Catering in stadiums - Target Field USA vs the Amex. Are you reading this PB ?

Munkfish · Sep 28, 2016

Only issue I have with the catering is them Not being able to serve people quick enough. Leaving to get a beer 5 mins before half time and not getting a pint at times before the second half kicks off is a problem.

Also why are tills limited to cash only as anyone who has a contactless card can make the payment even quicker than cash. Its an ongoing problem which will always be a problem until these things are managed correctly or with some experiance.

In fact im sure anyone who has been to a pub could sort out these problems.

Garry Nelson's Left Foot · Sep 28, 2016

Baseball lends itself to spending a long time eating and drinking and generally not being in your seat. At least it does in Japan. Whenever your team is fielding (is that the correct term for baseball?) it's the green light to get up and go have a piss, get some food have a smoke etc. The concourses in Japan are nowhere near as well provided for over here but still vast numbers of people fill them up.

do they have beer girls in the states? Women in the 18-25 age range who wander the stands with essentially a beer keg strapped to their back and provide you with fresh tap poured beer whenever you want it.

Mental Lental · Sep 28, 2016

Garry Nelson's Left Foot said:
do they have beer girls in the states? Women in the 18-25 age range who wander the stands with essentially a beer keg strapped to their back and provide you with fresh tap poured beer whenever you want it.

I think they are almost worth the entry fee alone......

Lyndhurst 14 · Sep 28, 2016

I used to like the $10 food / drink vouchers you got at Citifield if you presented your Citi credit card - nice while it lasted

hans kraay fan club · Sep 28, 2016

Easy 10 said:
It looks sparse, but it starts at 7.10 in the evening and goes on for 3 hours, so there isn't the rush to get there for the first pitch, or the first couple of innings even. It does fill out, and there were eventually 24k there (in a 40k), with probably an element of pretendence. They do also play 81 regular home games a season, over 6 months. And for the Twins, this was another dead rubber (their season has been dead since mid-May).

Americans do love their food as we know. But being at a game for 3 hours, I was hankering too. I had the hot buffallo wings from the Buffalo Chicken Mary diner on the evening game, with the blue cheese dip and celery, $9. It was so good I had to bite the back of my hand to stop myself from crying out.

The range of food is remarkable, though understandably easier to carry more stock if you've 3 or 4 home matches per WEEK.

Hard to comment on value as your menus carry no prices. £7 for some chicken scraps doesn't sound THAT amazing though.

Sussex Nomad · Sep 28, 2016

I disagree somewhat with the comparison as mentioned earlier. Also $9 isn't cheap, around £6 isn't it? Have been to a couple of T20s at Lords and the range of food available is excellent. These games last around 2/3 hours? The ground was full both times (Middx v Sussex) despite this years being called off due to our glorious summer. And the range of food was about £6, comparable. And you can drink beer whilst watching the action. Comparing it with football is like comparing McDonalds to a 5* burger restaurant.

Brovion · Sep 28, 2016

wigman said:
I go to a football match to watch a game of football.

I must admit I tend to agree. However if I want a food and drink (which was the case last time when I came straight from work) then it would be nice if it was reasonably priced and served efficiently. That's assuming they have stock in the outlets! (Which they didn't where I was). But no, I'm not expecting a 'restaurant experience' as part of my 'matchday experience', and as Easy10 admits it is a bit invidious to compare leisurely baseball to the compressed feeding frenzy bouts of an English football match

nwgull · Sep 28, 2016

The best thing about football is the atmosphere created by crowd noise and spontaneous chanting when it gets going. That'd completely disappear if most of the crowd were sitting there eating hot dogs and chicken wings for 90 minutes.

Limited choice of beer and pies is more than fine by me. If Saturday afternoon's match day experience was all about the food, I'd go to a restaurant.

jakarta · Sep 28, 2016

Mental Lental said:
I think they are almost worth the entry fee alone......

Don't tell Mrs Jakarta but I think I have just found my Ideal Woman... :wink:

Herr Tubthumper · Sep 28, 2016

Easy 10 said:
I've just returned from a rather marvellous hectic 11-day round trip of the USA, taking in New York, Minneapolis and Chicago. I had the pleasure of visiting Citifield to see the New York Mets chasing their wildcard slot, beating the Minnesota Twins 3-2. Then in Minneapolis, I took in 2 games at Target Field, the 40,000 capacity home of the Minnesota Twins. Lost both games against the Detroit Tigers, naturally (the Twins are utterly hopeless this year), but oh my LIFE what a stadium. And I do not say this lightly, but the concourse and catering facilities there put the Amex to shame.

