Don't normally eat during the match but my mate came back from the food stall whomping they don't do burgers or chips no reason given just don't? He walked away with nothing another money opportunity lost are the food outlets still sub contracted out?

I know they said that they weren't selling chips or burgers this year when I went to the Boro friendly. Probably a cost cutting measure, without chips and burgers there's no need for the fryers, oil or grills and the staff don't need to be trusted to actually cook anything other than when they will be heating up some pies and hot dogs.

How easy would it be to shot a load of chips in a fryer? Surely a really simple food to turn a tidy profit on.


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This club needs income from this source and the profit is enormous from this stuff.

Club needs to recruit someone ho can sort this or sub-contract for fixed rent with % of takings.

The whole catering thing at HUFC is tragic. I have mentioned the small size of those fryers in the past, fookin ell , I've taken bigger fryers camping with me. In a football match situation , they are only going to create work not save work. So what to Pools do? increase the size of them or get rid of them?. Only at Hartlepool FFS!

Am quite glad they got shot of the chips as they often tempted me tbh. Can do without the grease and fat etc.

Didn't even get a bovril to be honest. Was too busy rushing to see how many people they had sold my seat to this year.

I get what you're saying Chip, but how is it , other clubs can manage to accomplish these, what appear simple things? If we have to wait 5 years then so be it. If we are having this same conversation in Aug 2018 ,that's a year of those 5 wasted , speculate to accumulate.

Well if pies are the only thing we can afford to sell then at least give us a choice. All that was on offer yesterday was meat and tatie.
What would be the problem with serving peas with the pie? You only have to keep them warm.
I would suggest that we clear out the people who are supposed to be organising the catering, programme selling, managing the shop and the matchday lottery and give the job to Monkeybutt and allow him to recruit the staff necessary and to revamp the whole bundle. He knows catering backwards and marketing. I'm sure with his contacts he could acquire a few deep fat commercial friers.
Hows about getting volunteers from the Trust membership to run a few cash on the day turnstiles. The club could then make a donation to Trust funds in lieu of this work. A rota could be worked out to share the load. I would be willing to help, A1 permitting.
The club and the Trust should be working together to maximise the match experience as well as extra revenue. Come on everybody, it's not rocket science.

I rarely eat at football grounds for obvious reasons, the cost and I'm relatively health conscious, but a lot do, it is part of going to the match, and for that reason , I like to think they are being well catered for, it also helps put money into the club coffers , if the catering side of things is well run. If the club were getting rid of chips , because they were health conscious ,then I wouldn't have a problem , that is maybe why some of the grounds I have visited do have a more healthier range of food stuffs , rather than the chips and burgers (shite burgers at that , not artisan burgers you may get at other grounds LOL!) we offer. I do remember Fleetwood having good catering facilities.

Obviously Chips aren't the most pressing priority at the moment ,but it is one of dozens of little things that make up the bigger picture. Just because a club is cash strapped doesn't necessarily mean standards have to drop right across the board, that will only help drive more people away and decrease revenue. I think sometimes you have to raise standards to get out of a hole rather than lower them.

You have probably answered the question though, when you mention the owners and their intentions. If that's the case and I suspect it is, and similar to the reasons the previous owners have let standards slip all across the club over the last 10 years , then it looks like supporters are going to have to in the short term at least put up and shut up and ride this out , until richer more savvy owners take over the running of the club.

I think we should you go full vegan and have done with it.
Falafel and salad or humous dips and flat bread or even a chickpea curry and rice

Sod the pies chips and foot long shyte

Keep Bovril though

I agree entirely Mr Derwent

I'm sure that the way it would be , if the Trust owned the club. That is a long way off though , if it ever happens. In the interim that is a good idea , and I for one would be up for helping out, but It does p*ss me off , when people have to do these things for nowt, when there are people on good money , who should be seeing that this type of activity isn't necessary. If the catering, programme, lottery is failing then its the CEO or whatever who should be sacked. That is the job I would want ,rather than working for nowt volunteering, and I would do it for a lot less than the salary probably been paid at present .

My kids will be devastated if they can't get their tray of chips.

I got a sausage roll at 2.10pm which left 3, so they were not planning on being busy by the looks of it, the first thing the young girl said was " You don`t want chips do you"?, I didn`t know whether to be insulted that she thought all xxxl shirt wearers were chip eaters or just heading off a moan!

