Stewarding At Firhill?

[chickirk]

Just getting this off my chest and to see if any other Jags fans have had issues?

I was working on Saturday and missed the Raith Rovers game. I have a bouncy castle business and depending on what hires I have will determine if I make the game or not.

I was heading home to Northpark Street (Next to Firhill) in my van and listening to the football on the radio. Thistle had just scored to make it 3 v 2 as I was coming up Maryhill Road. The radio said the game only had a 2 min left plus injury time. I knew that I would never get parked on my street until the crowd came out. So I just parked outside Firhill and went in via the North stand open gates to watch the last few Minutes at the corner flag.

As I got to the corner flag a steward came up to me and told me to leave as I had not paid in. I told him that I have a season ticket in the house that I did not use as I was working. He told me that I would still have to leave. I told him that I was not going to leave and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. He told me to go down to the gates and wait for a supervisor. I told him that I was going nowhere. He shouted over his supervisor who I shook hands with and introduced myself to,

1. Told him that I had a season ticket.
   
2. Showed him my advertising board behind the goal that matched the logo on my jumper.
   
3. Told him that I ran the Firhill Cup & Family Fun Day that brings in thousands of pounds to the club.
   
4. Told him that I had just bought a table of 10 for the cup final hospitality at a cost of £550.
   

 

But after all that the supervisor told me that I would still have to leave! I told both of them that I was staying till the full time whistle. The supervisor walked away towards the stand as I feel he was going to find a police officer. Then the full time whistle went. I walked out Firhill in a rage! So instead of me catching the last 4 minutes of a game, (that I was gutted I had missed) I spent 4 minutes arguing with two stewards. I was of the thinking that Partick Thistle want to get people inside Firhill? Not kicked out!

It was just to see if anything like this has happened before to anyone? I don’t post much on the forum but even after a few days I am still angry about the whole thing!

Anyway, RANT OVER!!!!!!!!!!

Charlie.

[topcat]

The "Last twenties" is a old tradition in football so I can see were you are coming from. When they open the gates for those wanting to leave early normally they never used to bat a eye for those wanting to catch the last few minutes.

 

The stewards must have specific instructions for this now. Its a real pity that after hearing that you are a diehard they couldn,t just say "on ye go mate".

 

Even though it is there job to enforce such instruction a wee bit of common sense should sometimes apply. Ba humbug for these guys.

[Lambies Lost Doo]

Charlie, your efforts with the family fun day and the adverts for your business, are appreciated by fans including myself so hats off to you on that.

 

Unfortunately the world is governed by rules, directions and little bits of paper and I am sure the police would not like people nipping in for the last 5 minutes no matter how innocent the reason. This filters down to the part-time stewards who will have their hands tied and unable to operate common sense due to worry about official action from above. I'm sure the police/council/whoever would use "Health and Safety" <shudder> as a reason for not letting any people in for the end of the game like the "old days".

 

If you want to get it off your chest further contact the club who have been good at resolving these matters in the past. I'm sure typing on the forum will have helped. I know it helps me time to time about more than just football.

[Meister Jag]

The "Last twenties" is a old tradition in football so I can see were you are coming from. When they open the gates for those wanting to leave early normally they never used to bat a eye for those wanting to catch the last few minutes.

 

Can't see why the steward bothered. The supervisor was probably just placed on the spot so had to earn his money i.e. back up the steward. But easily resolved if the last 20-mins open door policy of old was adhered to. Storm in tea cup IMO, but obviously quite annoying (is upsetting too strong!) if you're the one involved; in truth, given the circumstances, I might have been f***ing raging!

 

I wouldn't say that the last 20-mins got me into football (well it did, but not in the way I'm trying to illustrate), but I did walk into quite a few major games at Hampden as a wean. Family moved from Maryhill to Battlefield when I was as a kid (we must have won the pools) and this was just something that we did because the ground was handy. But could this be another magnet to help attract one or two local kids? I know that under 16's get in free; but until they get the Jags bug - life-long condition with no known cure, maybe the thought of 90-mins for some is too much to bear. But once infected (to murder the metaphor) they'd be exposed to the team who are reinventing fitba for the masses!

Edited December 19, 2012 by Meister Jag

[Blackpool Jags]

This sort of utter sh!te really infuriates me. There is no valid reason to ask this fan to leave: he's harming nobody, either potentially or actually. He puts a lot of very good and needed money Thistle's way and obviously cares deeply and passionately about our football club - and is treated like some kind of miscreant.

