It was my first trip to the amex last night. (I know... bad fan).
Firstly. WOW!
What a tour de force the stadium is.
Organisation
We arrived about 5 minutes late through underestimating the train times to get there.
we had excellent seats in West Stand upper Row A, but when we got there, the seats were occupied.
We enlisted the aid of a steward, who said he had no authority to take any action, so we waited 5 minutes on the concourse while he fetched his supervisor.
The supervisor looked at our tickets and sent us to a different aisle on WSU.
Once we got there, the Steward looked at our tickets and took us back to where we were originally.
We pointed out the seats which were supposed to be ours, and he went to look at the interlopers tickets, returning to say that our tickets had been double allocated.
We took a batch of 5 seats nearby, and managed to watch 5 minutes of the game before the seat owners turned up, and we were homeless once again.
Going back to the stewards, we waited another 10 minutes on the concourse while they identified 5 seats in West Stand lower.
After being conducted outside the staduim, via the ticket office to collect new tickets, which it turned out we didn't need, we eventually reached our sets in West Stand Lower with 10 minutes of the first half to go.
Catering.
I left my seat 5 minutes before half time to visit the toilets. No complaints, (Especially compared to the Goldstone!)
Emerging, I saw that the queue for catering was only 12 to 15 people, so I joined the end of the queue to get a half time steak and ale pie.
I joined the queue at 8:12, and arrived at the front at 8:39 - 27 minutes.
For 20 of those minutes, I remained rooted to the same spot, as it became clear that most people had developed their own solution to half time queues.
As the time passed, more and more people emerged from the stands to joint the queue in places "held" for them by friends.
The young lad directly in front of me, alone accepted 6 of his friends into the queue ahead of me.
By the time I got to the head of the queue, the only food left was chicken balti pies and hot dogs, neither of which I wanted.
I left empty handed after 30 minutes.
surely it is not beyond the wit of man to provide some signage as to what is CURRENTLY available at any given catering point.
This would at least stop people from having to queue for non existent foodstuffs.
Whether this constitutes a shambles is open to different viewpoints.
As it stands, I feel that my first visit to the Amex was tarnished by poor organisation, poor stewarding and poor catering/queue control.
I'll not mention transport, as it is clear that much of this is outside the clubs hands.
Just chose the transport option which suits you personally, with the constraints that you can put up with I guess.
Having said all that, I WILL be going back, I just need to figure out how to get hold of a Steak and Ale Pie.
Firstly. WOW!
What a tour de force the stadium is.
Organisation
We arrived about 5 minutes late through underestimating the train times to get there.
we had excellent seats in West Stand upper Row A, but when we got there, the seats were occupied.
We enlisted the aid of a steward, who said he had no authority to take any action, so we waited 5 minutes on the concourse while he fetched his supervisor.
The supervisor looked at our tickets and sent us to a different aisle on WSU.
Once we got there, the Steward looked at our tickets and took us back to where we were originally.
We pointed out the seats which were supposed to be ours, and he went to look at the interlopers tickets, returning to say that our tickets had been double allocated.
We took a batch of 5 seats nearby, and managed to watch 5 minutes of the game before the seat owners turned up, and we were homeless once again.
Going back to the stewards, we waited another 10 minutes on the concourse while they identified 5 seats in West Stand lower.
After being conducted outside the staduim, via the ticket office to collect new tickets, which it turned out we didn't need, we eventually reached our sets in West Stand Lower with 10 minutes of the first half to go.
Catering.
I left my seat 5 minutes before half time to visit the toilets. No complaints, (Especially compared to the Goldstone!)
Emerging, I saw that the queue for catering was only 12 to 15 people, so I joined the end of the queue to get a half time steak and ale pie.
I joined the queue at 8:12, and arrived at the front at 8:39 - 27 minutes.
For 20 of those minutes, I remained rooted to the same spot, as it became clear that most people had developed their own solution to half time queues.
As the time passed, more and more people emerged from the stands to joint the queue in places "held" for them by friends.
The young lad directly in front of me, alone accepted 6 of his friends into the queue ahead of me.
By the time I got to the head of the queue, the only food left was chicken balti pies and hot dogs, neither of which I wanted.
I left empty handed after 30 minutes.
surely it is not beyond the wit of man to provide some signage as to what is CURRENTLY available at any given catering point.
This would at least stop people from having to queue for non existent foodstuffs.
Whether this constitutes a shambles is open to different viewpoints.
As it stands, I feel that my first visit to the Amex was tarnished by poor organisation, poor stewarding and poor catering/queue control.
I'll not mention transport, as it is clear that much of this is outside the clubs hands.
Just chose the transport option which suits you personally, with the constraints that you can put up with I guess.
Having said all that, I WILL be going back, I just need to figure out how to get hold of a Steak and Ale Pie.
