1901 Club food

[Giraffe]

Interesting reading this thread has made. It's pretty rare that EVERYONE is singing from the same sheet, but in this case. The viewpoint is the same for almost every person I've spoken to.

I'd like to take Paul Barber to the buffet. Make him walk up and say "I'll have a plate of chicken and rice please", hand over a £20 note, take a look at the plate in his left hand and the pound coin he's left with in his right, then look me in the eye and say "I am pleased with that Tom. That is a fair price for a good product. This is totally justifiable". He could not do it. Nobody can. It's a total and utter piss take. The fact is that at the moment. Every product (barring the pie) is outrageously overpriced.

• Give me £19 and I'll go to ANY Chinese/Indian takeaway in the country and come back with far higher quality and quantity of food than I get in there.
• For £95 I could get a table at Gordon Ramsay's Flagship Restaurant in London and get a 3 course meal from the A la carte menu! (seriously)

Here's how I think the club should be selling catering in the 1901.

• Had dinner, but a bit of a greedy bugger? NO PROBLEMO. £5 Pies/Hot Baguettes/Crisps/Sweets.
• No time for dinner? Got to shoot off to the footy? Just give us £10 and here, have this nice plate of hot decent grub. Lasagne, Shepheards Pie, Curry there's a bit of choice each week.
• After something a bit fancy? Need to entertain a client or just treat yourself and some mates? Certainly sir. For £50 per person you can take a seat at a nice table and have a 3 course meal. Not everyone likes shit wine so you'll have to order the drinks yourselves.
• Got some big important clients to entertain? Want that FINE DINING experience? Why not come over to our small CORPORATE LOUNGE. Unlike the FANS LOUNGE, there's a dresscode and everything is a bit more formal. We don't have any quizzes or compares because we know you'd like a bit of piece and time to talk business. It's £90 per person, but of course you get exceptional food and the wine is complimentary.

I would be sold on that. And I would say the proportion of 1901 using each part of this would be as follows:

• Had dinner, but a bit of a greedy bugger? NO PROBLEMO. £5 Pies/Hot Baguettes/Crisps/Sweets. 50%
• No time for dinner? Got to shoot off to the footy? Just give us £10 and here, have this nice plate of hot decent grub. Lasagne, Shepheards Pie, Curry there's a bit of choice each week. 25%
• After something a bit fancy? Need to entertain a client or just treat yourself and some mates? Certainly sir. For £50 per person you can take a seat at a nice table and have a 3 course meal. Not everyone likes shit wine so you'll have to order the drinks yourselves.15%
• Got some big important clients to entertain? Want that FINE DINING experience? Why not come over to our small CORPORATE LOUNGE. Unlike the FANS LOUNGE, there's a dresscode and everything is a bit more formal. We don't have any quizzes or compares because we know you'd like a bit of piece and time to talk business. It's £90 per person, but of course you get exceptional food and the wine is complimentary. 10%

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Interesting reading this thread has made. It's pretty rare that EVERYONE is singing from the same sheet, but in this case. The viewpoint is the same for almost every person I've spoken to.

I'd like to take Paul Barber to the buffet. Make him walk up and say "I'll have a plate of chicken and rice please", hand over a £20 note, take a look at the plate in his left hand and the pound coin he's left with in his right, then look me in the eye and say "I am pleased with that Tom. That is a fair price for a good product. This is totally justifiable". He could not do it. Nobody can. It's a total and utter piss take. The fact is that at the moment. Every product (barring the pie) is outrageously overpriced.

• Give me £19 and I'll go to ANY Chinese/Indian takeaway in the country and come back with far higher quality and quantity of food than I get in there.
• For £95 I could get a table at Gordon Ramsay's Flagship Restaurant in London and get a 3 course meal from the A la carte menu! (seriously)

Here's how I think the club should be selling catering in the 1901.