 

Hell mend those jobsworth douchebags that cannae help themselves pissing good people off. If it wasn't for the 'last 20 minutes' policy during the pre-madness days, I would never have been able to attend my first few matches.

 

This nonsense really pishes on my chips. Charlie, you have my 100% undiluted sympathy.

[gettingjaggy]

Charlie, want me to get him telt? Getting Jaggy - Firhill Ninja.

[Rid Skwerr]

By contrast, I forgot my season ticket on Saturday and was treated with the utmost courtesy and promptness by the guys in the portakabin.

Temporary ticket issued nae bother.

[McKennan]

By contrast, I forgot my season ticket on Saturday and was treated with the utmost courtesy and promptness by the guys in the portakabin.

Temporary ticket issued nae bother.

 

Well in. Mind you, it's probably easier to turn Al Capone away from the turnstiles than give you a rubbering.

 

Charlie, I'm sorry to read about your troubles, especially at the dog end of the game.

 

What are the rules? Anyone know the fishel rules?

 

Can I suggest you took the wrong approach? As much as you're well-kent, the 'do you know who I am/I've got a ticket but I don't have it with me/do you know how much I spend here' appeals are bound to get some folk offside.

Edited December 19, 2012 by McKennan

[Willjag]

I used to play amateur football back in the 80's and played quite often up at Chirnside. After the game was over, I'd get changed quickly and dash down to Firhill for the last 10 minutes or so and it was never a problem.

 

In reality, it doesn't matter who you are, anyone should be allowed to watch the last few minutes of the game. For all the steward knew, it could have been someone walking round from another part of the ground just wanting to get a quick getaway. Poor stuff.

[peagreenboy]

I'm not for one moment suggesting you were anything less than polite in your dealings with the stewards, but sometimes if someone's giving you a bit of a nasty or overblown attitude about what they feel they are entitled to, then it just rubs you up the wrong way. Especially if you're just working a minimum wage job and have no care or connection to the people you work for; and I'm sure the stewards at Firhill aren't, for the most part, Jags fans! They just have a job to do.

 

Plenty of times I've had to deal with complaints in crappy McJobs and plenty of times the complainant's attitude has been so foul I was not inclined to help them; obviously every case is different and some people have a right to get angry when something has gone badly wrong. But many people have such an attitude of entitlement and treat you, because you have a low-paying job, like you don't deserve any respect at all.

 

And in times where someone has treated me poorly, I've explained this to my supervisor fully expecting them to back you up. And on the other side, when working as a supervisor I've backed up my staff - the ones I trusted and believed them when they said the customer was rude or belligerent. There's nothing worse when someone has treated you like garbage and your manager immediately buckles like a belt.

 

However it seems like you were reasonable when explaining to the supervisor and after your clear input and support of the club became apparent it seems very thin to chuck you out over five minutes. Sometimes jobsworths are just jobsworths; it makes it all the better when someone treats you with respect, be it employee or customer.

[1 John Lambie]

My first few experiences of Firhill was when my dad would take me to see the last 20mins of games, there was never any issue but that was a good few years ago now, don't really see a major problem with it.

 

The only issue there may be, but I don't see it being a major one, is that they then don't know how many fans are in the stadium but given that a lot of fans leave early, more than that will come in for the end of the match, don't see that being the issue.

[twinny]

My first few experiences of Firhill was when my dad would take me to see the last 20mins of games, there was never any issue but that was a good few years ago now, don't really see a major problem with it.

 

The only issue there may be, but I don't see it being a major one, is that they then don't know how many fans are in the stadium but given that a lot of fans leave early, more than that will come in for the end of the match, don't see that being the issue.

 

Easiest way to do it would be to have a turnstile open and anyone coming in has to enter through that (for free) and numbers can be monitored. Seems like a lot of hassle and I can't see many people turning up for the final 20 minutes these days.

[ian_mac]

Chic

 

You are totally correct to be annoyed about this. Yes another example of how the stewarding has deteriorated since Sporting Solutions took over.

 

I would email the club about this to be honest. Whether you have a season ticket, sponsorship, hospitality etc. shouldn't make any difference - you are doing absolutely no harm watching the last 5 minutes of the match. However, the fact that you do support the club on so many levels makes this situation all the more disgraceful.

 

What a shame it is, that when things on the park are going so right, and onethistle are making great strides off the park, that we have Sporting Solutions continuously letting the club down with stewarding and catering.