As you can see, the variety of food options around the multiple outlets are utterly MINDBOGGLING. Service is swift, courteous and professional. They all speak english. And there are 7 bars all in full view of the pitch serving a huge variety of beers to choose from, and you can stand there and watch the game from that bar, with a beer, from any one of those 7 bars, or just take it back to your seat. OK, I fully accept the pathetic laws in this country prohibit this small pleasure, but it was just wonderful to be treated as an adult at a sports event and have that freedom. Thats not the Albons fault.

But as I left that stadium, I wondered what an american fan would make of the miserable, poorly served crud on offer at the Amex, with the infinite queues for the crappy burgers and hotdogs (ok, the pies are alright...mostly). Also there are other factors, in that a game of baseball plays out across about 3 hours, whereas with football you get half that time period, and a couple of service-intensive periods before kickoff and at half time. And on my first game there, the crowd was only 24k, so the place was almost half empty (its the fag-end of a terrible season with nothing to play for). But with the sheer volume of outlets and options for everyone, you'd have no problem getting served somewhere very, very quickly being as we were strolling right up.

My point is...I know its different sports, different countries, different laws. And I know almost none of you give a toss about baseball. But when I hear about the "matchday experience" over here, it doesn't even come CLOSE to what they have laid on for the fans at Target Field, Minnesota. It absolutely pisses on any football ground I've ever been to in this country in terms of choice, value, service, spectacle, and all-round experience. Wembley, by direct comparison to the stuff laid on there for the fans, is a SHOCKING rip-off.

If anyone finds themselves in the USA in the vicinity of an MLB game, I just cannot recommend it highly enough. THATS a matchday experience.

Craft beer?

Herr Tubthumper · Sep 28, 2016

As an aside I've visited plenty of stadia and arenas around the world and simply disagree with Barber's assertion is difficult to provide a good service. If you know your sales spikes and time windows it's actually easier.

el punal · Sep 28, 2016

:QUOTE=Easy 10;7607998]You should've seen the size of the guy in economy on my connecting flight from Chicago O'Hare to JFK. He was next to this little waif of an asian girl, who spent the entire 1.5 hour flight pressed up to the window, seemingly engulfed amongst his fleshy folds.[/QUOTE]

BN9 BHA · Sep 28, 2016

Diego Napier · Sep 28, 2016

nwgull said:
The best thing about football is the atmosphere created by crowd noise and spontaneous chanting when it gets going. That'd completely disappear if most of the crowd were sitting there eating hot dogs and chicken wings for 90 minutes.

Limited choice of beer and pies is more than fine by me. If Saturday afternoon's match day experience was all about the food, I'd go to a restaurant.

I'm with you on that. Most of us go to the match to see the football, most Americans seem to go to get fat.

Dick Head · Sep 28, 2016

Herr Tubthumper said:
As an aside I've visited plenty of stadia and arenas around the world and simply disagree with Barber's assertion is difficult to provide a good service. If you know your sales spikes and time windows it's actually easier.

If you're going to say stadia, why don't you be consistent and say arenæ?

Uncle Spielberg · Sep 28, 2016

happypig said:
Could you get a Waldorf Salad though ?

What is a Waldorf ? A Walnut that's gone off ?

Gazwag · Sep 28, 2016

Easy 10 said:
This is true. But it still STINKS that we are now in 2016, with a transformed football culture and a majority of modern, well policed stadiums - and yet we're still shackled to laws that came about 25-30 years ago.

Chatting with so many american sports fans over there, both at the game and in the bars, they were universally GOBSMACKED that at a football match, we are not even allowed to have a beer in sight of the pitch over here. It just did not compute.

Problem is football attracts more than its fair share of twats, I don't really want to attend a match and get covered in beer just because a couple of twats decide it is funny to throw their beer in the air.

US supporting also isn't as passionate, certainly at baseball, with their organ chants and lets go team, football is getting better but its still not jump around when we score. That said I do enjoy going to a game if I get the chance, we went to a Yankees games in April as it was easier to get to compared to the Mets.

Away supporters are almost non existent so there is very little chance of the issues that drinking causes at games.

ditchy · Sep 28, 2016

Easy 10 said:
I've just returned from a rather marvellous hectic 11-day round trip of the USA, taking in New York, Minneapolis and Chicago. I had the pleasure of visiting Citifield to see the New York Mets chasing their wildcard slot, beating the Minnesota Twins 3-2. Then in Minneapolis, I took in 2 games at Target Field, the 40,000 capacity home of the Minnesota Twins. Lost both games against the Detroit Tigers, naturally (the Twins are utterly hopeless this year), but oh my LIFE what a stadium. And I do not say this lightly, but the concourse and catering facilities there put the Amex to shame.

