Ideas for how Grimsby Town can improve further.

Quoted from Poojah

I’ve seen mention of improvements being made to the Trust bar. Any idea what’s happening there? Some better beer on tap would be a good start.

It's been re-decorated and is having new flooring. There was also mention of doing some alteration work to the bar itself, which is cobbled together JF style.

I did a bit of repair work around the bottom of the bar where the plinths had rotted due to spillage, but that was a few weeks back now, so not seen the progress for a while. It was being painted out when I was there and the carpet was being pulled up.

Don't know about better beer, but I agree with you that there should be. The beer choices in there don't get my juices flowing.

I'm currently in York and was drinking in the Market Cat and House of Trembling Madness last night. Both had excellent beers and both were cheaper than having a pint at BP, which seems wrong to me considering York isn't a cheap place to live.

Seems that anywhere crowds gather for an event, the norm is for overpriced fizz. Was at Scarborough open air theatre Saturday night and it was crappy lager for £6.00 a pint. I've never got it as people would buy more if it was nicer and a bit cheaper.

Bit of a bugbear for me is event catering.

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Personally love black and white for you over freed from desire

Don’t know how many times it actually needs to be mentioned but the sides of the pontoon need to be sorted to stop the ‘noise’ escaping.

As we start
3 Dog Night----White & Black

If we lose
Regina Spektor --Black & White

Quoted from ginnywings

It's been re-decorated and is having new flooring. There was also mention of doing some alteration work to the bar itself, which is cobbled together JF style.

I did a bit of repair work around the bottom of the bar where the plinths had rotted due to spillage, but that was a few weeks back now, so not seen the progress for a while. It was being painted out when I was there and the carpet was being pulled up.

Don't know about better beer, but I agree with you that there should be. The beer choices in there don't get my juices flowing.

I'm currently in York and was drinking in the Market Cat and House of Trembling Madness last night. Both had excellent beers and both were cheaper than having a pint at BP, which seems wrong to me considering York isn't a cheap place to live.

Seems that anywhere crowds gather for an event, the norm is for overpriced fizz. Was at Scarborough open air theatre Saturday night and it was crappy lager for £6.00 a pint. I've never got it as people would buy more if it was nicer and a bit cheaper.

Bit of a bugbear for me is event catering.

Thanks for that mate - appreciate your efforts and I look forward to seeing it.

I get to York quite a bit and I’m a huge fan of the two bars you mentioned; a great range of quality beer and not overly expensive as you say. You can’t go too niche with these things of course, but even getting a Dock’s beer or two in there would go a long way as I’m sure a vast majority would opt for that over a pint of Carling.

I’m sure licensing and contracts make things more complicated than they should be, but it’s another area where marginal improvements can be made to enhance the match day experience, win, lose or draw.

To that end, there needs to be a push to make more of the Fan Zone in my opinion, particularly at half-time, as with the Lower now virtually sold out and the Upper likely to get pretty close by the start of the season, it’s going to get mightily busy in the Trust bar.

Ginny, agreed with your drinking choices in York.  I take visitors to the Market Cat.

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Talking of music above, some money could be raised (for the Youth Team?) at selected home games.  An old idea used to raise money for charity in the Clubs.

The club repeatedly play a record over the tannoy, the choice requested and paid for by a fan. When somebody gets fed up of the same record (as they will) they pay more money to put their choice of record on.  This can anything.

And so on.  All for a good cause though. (And all fans get to listen to your record choice - as a captive audience).  

The money given for a new record can be double the previous bid, or an increase on the previous bid.    

I am delighted to say the days of falling out of the Cons Club at 2.55 on matchday are a thing of the past if we are to get there in time for the kick-off, so more pre-match razmataz would be appreciated.

In fact, Saturdays will be slightly different all round in the coming season - an earlier start to get parked etc. A very small price to pay for the season(s) ahead.

Sort the club shop out for extra income, so annoying each time I try to buy something and almost everything is always out of stock.

Set minimum and maximum stock amounts, its all electronic I guess, so easy to do and basic stock accounting

Quoted from Simon

Think with parking as it is around BP a park and ride scheme would be brilliant, if anyone has been to Lincoln Christmas Market something like that but on a smaller scale.