 

For what it's worth, I actually don't think it's healthy having the same company in charge of catering, stewarding, and hospitality.

[twinny]

For what it's worth, I actually don't think it's healthy having the same company in charge of catering, stewarding, and hospitality.

 

I can understand why you say this about Sporting Solutions because they seem to be pretty incompetent, but I can't see what is wrong with these being outsourced to the same company. Are the stewards not the same people they have always been, just being paid through a different company? Hospitality and catering go hand-in-hand and you'll see these run by the same company at almost any sporting event.

[ian_mac]

I can understand why you say this about Sporting Solutions because they seem to be pretty incompetent, but I can't see what is wrong with these being outsourced to the same company. Are the stewards not the same people they have always been, just being paid through a different company? Hospitality and catering go hand-in-hand and you'll see these run by the same company at almost any sporting event.

 

 

These 3 areas should all be independent of each other. Stewards turn up, do their job, caterers likewise, hospitality likewise.

 

Now say the club is unhappy with (hypothetically) catering. Surely the club should simply be able to have a word with the caterers, say thanks, and send them on their way without it affecting any other area of the match day experience.

 

But Sportin Solutions have the club over a barrel. They can easily say, take catering away from us we'll take hospitality and stewarding away as well. That shouldn't be the case. We now have a situation where catering is substandard, and no one has a good word to say about it. Long queues, poor quality of product. But the club's position is compromised because Sporting Solutions are also in charge of stewarding and hospitality.

[Lenziejag]

It probably works the same way as well. If you don't improve catering we will look elsewhere for all 3

[twinny]

These 3 areas should all be independent of each other. Stewards turn up, do their job, caterers likewise, hospitality likewise.

 

Now say the club is unhappy with (hypothetically) catering. Surely the club should simply be able to have a word with the caterers, say thanks, and send them on their way without it affecting any other area of the match day experience.

 

But Sportin Solutions have the club over a barrel. They can easily say, take catering away from us we'll take hospitality and stewarding away as well. That shouldn't be the case. We now have a situation where catering is substandard, and no one has a good word to say about it. Long queues, poor quality of product. But the club's position is compromised because Sporting Solutions are also in charge of stewarding and hospitality.

 

I can see the point regarding stewarding. I cannot see why you would have different companies supplying catering and hospitality. They are both food service just at different levels. You go to the top football stadiums in the country and clubs will either be running both catering and hospitality themselves (with one management team running both) or have companies like Sodexo or Sporting Solutions providing both. It would be daft working with two different catering companies.

[yoda-jag]

Sporting Solutions Suck

[Jaggernaut]

Can´t see very much that is ¨sporting¨ in the solution that the stewards came up with.

 

Cuppla ar soles.

[scottymagoo]

I thought saying "Do you know who ah um? Um the guy fae Kirkwood Castles" would get you in anywhere?

[Rid Skwerr]

Well in. Mind you, it's probably easier to turn Al Capone away from the turnstiles than give you a rubbering.

 

Da boys wit da violin cases will be paying you a visit wit an offer you can't refuse......

[Armand2]

Just to contribute to the recent debate on Sporting Solutions, although not an issue regarding the stewarding, it took three attempts to try to get a VAT receipt from Sporting Solutions for hospitality. Specifically asked for one on each occasion and got a debit card tear-off, an invoice for a bar tab (which was settled on the day) and, eventually, a make-shift VAT receipt. The fact whoever it was I spoke to on the phone had little idea what a VAT receipt actually was didn't help matters either.

[northernsoul]

Charlie, your efforts with the family fun day and the adverts for your business, are appreciated by fans including myself so hats off to you on that.

 

Unfortunately the world is governed by rules, directions and little bits of paper and I am sure the police would not like people nipping in for the last 5 minutes no matter how innocent the reason. This filters down to the part-time stewards who will have their hands tied and unable to operate common sense due to worry about official action from above. I'm sure the police/council/whoever would use "Health and Safety" <shudder> as a reason for not letting any people in for the end of the game like the "old days".

 

If you want to get it off your chest further contact the club who have been good at resolving these matters in the past. I'm sure typing on the forum will have helped. I know it helps me time to time about more than just football.

 

I'm in total agreement with this and I think some of what you've posted hits the nail on the head. We're just living in changed days, which is sad.

 

I just like to re-iterate my thanks to Charlie for his and his colleagues hard work in the Family Fun Day and Firhill Cup.

Edited December 21, 2012 by northernsoul