- Print Topic - Archive

Hi, I have had this idea for a while and not put pen to paper due to a lack of time but I fully believe that it is an achievable aim and a worthwhile one too.

I would also like to point out that I am member of the trust and that I would actively do more to promote this idea myself if I still lived in Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, I feel that my location (Dublin) would prevent me from being able to do so. I'd also like to say that I think the Trust has done a great job since it was essentially resurrected.

The idea: It is based on catering at Blundell Park. As we are all aware the Trust has already taken over the running of the bars at Blundell Park and I think all would agree that the reaction has been positive. They put matches on the TVs, get ex players in there, it's open to everyone, the experience is improved to say the least.

My idea is for the Trust to take over the food available at BP. Everyone raves about the food at Kiddy, and many even post on here that they target this away day because of the good food on offer adds to their match day experience. I think we are missing a big opportunity to here.

I think the Trust should put an advert in local papers as far south as Skegness, as far West as Horncastle and Brigg, advertising for local butchers to provide good quality, burgers, Lincolnshire sausages for hot dogs and pies for sale at the ground. You could ask bakers to do the same providing the buns. In exchange, they get extra business, an advert in the stand by the kiosk with their shops contact details and location on a map and they put an advert for each home game in their window.

We can market Lincolnshire produce across the ground and people will pay for the better quality as shown by Kidderminster. Also, if a butcher is getting extra business from us, they might need to employ an extra member of staff, this puts the club in a positive light because it's our business that caused it, produces good vibes around the town about the club and increases it's presence in the community. I say we should try as far south as Skeg and West as Horncastle and Brigg as that is a catchment area. I am from the Skegness area myself, for example.

In the away stand we could go a step further and take out an add in the next clubs programme (if we expect a bigger following) advertising the great local produce on sale at the ground to boost awareness initially, until word gets around. You could have Pipers Crisps on sale instead of walkers, Lincolnshire sausage hot dogs, burgers with a twist of some sort, good pies, even Ostrich burgers from Oslinc. (Anyone who has been to the Lincolnshire Show, Lincoln Grand Prix, or major event in the county will have seen how long the queue is at their stand). We could go even further and get a local micro brewery or someone like Batemans to do a special ale to go on the pumps for match day. Maybe call it Mariners Ale The Town Tipple or something. People are always on here talking about good real ale pubs near away grounds we visit. Let's tap into that market and get people putting money in clubs coffers and enjoying it.

I don't want to bore people to death but I think you get the gist and I'd be happy to discuss this further with anyone who is interested in developing it.

Up the Mighty Mariners!

Tom

We could call the beer Hursts Hooch ;)

We're famous for our fish. Why not £5 for a small haddock and chips?

Quoted from Paris Mariner

We could go even further and get a local micro brewery or someone like Batemans to do a special ale to go on the pumps for match day. Maybe call it Mariners Ale The Town Tipple or something.

That would be brilliant. I think Guisely have their own ale (named something like Nethermore Ale) in the bar in their ground.

Great idea..... We (few that I sit with) have always said how much beneficial it would be to have a small 'Chip Shop' in one corner of the ground.
Proper fish and proper chips would go down a right storm I think. I don't mind paying good money for good food.
At the moment it's expensive cardboard sh1te.

The smell of battered fish with salt and vinegar hmmmmm...

Email the trust on this as I'm sure they'll consider any ideas from fans (unlike the club itself)

While we're on the subject (loosely). In the bars on match days, why do they not have pints already pulled and just need topping before sale, as in other grounds.
Would speed up service in the bars, do away with the crazy crush trying to get served and maybe sell more in the half time interval.
Just a thought, but maybe another reason why they don't do it.

Quoted from MarinerWY

We're famous for our fish. Why not £5 for a small haddock and chips?

I wouldn't do fish and chips because, trying to keep the community angle, there a lots of chip shops in the area and we wouldn't want to be seen to be undercutting their business.

I like the idea of a special beer with a name connected to the club. Willeys Bar in Cleethorpes has a micro brewery so the might be more approachable or maybe Tom Woods.

Would be great Paris. As you say, the Trust has already proved what can be done with the bars.

Quoted from MarinerWY

We're famous for our fish. Why not £5 for a small haddock and chips?

