Top-up system – This has been looked into. At Schalke last season, those of us who went, had to buy a Knapper card which was topped up with credit and was deducted at the bar when you bought some lager. Neil has been out to Germany and has been given the Demo’s and has even been given a quote. He is 100% all for it. However it seems the club aren’t so keen on the price. What’s £1m to city these days? This is something Neil is working on anyway, whether or when it happens, who knows....The club are also looking at going out to Miami to the home of the NFL team, the Dolphins, who apparently have ‘state of the art’ catering facilities. They are doing their research and are considering getting rid of each and every bar and food outlet within the stadium to replace it with state of the art, never seen before TOP NOTCH facilities. Obviously this will be a long-term goal and won’t happen overnight, the research needs to be done first so it’s done right.
So it seems the club are aware and are doing everything in their power to get this issue sorted. However seem to have their hands tied by various authorities which is the problem. The council seem to be the main issue, have any of you noticed that the hotdog stands have recently shut? Well, thats thanks to the council! The stadium was very badly designed as far as the catering side of things go and is causing many problems for us & the club. The obvious solution for me would be to buy the stadium off the council, job done. However I'm aware its probably not that simple! Definitely an argument FOR buying it though.
My girlfriend, Emily, who works on Blue Tuesday for BBC Radio Manchester was also with me last night. Neil agreed to go on the show to discuss these issues so that the fans can “hear it from the horse’s mouthâ€, as some may say. He is also asking Danny Wilson to appear with him.
I think I covered everything from last night, however there was a lot to cram into 25mins just before kick off! If I remember anything else relevant I will add it to the end of this post....
edit - it seems the vast majority of us, including myself, weren't aware of the complications that the council are causing... can i stress that the club are clearly doing their very best to rectify these issues... and i think the fact 3 people were willing to meet me last night proves this... It seems the club are the one's looking like knobs when really its the council, with all their restrictions and rules...
edit - Also, pre-pouring systems are already in place, to a certain extent. Behind each bar there is a log that is kept with instructions on how many pints to pre-pour depending on the bar. The catering manager from the catering firm said if we know which bars are being over-run, then he can increase the amount pre-poured... however its important they know which bars before they can do this...