As you can see, the variety of food options around the multiple outlets are utterly MINDBOGGLING. Service is swift, courteous and professional. They all speak english. And there are 7 bars all in full view of the pitch serving a huge variety of beers to choose from, and you can stand there and watch the game from that bar, with a beer, from any one of those 7 bars, or just take it back to your seat. OK, I fully accept the pathetic laws in this country prohibit this small pleasure, but it was just wonderful to be treated as an adult at a sports event and have that freedom. Thats not the Albons fault.

But as I left that stadium, I wondered what an american fan would make of the miserable, poorly served crud on offer at the Amex, with the infinite queues for the crappy burgers and hotdogs (ok, the pies are alright...mostly). Also there are other factors, in that a game of baseball plays out across about 3 hours, whereas with football you get half that time period, and a couple of service-intensive periods before kickoff and at half time. And on my first game there, the crowd was only 24k, so the place was almost half empty (its the fag-end of a terrible season with nothing to play for). But with the sheer volume of outlets and options for everyone, you'd have no problem getting served somewhere very, very quickly being as we were strolling right up.

My point is...I know its different sports, different countries, different laws. And I know almost none of you give a toss about baseball. But when I hear about the "matchday experience" over here, it doesn't even come CLOSE to what they have laid on for the fans at Target Field, Minnesota. It absolutely pisses on any football ground I've ever been to in this country in terms of choice, value, service, spectacle, and all-round experience. Wembley, by direct comparison to the stuff laid on there for the fans, is a SHOCKING rip-off.

If anyone finds themselves in the USA in the vicinity of an MLB game, I just cannot recommend it highly enough. THATS a matchday experience.

Take your point Easy , and i am not defending the Amex over catering , as i think its poor , but at Baseball and American football , you dont get that halftime rush that we get . Also not being able to take drinks back to seat, as you quite rightly pointed out, also exaggerates the problem as people will rush for the halftime pint.

KingstonSeagull · Sep 28, 2016

Easy 10 said:
I've just returned from a rather marvellous hectic 11-day round trip of the USA, taking in New York, Minneapolis and Chicago. I had the pleasure of visiting Citifield to see the New York Mets chasing their wildcard slot, beating the Minnesota Twins 3-2. Then in Minneapolis, I took in 2 games at Target Field, the 40,000 capacity home of the Minnesota Twins. Lost both games against the Detroit Tigers, naturally (the Twins are utterly hopeless this year), but oh my LIFE what a stadium. And I do not say this lightly, but the concourse and catering facilities there put the Amex to shame.

As you can see, the variety of food options around the multiple outlets are utterly MINDBOGGLING. Service is swift, courteous and professional. They all speak english. And there are 7 bars all in full view of the pitch serving a huge variety of beers to choose from, and you can stand there and watch the game from that bar, with a beer, from any one of those 7 bars, or just take it back to your seat. OK, I fully accept the pathetic laws in this country prohibit this small pleasure, but it was just wonderful to be treated as an adult at a sports event and have that freedom. Thats not the Albons fault.

But as I left that stadium, I wondered what an american fan would make of the miserable, poorly served crud on offer at the Amex, with the infinite queues for the crappy burgers and hotdogs (ok, the pies are alright...mostly). Also there are other factors, in that a game of baseball plays out across about 3 hours, whereas with football you get half that time period, and a couple of service-intensive periods before kickoff and at half time. And on my first game there, the crowd was only 24k, so the place was almost half empty (its the fag-end of a terrible season with nothing to play for). But with the sheer volume of outlets and options for everyone, you'd have no problem getting served somewhere very, very quickly being as we were strolling right up.

My point is...I know its different sports, different countries, different laws. And I know almost none of you give a toss about baseball. But when I hear about the "matchday experience" over here, it doesn't even come CLOSE to what they have laid on for the fans at Target Field, Minnesota. It absolutely pisses on any football ground I've ever been to in this country in terms of choice, value, service, spectacle, and all-round experience. Wembley, by direct comparison to the stuff laid on there for the fans, is a SHOCKING rip-off.

If anyone finds themselves in the USA in the vicinity of an MLB game, I just cannot recommend it highly enough. THATS a matchday experience.

That's all very well but that entails sitting there an watching a baseball game... :yawn:

Stat Brother · Sep 28, 2016

Just out of interest, how much did you pay for the tickets?

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