Could have shuttle busses running from Springfield Road Rugby Club, Tesco Cleethorpes & Euro park

Try and do a deal with Stagecoach to keep prices down and everyone's a winner

I think with the almost certain increase in gates we've got to come this season, an alternative plan for transport is definitely something the club/council will be looking at exploring.

The thing with park-and-rides is that they're only really going to appeal to people who come from further away than where the stops are.  So if you have them on the edges of the town, like for example at Europark, will anyone between there and BP use them?  I don't know the percentages of people who travel to games from outside the boundaries of NELC but I'd guess the bulk of numbers come from within the boundaries.

Equally so, if you're travelling from somewhere that's 2 hours away.  Let's say Nottingham for example.  Do you want to spend 2 hours in your car, then park up to spend 30 minutes on the bus to then have to spend another 20 minutes waiting for the bus to depart after the game, another 30 minutes on the bus just to find yourself 4 miles down the road with a further 2 hour journey ahead?  Realistically probably not.  That 50 minutes post game would be reduced by parking up 10 minute walk away from BP with another 20 in traffic to get away.

I'm in agreement though, something will need doing.  With gates of 5000ish it's managable.  When we got the bigger gates last season it was noticeable in terms of finding a parking space relatively close to the ground.  If we're putting another 1000 on the gate, it could get interesting.

My thinking is more about acknowledging that people will want to drive to the games, for whatever reasons.  It's about finding somewhere that's not too inconvenient for them and reduces any build-up around the ground before/after kick-off.  Off the top of my head somewhere like the Ice House (the Christian Centre, not the one on the Docks) on Victor Street is not too far away from the ground (1 mile?), certainly to the point that for most people it's a time saver walking to/from there and not sitting in lots of traffic.  Pretty much straight onto the main road and the M180 to get away or into the centre of Town if needed for other routes.  Large car park that I think wouldn't be in use on Saturday afternoons so not impacting on local business.  Perhaps a deal with the council for Grant Street Car Park too, although this isn't quite so easy to get away from after the game.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I am delighted to say the days of falling out of the Cons Club at 2.55 on matchday are a thing of the past if we are to get there in time for the kick-off, so more pre-match razmataz would be appreciated.

In fact, Saturdays will be slightly different all round in the coming season - an earlier start to get parked etc. A very small price to pay for the season(s) ahead.

.

I might be wrong but didn't we have something going on at halftime and before the match in the Ron Ramsden era.

Quoted from diehardmariner

I think with the almost certain increase in gates we've got to come this season, an alternative plan for transport is definitely something the club/council will be looking at exploring.

The thing with park-and-rides is that they're only really going to appeal to people who come from further away than where the stops are.  So if you have them on the edges of the town, like for example at Europark, will anyone between there and BP use them?  I don't know the percentages of people who travel to games from outside the boundaries of NELC but I'd guess the bulk of numbers come from within the boundaries.

Equally so, if you're travelling from somewhere that's 2 hours away.  Let's say Nottingham for example.  Do you want to spend 2 hours in your car, then park up to spend 30 minutes on the bus to then have to spend another 20 minutes waiting for the bus to depart after the game, another 30 minutes on the bus just to find yourself 4 miles down the road with a further 2 hour journey ahead?  Realistically probably not.  That 50 minutes post game would be reduced by parking up 10 minute walk away from BP with another 20 in traffic to get away.

I'm in agreement though, something will need doing.  With gates of 5000ish it's managable.  When we got the bigger gates last season it was noticeable in terms of finding a parking space relatively close to the ground.  If we're putting another 1000 on the gate, it could get interesting.

My thinking is more about acknowledging that people will want to drive to the games, for whatever reasons.  It's about finding somewhere that's not too inconvenient for them and reduces any build-up around the ground before/after kick-off.  Off the top of my head somewhere like the Ice House (the Christian Centre, not the one on the Docks) on Victor Street is not too far away from the ground (1 mile?), certainly to the point that for most people it's a time saver walking to/from there and not sitting in lots of traffic.  Pretty much straight onto the main road and the M180 to get away or into the centre of Town if needed for other routes.  Large car park that I think wouldn't be in use on Saturday afternoons so not impacting on local business.  Perhaps a deal with the council for Grant Street Car Park too, although this isn't quite so easy to get away from after the game.

Grant street car park is to be extended soon! which may help.

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/35m-grant-street-car-park-6294679

A new PA system should be top of any list .