Now you are talking 8)

Quoted from rancido

I like the idea of a special beer with a name connected to the club. Willeys Bar in Cleethorpes has a micro brewery so the might be more approachable or maybe Tom Woods.

Or Batemans - Mr. Bateman is a Mariner! Again, I think you could just throw it out there to micro breweries in our catchment area. It would be in their interest too. Same agreement, we can sell your beer and pay you for it. Put up a sign, with their details in the bar - they, if they operate a pub, put up posters for home games.

On the thought of that we could also get together with art students at the college to produce funky match posters for people to download as a PDF from the OS, here or the Trust website to pin up in their local, place of work, school etc. Lewes FC have some great examples: http://www.lewesfc.com/match-day-posters/ In exchange the students in question get a GTFC headed letter acknowledging their work for the club from the Chairman (facilitated by the Trust) to go in their portfolio and good experience for their future employment.

Mmmm Pipers Crisps [url=http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php][img]http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-excited002.gif[/img][/url]

Something like this would get me buying food at the ground, as it is I can't remember the last time I bought anything from the kiosks.

Great idea! Wouldn't mind actually have a decent burger than some chewed up cardboard..

Does anyone know the current set up regarding contracts for providing food? Would the Trust have to simply compete with the companies who currently provide the food?

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

Does anyone know the current set up regarding contracts for providing food? Would the Trust have to simply compete with the companies who currently provide the food?

The contract still has more than a year to run I think.

What a Great idea !! I would certainly spend and extra 5/7 quid in the ground if the food was any good . It makes me laugh that i bet the away following come to BP to sample fish and chips and what do they end up with .............................

If there is a contract of a year to run, this gives us plenty of time to plan, gather figures on average sales to give a better idea to potential suppliers and organise the arrangement/improve any facilities that need such work.

How about an bookies at the ground? Would need a bookmakers license but beyond that it's not too complicated. All the work to compile odds has been done by all the other bookies, would be simple enough to write some code to pull all those odds together. Would probably have to have a fairly restrictive maximum payout to ensure the trust didn't go bust which could be a problem!

I don't think GTFC should be encouraging gambling. Quality local, healthy produce on the other hand is a great idea. If Kidderminster can do it...

Quoted from rancido

I like the idea of a special beer with a name connected to the club. Willeys Bar in Cleethorpes has a micro brewery so the might be more approachable or maybe Tom Woods.

I live in the house directly behind willy's wine bar and know Bill well enough to approach him with this idea.

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

How about an bookies at the ground? Would need a bookmakers license but beyond that it's not too complicated. All the work to compile odds has been done by all the other bookies, would be simple enough to write some code to pull all those odds together. Would probably have to have a fairly restrictive maximum payout to ensure the trust didn't go bust which could be a problem!

Could the Gut Truster pull a few strings to launch a Laddies backed Trust bookie?!

As for the food, excellent ideas.

Quoted from Paris Mariner

I wouldn't do fish and chips because, trying to keep the community angle, there a lots of chip shops in the area and we wouldn't want to be seen to be undercutting their business.

Fair point, although couldn´t we get one of the local chippies on board to run it? Or even a couple, one for Findus/Ponny, one for Main/Osmond.

I'm not sure... I guess you could argue that any catering at BP would have the same affect because folk that eat a pie and chips during the match aren't as likely to wolf down fish and chips after it.

On the other hand if they wanting to wait for fish and chips, you're right it could impact negatively. But damn it would be great...

In any case, it's good to get talking about it! Thanks for the replies.

Agreed 100%. Great idea

The ale sounds like something that could be sorted quite quickly given people's mentioned contacts. Must be fairly straightforward to implement in the Trust bar for example?

Some great ideas all round.  I don't get to BP often, but the provision for fans in the Pontoon is quite terrible- forcing people to huddle under the rusty girders in biting wind if they want a drink is an awful way to treat your most vociferous fans.  Compare this to Dartford, where they have a super bar open to both sets of fans where you can get a good range of beers and local ales; i.e. a genuine CLUB.

I would try to find a way of implementing all of the ideas above- local ales, better food, better treatment of the fans.  The club already loses far too much money to McDonalds, BP Hotel and the Imp by having inadequate provision.  This will be tens of thousands of pounds a season leaving the club, with probably several million leeched out of GTFC over the last 30 or so years.

