[Bullseye]

Off field stuff : Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:24 pm  

I was going to post this under the all weather car parking thread but I think it deserves it's own.

Bulliac wrote:

As for the drinking bit, if the club sold decent ale like the top House, more would drink in the ground, though I know full well it isn't really feasible to serve cask beer on a single day per fortnight (or even fewer) so I think they'll just have to accept that. PS, I know it could be re-racked but it would take most of the profit setting it up and you'd still have the wastage.

Agreed but they could at least sell some decent bottled ales. No issues with wastage there. They could do a tie up with a Bradford brewery provided the contract with the current beer provider allows it. They could do a mark up on price to make a profit like they do on Roger's cans of Guinness.

On Saturday I was driving so was looking for somewhere in the ground to buy a cold soft drink. There wasn't anywhere other than the main bar on the pop side which had a queue a mile long. The little sweet stall wasn't there and the burger joint only sold warm cans of coke zero. On a hot day like that I thought it was very poor.

I've also been struck with how many cars are driving around with Ingerlund flags now we're in world cup week. I'd like to see Bulls Car flags on sale again. I'd also buy a decent Bulls tie if they had them for sale.

There's certainly scope for improvement in the income generation side of things.

Re: Off field stuff : Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:36 pm  

Daughter; "Dad can I have an ice cream?"
Me; "Ok here's some money. don't for one minute think you are keeping the change"
Daughter goes to the stall at the back of the stand
"Do you have any ice creams?"
Girl behind counter "No but we have Bulls soup!"

That has to be the most optimistic attempt at selling soup I've ever heard... 20 odd degrees and they decide it's soup day

[Bullseye]

Re: Off field stuff : Mon Jun 11, 2018 1:20 pm  

Definitely some scope for improvement. I notice hot pies are for sale again now it's summer.

Re: Off field stuff : Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:53 pm  

I agree with Bullseye, years ago we used to into the ground at 1.30pm and buy beer from the club. Nowadays we stop in the Top House until around 2.50pm and then walk across. One of the main reasons, is that the bitter in the ground is very poor and over priced. Bottled real ales will bring people in - if sold at the right price. If the club buys bottles at around £1.25/£1.40 and then sells at £2.50/£2.80, then its a win win for all concerned.

Btw, I went to one of the vans for two cans of coke and it was priced at £3.30 - no thanks.

Re: Off field stuff : Mon Jun 11, 2018 7:04 pm  

odd one I saw on Saturday was the group stood I front of me rocked up with a full KFC. Thought there was a ban on bringing in food from fast food outlets and that was one of reasons for the bag searches. Wasn't like they even tried to hide it as it was in original KFC brown bags

Re: Off field stuff : Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:14 pm  

Problem with ice cream is any not sold, you have to leave the freezers on for a fortnight 24/7 awaiting your next customer. Much easier to charge a van pitch fee for a local ice cream van and let them sell as much as they like.

Problem with real ale is it takes to long to pull a pint properly in a situation eg half time when a large number of people want to be served very quickly. There are ways to get real ale into occasional venues but that isn't the issue, the issue is finding ways (including the time, extra funding eg bringing it in and seting it all up and cooling it a couple of days or more in advance) to set it up, using top pressure or whatever, clear, and critically sell it all. It won't keep a fortnight so anything left is dead money. Then there is staff training, and general quality control. Nothing worse than going to a bar for a nice real ale and the product being poor.

Weren't the drinks and snacks stalls behind the main stand concessions? Why aren't they there any more? They always seemed to do a fair amount of trade. Is it because we now sell the prefab hotdogs and burgers ourselves and that would conflict?

[Bulliac]

Re: Off field stuff : Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:26 pm  

Scarey71 wrote:

Daughter; "Dad can I have an ice cream?"
Me; "Ok here's some money. don't for one minute think you are keeping the change"
Daughter goes to the stall at the back of the stand
"Do you have any ice creams?"
Girl behind counter "No but we have Bulls soup!"

That has to be the most optimistic attempt at selling soup I've ever heard... 20 odd degrees and they decide it's soup day

Funnily enough, on one of the hotter days a couple or so of weeks back, as the stall(s) had none, I went into the bar behind the stand to try and buy a bottle of water. Now, they didn't have any either, but their offer a free pint glass of cold water was accepted and much appreciated!

Re: Off field stuff : Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:39 pm  

Nice, but Premises Licence condition requires that tap water be freely available. Same goes for any bar or pub.

[Bulliac]

Re: Off field stuff : Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:49 pm  

I didn't know that. Still, nice to know we're complying with the law!

Re: Off field stuff : Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:21 pm  

Given the big empty unused space behind what should be the away end, why not get down to Aldi when they've got a special on a buy a load of cheap garden furniture and turn that area into a beer garden? If you want people to come into the ground early instead of sitting outside The Top House or Cue Gardens, you need to give them somewhere to be rather than just sat on the floor.
Also, why not split the bar staff into cash takers and pint pullers? That way you speed the queue up as the next person can place their order and the pint pullers just keep topping up the already pulled pints which are passed over as needed