Stadium Food

Yes, my old hobby horse.......From  Katy Chapman, DomPost:

If the action being served up on the pitch leaves a bit to be desired, sports fans will at least be able to take comfort from a better standard of food at Westpac Stadium. 

    Pasta and meatballs, fried rice, and beef on Yorkshire puddings will be among new temptations competing with pies and hotdogs to satisfy the cravings of sports fans in a catering revamp being unveiled next month. 

    Other menu items will include chicken fillet burgers, burritos, pulled pork sandwiches and steak sandwiches. 

    Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said all the new items could be eaten in stadium seats, and all would be priced below $10. 

They will be available from mid-April, when the new mezzanine lounge opens, and some items - such as the pulled pork and steak sandwiches - would be cooked to order from new food carts placed around the concourse.

    But the "standard footy food" of chips, pies, burgers and hotdogs would also be staying, he said. The aim was to offer more options. "There is a higher level of expectation in Wellington. We do have quite a foodie culture." 

> Related read: Shane Harmon walks into the ring of fire

> Related read: Chairman defends food prices at Westpac Stadium

    The stadium came under fire last month for dishing up food the public labelled "poor quality" and "overpriced". 

    Mr Harmon said the decision to introduce new items had nothing to do with that feedback, and was part of a long-term strategy. "It's exclusively about improving the fan experience." 

    He had been taste-testing the dishes, and particularly recommended the fried rice and the chicken fillet burger. 

    Beef on Yorkshire pudding was sold at Beervana last year, and was the top-selling food item, with 81 kilograms of beef eaten. 

    The stadium would monitor the popularity and reaction to the various items and adjust the menu accordingly, Mr Harmon said. "It's food that we felt offered a wide variety, good value, but also was capable of being eaten in the hand . . . It's not going to be difficult to eat in a sporting environment." 

    All the food will be prepared by stadium caterers Spotless Services. 

    The new menu was welcomed by Guy Smith, of Phoenix supporters group Yellow Fever - "I can't go past a pulled pork roll." Less than $10 was the right price and a revamp of the offerings was overdue, he said. "Most of the fare that is currently on offer is pretty unpalatable, to be honest."  

 Success would depend on portion sizes and queue lengths when hungry crowds descended at half-time, particularly when the cooking was done to order, he said. 

    Phoenix co-owner Gareth Morgan said the changes looked great, but  he was sceptical that footy fans would stray far from chips and hotdogs. "They've tried sort-of-healthy options and people haven't gone with that - they've stuck with the chips." 

    Price and quality were the main concerns for fans, and the best way to improve that was to allow different food providers to compete, he said. "That would be a better model." 

    Mr Harmon said the stadium was also rolling out "wet pour" beer taps to replace bottles, meaning a wider variety of beers could be sold........

Sadly, I note the bit about fans wanting cheaper and better quality food and the first thing that stands out is " Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon said all the new items could be eaten in stadium seats, and all would be priced below $10."

Below $10 is not cheaper than current food. that could be $9.95 for example. They should have put up a price list to impress us with. Although I do appreciate the choices, I still suggest to open the catering facilites up to the well establish firms like Maccas, BK, Subway, Wendys etc etc. So they might improve things but at a cost, lesson not learned. I am not moaning for moaning sake. I am thinking of mum & dad and the kids. Can they afford this? Gareth is right. And where do they serve pies? I thought they were stopped when someone complained that they were too hot?

 The South African Sausages stay the best bet at $7.50 each. Yummmmmmy.

Such a beat up. Lets say all the food was half the price. How many more people would attend games? Enough to get the 'Nix over 10k (that's almost 3k/game exta)?

If cost was such an issue I'm sure kids and family could organise themselves a bit better and have larger meals around the game (and maybe just a punnet of chips or two to split between four for example). Water is free at the stadium.

And the food, currently, is not ridiculously over priced. Sure it's not 3 star Michelin food, but its ok (vege lasagna yum) and about what cafes charge around town. 

Yes, but still more food options is good.

LG, a tenner isn't much money. You can't get a big mac combo for much less than that.

I never eat at the stadium. Ever. I can't help but feel like I'm ordering from the Springfield Elementary school cafeteria. Hotdogs made from ground up gym mats and shredded newspaper (full of essential inks and roughage). Everything just comes across as highly processed in bulk quantities at minimal cost with little thought for quality. No thanks.

I don't think the food affects crowd numbers all that much. However that is no excuse to be selling crap for so much more than it is worth just because they have a monopolistic opportunity.

In my opinion the real problem is that the stadium is making a lot of money from farming out the catering contract and it wouldn't get anything if the stadium wasn't being used that day. It is the same with all the sponsorship they receive, without the tv and live audience they would not be worth as much. So the various teams that play there, generate all this commercial activity, and pay a hireage fee, that leads to the stadium making multi-million dollar profits every year, while the teams that generate the commerce bleed money. The stadium was built with public money largely to support Wellington sports. It shouldn't really be running at a profit at all with the exception of paying off council debt faster and providing a reasonable depreciation fund.

Is this a good thing? Sure. I look forward to not drinking Tui, especially Tui that has been stored in a plastic bottle. It's a minor issue to me though and I don't think it will really improve things much for the Phoenix. What I would really like to know though is can the stadium do more for Wellington sports teams and that means knowing the full cost structure. Imo building a cover along the concourse, at least the latter part, so you can actually stay completely dry would be the single most important improvement they can realistically make.

Guy Smith - "I can't go past a pulled pork roll"

There has to be a chant in there somewhere!

As for the $10 thing? If you want decent grub, you have to pay for it. You want slop then that's what you'll get if you want to pay a couple of $$$.

