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Anyone got any idea why they wouldn't sell anything until halftime whistle had blown? My Mrs went down for the loo just after half time and was gone ages as apparently there was a protest going on and couldn't get back Into the seating areas as these were being blocked off.

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Cant sell alcohol till first half ends.

So loads of people like me just wanted a cup of tea stood at the back of  a queue going nowhere because alcohol could not be served.

So you would think that if they cannot serve the alcohol they would at least pour dozens of pints to make the serving process quicker. But they didn't.

Five games in this isn't teething problems it is stupidity.

And to cap it when I finally got my cup of tea - having joined the queue within seconds of first half finishing - 10 minutes after the 2nd half started, by then there was about 50 pints lined up with nobody to buy them.

Yes, stupidity.

 

 

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So far this season I have failed to get a half time drink in the Dolman at each home game.  In an attempt to put thing right today, I headed to the bar a few minutes before half time only to find massive queues already in place. By the time I got within touching distance of the front, the teams were back out for the second half so I gave up.

The moral of the story? It's not possible to get a half time drink in the Dolman unless you leave well before half time or miss the start of the second half. Oh well, not my lost revenue and my liver got a slight rest.

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Was talking to a guy in the concourse  before kick off and he was a Stoke City fan and first and only time visitor, and was asking if the stadium management actually had a clue what they were doing regarding the food/ drink queues. He said it was a disgrace and the club are treating its fans so badly , given the facilities we obviously have. We are still miles away from the matchday experience that everyone craves and outsiders are obviously gobsmacked that we stand for it.

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The Sports Bar & Grill was a mess too...

Due to the discounts you get, you end with stupid amounts of change, and they were running out of change left right and centre. Paying by card is the way to go.

And I don't think they've had much training, one guy didn't know what ale was, one girl was very confused when there was no ale coming out of the pumps, and they all seemed confused using the tills. There was enough staff behind the bar just not working efficiently.

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I went to Fulham a couple of years back and they had a big out door bar with beers all lined up and ready to drink at half time. I think with that plot of land by dolman/atyeo (where you see away fans) you could have a fantastic outside drinking space where u could just rock up and get a beer there's also space for an old style kiosk that could sell tea/coffee and that could elevate the outlets In The concourse who could then focus on food

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Cant sell alcohol till first half ends.

So loads of people like me just wanted a cup of tea stood at the back of  a queue going nowhere because alcohol could not be served.

So you would think that if they cannot serve the alcohol they would at least pour dozens of pints to make the serving process quicker. But they didn't.

Five games in this isn't teething problems it is stupidity.

And to cap it when I finally got my cup of tea - having joined the queue within seconds of first half finishing - 10 minutes after the 2nd half started, by then there was about 50 pints lined up with nobody to buy them.

Yes, stupidity.

 

 

Get your facts straight.......

The law says you can't serve alcohol in sight of the pitch. You can serve alcohol anytime, as long as it ain't in sight of the pitch while the match is on.

 

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I went to Fulham a couple of years back and they had a big out door bar with beers all lined up and ready to drink at half time. I think with that plot of land by dolman/atyeo (where you see away fans) you could have a fantastic outside drinking space where u could just rock up and get a beer there's also space for an old style kiosk that could sell tea/coffee and that could elevate the outlets In The concourse who could then focus on food

I could be wrong but I believe the legislation which prevents booze being served at football dictates 'drinking alcohol in sight of the pitch' or something to that effect, which could well rule that out. 

Not pouring in advance is simply stupid. I'm not sure who is losing out though. Does the club run these areas and take a cut or do they simply rent out the kiosk? 

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Yes we can sell alcohol at any time but the club choose not to.

I would wager my last penny that this is not the case. At its simplest even if we wanted to I would be amazed if the licence to serve alcohol at Ashton Gate didn't itself exclude during a football match. 

Edit - maybe a whoosh moment...? 

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Apart from a dismal display, I am not very impressed by the off the field activities.

20 minutes to get a Cup of tea before the match started.

At least ten minutes before we get into the concourse from row 25 of South Stand .

Gates to Raynes Rd stll locked then.

Will this football club ever get anything right?

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Still half way through re build etc but signs are worrying in dolman. Queuing system needed desperately. Staff are slow beyond belief. Que for toilets and food end up mixing as both are so long. Teething problems maybe but we need to see some of these being ironed out now as waiting 20 minutes for a coffee at 2.15 isn't acceptable. Concourse looks bare as well. Are match day experience is being affected along with profits for the club. Many aren't bothering with food/drink at half time now because it takes 25 minutes minimum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Surely they can pre-pour alcohol.

They must have a rough idea of how much each outlet is selling.

I thought BS had entered into a partnership with some fancy stock control software company?

