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.
This...oh so this!!!
Harmon does himself no favours by saying "the food changes are nothing to do with the feedback....it was part of our long term strategy"
What a dickhead.....that sort of attitude is consistent with the way they have treated people since day one. Everyone knows they are feeling the heat and need to up their game. Saying the changes are nothing to do with the feedback just confirms how out of touch they are with their customers.......because thats what we are....we pay for the privilege to sit in his stadium. If we stop turning up then his business is in the shit. About time he directly addressed the wants and needs of his customers rather than acting like a patronising dick.
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.