Gameday Experience

How were Steve's changes this year? Food? Beer? Parking? Secret Tunnels?

 

Thankfully weather made long walk pleasant. Tailgaters were definitely fewer than in past. Crowd was smaller, no one at Fan Fest early going. Some of the concessions weren't open at beginning.
On a good note, the Terrace Club is now enclosed w AC and a Buffett, complimentary with tickets. Guess my ticket price increase was for that. Organization of the event sucked though. Don't know what they were thinking when they were counting heads. Feeding 5 stadium sections and having about 10 tables? Idiotic. Took me entire halftime to get wife one hot dog.

 

The new food vendors need to plan better. My wife went down to Gate 8 for some Torchy's Tacos mid 1st quarter, and they were ALREADY out of food. She said 3 other vendors down there were out as well. Hopefully, they will do a lot better job planning for the next game.

 

Also, a few cans of beer were floating around, but all I noticed was the standard coors/bud/miller light swill. Did anyone see some more interesting beer choices, like craft beer?

 

There were a lot of concession stands that were out of food. I had no trouble getting beers though.

 

guess Aramark or whoever has the contract wasn't expecting a big turnout either...

 

NO FOOD ON THE EAST SIDE UPPER DECK! Horrifically managed!

 

just another stellar Patter$on job of managing the Game Day Experience...

 

Kudos to Steve Patterson!

He has done a great job of elevating the gameday experience.

The home opener was a much more intimate experience, with less congestion in the parking lots, fewer of the "wrong type" of penny ante rabble running around (i.e. low level donors who think that they own the place), plenty of room to stretch out in the stadium, no distracting band music (particularly from those hooligans at Rice known as as the MOB, with their off-color shenanigans) and a far less visible presence of those wildly uncouth students and nouveau riche Houston trial lawyers (i.e., high level donors who think they own the place just because they bought naming rights). He has brought a real aura of exclusivity to the proceedings.

I think he should get Coach Strong to take the players' names off their jerseys, though. I really don't want those boys thinking that it's all about them. And can we do something about the team colors? I just don't look good in burnt orange. If the team changes colors for every game, the company (oops I meant "university") can increase merchandise sales because the fans would need a new shirt for every game. Plus, you can increase the involvement of the revenue base by letting them vote on what the team's colors will be that week($0.99 per vote via the team app).

 

They were out of sausage wraps in the 2nd quarter at the stand outside my section. They didn't realize it after until I paid and it took them 5 minutes to give me my money back. I heard they ran out of hot dog buns while I was waiting but then the guy seemed to come up w/ 2 hot dogs for the guy ordering.

I noticed there were no volunteer groups manning concessions where I was. I know it was the first game, but the people hired to manage concessions seemed less efficient and still trying to figure things out. Prices at the Pok-e-Joe's stand seemed to go up about 25% too. $9 for a bbq sandwich???

 

Sounds like a high priced consultant might be needed to solve this food shortage.

 

I suspect Korn Ferry could help locate a suitable high minded and overpaid consultant to manage the food and concessions.

 

Did the food and beer situation improve any for the Cal game?

 

A lot more beer vendors in the NEZ, selling until the end of the game.
Lots of folks buying Austin's Pizza. Pretty good deal; 8 bucks for a personal pie.

 

Had no problems getting beer. Actually, this game was exciting enough I never checked the food situation. I need to remember and check against Oklahoma State this week.

 

I think they did away with the cattle chute funneling you to the EXES at halftime

 

No problem getting beer before and during the game. Most spots had 7-8 brands on display. If the line is long walk about a gate over and a small kiosk stand is usually there with no line.