They haven't had football for 82 years! Club sport this year, full member ODAC next year.
Roanoke College football today
- Thread starter mike salem
- Start date
Concessions was the biggest disaster I've EVER seen at any sporting event on any level. Absolute and complete disaster from every possible angle. 50 minutes to buy a bottle of water. Not oh-five, five-oh. Five people taking orders for a stadium with 9,000+ people in it. Absurd.
Yet another reason why people would rather watch a game from the comfort of their recliner with fridge and toilet just steps away.
It's possible they didn't foresee the numbers but the inability to adapt is what drives me batty. It's a hot day, I'd bet at a minimum half the people in line were strictly buying water (or would have settled for it for the sake of convenience). You take one of those giant bins that has ice and water inside and you roll it outside. Tell people water-only sales for cash only and boom, half the line disappears to that vendor. Now your other workers have half as many people to serve which means everyone is in and out quicker that wants food and soda.
The tiniest bit of reactive-thinking solves that problem immediately. I understand they're volunteers and I understand they can be on the older side but if they've got an exclusive contract to do this (they do) then they need to be prepared for certain eventualities. What happened today was wholly unacceptable.
I went to the Stagg Bowl last Dec. and their was maybe half that many people there. I missed most of the 3rd Q standing in line to buy a cup of hot chocolate. I think it's a ongoing problem.
They definitely aren’t the fastest at getting people through the line. Last JV game, was maybe 4 people in line in front of me, 10 minutes!! When there’s a long line, I don’t even bother, you’ll miss a whole quarter of a ballgame. It’s ridiculous.
Today, the lines were insane, and never let up. The hotdogs are terrible. They boil them and they sit in water so long all the flavor is gone. Bottom line, concessions are a complete disaster at Salem Stadium
Today, the lines were insane, and never let up. The hotdogs are terrible. They boil them and they sit in water so long all the flavor is gone. Bottom line, concessions are a complete disaster at Salem Stadium
Yep, sadly they don't seem to try to make it any better.
I am not trashing Salem. They have a lot to be proud of. They obviously put a lot of effort into the stadium, seating, and field. I have no clue if they contract things out or not, but whoever runs the venue needs to evaluate things. I remember the concessions during the odac tournament at Moyer were awful as well. God bless them, but the two elderly women moved as slow as frozen molasses.
No need for niceties all the time. Only time things get fixed are when a bad light is shone upon it. The Lion's Club has an exclusive contract with the city for this stuff. I'm honestly wondering if it wouldn't serve the city better to just make a running tally each year and cut a check for that amount (which the LC does use for charity purposes for things within the city) and then allow booster clubs and whatnot to run the stands at games. Or if you can't do that then maybe talk to boosters or other volunteer organizations which might skew slightly younger in age by 3-5 decades and see if the LC and that organization can't reach a compromise whereby you get some youth running point at concessions and that org gets a split of that night's take. Think of revenue lost because of prior bad experiences. People spend too long and just say "I can make it through the second half, no biggie" because they'd rather watch the 3rd quarter hungry or thirsty than miss it at all.
If this game was any indication of potential draws for future RC home games, especially next year when they're playing DIII, then this has got to change by then or you're going to get lots of angry fans and people who will quit coming to games or who will simply not spend money on concessions. Even if they draw a third of what they did today that's an extra 15,000+ fans for the LC to rake in some cash from and redistribute to the community, that's sizable and that's just on the low end. This community supports well when given opportunities, home attendance could easily hit 30k+ a season for the college. Great stadium, extremely good parking with tons of ingress and egress, it makes you want to go see games and college kids are just looking for an excuse to tailgate. There's a lot of potential for good here in all avenues.
Their hearts are in the right place but this is a consistent complaint from practically everyone and it's past due for things to change. There has got to be a better solution.
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Well stated @1MoreHokie. Dinwiddie's band parents run our concession stand and they are even using an app. and q code to preorder. They have a preorder line, drink and candy line, and a standard food line. The wait seems to be 2 minutes or less. Of course we don't handle 10,000 people either.
I will say this, I believe Roanoke College has a lot of clout with city of Salem, and if their fans start complaining, then I suspect something will get done about it.