• Had dinner, but a bit of a greedy bugger? NO PROBLEMO. £5 Pies/Hot Baguettes/Crisps/Sweets.
• No time for dinner? Got to shoot off to the footy? Just give us £10 and here, have this nice plate of hot decent grub. Lasagne, Shepheards Pie, Curry there's a bit of choice each week.
• After something a bit fancy? Need to entertain a client or just treat yourself and some mates? Certainly sir. For £50 per person you can take a seat at a nice table and have a 3 course meal. Not everyone likes shit wine so you'll have to order the drinks yourselves.
• Got some big important clients to entertain? Want that FINE DINING experience? Why not come over to our small CORPORATE LOUNGE. Unlike the FANS LOUNGE, there's a dresscode and everything is a bit more formal. We don't have any quizzes or compares because we know you'd like a bit of piece and time to talk business. It's £90 per person, but of course you get exceptional food and the wine is complimentary.

Ah, but you will not get a Brighton vs Leicester DVD with your meal at Ramseys will you?

 

[beorhthelm]

Here's how I think the club should be selling catering in the 1901.

frankly im somewhat bewildered thats not how it is. never been out of the concourses/stands at Amex or elsewhere, but thats shirley the standard approach? how have we got this so wrong, the 1901 was always sold to fans, not corporates really. thats what boxes are for isnt it? (maybe hoplessly naive coming in half cocked).

 

[Titanic]

...

VIP Package (Overline & Bupa):
• Reserved table with pitch views
• Glass of sparkling wine on arrival
• Three-course meal with coffee prior to the match
• Inclusive bar (house wine, beer and soft drinks)
• Half-time tea and coffee
• Full-time cheese board, tea and coffee
Price: £79 + VAT per person

Formal Dining Experience (Overline & Bupa):
• Reserved table
• Three-course meal with coffee prior to the match
• Cash bar facility
• Half-time & full-time tea and coffee
Price: £59 + VAT per person

Buffet Option:
• Casual style seating
• No pre-booking required, diners can purchase on the day
Price: £14 (inc VAT) or £19 (inc VAT) per person

Pie or snack option to be purchased at the bar on the day.

...

Here's how I think the club should be selling catering in the 1901.

• Had dinner, but a bit of a greedy bugger? NO PROBLEMO. £5 Pies/Hot Baguettes/Crisps/Sweets.
• No time for dinner? Got to shoot off to the footy? Just give us £10 and here, have this nice plate of hot decent grub. Lasagne, Shepheards Pie, Curry there's a bit of choice each week.
• After something a bit fancy? Need to entertain a client or just treat yourself and some mates? Certainly sir. For £50 per person you can take a seat at a nice table and have a 3 course meal. Not everyone likes shit wine so you'll have to order the drinks yourselves.
• Got some big important clients to entertain? Want that FINE DINING experience? Why not come over to our small CORPORATE LOUNGE. Unlike the FANS LOUNGE, there's a dresscode and everything is a bit more formal. We don't have any quizzes or compares because we know you'd like a bit of piece and time to talk business. It's £90 per person, but of course you get exceptional food and the wine is complimentary.

Are these two SO different?

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

Interesting reading this thread has made. It's pretty rare that EVERYONE is singing from the same sheet, but in this case. The viewpoint is the same for almost every person I've spoken to.

I'd like to take Paul Barber to the buffet. Make him walk up and say "I'll have a plate of chicken and rice please", hand over a £20 note, take a look at the plate in his left hand and the pound coin he's left with in his right, then look me in the eye and say "I am pleased with that Tom. That is a fair price for a good product. This is totally justifiable". He could not do it. Nobody can. It's a total and utter piss take. The fact is that at the moment. Every product (barring the pie) is outrageously overpriced.

• Give me £19 and I'll go to ANY Chinese/Indian takeaway in the country and come back with far higher quality and quantity of food than I get in there.
• For £95 I could get a table at Gordon Ramsay's Flagship Restaurant in London and get a 3 course meal from the A la carte menu! (seriously)

Here's how I think the club should be selling catering in the 1901.