I do think food is one of the many thousand cuts that have pissed off the average sports punter over time at Westpac.

Shit food. Overpriced beer. No drink selection. Nazi security. Substandard ticketing system. Expensive parking. Piney's dictatorial recording blaring the rules in your face as you walk up. No cover over the Fran Wilde walk. 

And so on. Just lots and lots of little things that over time have eroded the fun of going to the place. When it was new, everyone would overlook these little things. Now, it's only for must-see events that people can be bothered with all the rubbish.

You're fat, and you know you are...

?

I don't get the angst here. You go to the game for what, two hours, maybe three hours max? Surely if the food is that expensive and that poor, you can still just eat before or after? 

Good on them for adding new options, something other than fries.

Prices, selection and quality are all similar at Aus stadia.

Cider at the SFS.  Half pints of Port at the Adelaide Oval.  Both significantly > than Westpac offerings.

I went to that horrific Man U exhibition match last year and they had a veritable ethnic food fair outside the ground. It was awesome.

the food will be better, so people complain... YOU DON'T HAVE TO EAT AT THE STADIUM!! I ONLY EAT ONCE A WEEK

I never buy food at the Nix. Daniel Burger before the game ftw.

But I do buy food when I'm spending the day at the stadium for an ODI.

However, if word gets out that a certain item of food is amazing (for example, Smithys Pulled Park sandwich's), then I would buy it to try it. There's a chance for the stadium to get people who wouldn't otherwise buy food at the stadium to buy food.

Roll on 14/15 so I can try the rice..only gluten free item. there..now and future.

They should learn a thing or two from the Chinese. Went to a game there last year, roast duck was one of the options available. Beer was cheap too.

christ it's worse than a nimby meeting round here

I've seen nothing but complaints about food in these forums and appeals for more options and/or cheaper prices. The new options are a huge step up from the current fare and the sub-$10 promise is the closest we'll get to cheap in a NZ stadium. Can't ask for too much more (other than the more difficult and expensive task of getting established fast food chains installed - which would likely be far less profitable for the stadium anyway)

I also note the beer tap comment lost at the bottom of the article... excellent stuff

FYI I'm making the assumption that this wasn't solely prompted by the Petone proposal...

They should learn a thing or two from the Chinese. Went to a game there last year, roast duck was one of the options available. Beer was cheap too.

Smithy, $10 for example per meal for mum, dad and the kids is $40 Perhaps more depending on what they get and how big the item is. Somehow I dont think you will get large amounts for your tenner. Probably something the size of the micro fish and chips bundle you get from outside the Sfirst aid post under the stand.

Hey if I get prived wrong so be it and power to the people for moaning about it for long enough that something finally might be done. I think most will try the new menu to see if it is worth the dosh.

Anyone know where you can get pies at the stadium? I haven't seen them for two or three seasons.

The simple solution seems to be the bolded bit from the article. If they just let different caterers compete then the quality would quickly improve. However, I also agree that food can't really be a major factor in deciding whether or not to go to a game.

I'm practising  bullet pointing..

1. I doubt that the average person makes the decision to go or to not go to a sports game based on the stadium food, so won't help Nix.

2. But it does show some respect to the regular punters who do actually put money in the stadium's coffers, so +1.

3. A stand selling Smithy's Pulled Pork might be a lonely place to work.

Cheers. They need Mr Bun In  there. Their steak and  cheese from Broadway in Upper Hutt are awesome.

Us guys on the forum are not going to be swayed by a wider variety of food options are we.

It an issue maybe for the casual fan, but I think a bit of quality and value is mostly what they are after, not organic this and that

Anyone who currently eats their burgers and or hot dogs are playing Russian Roulette with their stomach.

Looking forward to beer! The stuff they serve now barely meets the criteria. Hopefully some local craft brews, I doubt it thought - it will be DB brands, Monteiths if were lucky.

In my couple of experiences with him he is far from a patronising dick. They haven't just rolled out the new food over the past few weeks, they have been planning it for a while and the new (and awesome) mezzanine bar has a kitchen where they are going to cook plenty of different types of quality food. 

He said he recognises that Wellington is a foody city so tastes and expectations are perhaps higher than in other cities. So they are working on meeting those expectations. 

He did say it is hard to get big name type restaurants or stalls in (say mcdonalds) because they have varying crowds from 8000-30000 and having those types of food places would mean they'd have to be open for every event. They'd lose a lot of flexibility. The solution for that is food carts, which they can put enough out for whatever crowd they are expecting on a given night. 

Either that or he is full of shit and lied to our faces. 

As Tegal pointed out, Shane Harmon is rather honest in recognising there are issues and they are trying to work on them. These problems are not new and were there long before he took the job. 

The fan experience at the Stadium has been suffering because of the lack of investment in the Stadium, mainly because it has to be self funding. The mezzanine bar is the first major investment on the Stadium since it was built afaik. It looks fantastic btw and hopefully is a sign of things to come with future upgrades to other aspects of the Stadium.

Sense was made. Lock down the forum.

Edit: actually easier if I just paste it in rather than messing with the link...

This is from espnfc 'boot room' (live match chat) this morning, read from the bottom;

I can't think of Bovril without thinking of that Billy Connolly "football violence" joke.

AT&T Park in San Francisco has a pretty good selection, and menus by your seats if you are in the right section for food delivery. Also had Anchor Steam Beer.

I once got a pretzel the size of my head.

When considering the prices, just not consider for the individual, consider it for the mum and dad and kids in tow option too. And why have a latte when a normal coffee will suffice so to speak. fancy food might be great for the corporates of course.

It's like a BBQ, Men like meat, tomatoe sauce and bread, women (& Metro sexual males) like things like green salads. ;)