Commercial failings

[montague]

One of the big impacts of all of this is the ground half emptying on 35 mins. I don't buy any drinks or food on match day because I can't be arsed to queue and I don't want to miss any of the game. If I could be sure I could get served in the 15mins I probably would.

[Des Little]

It's not a science.  I remember being at Derby away, JPA was playing so that gives you a clue how long ago it was.  At half time the kiosk had pre-poured pints with lids on, and they were banging them out ten to the dozen without any issue.  Other clubs have bottle bars doing likewise.  We don't need a Steve Jobs to get this set up FFS.  The staff in the Holte Suite look like rabbits in headlights after the game, as if they weren't expecting hundreds of people wanting a drink.

One last thing, why don't we just serve bottles in the stands?  You have to go some to get a pint down you in 15 mins, so a bottle is plenty, and takes a fraction of the time to serve too. 

Rant now over.

[Risso]

You have to go some to get a pint down you in 15 mins, so a bottle is plenty

What prawn sandwich brigadery is this?! Do you sip it with your little finger elegantly sticking out?!

A pint in 15 minutes beyond you?  Deary me Des!

[Mister E]

Catering at half time is literally a joke. . The problem is the staff, half of them havent got a clue at what they are doing and look completely lost. You really have to question what training they receive if any! You can put measures in place like contact less paymenst etc to speed things up, but while the staff are as they are, nothing will change.   

Not just the staff.
The environment, queuing facilities, leadership, staff training, better payment systems ...
And, whilst I'm at it, the toiet facilities are poor too: queuing; people smoking, snorting; poor tpas / basins; etc

[Mister E]

Another thing has always irked me: why do they not use some of the space at ground level in the Holte to put mini merchandise vending units? - scarves, hats, flags, etc. They'd sell stuff each week.

[London Villan]

With the closure of so many pubs around the ground the must surely be a opportunity for a well thought out fan park type thing. Sky sports, decent beers, family zones, more ‘lively’ zones, food, seating etc etc

You mean like the Holte pub?

No not at all like the Holte Pub. Service is terrible in there but to even so it's always packed. I'm thinking more like the facilities that spring up at racecourses and festivals. There would be no reason why you couldn't have a large marquee with screens, tables and chairs, food at both the Holte End and North Stand end of the ground.

[Sexual Ealing]

You have to go some to get a pint down you in 15 mins, so a bottle is plenty

What prawn sandwich brigadery is this?! Do you sip it with your little finger elegantly sticking out?!

A pint in 15 minutes beyond you?  Deary me Des!

I'm with Risso here. Whenever I'm confronted by a choice of only bottles I feel like my human rights have been infringed upon.

[Brassneck]

When a minimum wage worker is employed to serve for a 15 minute slot at HT, (s)he will never satisfy everyone in the queue.

I fail to see how this is a commercial failing and other than opening 50 more kiosks around the ground, I don't see what the answer is?

Lots of customers unable to give you their money for something which they are trying to sell you is the very definition of a commercial failing.

How about improve the method of delivery so it doesn't involve a teenager sloping off down the other end of the bar every time someone fancies a beer?

I am sure other grounds employ agency staff on minimum wage to do this work as well, but most of them seem better at it than we are. Which is probably why our commercial income managed to barely improve all through the latter premier league years.

Maybe the answer is, as you said, opening more kiosks? Maybe it is redeveloping the ground? Maybe it is moving to a new ground?

Whatever it is, we need to find the answer, because we're just going to fall further and further behind.

200 kids serving 20,000 people in a 20 minute slot? Do the maths.  It’s 100 customers per bar person or 5 customers per minute.  It’s impossible.

[Des Little]

Right then Risso, Sexual I'm taking this as a challenge. You can pair up, and you can bring your fackin' dinner with you as well....

[AV82EC]

I’ve often felt that the Car Park behind the Holte is a massive missed opportunity for generating income. If it had temp bars and food outlets (with some cover in case it rains) I would go earlier to have food/drink.

The whole stadium is in need of a massive upgrade. All 3 stands were done in a rush to satisfy the Taylor report and are now massively inadequate for what we need if we are to compete at the highest level. I think our match day income for a full house is probably about a third if not lower of what the likes of Arsenal and others generate. That’s just not good enough.

[XXVilla]

I don’t eat or drink at Villa Park and won’t until the quality/price ratio improves.

[Ad@m]

I agree on the Holte End car park - I don't know who parks there but it can't be a massive issue to close that off before games to create a fanzone with different food and drink stalls.  Yes there will be people with disabled passes who park there but I'm sure we could find some space out the back of the Witton End.

As for half time, I'm another who would almost certainly spend money at half time at every game but refuse to miss any of the match and know that there's zero chance of getting served if I head down on the ref's whistle.

The staff efficiency and effectiveness is definitely an issue but that's always going to be a challenge with 18 year old kids on minimum wage employed for a few hours every fortnight.  Instead the club should be changing the process - as others have said, lets have tills dedicated to taking money and then a separate area for collection.  You could even largely do away with the tills and have an app to place orders in advance, if we had a closed wifi network in the ground to run it on.

This has been talked about many times before, even in Fan Consultation Groups I believe, and the pushback from the club was always the cost of the infrastructure needed and an inability to make a business case out of it.  I get that in the short term, but now we have considerably richer owners than yow surely they can afford to spend a bit on faster pouring pint machines in the hope that it generally drives up the fan experience and brings more people to the club in the longer term?

[dave.woodhall]

Another thing has always irked me: why do they not use some of the space at ground level in the Holte to put mini merchandise vending units? - scarves, hats, flags, etc. They'd sell stuff each week.

You can't obstruct potential exitways.

[exigo]

Out of the 15 homes I've been to this season in L3, only twice has there been a burger ready to serve. I've tried different times, way before kick-off. The straw that broke the back was when it took nearly half an hour to make one.

Sort it out Villa, that's another £50 that could have paid for several second's of a first-teamer's wages.

[Villan For Life]

We could take a look at how they do things at Edgbaston. Yes it's roughly half the capacity of Villa Park but on major match days such as an Ashes test or T20 Finals day they have a food court with various food outlets and different bars. They also have  servers walking around with beer tanks on their backs serving beer to glasses that are part of the beer tank so they serve two at once.

All of this is before you get into the stands. Stick some kind of roof over the car parks at the back of the Holte and also the back of the North Stand and let people buy food and drink before they enter the ground. They control access egress at half time and you should have a much smoother operation.