The key to catering is know your clientele, right stock bought at the best price and correct stock and order, without sales records you are pissing in the wind and if the items are perishable, even harder, what should have happened was an over order of stock for yesterday, so an optimum product record could be achieved, how do they work out what to order for the next game when they sold out early, did they record sell out times?

Tues night games are another conundrum, people coming straight from work, have they eaten, over order again for the first one to set the record.

The staff looked like rabbits caught in the spotlights, I bet they had 10 minutes training.

They have the facilities to do chips but not the catering expertise to manage the operation.

External caterers must be the best option, not the most profitable but most reliable since it's their whole reputation at stake.

Commercially we are shooting ourselves in the foot catering being one.

Seemsa bit short sighted not to do chips or burgers, no great expertise required you'd think. Our food offering is poor at best, I never buy food in the ground it is too dear, in Poundworld I buy the same Dowe Egberts coffee cups and Bovril with the granules in to add water to, that they sell at the match for £2.50 each I get 3 for £1 So around 33p each-buying trade in bulk would be even cheaper so thats £2.17 profit, even taking off the hot water, staff wages etc into account thats a massive profit, chips are the same, a few years ago they used to bring in Asda smart price chips that used to be 49p for a 2KG bag thats a lot of portions of chips and a huge mark up.
The point being food to a football club represents a huge money spinner we are losing out big time, if it is we just can't be arsed to do it properly then farm it out, an outside operative with 2 or 3 food trailers round the ground and better food simple. Surely the trick is to get the maximum per head out of each person once they are in. Going off the food last season my mate came to a cup match, had had no tea, against my advice bought a hot dog for £3.50 9might have been more) queued ages, took a bit freezing cold-how hard is it to keep a pan hot with a big tin of hot dog sausages in-he was goig to chuck it , I complained and got the money back. If the food was appeatising more would be tempted to buy it, not the shite quality over priced crap we put on. At Harrogate pre season they had a food trailer- the food looked canny, thinking this looks ok and ive had no dinner I bought a burger and chips and a tea it was £8 but quite nice-they had pulled pork on again easy to do but tasty- Perhaps we should take a leaf out of their book? Not offering chips or burgers when every week i see the same people having chips sees daft?
Commercially who is organinsing it ? I presume Mark "Clem lookalike" Burrows? I have often felt like contacting the club but have thought why bother-its so bloody obvious?
Another thought what about getting a partnership with somebody like Hartlepool College, get the caterinh and hospitality students to do the food and incorporate it as a placement on the course or a charity that offers placements to the long term unemployed for instance-you'd instantly improve the quality and get people who want to impress. We could really make our ground known for food like the likes of Morcecombe or West Brom who have a name for pies.

A similar issue is programmes we didnn't bother doing one for the Sunderland pre season, almost 4,000 in I reckon we would have sold 2000 plus programmes again £ 2 or £3 a pop easy money? Even if we had done one to cover all home pre season games.

I arrived at 245 yesterday no programmes about, no sellers came round, I buy one every game same happened against Doncaster-£3 turned away.

Lots of opportunity to get extra coin out of the public- targetting every body at the game to sped at least £2 or £3 a game would have a massive effect on our money as a club-surely its not hard is it?

That philosophy has certainly worked well in other walks of life hasn't it ?

As I was walking up to the ground yesterday, saw a young couple with a couple of young kids walking towards me away from the ground. One of the kids was crying its eyes out. I asked what the problem was, the couple said they weren't now going to the game, as a steward had when asked, informed them that no chips were to be available at todays game. Naturally the children were devastated, and one of them immediately burst into tears, though the steward had also informed them that Donnelly was playing at left back.


Is this anyway to run a business?

Harrogate have been knocking out decent food without having to queue for half an hour, for years. I'm sure those who travel away will see more example of good old common sense catering at the majority of the grounds they visit this season. Its only at Pools were they cant seem to grasp the basics. Russ Green righted a lot of the wrongs, but we are back to where we were around 2001 now.

I think a lot of people need to get a fucking grip on here, the last 24 hours have been like a doom mongers wank fest.

I think it's quite important to remember that in the last six months the very existence of our club has been under threat, we have just about come out of the other side. The club has lots of new faces at every level. This reaction after one game isn't great.