• Had dinner, but a bit of a greedy bugger? NO PROBLEMO. £5 Pies/Hot Baguettes/Crisps/Sweets.
• No time for dinner? Got to shoot off to the footy? Just give us £10 and here, have this nice plate of hot decent grub. Lasagne, Shepheards Pie, Curry there's a bit of choice each week.
• After something a bit fancy? Need to entertain a client or just treat yourself and some mates? Certainly sir. For £50 per person you can take a seat at a nice table and have a 3 course meal. Not everyone likes shit wine so you'll have to order the drinks yourselves.
• Got some big important clients to entertain? Want that FINE DINING experience? Why not come over to our small CORPORATE LOUNGE. Unlike the FANS LOUNGE, there's a dresscode and everything is a bit more formal. We don't have any quizzes or compares because we know you'd like a bit of piece and time to talk business. It's £90 per person, but of course you get exceptional food and the wine is complimentary.

Tom, you have totally nailed it and I doubt it took you all day to work out.
Please send on your suggestions to the club.

 

[Tooting Gull]

My more radical longer-term solution.

Price that area up at £150 MINIMUM per head with decent three-course meal and wine, to a standard only just below the box service. Any decent salesperson could fill this at the moment in the Sussex area.

Anyone moaning they want to pay less and eat concourse food can, err, go to another part of the ground with a concourse (85 per cent of it?) and eat concourse food and pay less.

Use the extra revenue in part to keep general prices as low as possible, clip £3-4 off the cost of single matchday tickets throughout the stadium.

Club's a winner, most fans are winners, only losers are those upset at losing an unrealistic (in the long-term) world-class corporate facility at slightly above a fan's budget.

Let no one kid themselves - if this doesn't happen soon, it will start to happen if ever we got to the Premier League. There will be big financial pressure on some of those lounges.

As I have said earlier, I don't like the corporate aspect of football but if it is a necessary evil for ambitious clubs then lets do it properly, not in some half-arsed fashion, in a relatively small section of the ground, and see the benefits accrue to the whole club and other fans with smaller budgets.

 

[Titanic]

As I said on another thread, won't this sort itself out in a couple of years time anyway, when the tickets are jacked up to a proper 'corporate package' prices and the 5-year renewals start kicking in?

My more radical longer-term solution.

Price that area up at £150 MINIMUM per head with decent three-course meal and wine, to a standard only just below the box service. Any decent salesperson could fill this at the moment in the Sussex area.

Anyone moaning they want to pay less and eat concourse food can, err, go to another part of the ground with a concourse (85 per cent of it?) and eat concourse food and pay less.

Use the extra revenue in part to keep general prices as low as possible, clip £3-4 off the cost of single matchday tickets throughout the stadium.

Club's a winner, most fans are winners, only losers are those upset at losing an unrealistic (in the long-term) world-class corporate facility at slightly above a fan's budget.

Let no one kid themselves - if this doesn't happen soon, it will start to happen if ever we got to the Premier League. There will be big financial pressure on some of those lounges.

As I have said earlier, I don't like the corporate aspect of football but if it is a necessary evil for ambitious clubs then lets do it properly, not in some half-arsed fashion, in a relatively small section of the ground, and see the benefits accrue to the whole club and other fans with smaller budgets.

Indeed.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

My more radical longer-term solution.

Price that area up at £150 MINIMUM per head with decent three-course meal and wine, to a standard only just below the box service. Any decent salesperson could fill this at the moment in the Sussex area.

Anyone moaning they want to pay less and eat concourse food can, err, go to another part of the ground with a concourse (85 per cent of it?) and eat concourse food and pay less.

Use the extra revenue in part to keep general prices as low as possible, clip £3-4 off the cost of single matchday tickets throughout the stadium.

Club's a winner, most fans are winners, only losers are those upset at losing an unrealistic (in the long-term) world-class corporate facility at slightly above a fan's budget.

Let no one kid themselves - if this doesn't happen soon, it will start to happen if ever we got to the Premier League. There will be big financial pressure on some of those lounges.