Surely this could all be helped by ending supporter segregation and allowing fans to move around the stands, as happens at other grounds?  That would allow fans from the Pontoon to go in the Main Stand Bar, and to have some Town fans behind the goal at the Osmond.  All of a sudden, it becomes more worthwhile to improve the offering and start getting people in the ground an hour earlier to have a lunch and a pint in front of the early Sky game.

Quoted from MarinerWY

The ale sounds like something that could be sorted quite quickly given people's mentioned contacts. Must be fairly straightforward to implement in the Trust bar for example?

We produced a beer a few years ago - it was called Pontoon Pride and it was made by Tom Woods.

Quoted from Simariner

Great idea..... We (few that I sit with) have always said how much beneficial it would be to have a small 'Chip Shop' in one corner of the ground.
Proper fish and proper chips would go down a right storm I think. I don't mind paying good money for good food.
At the moment it's expensive cardboard sh1te.

The smell of battered fish with salt and vinegar hmmmmm...

It's a no brainer and it's been said for years.
Not currently being a member of the trust (regularly skint), it's a lot to expect of others IMO.
However if the money is there and people are really prepared to pay (I would personally charge a fortune to kill queues), then in principle why not ?
Large Haddock, Mushy Peas and chips £12
Don't want to pay that ?
Perhaps need to e.g. buy a ticket/food/pint/programme etc £25 all in one package for a good day.

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

Would the Trust have to simply compete with the companies who currently provide the food?

Are there implications ?
Perhaps some competition could be healthy.

Why the need to get a chip shop to run any chippie at the ground? McMenemys serve fish & chips, surely any served in the stands could be done as an extension of that. Keeps it in-house.

As a matter of interest....
what do McMenemys charge for a plate of fish and chips ?
Could we do a smaller portion for take away - what would people be prepared to pay?

A grimsby town ale- is an awesome idea.......for me its a day out experience a pint of gtfc ale, fish and chips....id pay a six quid for that......

Quoted from somersetmariner

As a matter of interest....
what do McMenemys charge for a plate of fish and chips ?
Could we do a smaller portion for take away - what would people be prepared to pay?

Yesterday it was £15 for fish, chips, peas and bread & butter with tea or coffee. The piece of fish was huge.

I'm not sure how that compares to somewhere like Steeles?

Quoted from 120797

Are there implications ?
Perhaps some competition could be healthy.

I think there could well be implications. The connection between the Trust and the Club is so different. The Trust exist purely to benefit the club and works closely with them wherever possible. It's just so different from an independent caterer providing a service that is trying to maximise profit. I'm no expert but it just doesn't feel like there could be a "fair" competition between rival bidders in this environment. For it to get off the ground the club would probably just have to take a punt on the Trust being able to get this right and stop considering rival bids, even if they are a safer bet.

At Woking they have a chippy under the Lesley Godsen Stand. Its run by the local chip shop who have a few around the area, that's always busy and there are two other catering places in the ground which alway seem to be well frequented even with a 1,200 average attendance.

Quoted from mariner83

Yesterday it was £15 for fish, chips, peas and bread & butter with tea or coffee. The piece of fish was huge.

I'm not sure how that compares to somewhere like Steeles?

wow 15 for for fish and chips.......that's a lot of money.....but i get it

I reckon you do fish and chips (takeaway)  cost price 1.00
pint of ale take away                                                   0.85
take away container + fork and paper +plastic glass      0.05
Total cost                                                                 1.85 * 1.20 (vat) * 3.14 (69%) Profit = selling price  - 7.00........

GP mark up on food your ideally looking at approx 70%
Wet (drink) sales your hoping to get 63%

Have mentioned before the fact that we are sponsored by youngs and the fact that JF obviously has/had contacts in the industry too. Bill Parkinson (I seem to recall) used to go and watch town. We have also great local butchers (I think john turner is a town fan : help here lobsterpot) and numerous food producers in the local area.

There's so many ideas that COULD work at the ground with correct organisation/administration with the catering.

One thing is patently obvious Grimsby is famous for being known as Europe's food town our sorry if this offends some but IN MY EXPERIENCE the food at BP is awful and not worth bothering with I'm sure away fans will be as disgusted as we are. Considering we have some superb fish and chip places and equally superb butchers it could do a lot better job even having a cup of tea is disgusting sorry but that is a fact.