I wasn't at the game yesterday so won't comment on that but as for other issues I think a little bit of patience is needed and people need realise that other priorities have possibly been at the forefront over this summer, far more important than chips (not Fireball one made of potato ) In time I imagine all of these issues can be addressed and in hindsight will be seen as teething problems. I fell more confident that the club will listen to us and make things better. But as for complaining about the print in the programme and a lack of choice of pies need to consider how lucky we've been that the clueless cockney chancer who was having smoke blown up his arse by some of the people moaning about various on and off field issues this time last year didn't completely destroy our club.

I disappointing start start no doubt, buts its a long season and yesterday won't define how we remember it come May. But I think a bit of leeway needs to be given, the club needs our support now more than ever.

Hear what you are saying PJ, buts its just as easy to get things right as it is wrong, so why do we repeatedly ( except for a period between 2002 - 2010 ) get the basics wrong? . People are fed up to the back teeth of the same old mediocrity on and off the pitch. We are aware of the recent history, and how lucky we are to have a football club at all, but that cant be used as an excuse for a sloppy approach to things. People have every right to complain. Leeway will be given, but no harm in making those in charge aware of the situation. All these little gripes paint a bigger picture, of a club in decline, and if the decline doesn't stop, then you end up with no football club anyway.

Completely agree with mr Horden. Whilst at the same time more or less agreeing with PJ.

Bit weird that. But I see both sides.

Maybe it's not sloppy just those in charge have had bigger priorities and in time things might become a bit better organised. From the club shop to choice of pie I think we need to show a bit of patience. The two most important things are the clubs finances/who owns it and getting things right on the field. But it might take a bit of time.

Perhaps stopping kids getting deep fried shite might actually be a good thing.

Given last season we are fortunate to have a club agreed but surely the catering and club finances go hand in hand? The fact every penny counts is all the more reason to sort out the whole matchday package, many behind thevscenes are not new and our catering etc has been crap for years. Running a clubs not easy but again fan input would tell the Pam and co what the fans want, the issues not just chips and pies and programmes but maximising every revenue stream to put the club on a sound financial footing.

Yes they do but it's early days, and these things maybe haven't took priority yet?

Instead of bread surely the logical next step is real bread?

I'm not going again until I get my deep fried shite


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I'm not going again until we start selling Mexican Fajitas , Sweet Potato Burgers and Carrot Cake.

All together?
It was only when the visiting young members of my family recently ordered pizza and chips that I remembered how hopeless the English are when it comes to anything food related.

Remember those gullible fuckers that believed every word coxall spouted?

You could be the leader of the pam duxbury is God believers. She even care's for the health of the poolie youth.

You bring one round and i`ll breadcrumb and serve it to you, make sure it`s solid though as the runny ones are hard to roll in breadcrumbs

I had a pie at the game, thought it was rank and tasteless. The pies we had on Friday night at the race night were lush.

If people don't voice their opinion on areas of improvement then that could be construed as there aren't any problems. I don't think people are going overboard in their criticisms, more like relating what they experienced. Generally, making suggestions is a constructive contribution. No one is seriously considering chucking their season tickets in the dock and there is no evidence of a wank fest, none that I have seen anyway.
I think we are all aware of the problems Pam has had to sort out and she appears to be getting on with that but there are other members of the hierarchy that have their own remit to attend to and to get right. In those areas there is clear room for improvement. That is all people are basically saying.
If Pam or whoever reads this thread I firmly believe these areas will be looked at and steps taken to improve them.
My daughter and I will be at Macclesfield tomorrow night. i'll have a good look at their set up and report back.

I think they were both Parkers, must have been the excess booze lushed it up

I will wear a carnartion so you recognise me

Apparently the insides were hotter than the sun going by yloops reaction to spilling some on his hand.

Also got a pie at the match on Saturday and disappointed to find out that they only did hot dogs or meat and potato pies (only found this out when i got to the front and was directed to a single A4 bit of paper stuck to the counter). The pie in question was 10% meat and 90% mashed potato. Also asked for a fork and was told to rummage around in the box of plastic tea spoons for one like a budget Crystal Maze game.

Looks like i'll be smuggling in a Morrison's chicken box before next Tuesday's game

Large chicken bites, criss-cross chips and BBQ sauce for those who are interested ...

If you can put a review and rating in the Venezia thread after Tuesdays game please...