As I have said earlier, I don't like the corporate aspect of football but if it is a necessary evil for ambitious clubs then lets do it properly, not in some half-arsed fashion, in a relatively small section of the ground, and see the benefits accrue to the whole club and other fans with smaller budgets.

The box food is no better. Only the Directors box (where of course Barber eats) is better.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My more radical longer-term solution.

Price that area up at £150 MINIMUM per head with decent three-course meal and wine, to a standard only just below the box service. Any decent salesperson could fill this at the moment in the Sussex area.

Anyone moaning they want to pay less and eat concourse food can, err, go to another part of the ground with a concourse (85 per cent of it?) and eat concourse food and pay less.

Use the extra revenue in part to keep general prices as low as possible, clip £3-4 off the cost of single matchday tickets throughout the stadium.

Club's a winner, most fans are winners, only losers are those upset at losing an unrealistic (in the long-term) world-class corporate facility at slightly above a fan's budget.

Let no one kid themselves - if this doesn't happen soon, it will start to happen if ever we got to the Premier League. There will be big financial pressure on some of those lounges.

As I have said earlier, I don't like the corporate aspect of football but if it is a necessary evil for ambitious clubs then lets do it properly, not in some half-arsed fashion, in a relatively small section of the ground, and see the benefits accrue to the whole club and other fans with smaller budgets.

The problem will be the "decent 3 course meal." In two years only the students over in the East Stand Brasserie have come close.

 

[Superphil]

Club's a winner, most fans are winners, only losers are those upset at losing an unrealistic (in the long-term) world-class corporate facility at slightly above a fan's budget.

.

I take your points, however, the whole 1901 Club was sold under the banner "Club Seating" never corporate, that is what the boxes are for. There is capacity for about 150 (?) in the boxes, How many 'Corporate' seats do you think are required now, and how many do you think when we get to the Premier League? There are currently somewhere in the region of 3000 Club seats, of which a large proportion are owned by Club fans.

 

[Mr Blobby]

They will giving out last seasons replica kit next

And if you then put on said kit will be asked to leave for breaking the dress code!

 

[Tooting Gull]

I take your points, however, the whole 1901 Club was sold under the banner "Club Seating" never corporate, that is what the boxes are for. There is capacity for about 150 (?) in the boxes, How many 'Corporate' seats do you think are required now, and how many do you think when we get to the Premier League? There are currently somewhere in the region of 3000 Club seats, of which a large proportion are owned by Club fans.

Listen, if it was me that had paid it, I wouldn't want any change either and you (as usual) are looking at the thing sensibly.

I think, having done some work in that field, that some of those facilities are 'too good' for what is being paid currently, ie you could get a lot more from the corporate market. And I also think that many fans in there are just that, fans, who would be pretty happy with all aspects other than their actual seats elsewhere as evidenced by this thread. I know and accept it was not sold as a corporate area, I think that was a mistake. I wonder if the club erred on the safe side with it being a new stadium, wanting to sell out, and undervalued the facility without really having to pick up a phone and sell it much at all. And I also wonder if Paul Barber had been in charge back then if that is the way it would have been sold in the first place. I doubt it.

 

[Superphil]

Listen, if it was me that had paid it, I wouldn't want any change either and you (as usual) are looking at the thing sensibly.

I think, having done some work in that field, that some of those facilities are 'too good' for what is being paid currently, ie you could get a lot more from the corporate market. And I also think that many fans in there are just that, fans, who would be pretty happy with all aspects other than their actual seats elsewhere as evidenced by this thread. I know and accept it was not sold as a corporate area, I think that was a mistake. I wonder if the club erred on the safe side with it being a new stadium, wanting to sell out, and undervalued the facility without really having to pick up a phone and sell it much at all. And I also wonder if Paul Barber had been in charge back then if that is the way it would have been sold in the first place. I doubt it.

Fair enough, maybe he wouldn't have done it that way, but consider this, right now the club gets in excess of £3.2M a season from the 1901 members, just for the monthly fees. Meals and drink are on top of that. That equates to nearly 34K 'Corporate' meals at £90 a meal, that's more than 1500 'corporate' meals per match if we make it to the Premier League. I certainly don't profess to have the answer, do you think those sort of numbers would be acheivable on anything like a regular basis, Premier League or not.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Listen, if it was me that had paid it, I wouldn't want any change either and you (as usual) are looking at the thing sensibly.

