Half Time Beers

[Jonzey 0]

A remark by Gazza on another thread reminded me of this utterly vital issue:

We''re all aware of the stressful half time queue to get a beer, will I miss the start of the second half? Will the beer sell out? It''s a nightmare!!!!!

The solution has to lie with the way I bought a beer at Reading last season. I was in a horrendous half time queue and getting extremely annoyed by the asbsolutely rubbish bar staff who seemed incapable of working tills/pumps/their feet. Then a mate shouted to me, ''Jonsey, turn around!''

There was a guy behind me with a keg of beer strapped to his back pouring pints!!!!! It was as if he was sent straight from heaven I tell ya!! Apparently there was a whole team of them around the stadium. Genius.

The question is: How do we get these marvellous inventions at Carrow Road in time for the new season?

[Flick Fleck 0]

...and there was I struggling with a new biting insult for the Yankee Man when this thread caught my eye...

...nice to see that with all these transfer speculations going around, head-to-head battles of wit from either side of the Atlantic, and seemingly endless threads of waffle, someone out there is getting their priorities in order!! OTBC...

I''ll have a bitter, please Jonzey...

[At last? 0]

I guess you could do worse than write or email the club Jonzey and see how you get on. Let us know wont you.

Always did amaze me how chaotic the half time beer / pie etc service is at Norwich and other clubs. Crikey even the local village panto does pay in advance for beer get a token and get it immediatly.

but i do like the beerkeg on the back plan!!

[Pete Raven 276]

Maybe we should bring Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeets out of retirement...

I can hear him now:

"Beeeeeeeeeeer, cider, ale"

[Mr.Carrow 376]

Not sure the sweeeeets mans back could take it.....!

Seriously though, the queues of frustrated,thirsty customers at half-time tell only half the story. I for one dont even bother having got fed up with it years ago, and i know plenty of people who feel the same. I reckon the club could double its beer sales if it could come up with a more efficient system.

I once went to a ground in Belgium (Circle Brugge i think) where fans bought books of `beer vouchers`in advance which certainly speeded things up, not having to mess about with money,change etc. I suppose forgery would be a problem but you would have thought that with the clubs high-tech ticketing system they could give it a go?

[Pete Raven 276]

Perhaps the club should look to Burnley where they had pints already poured. Maybe Squares should look at this too. Would certainly speed things up. Although, it doesn''t really concern me as the girls behind me go in on 38 minutes and get me a pint ready at my table for half-time.

[Jonzey 0]

In the Barclay Lower they have a device which pours six pints at a time, a good start. They also prepare loads of pints just before half time to get a more of a head start. But the bit which takes the most time is money transactions. The idea of tokens or vouchers bought on the day is superb. The same could go for the pies.

This coupled with mobile beer kegs will surely double the speed of serving beer at half time. As would pie/sweet carts going round the stands. Anybody know how I could forward these ideas on? I''m sure someone would listen if it showed profit would go up.

[GenerationA47 747]

All good ideas - send them to the club. Mine''s a Worthington, please (as always).

[Super Shaun Carey 0]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeets!!

What a legend.

Still a favourite chant of my mates on night out.

We should definitely have an alcohol equivalent of the great man.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

In the upper Barclay they like to get ahead of themselves so when the half time whistle goes they''ve already poured loads of pints which are sitting there on top of the fridges. Nice idea, but I''d prefer to wait a few seconds longer and have a frosty one thanks!!

[gazzathegreat 0]

the vouchers idea is a great one, or tokens, but that would probably be too complicated!!!

why not just make half time longer?

[At last? 0]

Jonsey try neil.doncaster@ncfc-canaries.co.uk

[Pete Raven 276]

Even simpler idea - copy rugby and cricket and let us drink in the stands...

[Bryan Gunn 0]

I read something the other day about a German catering company who tried to lobby FIFA to extend half time to 20 mins in order to sell more beer and sausage! But it was rightly turned down straight away.
I work in a concert venue and we have similar issues with interval drinks, pre-ordering speeds things up but i can''t see it working in football stadiums. There are machines, brought in from America which they use at the mellenium stadium cardiff, which can pour something like 20 pints @ a time! They are expensive though! Don''t know how many of you sit in the new south stand but they have ignored draught beer alltogether and just gone with plastic bottles of lager and cans of bitter in plastic cups which obviously speeds up service. However, do u guys think draught beer is neccesary for your match day experience?

[Jonzey 0]

You can''t beat a freshly poured pint. Canned beer is very second rate, and bottled beer only gives you half the amount of beer for your money - rip off!!!

The mobile beer kegs in Reading were proper professional jobs, with insulating etc. In fact they reminded me of the ghostbusters. The pint was a proper frosty one.

I''ll e-mail Neil the link to this thread, see what he thinks.

[Jonzey 0]

An update to this most important thread:

I''ve contacted Mr Doncaster who kindly replied with the following possible initiatives for next season;

Relocating the majority of tills from the back bars to the front counters in most kiosks to free up space for pre-poured drinks at half-time and to speed up cash transactions at the counter.
* Relocate all condiments (sugar, milk, ketchup etc.) away from most counters to encourage customers to move away from the kiosks as quickly as possible.
* Adding 10 additional till points (most of them in the Barclay uppers+snake pit) to deal with queues faster
* Currently investigating the possibility of positioning of up to 10 mobile hot drink trolleys and cool boxes with softdrinks around the perimeter of the pitch at the bottom of several stairwells
* Reading Football Club are using an external company for their mobile beer sales and I am getting in contact with them to investigate opportunities.
* Explore possibility to add a 2nd television in the snake pit area to encourage more customers to make more use of the inside kiosk, which currently only achieves half the income than city lower 4.

Cheers Neil.

Further to the points listed above there will additional training for our kiosk staff in the summer.

[Bryan Gunn 0]

well played jonzey

[gazzathegreat 0]

brilliant work jonzey

i am somewhat alarmed i have to say that someone at the club is looking into things for us!!

maybe they learnt something from last winter after all

i do know that the queues in the more expensive areas of the ground are somewhat thinner - the lower barclay is a joke (but not unlike most venues i have to add)

tokens or tickets are the answer, i am not asking for two much am i, just a little refreshment at half time without missing any of the action

what happens now is one of us will go to the bar on 39 mins or so to get the pies, drinks in for the others - not ideal, but in v hot or v cold weather we need some help!!!

the pies are much improved by the way, but couldn''t we have a different chocolate selection for next season, i am fed up getting the "hand off ladies" yorkie bars!!

and can we have the same coffee delia and co drink? Please?