The whole layout of the bars / toilets seems wrong to me, much too close together, leave the toilets where they are and move the bars to the back of the Dolman concourse where the fabled market street is supposed to be.

None of this however will be a problem next season when the new Williams is open, and attendances are around 12,000.

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Cant sell alcohol till first half ends.

So loads of people like me just wanted a cup of tea stood at the back of  a queue going nowhere because alcohol could not be served.

So you would think that if they cannot serve the alcohol they would at least pour dozens of pints to make the serving process quicker. But they didn't.

Five games in this isn't teething problems it is stupidity.

And to cap it when I finally got my cup of tea - having joined the queue within seconds of first half finishing - 10 minutes after the 2nd half started, by then there was about 50 pints lined up with nobody to buy them.

Yes, stupidity.

 

 

You queued for 25 minutes and missed 10 minutes of the game just for a cup of tea?!

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I thought BS had entered into a partnership with some fancy stock control software company?

The whole layout of the bars / toilets seems wrong to me, much too close together, leave the toilets where they are and move the bars to the back of the Dolman concourse where the fabled market street is supposed to be.

None of this however will be a problem next season when the new Williams is open, and attendances are around 12,000.

I bet it will be exactly the same when the new Williams is open as I expect it will probably follow the same design with the same amount of outlets. I really hope it doesn't though 

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Still half way through re build etc but signs are worrying in dolman. Queuing system needed desperately. Staff are slow beyond belief. Que for toilets and food end up mixing as both are so long. Teething problems maybe but we need to see some of these being ironed out now as waiting 20 minutes for a coffee at 2.15 isn't acceptable. Concourse looks bare as well. Are match day experience is being affected along with profits for the club. Many aren't bothering with food/drink at half time now because it takes 25 minutes minimum.

Where is Spoons and what have you done with him?!

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Was talking to a guy in the concourse  before kick off and he was a Stoke City fan and first and only time visitor, and was asking if the stadium management actually had a clue what they were doing regarding the food/ drink queues. He said it was a disgrace and the club are treating its fans so badly , given the facilities we obviously have. We are still miles away from the matchday experience that everyone craves and outsiders are obviously gobsmacked that we stand for it.

Rather ironic, as our decision makers came from Stoke City. 

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I tried to grab a quick burger in Burger King in town last week. The que was back out of the door, so I just got something later on. 

I think Burger King clearly need to revise their whole customer service strategy. 

Im sure the hundreds of people who get to the front of these ques think the service is perfectly adequate. 

If you get there after other people, you have to wait. It's nothing new. I do view in amazement however that massively increased toilet and refreshment facilities seem to mean so many more people than before now need a pie and/or a wee at half time. How does that work..?! 

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The one thing I really love in the Dolman having come from the Williams is the constant getting up to let  a) people in 5 minutes after kick off   b) 10 minutes before half time and c) 5 minutes into the second half. I never bother exercising on a Match Day as I get all the sit up/ stand ups I want during watching the MATCH ( yes strangely that's what I go down there for) I suppose when they get it right all the people who cant do without a drink even for 90 minutes might get waiter service to their seat.:sad26::sad26::sad26:

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Normally in the south stand, but was in the Dolman yesterday. The half time queue was astonishing. I decided not to buy a pint because it was so lengthy. So instead I gave my money to the bar in the ss-dolman corner at the final whistle. Quick, pre poured pints and cheap to boot. However, I understand that this is a hired in company operating this bar (probably explains why they are so much more professional) so I don't know how much of my money makes its way back to the club...

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The Sports Bar & Grill was a mess too...

Due to the discounts you get, you end with stupid amounts of change, and they were running out of change left right and centre. Paying by card is the way to go.

And I don't think they've had much training, one guy didn't know what ale was, ***

**one girl was very confused when there was no ale coming out of the pumps,**

*** and they all seemed confused using the tills. There was enough staff behind the bar just not working efficiently.

...frankly I'd be confused too if NO ALE came out of the pumps, its not Christmas ffs and piped muzak carols are  naff and so 'shopping mall' ... bah humbug ... 'ARK at me :)

 

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We have 3 Season tickets in the South Stand having previously been sat in the Atyeo for best part of last 20 years.

In the Atyeo we typically used to spend £10-20 a game in the kiosks.

This season we had a pie each first game of the season but since then have not spent any money as can't be arsed with the queues.

So that's £400 plus of revenue gone just from us.

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Get your facts straight.......

The law says you can't serve alcohol in sight of the pitch. You can serve alcohol anytime, as long as it ain't in sight of the pitch while the match is on.

 

The law says that yes but the club have instructed the caterers not to.

You queued for 25 minutes and missed 10 minutes of the game just for a cup of tea?!

Yes because so many on here said the football is crap and Cotterill is crap and the club is crap I thought standing in a queue for a cup of tea might be better.