Quoted from somersetmariner

wow 15 for for fish and chips.......that's a lot of money.....but i get it

I reckon you do fish and chips (takeaway)  cost price 1.00
pint of ale take away                                                   0.85
take away container + fork and paper +plastic glass      0.05
Total cost                                                                 1.85 * 1.20 (vat) * 3.14 (69%) Profit = selling price  - 7.00........

Isn't food VAT exempt?

I love this idea though, I do however think some serious market research needs to be done as I can't imagine the friers are a cheap investment and I have no idea on the cost prices you've quoted.

I would think a few trust members have fish rounds and would like to think the trust/the club could use their businesses to not only negotiate a good trade price but also support them and make them a bit of extra cash too (in true community spirit)

I would prefer to pay once for good food & drinks, and not add in all of the indigestion cures on a Saturday or Tuesday night.

Both suppliers (through advertising and sales) and Town ( through contented fans purchasing more goods at a % given to Town by the supplier / vendor) would make money over the season.

Congealed hot chocolate and Bovril lumps at the bottom of a cardboard cup is so tacky and unprofessional.

How many flasks come to the games rather than spending on shoddy food & drinks?

Carrying water to fill up Burco boilers half way through half time is not a good sales ploy!!

Really missing a big profit trick here, Town !!

Quoted from HackneyHaddock

Some great ideas all round.  I don't get to BP often, but the provision for fans in the Pontoon is quite terrible- forcing people to huddle under the rusty girders in biting wind if they want a drink is an awful way to treat your most vociferous fans.  Compare this to Dartford, where they have a super bar open to both sets of fans where you can get a good range of beers and local ales; i.e. a genuine CLUB.

I would try to find a way of implementing all of the ideas above- local ales, better food, better treatment of the fans.  The club already loses far too much money to McDonalds, BP Hotel and the Imp by having inadequate provision.  This will be tens of thousands of pounds a season leaving the club, with probably several million leeched out of GTFC over the last 30 or so years.

Surely this could all be helped by ending supporter segregation and allowing fans to move around the stands, as happens at other grounds?  That would allow fans from the Pontoon to go in the Main Stand Bar, and to have some Town fans behind the goal at the Osmond.  All of a sudden, it becomes more worthwhile to improve the offering and start getting people in the ground an hour earlier to have a lunch and a pint in front of the early Sky game.

The thing is with a ground like Dartford is it's all been designed as a coherent whole to start with. Retrofitting facilities at BP won't be so easy.

Supporter desegregation only really happens in non-League: I'm not sure we'd be allowed to do that in the FL. But again, in a new stadium this could be designed in.

You make a good point, Kingston Mariner. Retro-fitting would be expensive and I'm sure if it were that easy it would have been done. I think things like allowing the fans to move around and improving the quality of food and drink are acceptable quick fixes that might improve the situation in the short term.

Great post by the OP and mirrors my thoughts and sentiments on things. I don't understand why food at the ground has to be so mediocre these days, when other clubs have proven (e.g Kidderminster) that it doesn't have to be. I think however fans should somehow be polled to find out what sort of prices they'd be willing to pay - I fully accept that times are hard and that £3 for some food at a game might be affordable, but perhaps twice that for something very decent might be out of reach for many people.

But to make something of the food situation could make for a real talking point for the club, and of course, be great for the fans. I know I *never* buy food when I make it up to Blundell Park (I'm not a local) but I know if they did decent fish & chips or good stuff like good quality, locally sourced sausages then it'd be a real incentive for me to buy when I was at the ground.

The thing is all the out side catering stands are owned by the current company providing food so if the trust was to take over the old kiosks which have not been used for years would need updating, secondly if you wanted to serve fish and chips then you would be looking at major investment in fish fryers etc. lastly cooking hot food that turns out edible can be done without some skill and training which the trust may not have currently.

Quoted from cleethorpes_mariner

The thing is all the out side catering stands are owned by the current company providing food so if the trust was to take over the old kiosks which have not been used for years would need updating, secondly if you wanted to serve fish and chips then you would be looking at major investment in fish fryers etc. lastly cooking hot food that turns out edible can be done without some skill and training which the trust may not have currently.

