My wife isn't that into going to the stadium, so I wanted to treat her to something nice and make her experience special. Admission to the Audi Sport Club was available for the Crew game at the pogoseat site and I decided to go for it... bought 2 passes for $25 each. The $25 is just for the privilege to enter the club... when asked about food want the lady at the counter said to speak to the hostess and get some vouchers. Well, there was a guy next to her that said we weren't entitled to any and had to pay $28 each for the meal. OK, fine. The $28 gets you one square plastic plate and utensils... the lady suggested loading it up because we would be allowed only one trip to the serving line. Salad, mac & cheese, chicken, beans, pork and something I tried buy could not quite exactly determine what it was. There is dessert and they expect you to fit it into the square plastic plate. My wife protested and what given a small round plate. Oh the $28 doesn't get you an adult beverage (of course) not fountain drinks... just water, lemonade or iced tea. The meal wasn't bad, but not worth $28... I would say it was maybe two notches better than Golden Corral. Time to find a table... most were empty but had a "reserved" sign. The tall tables didn't have reserved signs but are uncomfortable for my wife, so we sat on one of reserved tables. Our waiter was nice and served our tea and water on a timely fashion and was polite and all... but I felt he felt sorry for us for some reason. Left him a $10 for his politeness. We watched the first half on the TV. Of course, the $25 pass does not get you a seat in the stands so at the half time we left and went to our regular seats on 226. $116 total ($25 x 2, $28 x 2, $10) got me very poor value. Even if it had been half, I would think it's a poor value. Thank you Dynamo Front Office for allowing me the opportunity to waste my money. Lesson learned!
A lot of folks that have club access just buy their food at the concessions and bring it up. Then there are those of us who don't even bother to go into the club even though its included with our tickets
The Dynamo (and Levy Restaurants as the concessionaire) have woefully underperformed on delivering within those club areas and suites at BBVA. Maybe the first year or two that BBVA was open it was fine but after that it was constantly being cheap with things or not enough servers or letting anyone who showed a BBVA debit card in or whatever. There's a reason that every game there are a large number of single game club seats on sale by the team or on Flash Seats - there's not the value to pay $90 a ticket for the privilege to pay $28 for a $7.99 all you can fit on one plate buffet. I won't belabor this, but a large part of the reason why attendance has not rebounded as the team has played better from 2017-on is because they burned so many fans on stuff like you mentioned that people have just vowed not to spend those dollars again with this organization.
Wow, used to be like $14 for food in there. Doubling it is insane. as for it being disappointing, if you'd asked any of us in here I'm sure we all would have told you that the club experience is no longer of any value. They've given so many people access to it now that it is overcrowded with long lines and the prices are not great. It's one of the most short sighted things they've done, I think: destroy the value for season ticket holders to buy in the club sections by letting lots of other people in. If they were doing it right, they'd have free food and free non-alcoholic drinks. Limit it to club season ticket holders only, and maybe sell passes. Alternatively, they could do a package where you buy free food and drinks for the season (the Texans have that option for season ticket holders - at least they did when I was a Texans STH - and the price included alcoholic beverages).
I don't recall it ever being $14. It was always around $25 and then changed a bit going up a few bucks and down a few. However, even though the food is pretty good it is not worth the price of a plate. At the Rob - premium seats got a meal before the game, that went away with the new stadium. As you said the "Club Experience" is diminished by the added access for folks who are not paying for club seats. Right now about the only good thing about the club is that it is somewhere to hang out when there's a weather delay - although it gets to capacity then. I don't think they even have player of the game afterwards anymore either - probably because most of the folks who are POTG don't speak English.
I believe access should be provided to those who also meet a certain $ threshold. 5 season ticket family is contributing equal $ as 1 club holder. We want to be just as disappointed as the next guy.
It’s really not that hard to do it right, but it might require sacrificing $647 of extra profit on the food sales for a game so no one will do it. Even though something like that could create value for season ticket holders and lead to incremental club seat STH sales, in the short term it’s a small negative so the Dynamo won’t do it. When was the last time the organization made a business decision with a time horizon beyond a few months? outside of the plan to cut costs and use the proceeds to pay down stadium debt is there any long-term plan?
i don't know man. there's just some things that arent for us little people. believe or not there are people that don't mind paying $25 for a mediocre plate of food. they prefer that than standing next to my drunk ass waiting to pay for an overpriced beer in the concourse.
I Concur, but it appears as if they probably have only sold 60% of the club seats so clearly they have a problem with the pricing and value on that. On flash seats last Saturday Afternoon someone was offering up to 10 206A section club seats for $40 each which is less than half of face value. A number of other club seats less than $50 and I suspect they went unsold
Okay, I've only been in there a couple of times for Dynamo games. Must not have bought food. I know for Dash games it was like $14, but the food options were pretty crappy for Dash games. Either way, too expensive for too little value.
I'm still incensed that they did away with that in seat concierge service for drinks and snacks in the Prawn Sandwich Brigade section.
I think they still have that service. In the President’s Club section. I found the prawns a bit small however.
Last two games I’ve had a pre-game burrito from concessions. Its actually pretty good but that one burrito and a bottle of water was $18.50 first time. Second time it was only $16.50 at the same place. Curious but I like $16.50 a lot better. Still too expensive of course.
$16 bucks for a f'n burrito!!! In our culture! Man o man does our club not know how to sell themselves.