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The law says that yes but the club have instructed the caterers not to.

Yes because so many on here said the football is crap and Cotterill is crap and the club is crap I thought standing in a queue for a cup of tea might be better.

I'm guessing the tea wasn't that good either?  :whistle:

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Well if it helps I rocked up at 2.15 in the South Stand, queued for about 5 minutes, got a chicken pie and a bottle of coke. Wondered round the corner and saw the bar right on the corner between the Dolman and South Stand and there was no queue at all. Seemed very quiet in the middle, maybe people should move along to the next bar/kiosk?

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One dipstick in our row in the SS has got a mate in the next block. He must get up to go and talk to him at least 8 bloody times during the game. Even the old girl who sits two down from me wanted to give him a slap yesterday.

why would he need to make the effort to get up and go over to talk bollox to his mate when he can simply do what the rest of us do and post said bollox on here?

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Well if it helps I rocked up at 2.15 in the South Stand, queued for about 5 minutes, got a chicken pie and a bottle of coke. Wondered round the corner and saw the bar right on the corner between the Dolman and South Stand and there was no queue at all. Seemed very quiet in the middle, maybe people should move along to the next bar/kiosk?

try 3:45 mate

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Cynic .. We now have less facilities than before the rebuild in the dolman . Before we had three kiosks outside a great big long bar for alcohol and a big section selling hot food inside ,now we just have a couple of outlets selling everything. There's not more people just less outlets the only plus point I can see is that the queue for the loo is slightly shorter .

Edit..just remembered we also had a natch bar inside the dolman

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I find it incredibly frustrating now with the new facilities avaliable that its as slow as previous.  The club should go and look at how Glos Cricket and others run the shop. When I'm at the cricket it's like a military operation. One person takes the order while one stands behind. By the time you've got change in your hand that other person has gone out and got the order.  They should be trying this sort of practice at AG. Yes it might involve more staff, but if the queues were then quicker I'm sure more people will use the facilities.

The biggest bottleneck I could see on Sat was that they only had 1-2 hot water pourers for tea etc.  What's happened to having them on the counter right in front of you like they did in the Atyeo years ago?

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And the ratio of mens bogs to the ladies is just stupid, they should make one or two of the ladies bogs into blokes bogs

 

I got round this issue on Saturday by wearing a dress and using the ladies loos.

Far quicker, but there was still wee on the seats.

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 If you do go into the Ladies Loos there is shuttering down so you can only use half of them anyway, ie there is an 'in one door' and 'out the other' system but you can't exit through the 'out' door as shuttering divides the area. So more men's loos could be arranged in an instant, just change the signage above out 'exit' and as long as men don't mind using cubicles there are toilets available. They are not being used. They are finished and everything as I have seen the whole area open before.

and yes after the match there were queues in the Ladies loos but not too bad. So either open them all up or give some over to the men!

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There's more than a couple of outlets in the new concourse, but yes the bar in the Dolman area was a big 'un. But that area was for season ticket holders only I believe as it was limited to a specific number. The new concourse is obviously open to everyone so I would think far more people are on the concourse than there ever was in the Dolman exhibition area. We now have people from two stands converging rather than a specific maximum number in the DEH.

The bar served alcohol. It was being used by people beyond season ticket holders.  Alcohol and food are now being served at the same outlet. That is a change. A change that is creating longer queues and far longer serving times.

The outlet closest to blocks A -B [E?] are being used by those in closest proximity, unless people are walking round the stadium to make the queues ever longer / view the queues - It would be pointless. Fans ARE walking from one end of the Dolman stand to the South stand due to the failing Dolman facilities. 

A small facility selling bottles and cans at the rear of the concourse would ease the congestion, likewise queuing lanes - Hopefully both will be included in the finished concourse along with TV.s.  At present fans are paying quite a lot of money for inferior football, and inferior facilities in the Dolman stand - the former is part of being a fan, while the latter is easy to address.

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Fans ARE walking from one end of the Dolman stand to the South stand due to the failing Dolman facilities. 

Yup, group of us walk the length of the Dolman to get to the bar on the corner of the South stand, even when there is a queue there, you get served within minutes. 

There was a bar in the south stand Saturday that had barriers around it creating a queuing system, thought it odd that only one bar had this 

As for food, at the Burnley game my wife bought two pasties from by block E33, after queuing for 15 minutes, missed start of the game she got to our seats, opened the bag to find two burnt the pasties. I went back with them to get them changed but was told I'd have to wait until half time for a replacement. So asked for a refund instead, that took over 10 minutes for someone to figure out how to open a till. Will avoid these areas at all costs from now on 

 

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I find it incredibly frustrating now with the new facilities avaliable that its as slow as previous.  The club should go and look at how Glos Cricket and others run the shop. When I'm at the cricket it's like a military operation. One person takes the order while one stands behind. By the time you've got change in your hand that other person has gone out and got the order.  They should be trying this sort of practice at AG. Yes it might involve more staff, but if the queues were then quicker I'm sure more people will use the facilities.

