MCG Service = PATHETIC !!

[Eastern]

I got into the ground around 12.40 as advised, as they were expecting a HUGE crowd (ended up being 81,000+). In the area of our seats there was ONE food outlet open that had a queue that stretched more than 100 metres and NO beverige outlets open. This was 40 minutes AFTER they opened the gates.

When they finally opened the other food & beverige outlets a bit after 1.00, they had NOTHING ready, and when you finally got your food or drink there was another (growing) queue at the cashiers as they only had ONE cashier per outlet.

Well, thats my rant for the day. Did anyone else encounter the same/similar? !!

[saintspremiers]

Nup, I didn't bother with the outer given the high expected crowd and opted for the MCC reserve instead.

I reckon the crowd size caught them out a bit.....they were gunning for 75K, and got 6K more - most of which would've been general admin walk ups, plus some extra's in the MCC area.

But most likely they were being too tight with staff costs!

[saint66au]

Yep I found it pretty strange that the bar closest to Q12 didnt open til 1.30..obviously designed to stop people getting too messy before the game had started. Food outlets not opening til 45 mins after the gates did.... thats common at both ES and the G....but crazy on a day when such a huge crowd is expected.

I was killing time in the MCC Members prior to noon, and thought Id pick up some lunch to go from the Red Rooster outlet there. It opened at 11.45..with just a nicely stocked drinks cabinet. People who entered were told there was no food ready....oh and that the EFTPOS wasnt going to be working lol

Its all very well to say "bring your own food if youre not happy" but sometimes a pie or other hot food is just easier and better to buy at the game on a freezing day like yesterday.

Apart from all that, on Sat AM their website still said that all of Q1-Q15 was walkup seating, not the case when you arrived at the ground

They pride themselves as the "peoples ground" but theres plenty of areas where they are not people friendly at all

[ozrulestrace]

Yep I found it pretty strange that the bar closest to Q12 didnt open til 1.30..obviously designed to stop people getting too messy before the game had started. Food outlets not opening til 45 mins after the gates did.... thats common at both ES and the G....but crazy on a day when such a huge crowd is expected.

I was killing time in the MCC Members prior to noon, and thought Id pick up some lunch to go from the Red Rooster outlet there. It opened at 11.45..with just a nicely stocked drinks cabinet. People who entered were told there was no food ready....oh and that the EFTPOS wasnt going to be working lol

Its all very well to say "bring your own food if youre not happy" but sometimes a pie or other hot food is just easier and better to buy at the game on a freezing day like yesterday.

Apart from all that, on Sat AM their website still said that all of Q1-Q15 was walkup seating, not the case when you arrived at the ground

They pride themselves as the "peoples ground" but theres plenty of areas where they are not people friendly at all

Didn't stop the young blokes next to me continually getting up and getting their next serving of grog, even though they had been drinking since 0830 and were clearly "maggoted"

Think of it this way Eastern, lower turnover in food and drink sales means less money lining the MCG and Collingwood's pockets.

[Milan Faletic]

I got into the ground around 12.40 as advised, as they were expecting a HUGE crowd (ended up being 81,000+). In the area of our seats there was ONE food outlet open that had a queue that stretched more than 100 metres and NO beverige outlets open. This was 40 minutes AFTER they opened the gates.

When they finally opened the other food & beverige outlets a bit after 1.00, they had NOTHING ready, and when you finally got your food or drink there was another (growing) queue at the cashiers as they only had ONE cashier per outlet.

Well, thats my rant for the day. Did anyone else encounter the same/similar? !!

Yes. I got there about 12.15pm, went by myself. So I wanted to get my pie first and then sit down but it wasn't open. Then about 4 of us in the queue just wanted a pie and there were heaps down the other end and one empty register at our end. The other register down the far end was packed because most people wanted pies.

So someone asked, can you bring some pies and chips up this end? The kid looked blankly and said they're all up the other end and walked off. Anyone we had to push in front of people, say excuse me and get a pie and go to the other empty register. There was another closed register and there was a boy standing in front of it there. His chain fell off and everyone thought he was opening, but he said no, I'm not opening.

Then we were waiting for ages and didn't know why. Turns out a guy paid with a credit card and they had no pen for him to sign! Poor guy felt like he was holding us up but not his fault. Attrocious, but the Big Angus Pie with Pepper was great. So all ended well!

[saintspremiers]

unfortunately the media couldn't give a toss about this sort of thing, as they waltz into their reserved and fully catered areas every week, and have no idea what you guys are on about!

