Catering disasters tonight

[Herr Tubthumper]

Goodwood copes with the same amount of fixtures a year, fine dining and just drinking & burgers for both daytime & evening meetings in stands comparable to the Amex. It can easily be handled better than it is

I agree. I've have been to a variety of sports stadia in the UK and abroad and not had major issues with being served. I'd actually argue it must be simple to deal with sports catering as you know exactly how many attendees you have and exactly when the rushes are.

 

[Hastings gull]

How do you train people on a zero hours contract working 4 hours for minimum pay on the odd Saturday or maybe a Friday or a Tuesday if you like or perhaps the third Thursday after Epithany? Send them to Jamaica for a week to work with Tom Cruise in that bar in cocktail?

It might not be the right answer or the one you want to hear but I think it's a miracle we've got anyone to pour a pint at all.

Also something you might not want to hear! My mate has been in catering all his life and said that the training will always be patchy as it costs them to bring in staff when the stadium is empty and train them, so it happens on the job ie as the crowds gather. Furthermore, apparently Sodexo, or whatever they are called, have an international portfolio and would be most reluctant to lose contracts at the most prestigious sporting venues and the Albion would be way down the list.

 

[AlastairWatts]

Following my earlier post, I see from the Daily Mail that Heineken, who produce Fosters, John Smiths etc. are insisting that as part of their sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup, stadiums staging matches must sell their products and no others. As an example, they are insisting that Guinness is replaced by Murphy’s Irish Stout. Incidentally, although I haven’t been to Stamford Bridge in many years, I gather that Chelsea get sponsorship from Sangha and this is the only beer available in their 60+ bars. All of this is because Sangha aren’t allowed to advertise back home, but of course the advertising round the stadium is picked up and broadcast back to Thailand during the TV coverage. Gives Chelsea problems with Champions League fixtures though, which are sponsored by Heineken, so most of the bars simply don’t sell beer at those games!

All this possibly explains (but not excuses) the problems on Tuesday night. I imagine that Sodexo didn’t want to be left with half full kegs of Guinness and Harveys which will spoil between now and the next home game (the quality starts to drop about seven days after starting a keg) Accordingly they probably chose the easy option of running down stocks so that the changeover could be made for this weekend’s rugby fixtures. Frankly, a little planning, some management and supervisory input and some chilled storage would probably have avoided any problems…
Changing over brands isn’t difficult – pubs do so occasionally - but it does mean that quite often the keg couplings are wrong and the badges at the dispense point have to be changed. It also helps if the lines between keg and dispense point are cleaned. I hope someone remembers to do this again when and if (?) they change back….
Co-incidentally, I have an engineer working here today changing our John Smiths draught bitter to Worthington, which will help me keep Molson Coors (Carling, Coors etc.) happy and continue their giving me a discount on the Sky service!