The biggest bottleneck I could see on Sat was that they only had 1-2 hot water pourers for tea etc.  What's happened to having them on the counter right in front of you like they did in the Atyeo years ago?

Turncoat! What are you doing at Glos cricket?

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We have 3 Season tickets in the South Stand having previously been sat in the Atyeo for best part of last 20 years.

In the Atyeo we typically used to spend £10-20 a game in the kiosks.

This season we had a pie each first game of the season but since then have not spent any money as can't be arsed with the queues.

So that's £400 plus of revenue gone just from us.

Exactly the same for me and the Mrs. Had coffee and food first match and nothing since. Moved from the Atyeo last year where the service was comparatively good. 

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Was talking to a guy in the concourse  before kick off and he was a Stoke City fan and first and only time visitor, and was asking if the stadium management actually had a clue what they were doing regarding the food/ drink queues. He said it was a disgrace and the club are treating its fans so badly , given the facilities we obviously have. We are still miles away from the matchday experience that everyone craves and outsiders are obviously gobsmacked that we stand for it.

sadly so true that the club are employing people in management\ supervisory positions that just don't cut the mustard..someone is paid to interview these people and decide they are the best for the position.clearly they themselves are not fit to perform this task and it goes up from there.its why this club will never go anywhere...it runs from your halftime cuppa to the top....very ametuer..

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They need the people who actually decide these things to go and queue at half time themselves. Get the 'matchday experience' first hand. Go to the loo, get a cup of coffee and a pint, get something to eat. They don't have to gt thir food and drink from the concourse so as long as the corporates are ok I doubt if they are too bothered about the rest.

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Yup, group of us walk the length of the Dolman to get to the bar on the corner of the South stand, even when there is a queue there, you get served within minutes. 

There was a bar in the south stand Saturday that had barriers around it creating a queuing system, thought it odd that only one bar had this 

As for food, at the Burnley game my wife bought two pasties from by block E33, after queuing for 15 minutes, missed start of the game she got to our seats, opened the bag to find two burnt the pasties. I went back with them to get them changed but was told I'd have to wait until half time for a replacement. So asked for a refund instead, that took over 10 minutes for someone to figure out how to open a till. Will avoid these areas at all costs from now on 

 

I asked about this and was told it was a trial and would be rolled out to all the outlets if deemed a success. It seemed decent when I was waiting before the game TBH although the queue did block one of the entrances (S24?) so a grid system a la Mill stad would be better than the single file queue they tried.

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Because I've been so pi@@ed off with (lack of ) service in the South Stand I Emailed Mark Kelly, Chief Stadium Operations Officer. Don't shoot the messenger, he replied ;

"Thanks for the Email. Albeit disappointing to read. Although frustrating for me, we need to remember that we are only half finished in both the south Stand and the Dolman. This is not the finished product.

We are due another 4/5 pop up bars within the Dolman and are reviewing what we can do in the South Stand to ease pressure at peak times and half time.

Our fans buying behaviour is also changing and we are increasing food sales by around 20% each game ( which slows down some of the buying process ) so we are trying to establish a pattern to reflect volumes.

Saturday also saw our latest walk up to the stand which created again a surge of customers pre game including around 600 from the Sports Bar and tents.

This is something we are very keen to improve, I have photographs taken by our design team of the issues from Saturday and have today instructed a further review of what the future looks like in line with fan needs.

Thankyou as ever for the feedback"

So, make of that what you will. Those were his words in his reply to me, not mine. Hope it helps, if not, feel free to contact Mark yourselves.:thumbsup:

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They need the people who actually decide these things to go and queue at half time themselves. Get the 'matchday experience' first hand. Go to the loo, get a cup of coffee and a pint, get something to eat. They don't have to gt thir food and drink from the concourse so as long as the corporates are ok I doubt if they are too bothered about the rest.

can anyone email this to the powers that be? sure they'd be horrified at how much revenue is being lost

 

 

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Sounds like Mark Kelly had someone taking photographs of the concourse on Saturday from what he says in his email above. Not exactly first hand experience but it's a start. At least he is aware of problems and as others have said I have personal experience of him responding well to emails.

i am reluctant to waste my breath but think feedback like this could be aimed on here through our Fans Liason Officer.

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Sounds like Mark Kelly had someone taking photographs of the concourse on Saturday from what he says in his email above. Not exactly first hand experience but it's a start. At least he is aware of problems and as others have said I have personal experience of him responding well to emails.

i am reluctant to waste my breath but think feedback like this could be aimed on here through our Fans Liason Officer.

just imagine 

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