2 hours for a drink last night

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BHABen

New member
Jan 12, 2010
163
There was approx 4 bar staff on each bar, how they didn't walk out I don't know. Just hope whoever organised this learns from it, its a cracking venue for music, but got a feeling not everyone would return for a concert again.
 




Sompting_Seagull

Well-known member
Jun 8, 2011
2,143
North Stand
Considering i waited for over an hour the night before, that is very disappointing. And i thought the Brighton Centre was bad for getting drinks. Azure strikes again.
 


mejonaNO12 aka riskit

Well-known member
Dec 4, 2003
21,605
England
I think I win.

THREE hours at one of the on-pitch drinks queues.

You may wonder why we didn't just leave? Well, we were in the queue just chatting and listening to the music for the first hour and a half and got near the front, at which point we made such progress that it would have been mad to leave.

Then it took about an hour and a half for them to serve the 8 or so people in front of us whilst pumps stopped working, people tried jumping in, staff failed to pour legitimate pints, people ordered 20 pints etc etc

Anyway we got there in the end and in time for FBS so it's all fine now!
 


severnside gull

Well-known member
May 16, 2007
24,566
By the seaside in West Somerset
put it on Ask The Club and/or e-mail Customer Services - they can't improve what they don't know about.


people buying rounds of 20 pints is part of the problem but you can understand why they do it -staff numbers are limited by the service area and it's hard to recruit trustworthy personnel for a one off when you do need extras but perhaps they didn't employ enough staff - pulling a short pint under that sort of pressure happens - faulty equipment shouldn't
 


bristolseagull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
5,554
Lindfield
Jesus, 3 hours?

Took me just under 2 which I thought was bad enough. We were in the pitch queue too, north end. The problem was the staff were opening cans (of some shitty Belgium crap) and decanting them into pint glasses. The stewards and bar staff were all moaning about how poorly organised and understaffed the bars were.

If I ever go to a big gig there again, I'll splash out and go VIP.
 






Sergei's Celebration

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2010
3,629
I've come back home.
At least 30-45mins waiting for the pumps to start pumping in the middle WSL bar caused chaos and having only 4 people to serve queues 15 deep and 30 wide was utter madness. Bottles would have been the answer...lots and lots of bottles served quickly, tops off and get the cash then at the side or near the stairwells have stacks of plastic glasses getting the pressure away from the bar. Serving a pint is great if you can actually serve it. This was the biggest let down last night but didn't take away from a great gig with a great atmosphere. big love to everyone who went.
 






withdeanwombat

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2005
8,715
Somersetshire
Years ago I worked on Hove's dustcarts and worked with an old bloke who used to be a barman in a big pub on the road from the east end to Southend.On holidays,esp bank holidays in summer the landlord would prepare by decanting his beer into zinc baths,and the bar staff would simply dip'n'serve.

Probably against HASWA these days.Probably shouldn't have got away with it then,but.............
 


bravohotelalpha

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2011
2,642
Good Old Sussex By The Sea
And azure won an award for their operation at the amex ?????
Tony and his new chief exec need to deal with this as a priority - for the sake of fans who deserve a better service and for the reputation of the stadium
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
60,486
The Fatherland
A mate of mine waited over an hour to get served behind the west stand. They must have lost a lot of revenue over the two days.
 




BHABen

New member
Jan 12, 2010
163
Caused loads of arguments, one girl offered me a tenner for one pint, i wouldnt have taken 50, did anyone get to see the bloke sitting in urinal off his nut
 


brunswick

New member
Aug 13, 2004
2,920
big events always take the p)ss......... did they allow anyone to bring their own food or drinks in? did water take 2 hours to purchase?

what a joke. tipping cans into a plastic pint glass and charging around £4 - the days of me getting done like that are long gone.
 


WSU

Member
Jan 17, 2012
138
I waited for just under 2 hours at the North bar, for some drug fuelled gurning tw*t to try and push in as he walked straight out the toilets. I promptly told him to get to the back joined in by a few around me but he still pushed in a few back with people not wanting the confrontation! That was adding massively to the wait time.
I went on both nights and as soon as Fatboy opened with Praise You, nothing else really seemed to matter, it was just magical!
 




