What about food delivery to seats (and not just the high priced seats) to help cur half time lines down? I'm literally 4 seats away from club seats (I think they have in seat food ordering) and pay twice as much as I did at CCS. Would be a really nice perk. I would totally order HCT during the 1st half and have it delivered to my seat so I didn't miss the action. Hit me with a delivery charge to pay for the person running it to me - I'd be totally fine with that.
The app claims you can get delivery anywhere, but I haven't tried it. Edit: nevermind it looks like it is only for the Pub seating.
I am told that you can in fact order and pay for Donatos on the app and then skip the line and just go pick it up.
I have done this for the last few years at Reds games. You order on the app, they assign you a "food locker" and send you a code to open it when it is ready. Extremely easy to use and efficient.
Well, as much as I too loathe and despise the kind of despicable bastard who has the audacity to have more money than I do, this wasn't really my point. I was simply commenting on whether vendors who are essentially land locked into one of the clubs can operate as profitably as, say, Dirty Franks which has a potential customer base of roughly 20,000 people (including club occupants who can if they choose trot out to the concourse like everyone else) In any case, I'm willing to wager whatever you'd like that all of the clubs use the same POS POS terminals as every other vendor in the building, so they're not in there laughing at the idiotic peons out on the concourse being forced to sign a screen with their finger. "I say, Reginald, quite the cockup out there amongst the peasants, what what?" "Rather, Chadwick my boy, but it's their own fault for not starting a hedge fund like that fine young Precourt lad, so they should make them sign with their toes. More pate?" As for the management bending over for the people who pay a shit ton for their seats and telling everybody else to piss off, I find exactly no evidence of this. If you do, please share. All that I see is some folks who paid over five grand so they can park their butts in somewhat better seats and patronize a small concession stand that most people can't get to. Like, oh I dunno, every other stadium in the country. Seems to me they're getting fleeced for what they're actually getting. Furthermore, since I do know people, I can tell you that the two concourse clubs have yet to be full service, neither has more than a few food choices, (their menu is on line, take a look - last I saw the only options were nachos, a frankfurter and six boneless wings; not exactly luncheon with Her Majesty at Windsor) the Rail Club for example has exactly two beers, both of the from Gemut (a dunkel and a lager, no Miller Lite, no Modelo, no champagne cocktails served by buxom lasses, nothing). Hell, that first week they were handing out free UDF sandwiches and bottles of water because nothing else was done and they would essentially be locked up for 2 hours with no food or liquids. If this is going all in for the swells at the expense of the masses, it's rather poorly done. Again, if you have evidence that management is bustling around the clubs catering to the glitterati, please share. I seriously doubt they are, except in some people's fantasies. To say their "focus" is on the rich folks is, well, a contention that lacks even a modicum of evidence.
I was thinking that maybe it would help to send the head of food service over to Europe to see how it's done. At the Amex Community Stadium for Brighton and Hove Albion, they were able to deal with a pretty big halftime rush for 25,000 rather well. They were able to do that even with offering cask-conditioned ale, which requires the beer to be pumped out of the tap using a beer machine, no CO2. But then I feel like their whole set up was designed to handle a big rush of people at once and keep the lines moving, which probably requires some staff training. With the reliance of so many sports venues here on volunteer groups to staff concessions, I don’t know that we'll ever see that kind of efficiency here.
Back in '99 I missed the Crew's first goal after halftime of the playoff game vs DC because I spent 20 minutes in the beer line. Making it worse, there were unstaffed registers while someone stood outside to keep the lines in order.
One thing that might be helpful is a unobtrusive thing like this I saw outside the bathrooms at Atlanta’s stadium. Especially on the north and south concourses it seems like lines run together once they get past the ropes set up.
That would be so much better than a maze of ropes.....and then they become roadblocks when there are no lines (aka after a game)
Here is my photo of the alcohol selection at the Rail Club. (More than 2 beers are available.) No buxom lasses were observed.
I dont know where that is but it is not the Rail Club. I would also point out that whatever that screen device is on the counter it's not an LDC POS terminal
Part of my Observations is to visit clubs/lounges and document any "branding" I can find. I always take a picture of the beer cooler since beer cans count as branding. So caused of your comment I went back and double checked what I submitted. I asked for the experience team member for the rail club and looks like I was directed down to the lower.com lounge, where I snapped the photo. All the clubs have I have visited pretty much the same line up for alcohol.
The ldc lounge is an ultra premium space that costs many many thousands of dollars and includes swanky seating, a fireplace and other very high end amenities including, apparently. top shelf liquor. The Rail Club is very much similar to the old Upper 90. The food is a little better-it would be tough for it to be worse - but limited, there is no liquor of any kind available and, as I said, only 2 beer choices. Mostly what you get is very good seats and a convenient rest room.
Define “top shelf” liquor. Rum choices include Bacardi Silver and Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. They do have Tito’s though. At least that’s what’s in the Huntington Club. However, the liquor is not included in the price of admission. Only the beer in the coolers by the merchandise stand is included.
Well of course Captain Morgan is a league sponsor. One would expect a bottle in there someplace. As for the others, Sapphire would be considered a premium brand, as would Gentleman Jack and Woodford Reserve. Not a big Goose fan (I prefer liquor with actual flavor) but most places charge an extra buck for it. OYO is a local Columbus brand, but I've never had it. (I can't tell what that is between the Sapphire and the Goose) There's certainly better and more expensive stuff on the market but the ones they have aren't exactly well brands either. What I don't understand is the lack of Land Grant. Unless whatever is in those yellow cans is theirs and even if it is. They have Guinness for Christ's sake. How does that fit?
The yellow cans at the bottom are Land Grant. But, obviously, just one of their beers. Not sure what the cans are at the bottom left.
Sorry, forgot to answer this question. Bars divide their liquor selection into 3 categories based on price. "Well" liquor is in the little tray ( the well) under the counter. When you order a rum & coke for example you get whatever the manager has stashed in the well, which is cheap swill. A "call brand" is when you ask for, say Bacardi and coke or Tanqueray and tonic. You specifically called for a brand. Usually add a dollar per shot. ( or in Vegas, add ten) Top shelf liquor is, literally, on the top shelf on the barback. With a mirror behind it and often with a light because they want people to see it and ask.for it. Premium brand, add two bucks a shot. Sometimes more depending. ( in Vegas add 30) Top shelf does not necessarily mean it's the best super premium booze in the world. They'll still charge you 40 bucks a shot for Johnny Walker Black. It's just a price range designator.
I searched exactly that on Google and can’t event find an image in the search that looks like that. So, that’s good.
Add this to the list of things I did not know before today. I knew “well” was the bottom of the barrel, but always thought it was quality and not price determined. Thanks for sharing Bill.
Price and quality often go hand in hand, although there are always exceptions. Mass produced usually = bulk buying of lower quality ingredients and/or less care or aging in the distilling process which = cheaper price. It's the same reason why quality tends to drop noticeably when craft breweries aggressively expand or do larger batches of their limited/seasonal releases (or when they get acquired by a larger entity). Sierra Nevada, Bells and Founders are classic examples. More locally, Platform has gone in the toilet since selling out to AB InBev.