Just an observation from last nights game......

From my normal position behind the Town End goal I like to enjoy a half time pint in the corner between the TE & CK stand. On normal match days prior to this season with crowds of 2-3k I would set off to queue up when the injury time announcement takes place.

The time taken to be served would vary & after 1 pint I would usually just get back in position as they re-start the second half.

Now if last night has anything to go by....... I have not got a cat in hells chance of being served this season...I didn't even bother as the queue was huge and it was still huge10 Mins after the game had restarted and I don't think it was the fact everyone wanted a drink although it was very close... I just think it was slow very slow to get served and the queue did not seem to move much!.

The two lasses obviously cant work any quicker....They have to pull each pint individually!!! and if the gas is getting excited (as normal) it can take 1-2 minutes to pull it through that's not many pints being sold & not many people getting served. And the tin segregation fence does me head in !!! Jesus the lasses must think look at the size of my queue to yours {1 Man 1 Pint} it's madness.

Its fine for 2500 at home you can get a pint just...But its not going to work at all this season it needs sorting out fast. I don't suppose they will introduce the Cricket/Concert type pumps that shell out 6-8 pints in 10 seconds I pressume they cost a fortune?

Why not try Cans get 2-3 chest fridges and have them cold or Plastic bottles like the Loids did when we last visited them 4k of us and we all got a drink at half time.

When you have 15 Mins to queue have a pint & a Pi$$ there is no time to pull individual pints for each person, even the Mill House Pub had a make shift can bar outside last night and they have about 10 staff on matchdays.

There must be more Profit in a cold Can/ Bottle anyway??

Any more suggestions??? There is money to be made for the club here.....

Remember this season the five to 3 brigade is finished now! so there will be more people in the ground prior to kick-off me included & I'd like a pint!

Otherwise I might have to bring my own.

Can and bottle bar is a cracking idea £2 a can or bottle no messing about with change.

On a similar topic I've lost count of the number times the half time pie and Bovril queues have been massive cos people are waiting for chips, the solution is either serve lots of stuff pre wrapped and ready to hand out (lot of clubs do this with burgers, hot dogs and pies) making it faster. Offer people meal deals so the lasses don't have to stand around trying to add up how much a foot-long, Bovril, bottle of pop and a mars bar is.

Oh and Chips, either don't serve them or get a huge warmer so that in the 15 minutes of half time you don't waste 10 of them cooking chips.

Oh and while I'm moaning about my matchday junk food fix is there any chance we can stop the ridiculous policy of not letting us have bottle tops? I don't know if anybody has tried but I am certain that if I was going to chuck something at someone I wouldn't throw a bottle top when I have metal coin in my pocket and can go and buy cups that contain boiling water (which unless the rules have changed used to be a painful thing to have poured on you).

In fact, yeah ban chips, I'm fat enough thanks and don't need chips whenever I come to the footy but can't walk past knowing they are on sale, sell salad instead that's what we need salad.

The top is removed because if left on then the bottle can be thrown easier, and if left with the liquid inside can be thrown with force. You may not throw the cap but you may throw the whole bottle.

i'd bet anyone a pint you can throw a bottle the same distance without the top on as you can the same distance without.

The difference with or without the top is minimal.

I bet you it isn`t, an empty bottle would not injure, a bottle with liquid in would, pointless throwing a topless bottle with liquid as the people in front would nack you for soaking them, on second thoughts

I throw like a girl.

Seriously though why leave the tops off when what they could do is just get some better stewards who are awake and could kick the scruffy bottle throwing knobs out.

Monkeyhangers - have you tried emailing the club? Its a valid point you make and throughout the ground they are losing out on thousands of pounds of revenue each match

A can fridge/stall would not work - cans wouldnt be allowed at a football match

A plastic lager bottle stall could work however, assuming they remove the lids which is a requirement. Why is it a requirement? Who cares? It is.

Pre-pulling pints might be an idea, they could stock up 50 or so right before half time, and if someone continues pulling it might reduce the problem

Whatever catering arrangements were in place last year, they need to double it

There was plastic bottles of Carlsberg being sold behind the Town End last night, definitely the way forward.

Selling Carlsberg is never the answer. I'd rather queue for 2 hours for a pint than drink that shyte.

Get me a pint TPP and i'll square you up later.

Cans are allowed at matches, they used to sell them at notts county

What email address gets to Mr Green

F.A.O Russ Green at media@hartlepoolunited.co.uk

Pools have been missing a trick for years because of the slow service - no end of people never buy food/drink at half time because it takes so long to get served.

I drew this to the attention of Paul Mullen, but it was shortly before he had to pack in working so I don't think it was ever addressed.

Pools are not alone in having slow service though - many grounds you go to as an away fan seem to employ people who have never used a till/never handled sterling/don't know what Bovril is.

Whilst I don't want to see a McDonalds type attitude to fans, the club should make it as easy as possible to everyone to spend as much money as possible on food and drink.

How many bars are there in the ground??

Agree with this whole heartedly. I don't know if they employ someone to run the catering outlets and bars but surely if they did and operated their salary on an incentives basis the improvements would be massive.

Less dumb people in turnstiles would be good too, last night approach gates for Nirmax Seating ticket holders, hand over tcket, lad says 'oh I can't take those tickets here' It was a fucking ticket for the fucking seats that matched the sign on the outside of the useless not nice people turnstile I wonder how many people get turned away from the gates for having the wrong colour socks on next year.

There is two in the Town End, one behind the stand and one on the Clarence Rd entrance. Not sure about other areas as I am one of the riff raff that stand.

I know there's one under the Millhouse so there's probably eight, including the Rink End??

At half time in the town end some bloke turned up and started selling bottles of Fosters out of the door in the bar behnd the town end. It made the pint buying process a lot quicker. There is going to be no perfect system but I'm sure things will improve week by week....

