Case studies by Stadium Support Sevices on the dugout and Monty’s refits.
I never knew that heated dugout seats was a thing, but only for the home team.
It says that Monty’s has a capacity of 150. The great majority of those will be standing. The decor is now rather bland, presumably to allow it to be used for non-football purposes. The new dart board is next to the door, it seems a bit too close and it does get used on match days. All the memorabilia has been removed, I think in the safe hands of JDT. Hopefully it will find a new home where all can see it. We really need a history museum, like at AFC Wimbledon. For me this will be a test of how the owners group regard the history of this club, whether we see the memorabilia again.
I am a member of Monty’s, the last time I asked we had 18 members. For the Mansfield game game there were a total of 14 people in there. Last season it was a busy, lively bar. Hopefully it will return to that in time.
That doesn’t sound like it’s a membership scheme either worth subscribing to or, for the club, continuing. I’m assuming a meal costing £11 is going to be pretty rudimentary and a drink at, say, £6 means you’re paying £8 a match for the privilege of sitting in a bland bar with 17 others and their guests. From the club’s perspective, any membership scheme with 18 subscribers is a waste of time and effort. Wouldn’t it be better to end it now and turn over the space for something more profitable? Existing members of the scheme could surely be catered for in the “legends’ lounge” instead?
450/23=19.56. I think my pint usually costs 6.35, so if I came to every game, I would be paying 2.21 for using Monty’s, which works out a little cheaper than what I paid last year. However, last season the food was better, but with no choice.
Didn’t the club displace people from what is now the Legend’s Lounge over to Monty’s in the first place.
Seem to remember there being a saga involved in the original “band” from what is now the Legend’s Lounge being moved a couple of times in recent years.
If there are only 18 in Monty’s why have they requisitioned a portion of the Vere Suite to accompany VIPs? It’s okay for now as people have been staying outside but it’s going to get seriously crowded in the Vere Suite in the winter months.
Yes @Twizz, I was one of the band shifted from Woodlands to what I always think of as the Keen Lounge, next to Monty’s, then we were shifted to Monty’s.
The new section in Caley was created to give a guaranteed seat to Monty’s members, who couldn’t/didn’t want to pay the new Monty’s price. I didn’t want to go into Caley because I have a problem with the noise in there, can hardly hear my neighbour speak. Obviously I have a hearing problem! A lot of last year’s members have gone in there.
All I want, and what a lot of of us older ones want, is somewhere to go before and after a game, with a guaranteed seat, and with some decent food before the game. I can go into Monty’s at half-time for a free tea or coffee, but it’s a trek to get around there. When we’re were in the Keen Lounge, we could go directly up to the Origin Stand. That avenue of convenience was cut off to us when we were moved to Monty’s.
I think the underlying problem is that the club wants to offer more high end hospitality but there are not enough rooms to offer the lower end of that.
When are they going to invest some of Lommy’s money into making the ‘tunnel’ stand much bigger, with a second floor of hospitality behind it in an enlarged two-storey main building…?
They need to build another access road to the stadium first because that’ll increase the club’s capacity past the 10,000 limit. (Hence why Rob was always going on about it)
Also, the Terrace would be the first to be replaced / worked on because it’s foundations and structure needs some serious work on it. Rebuilding the Origin stand would take the best part of 18 months and the club would take a massive hit as it’ll have to rearrange everything. Changing Rooms, Bars, Hosting Venues, Club Shop, Ticket Office, Reception etc. There would need to be something in place / another area of the ground that could make up for all of the space that has been lost while the building work was being done, which I don’t think there is?
Another way to go around this would be to make the FA or EFL aware of the works we had planned and the issues that it would cause from it and arrange to have all of our home games completed by Easter and start the building works straight after. If we go to Playoff’s, maybe we’d need to ground-share somewhere for that single game?
It’s a shame the woodlands group got messed around so much, not their fault they’re now in the vere rather than the centre spot (yes I’m old school) but the situation in the vere will deteriorate once we hit the inclement weather.
I was thinking the same thing last night, Doddsball combined with £6.35 a pint means the Vere has been less crowded v previous seasons. Might also be to do with the good weather and expanded village. As said first test will be the first rainy Saturday game.
Regardless of the narrative about more season ticket sales there are definitely less people at AP this season. Can turn up gone 1:30pm and park with ease now which you couldn’t do in previous seasons.