BrainStorming Stadium Solutions:

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forestlaker

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Many of the problems on Saturday at TCF I agree with, however do we have any constructive ideas on how to solve the problems, not just throw them out? So if you can think of any solutions post here.

Long lines Entering the Stadium:

Could the plaza gates be opened for entry for people who have tickets in the lower bowl west end? Could students be given rotating times (based on Student ID number, first letter of last name,etc.) so they don't all have to wait inline for so long?

Concessions:

Could more concessions be placed on the upper level and west plaza along with porta poties? Could concession signs tell you what is being sold at each site without having to get in line and read the signs inside the booth? Rather than "Gopher Snacks" could the signs show how they are different from other booths? Would it be possible to have orders placed and paid for in advance and then just picked up or delivered at halftime? Would it help to sell concession tickets like at the McNamara Plaza for use at the game? ($2.50 a ticket, buy before the game, trade in during the game for your purchases?) Could punch cards be bought for the year or coupon books? Save on concessions if you buy in quantity?

Standers vs. Sitters:

If areas of the Stadium want to be standing the whole game, could seats be moved to accommodate and "all standing area"?


Traffic Congestion:

After the game, could player and coach interviews be done on the field along with the band concert? Could a few concessions be available at that time also(half price leftovers?) Getting more people to stay after could help spead out the traffic?
 

Earlier Gate Opening Time

This will have some management consequences, but opening the gates an hour earlier could alleviate some of the early congestion.

Go Gophers! Beat Cal!
 

I whole heartidly agree with you. Im at the top at 208 which means I would absolutly LOVE portpotties at the top, saves a long hike. And there was one concession stand up at the top that I saw, but it only served peanuts, coke, diet coke, sprite and vitamin water so I would like to see a little more variety.
 

They should put those who want to stand in sections adjacent to the students. I love standing on the big plays, but is there really a need to stand when there's no significant action?
 

Great Ideas.

With the congestion at half-time, it would have been nice to get something after the game. We would have delayed our exit a couple of minutes I'm sure. We liked that the band started virtually immediate after the game no 15 30 60 minute wait.

We ended up taking a number of pictures for section mates, and talked to some of the folks who made it to the game from my home town. That was great - some of them I have not seen in 25 years or more.

forestlaker said:
Many of the problems on Saturday at TCF I agree with, however do we have any constructive ideas on how to solve the problems, not just throw them out? So if you can think of any solutions post here.

Long lines Entering the Stadium:

Could the plaza gates be opened for entry for people who have tickets in the lower bowl west end? Could students be given rotating times (based on Student ID number, first letter of last name,etc.) so they don't all have to wait inline for so long?

Concessions:

Could more concessions be placed on the upper level and west plaza along with porta poties? Could concession signs tell you what is being sold at each site without having to get in line and read the signs inside the booth? Rather than "Gopher Snacks" could the signs show how they are different from other booths? Would it be possible to have orders placed and paid for in advance and then just picked up or delivered at halftime? Would it help to sell concession tickets like at the McNamara Plaza for use at the game? ($2.50 a ticket, buy before the game, trade in during the game for your purchases?) Could punch cards be bought for the year or coupon books? Save on concessions if you buy in quantity?

Standers vs. Sitters:

If areas of the Stadium want to be standing the whole game, could seats be moved to accommodate and "all standing area"?


Traffic Congestion:

After the game, could player and coach interviews be done on the field along with the band concert? Could a few concessions be available at that time also(half price leftovers?) Getting more people to stay after could help spead out the traffic?
Click to expand...
 