Took ages for me to get served a pint before the game, I was in the Ward Jackson like!

Seriously, I tend not to have food/drink at half time, simply because of how long it takes to get served, and that was on last seasons crowds

Pools could sell tokens each of which would be worth the price of a pint. You pre buy your tokens, take them along to the bar at half time where some staff are just pulling pints and others are dishing them out, taking tokens in return which they chuck into a bucket.
That way no money is handled, meaning time isn't wasted sorting change out etc.
Start pulling the pints prior to the half time whistle and job sorted.
At least that way more pints would be consumed/sold.

Football isn't the only entertainment business that has to serve a lot of people quickly. There must be lessons that can be leant from elsewhere. For example whenever I've been to gigs at the NIA they've served beer in plastic bottles. Its the only way to avoid pouring pints. Its quick and easy. It may not be the best way to present beer but at half time all people want is to wet their whistle. Either that or have hundreds of pints pre-poured before half time. It will never be ideal. What we do need is for the club to maximise their food/drink income.

How about, and I know this might sound strange, having a few before the game in the Mill, then watching the game, then having a few more after the game in the Mill. It's only a couple of hours after all

Just a thought

That's a good point Mr B but with the ST prices the club should be seeking to up revenues from their food and drinks where if done right profits can be huge.

For the club to make the season ticket work 100% they have maximise every possible stream of revenue from pints to pies, to advertising space and shirt sales. I'm sure Russ Green hasn't got such an attitude towards this issue. Imagine everyone thought like that and only had spent at most £4 a home game back in July for the full season?

I'm sure they'll be open to feedback, even welcome it. My mate a couple of years ago e mailed Russ about the bar behind where we sit in the Cyril Knowles. He replied arranged a meeting and the next home game two near beer pumps had been added!

They need to be able to sell as much as possible as quickly as possible.

Just a had a reply back from Pools regarding service levels and improvements discussed with staff.

A meeting was held today to discuss operations in light of last night and forthcoming higher attendances, increased staffing levels planned, specific outlets for highest footfall areas eg chips, also getting in new equipment to handle the output, they are working hard behind the scenes to get this right for the new season.

They appreciate the supporters valued opinions and continue to make improvements on the back of these.

Some good news for the chip and beer consumer

Point completely missed.

Just checked my emails and I have had a reply :

Thanks for your email.

I'll make sure that is passed on to Russ for you.

Best Regards

Becky McNamee
Media Projects Co-ordinator

Can't ask for more than that....I wonder if I followed Man Utd I'd get such a response with my requests?

Poolie till I die

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiu_IX14 ... r_embedded

Mentioned before but this is what they need.

Same thing but reinforces the numbers!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmnp3aVG ... re=related

According to Alan who runs the bars,all is in hand for first home game.

Something beautiful about watching that video

We should get them in I know the cost of the machines would be a hit and the fact the glasses would cost more than regular ones (due to device in the bottom), however the increased amount of people that will be served would out weigh this.

Has anyone sent this link to pools?

I'm sure the bar manager is aware of different options and all costs have been considered. I reckon the service will be much improved next Saturday - let's have some faith...

it would bring in some great media coverage tho, fans would love it and would buy more as they would know they'd get served ultra fast.

For those of you in the "Bottoms Up" camp, I can't find any evidence of that particular dispensing system having received the necessary approval for use in the UK.

There ARE other multi-dispense systems which DO have approval, and could use ordinary glasses (rather than gimmicky manetised ones) but I suspect the installation costs could still be prohibitive,and a few extra young bewers on minimum wage could be the way forward.

I dont think thats the answer as would require more pumps and th lasses at Pools arnt the fastest at pouring or adding up, the "udder" things like what was at Cardiff would to the trick quicker.

What is wrong with cans or plastic bottles??
I was at an AFL game a few weeks back...crowd of 12,000, all beer was sold in cans and there was no long wait to get served. If there isn't enough fridge space then that is easy solved by filling some sizeable esky's/chilli bins or whatever it is you Brits call them with a load of ice....beautiful icy cold beer with no hassle...seems so obvious that this is the way to go...or am I missing something??

I reckon bottles would be more profitable. They'd be easier to shift and you can charge the same price as pint so you'd get a higher mark up.

Can never understand why people drink them in pubs though, they're a fricking rip off.

you can get plastic budweiser bottles.

Job done.

End of thread.

P.s. no idea also why people buy bottles over town, £2.50 for a bottle or £2.50 for a pint, durghhh!

Budweiser tastes horrible and is far too fizzy like all Yank beers.

FACT

not the new bud, budweiser 64.

it's like a dream.

I'm told that Sheff wed already have the bottoms up machine at hillsborough.

who told you that?

Gary Megson

A Wednesday fan told me. Also I read this ...
http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tn ... 2117269807

I was wondering how much these cost???

www.grinonindustries.com

From Google.... some Yank wrote:

Last month, I linked to the above video and wondered how this beer dispenser could work. My guess was that the dispenser pushed open a perforated hole in the bottom. Now we have a confirmed explanation:

The cup features a small hole at the bottom, covered up by a circular magnet. Pressurized beer lifts the magnet up, filling the cup until the weight of the beer on top of the magnet pushes it back down, sealing the bottom. This system is not only faster (serving 56 draft beers in a minute), but minimizes spilling, to the joy of sticky-footed concert-goers everywhere.

Josh Springer, head of GrinOn, was originally developing a pitcher with a latch on the bottom, but when it turned out that would cost $30,000 to develop, he switched his focus. The GrinOn cups cost only 30 cents more than normal disposable cups, and the magnets also serve as an advertising device for drunken buffoons, who steal them to put on their refrigerators. Selling that space to advertisers generates extra revenue.