BHABen

New member
Jan 12, 2010
163
big events always take the p)ss......... did they allow anyone to bring their own food or drinks in? did water take 2 hours to purchase?

what a joke. tipping cans into a plastic pint glass and charging around £4 - the days of me getting done like that are long gone.
No food or drink allowed to be taken in, one thing I did enjoy was being on pitch, makes you realise the size of the stadium
 


BigGully

Well-known member
Sep 8, 2006
7,139
Why doesn't the catering sort themselves out.

On a purely business perspective just think of the revenue they are losing, from a customers perspective unfortunately you will all turn up at the next gig even though you might of been treated so shabbily this time.

Just employ more staff, jeez it only cost a fiver an hour and you would sell 10 times more beer and cover the increased costs 10 times over too.

Who exactly runs these concessions, they might be be rubbing their hands at a nice little earner last night, but really they dont deserve to have the opportunity to delude themselves of thinking they are doing a good job.
 


papajaff

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2005
3,995
Brighton
I went in to the stadium around 7.30, could see that I didn't have a hope in hell of getting served so went over to the Swan and had a couple.
Back in time for Norm and thought I'd get a drink when he was on. No chance. Real shame we have amateurs in charge of catering.
 


Sergei's Celebration

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2010
3,629
I've come back home.
Why doesn't the catering sort themselves out.

On a purely business perspective just think of the revenue they are losing, from a customers perspective unfortunately you will all turn up at the next gig even though you might of been treated so shabbily this time.

Just employ more staff, jeez it only cost a fiver an hour and you would sell 10 times more beer and cover the increased costs 10 times over too.

Who exactly runs these concessions, they might be be rubbing their hands at a nice little earner last night, but really they dont deserve to have the opportunity to delude themselves of thinking they are doing a good job.

100% absolutely this. The bar managers should be fired on the spot for loss of profits.
 




deletebeepbeepbeep

Well-known member
May 12, 2009
21,210
?It was really really bad, I have no idea what they were even thinking, they had 3 people serving at WSL bar and it was taking 40 minutes to get a drink, plenty of management staff just looking around and doing f*** all, and the minimum wage staff getting a shit load of abuse from angry twats. It was really pathetic and complaints really should be made to the Club about Azure. I mean, what were they thinking!?

Paying someone 5 an hour, they serve one person every 5 minutes ordering 5 beers plus so 5 times your money back from the wage right there. Did you see the money clips on the bar tenders, they made fortunes last night.
 


Grapes of Wrath

Active member
Nov 1, 2009
353
Worthing
Why doesn't the catering sort themselves out.

On a purely business perspective just think of the revenue they are losing, from a customers perspective unfortunately you will all turn up at the next gig even though you might of been treated so shabbily this time.

Just employ more staff, jeez it only cost a fiver an hour and you would sell 10 times more beer and cover the increased costs 10 times over too.

Who exactly runs these concessions, they might be be rubbing their hands at a nice little earner last night, but really they dont deserve to have the opportunity to delude themselves of thinking they are doing a good job.

Agreed, I have not been too impressed with the catering side all season what with all the long queues at half time etc.

Last night we got there around 6.45, queued up for over an hour in the WSL, no food left at all and massive queues of very pissed off people. The catering staff were very disorganised and needed someone with a bit of common sense to oversee them. Rather than pouring each pint to order, if they had simply had a couple of people pouring 2 pints at a time and then those serving could have grabbed them and passed them out. It wouldn't have totally solved the chaos, but it would have helped.

Someone above mentioned plastic bottles, that would certainly have helped. It was not my plan to get twatted, but a few beers over the course of the evening would have been good, instead I couldn't be arsed to queue up again, so had a fairly dry night.

Not sure I would bother again with a similar long event, but if a decent band was playing and it was just a normal 2 or 3 hour gig I would go, as it is a good venue and the Amex looks amazing from the pitch. Just hope that someone cleans my seat, as I noticed it was covered in beer when i walked past!
 


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