1. No port o potties. This is the 21st century. All toilets should have plumbing.
2. Open gates 30 minutes prior to alleviate early rush.
3. Have band play pre-game concert at 4:30 instead of 5pm.
4. Have St.Paul shuttles have gate barricades to funnel people into proper lines instead of 15k people converting on a single intersection.
5. More entrances. There seemed to be a lot of "exit only" doors. Perhaps they can put a couple people at those entrances to allow entrance.
6. Stop full body cavity searches at the entrances. I've never been asked to empty my pockets and show my wallet, cell phone and tin of chew. To top that off, with all that in my hand I was asked to remove my hat to make sure I wasn't hiding food on my skull. C'mon people.
7. More vendors in the aisles. In sec 212 I didn't see a vendor all game.
 

NO PORT-O-POTTIES We are not Wisconsin (they actually do have a couple porto potties in their brand new end zone concourse).

As for the entrances they need to provide more ticket takers. Plain and simple. Turn the ticket lines perpendicular to the entrances and provide better signage for bags vs. no bags.

Also, have the operable gates in the plaza open as well. Seems dumb not to.
 

The gates by the plaza are ideal entry gates. Need to put those to use.
Need to have organized lines for shuttle buses. And MORE buses.
Not sure what could be done with concessions. Halftime was chaos, as it is in any other college or pro stadium. I always eat a big meal before going in. It's cheaper and easier.
I do have one question...Did anyone see water fountains?
Other than the few glitches, I enjoyed the whole experience tremendously!
 

Were not saying portipotties in the consourse, but it would be really REALLY nice having them up top on the walk way for the fans that are 25+ rows up
 



Seems like are a couple pretty easy solutions that other have hit on.

1. Open gates earlier
2. Have vendors in the isles to reduce pressure on concessions. I think I saw one or two guys in my section, but I wasn't really paying attention.
3. Add more concessions on the top concourse, even if it's just the guy standing there selling coke and dogs.

Seems like there are some things that could be done without much work, just more staff. But they missed out on my $15 because I didn't wait in line. I would think increased staff selling food would be more than made up for by increased sales.

On a positive note, my rented seat back was very comfortable and well worth it. My view of the scoreboard was much better than I thought it would be (section 105). The people around me were very nice for the most part. And the stadium was awesome.
 

I don't get the port-o-potty idea. I know you don't want to have to run down 30 rows to take a leak but nearly ever stadium has 1 concourse for each section, not 2. The lines in the bathroom were not a problem at all.
 

Cash registers at the concession stands

This need for cash register issue was addressed by a lot of folks after the dry run scrimmage. The reason's for cash registers at the concession stands is two fold, one it speeds up the process by just letting the cashier hit pre-programmed buttons on the register and tallying the order for the worker. The second reason and this should hit home with anyone in concession managment or facilities management at the U, without the registers to keep tallies there is no propper accounting method for total sales and cash handling purposes. There is inherent risk in trusting employees to handle that much cash without having slippage or people swiping a 20 here and 50 dollars there. I'm not saying people are not honest because for the most part you can trust most of the workers, but there are always a few "rotten" one's in the bunch that seem to not be able to keep there hand out of the till or drawer. Having registers that tally sales also helps you forcast need for the most popular items and to prep ahead for the most popular items to sell. There will always be a crunch at half-time but vendors selling pop, water and dogs on the side or walking vendors would be smart like at the Dome.

I do not see an issue with having porta-potties on the top walk-ways in the upper deck corners, they have more than a few porta-potties in the tailgate lot's in fact there are far and away to many porta-potties in the tailgate lot's and not enough porta-potties at the stadium site itself. It would be much easier to alleviate some of the crunch of at the gates, by funneling people through barriers at the open end of the plaza through those gates, adding ticket takers and security folks there would not be that difficult by re-allocating resources already there to those spots. The process at the dome for students was much better, they need to bring back the gate system. People that are tailgating need to have some courteosy and not take up large areas of roadway or block thoroughfare ways that people travel to try and find spots. Taking up six to eight parking spots for two vehicles is plenty rude and over-using your privledges for $10. Nobody want's to get down on the fun but have a little courteosy to other fans and that the U can sell more spots if your not taking more than your share of spots. Unless someone can correct me if they charged for and paid more for the extra spots in the pay as you go lot's in St. Paul then that was fair game, just no sense in being hoggish. Shiuttles to the game seemed to go really well. People that parked in the ramps, don't they have attendents with whistles that direct traffic out so many cars at a time and then let pedistrians cross, if not they should because the mob mentality of pedistrians is to make everyone wait large amount's of time. I don't know but I did see a lot of people walking along the transit way to St. Paul so there must have been a lot of people waiting a long period of time to do that.