They wouldn't necessarily need to have the skills themselves. There's no reason why the actual provision of the service couldn't be outsourced as it currently is. It's more about the overall vision, the standard you set out for the external company to provide and the overall management. If the object of the exercise is just a quick win, lowest common denominator approach designed to bring in the most cash for the club in the short-term then you end-up with something like the existing arrangement. Within the existing resources, time and skills of the commercial team at BP, this may be the best realistic result.

The big question is at the expected price point, and the costs and challenges of working in BP, and the costs of higher quality ingredients, is there enough of a margin to make it work for all involved? What the Trust could bring is the time and the energy to (a) find those suppliers and caterers who meet those quality standards and share the vision; (b) provide ancillary support and even make the investment in equipment and facilities needed to keep costs down. There might even be some financial advantages if this was done under the auspices of the Trust (I don't know what but I bet there's an accountant out there who could find it!).

The benefits of providing good quality, locally sourced food at affordable prices won't be just about maximising revenue on match day.

Same here the food and drink is awful. The reason why its awful is because they can't cope with the demand in such a short space of time so they tend do the food way before H/T. Me I go to Maccy D's for my lunch when nip for a smoke.

Putting the minutiae of what sorts of sausages or crisps we sell aside for a moment, the overall aim needs to be "How can the Trust and GTFC work together to get a greater proportion of fans into the ground earlier and to spend more money with the football club rather than outside the club"

Let's say I want to come and watch Town on a Saturday. I also want to see the lunchtime kickoff on Sky and have lunch and a few drinks. How is the football club going to make it as easy and attractive as possible for me to do those things at BP, rather than say at a combination of home/pub/McDonalds/Hobsons/Wetherspoons/BP Hotel/The Imp? What competitor analysis has the club done on the offering of these nearby establishments and how is it proposing to entice customers away from them so they stop taking money away from the club?

If I want to watch the game from the Pontoon, but have a beer before the game and at half time, as well as lunch and be sat indoors in the warm, how easy is the club making it for me to do that?

If the club and trust can make even incremental improvements in these areas, then there are probably hundreds of people who instead of spending all of their money away from the club then rocking up a five to three, would come into the ground earlier and put their money back into the club.

I've had a Turners sausage roll ( they are excellent) from a local café for 63p. I'm sure they could be sold , hot for not a ridiculous amount at BP and still be profitable. This is only one item but I'm sure lots of other examples could be found.

I reiterate a point I have made many times about pre/post match at BP. Trust member should maybe get discount on their first pint/drink before the kick off of the televised games. Not only is getting people to use the clubs facilities, but also taking money away from others. The imp, blundell hotel et al all offer the same product to what is a very limited demographic. Am sure there are people that have looked at this within the club/trust, but I am sure there are many out there willing and wanting to help the club with their experience if they can.

The tric, here you see is that all offer a crap product......raise the bar......keep the prices real.

Quoted from Meza

Same here the food and drink is awful. The reason why its awful is because they can't cope with the demand in such a short space of time so they tend do the food way before H/T. Me I go to Maccy D's for my lunch when nip for a smoke.

Partly down to do with the physical constraints of the site I guess.

Build a clubhouse in one of the home corners. Bar, food, footy and strippers.

How about pre ordering food then for a bit of discount? Easiest way to do it and simple to coordinate. Maybe it's just the logistics of everything that causes the problems?? Too many people in a particular space at any one time?

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

How about pre ordering food then for a bit of discount? Easiest way to do it and simple to coordinate. Maybe it's just the logistics of everything that causes the problems?? Too many people in a particular space at any one time?

This was my idea of raising the idea now - it gives us time to gather info about how much the current caterers sell of pies, hot dogs, burgers and drinks roughly on a match day. We could ask people by conducting surveys prematch or ask the caterers directly. That way, when the proposal to prospective butchers and bakers is made we can give them a rough idea of how much we want, This has the double advantage of not over-buying initially and giving the said butcher or baker a realistic chance of know whether or not they have the man power and production capacity to produce an extra, say, 1000 buns or burgers every two weeks on average.

That is where the community angle comes in - if they need to produce so much more they need to employ an extra person this is good for club and community. it raises our profile and the idea that the club could become, and therefore the ground (as this is where the product would be sold and made for), an asset of community value. Something I think we should be aiming for as a Trust also, if not with BP, the new ground if we ever get one. My apologies if that has already been raised in the pamphlets the Trust sent around for the new ground proposal - as I don't live in the area, I haven't seen a pamphlet.