I think, having done some work in that field, that some of those facilities are 'too good' for what is being paid currently, ie you could get a lot more from the corporate market. And I also think that many fans in there are just that, fans, who would be pretty happy with all aspects other than their actual seats elsewhere as evidenced by this thread. I know and accept it was not sold as a corporate area, I think that was a mistake. I wonder if the club erred on the safe side with it being a new stadium, wanting to sell out, and undervalued the facility without really having to pick up a phone and sell it much at all. And I also wonder if Paul Barber had been in charge back then if that is the way it would have been sold in the first place. I doubt it.

One think you have to remember is that we were in L1 when the tickets were sold having just fought a relegation battle. How much demand was there for a pure big-business corporate lounge back then? Little I'd suggest. The selling of the PSLs with 1901 was possibly a mistake though, as I future proofs against the club doing any reconfiguration and ring-fencing one area to sell to business.

 

[Titanic]

One think you have to remember is that we were in L1 when the tickets were sold having just fought a relegation battle. How much demand was there for a pure big-business corporate lounge back then? Little I'd suggest. The selling of the PSLs with 1901 was possibly a mistake though, as I future proofs against the club doing any reconfiguration and ring-fencing one area to sell to business.

Is there any restriction on the price rise when the current 5 year deal runs out? That might free up a few premium seats?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Listen, if it was me that had paid it, I wouldn't want any change either and you (as usual) are looking at the thing sensibly.

I think, having done some work in that field, that some of those facilities are 'too good' for what is being paid currently, ie you could get a lot more from the corporate market. And I also think that many fans in there are just that, fans, who would be pretty happy with all aspects other than their actual seats elsewhere as evidenced by this thread. I know and accept it was not sold as a corporate area, I think that was a mistake. I wonder if the club erred on the safe side with it being a new stadium, wanting to sell out, and undervalued the facility without really having to pick up a phone and sell it much at all. And I also wonder if Paul Barber had been in charge back then if that is the way it would have been sold in the first place. I doubt it.

One other thing worth mentioning. I cannot remember the figures but I was told, for a 30k ground, we outstrip all clubs with our proportion of "premium" seats. Maybe the Albion have got it right and we are losing sight of this by dwelling on the numbers of VIP meals we can sell?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Is there any restriction on the price rise when the current 5 year deal runs out? That might free up a few premium seats?

No. As discussed I'm sure a hefty rise will dissuade some but it will not completely free up the area for the club to do what they choose.

 

[rabbitmaddie]

The PSLs raised a lot of money up front. (3000 members x £500 - £1000 per seat), say £2 million.

The five year membership was put into a financing scheme so that the club could be paid the 5 year subscriptions up front. If the club took the money up front, that could have been c.£16 million (3000 x £90 per month x 60 months), with no annual revenue coming in save for food and drink.

 

[bhafc4eva]

The North Stand is the place to be tomorrow.

Tomorrow's fixture provides an opportunity for you to grab a meal deal, with chips now available from the centre kiosks in the West Lower, East Lower and North Stand concourses.
This week's meal deals are any hot food item with chips and a soft drink for £8.50; or you can grab a hot food item, soft drink and crisps or a chocolate bar for £7. You can upgrade to a pint of beer for £1 extra.
Guinness will be available in the North Stand kiosks 1 & 2 and in Dick's Bar; while Dark Star is also available in Dick's Bar, as requested by fans. If sales go well the club will continue stocking both products this season. The guest pie for this game will be the chicken and chorizo and these will be available in all kiosks, subject to availability, so we advise you get to the concourse early to avoid disappointment.
Meanwhile, salt beef and pulled pork sandwiches will be available in the centre kiosk in the North Stand.

 

[Beach Hut]

The chicken and chorizo pie was positively underwhelming last time.