This all seems to come down to trying to have as minimal staffing as possible, that is fine if you organize things better and move people through a gate process instead of lettting people come from any which way and any direction they want.
 

Just beside myself with the whole porto potties......get up and walk to the bathrooms for crying out loud. There were NO lines in the restroom.

1. Imagine how tacky they would look up on the concourse. 285 million dollar stadium with shitters ringing the stadium? C'mon.
2. How do you then service these porto potties up on the concourse? In other words once you've filled it to the rim how do you get the poop out?
3. If I had a seat at the top of the stadium the last thing I want next to me at a game is a temporary crapper.

Okay I'm done.
 



GoGophers2005 said:
Just beside myself with the whole porto potties......get up and walk to the bathrooms for crying out loud. There were NO lines in the restroom.

1. Imagine how tacky they would look up on the concourse. 285 million dollar stadium with shitters ringing the stadium? C'mon.
2. How do you then service these porto potties up on the concourse? In other words once you've filled it to the rim how do you get the poop out?
3. If I had a seat at the top of the stadium the last thing I want next to me at a game is a temporary crapper.

Okay I'm done.
Click to expand...

I agree with you and your post made me laugh. :clap:
 

GoGophers2005 said:
Just beside myself with the whole porto potties......get up and walk to the bathrooms for crying out loud. There were NO lines in the restroom.
Click to expand...

+1 :clap:

This has to be the worst idea I have ever heard in my life. I am very afraid the wrong person will see it and run with it. How long do you think it would take before the Gopher-bashing local media get to cover the story of the knocked-over porto-potty/ liquid crap flowing down all over the upper deck:confused:?
 

CP Gopher said:
They should put those who want to stand in sections adjacent to the students. I love standing on the big plays, but is there really a need to stand when there's no significant action?
Click to expand...

There is no "need" to stand on any play. However, it is a preference and everyone draws the line somewhere whether it be never, always or somewhere in between. It seems as if a policy by the U would clear this up.
 

My tickets are towards the top of section 211 and I do not want a temporay crapper by me smelling up the area. I will walk the stairs when I have to take a piss.

I think they need to have food vendors walking the aisles. I did not see one person walking the aisles selling either dogs or nachos or even pop. We did see one guy a couple of sections away but he never made it to our section. If you sell food to people in their seats that will help clear up the concourse. And if you dont want people walking the aisles then put a hot dog and nacho vendor at the top. If you want something fancy like the walley fingers or something then you can go deal with the crowds. But if all you want is a dog and a soda then go to the top and make a quick trip of it.
 

Having soda/hot dog vendors on the upper concourse if a great idea being floated around, and one that would be easy to implement.
 

I can see everyone's viewpoint on porta potties

This might be disastarous if they were to even put them anywhere near the student section. The smells question and logistics of removing them are logistical issue's you would likely not be able to overcome. The bathroom lines were not that bad, I was thinking maybe porties would make more sense torwards the outside of the stadium for the daily crunch of people. They have a lot of these in the tailgate lot's so that is well done. Not having them in the upper deck is a point well made.
 

You should be able to get checked out as fast at concessions at the stadium as you do at Chipotle. This means:

- Pre-programmed buttons to avoid lookup
- 'No sign' credit card use
- Ability of customer to see items and total on register display
- Ability of clerk to enter in the tender amount and see correct change displayed for cash transactions
- Receipt optional
 

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