[plugger66]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

[saintbrat]

I was amazed that the food and drink outlets below level 1 did not open at all- given there was a sell out of reserved seats on that area well before Saturday.

[satchmo]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

I never missed a minute at Moorabbin, for a beer.

In fact I never saw a queue with more than ten people in it.

Still, at least Andrew and Adrian have lots of money. At least we can cheer for that.

[plugger66]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

I never missed a minute at Moorabbin, for a beer.

In fact I never saw a queue with more than ten people in it.

Still, at least Andrew and Adrian have lots of money. At least we can cheer for that.

Well you went to a different Moorabbin than me or have short term memory loss and it it is absoutly laughable to blame the AFL for the service at Etihad. Next thing you will blame them for is the Sex and the City 2nd movie.

[Spinner]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

I never missed a minute at Moorabbin, for a beer.

Neither did I!

I missed a lot of minutes not being able to see in the standing room thou....

[Raven]

Went to get some chips at half time, despite always promising myself I won't pay the ridiculous prices they ask. When I got there along with a massive crowd, the warmer bay things were empty. So here we are in this massive, silent group standing there staring at empty warming bays.

I was standing in front of the bay on the right in a group, and an equally large group was standing in front of the left bay. Eventually the staff started putting out strip subs and pies but most people were waiting for chips so we all continued to stand there in silence.

Then they started putting single boxes of chips out one by one, but only on the left bay. One gets put out, it gets snatched away by a waiting person but they don't move because they need more than one. This pattern continued for a while, until eventually people in front of the right (my) bay started calling out for them to give us something, anything, as our bay was still empty. To this they just sort of shrugged and put out more pies.

By this time the siren had sounded to start the second half, so I just grabbed a strip sub in frustration and walked out. The line behind me was massive and not moving. So yes, I stood there for the entire half time break and didn't actually get what I wanted.

My question is, why didn't they cook all the food in advance in time for the half time rush? They surely knew it was coming. Pretty pathetic if you ask me!

[saint66au]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

Not the point..of course the G and ES have better facilities..its just frustrating when huge delays are caused by them being run ineptly by skeleton staff for the absolute minimum hours they can get away with

There is absolutely no excuse for outlets not being opened and every register in them staffed at a game with 80,000 people there. When do they think they WILL open them??

[saintspremiers]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

Not the point..of course the G and ES have better facilities..its just frustrating when huge delays are caused by them being run ineptly by skeleton staff for the absolute minimum hours they can get away with

There is absolutely no excuse for outlets not being opened and every register in them staffed at a game with 80,000 people there. When do they think they WILL open them??

He doesn't care, as long as he can defend his employer (the AFL), he is happy.

[Dis Believer]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

Do you practise being a flog or is it a natural gift ??

Bone Monkey

[Thinline]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

I never missed a minute at Moorabbin, for a beer.

In fact I never saw a queue with more than ten people in it.

Still, at least Andrew and Adrian have lots of money. At least we can cheer for that.

Well you went to a different Moorabbin than me or have short term memory loss and it it is absoutly laughable to blame the AFL for the service at Etihad. Next thing you will blame them for is the Sex and the City 2nd movie.

You watched Sex in The City 2?

Righto...

[mustangjack]

guys use your heads just go outside to the food caravans 2 min max if your that starving, and yes we shouldnt have to line up like sheep at those prices

[plugger66]

Looks like the G and Etihad both have bad service. I still wish for the great days at Moorabbin when there was 20k there and at the most you would miss when lining up for beer or food was a quarter. Those were the good days. i hate to day. You may miss 5 minutes footy when lining up for beers or food. it is a disgrace.

I never missed a minute at Moorabbin, for a beer.

In fact I never saw a queue with more than ten people in it.

Still, at least Andrew and Adrian have lots of money. At least we can cheer for that.

Well you went to a different Moorabbin than me or have short term memory loss and it it is absoutly laughable to blame the AFL for the service at Etihad. Next thing you will blame them for is the Sex and the City 2nd movie.

You watched Sex in The City 2?

Righto...

No never watched an episode of that rubbish but only because the AFL were involved with it apparently.

[bigred]

Watching Vlad on the nest was always difficult.

[iwantmeseats]

no more than 5 minutes for me for beer and food.

Price - Level 1 standing, or just L1 really.

Were you guys trying to get food/drink on the upper level concourses?

[bigred]

Yeah the upper levels were well and truly under serviced.