A Bit Hacked Off.

[Yellow & Redneck]

Everybody is sick of Sporting Solutions, it goes without saying now. But the problem is that they give us a combined deal for stewarding and catering that we simply wouldn't get anywhere else. That's probably where the problem is.

I'd agree 100% with you there. But this isn't a difficult fix. Some simple communication from the club to the stewards before the game would be all it would have taken to resolve the issue. Or even if the steward outside the turnstile had used his radio to contact the head-steward, that would have clarified the situation.

[ian_mac]

I'd agree 100% with you there. But this isn't a difficult fix. Some simple communication from the club to the stewards before the game would be all it would have taken to resolve the issue. Or even if the steward outside the turnstile had used his radio to contact the head-steward, that would have clarified the situation.

You're 100% correct, which just makes it all the more ridiculous and infuriating.

[Mr Scruff]

So, was it stewards out in the street, or the turnstyle operators that were turning folk away?

 

I don't understand why folk would be getting asked to show their ST's to stewards out in the street.

 

I don't understand why turn style operators would be examining the ST's in such detail, I just waved mine in his line of sight.

 

Why didn't anyone who was denied entry demand Brian, our head steward come round?

The guy two in front of me complained and the steward got the police to pull him out. None of us were going to complain.

 

I've had a season ticket for 17 years and next year I'm just going to pay at the gate. Can't be bothered with my loyalty being an inconvenience to me and taken completely for granted by those who represent the club.

[potty trained]

 

Just to clarify, it was a steward in high-vis standing just outside the turnstile who was turning folk away. He inspected every season ticket before we even got to the turnstile. At the time I turned up, we were instructed that only one turnstile was for Season Ticket holders and the rest was for pay-at-the gate.

 

And I actually did ask if I could see the head steward, and even inquired to when or who had authorized JHS Season Ticket Holders to be turned away, and he simply put on a smug smile and refused to answer. Think he was more used to working in some scummy nightclub than dealing with football fans.

 

Thanks for replying, this is just getting more and more bizarre.

 

The average gate in the NS is about 500, a 50/50 split between ST & PATG.

 

All the gates have the facility to scan ST's, regardless of them being designated PATG. I know this as I just use the gate with the smallest queue, regardless of signage. Last night I went through the far right gate marked for concessions, my card didn't scan for the first time this season, I waved it at the lad in the box and he said on you go.

 

I'm not sure though why you accepted the stewards smug grin as acceptable, or at least the end to the conversation. Please tell me it went past this.

 

If it had been me, I would have been demanding Brian or Jim be sent round, I would be tweeting the clubs and sporting solutions twitter feed, phoning the club, going down to the front door to get James to radio Jim/lance/Brian. And basically causing a fckin stir.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are 2 or 3 stewards in the NS who are spot on, we have a good rapport with them and they allow us to "police" ourselves inside the stand.

 

But there is a never ending list of incidents at matches. Fix one and something else happens, these folk are needing baby sitting by folk in club ties.

 

 

 

[Yellow & Redneck]

Thanks for replying, this is just getting more and more bizarre.

 

The average gate in the NS is about 500, a 50/50 split between ST & PATG.

 

All the gates have the facility to scan ST's, regardless of them being designated PATG. I know this as I just use the gate with the smallest queue, regardless of signage. Last night I went through the far right gate marked for concessions, my card didn't scan for the first time this season, I waved it at the lad in the box and he said on you go.

 

I'm not sure though why you accepted the stewards smug grin as acceptable, or at least the end to the conversation. Please tell me it went past this.

 

If it had been me, I would have been demanding Brian or Jim be sent round, I would be tweeting the clubs and sporting solutions twitter feed, phoning the club, going down to the front door to get James to radio Jim/lance/Brian. And basically causing a fckin stir.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are 2 or 3 stewards in the NS who are spot on, we have a good rapport with them and they allow us to "police" ourselves inside the stand.

 

But there is a never ending list of incidents at matches. Fix one and something else happens, these folk are needing baby sitting by folk in club ties.

I completely agree with every word. Had it not have been 5mins before kick off, I would have kicked off something awful!

 

Unfortunately the steward checking all the season tickets was as arrogant as he was dim. There were at least seven or eight people while I was standing there demanding an answer from this guy, and he just shook his head and smiled like a bouncer at a nightclub. I think he felt smart knowing he could wind us up, full well in the knowledge that two policemen were standing just yards away.

 

And trust me, I protested, knowing full well that my Season Ticket was valid in the NS, but he didn't let anyone in! And I even asked him on whose orders was this new rule, so at the very least I knew who to aim my complaint at, and he refused to tell me point blank.

 

This time last year, we had folks literally on the roof of the NS at the Morton game, and yet the NS lay half empty when there was a chance for a massively rowdy support behind that goal.

[H Wragg]

Although I wasn't affected by this it is such a monumental balls up that I'd expect something by way of an apology from the club on the official site, even if only to reiterate the fact that JHS ST's are indeed valid in the NS and to confirm that the stewarding company have been rebriefed on what the Hampden is.

Edited April 27, 2014 by H Wragg

[Norgethistle]

This reminds me of when my mates used to run the Saturday nights at the old Tin Pan Alley, the door stewards who were employed through a 3rd party were briefed as to what was acceptable and not, dress code, clientele wanted etc, and basically ignored it and ran it as they wanted, ended up with the stewards killing the night, being heavy handed, and in the long term actually killing the nightclub, they appeared to be answerable to no-one at the actual nightclub.

The stewards at the gate are the 1st point of contact between fans (Home & away) of the club and give the 1st impression for the matchday experience, remember how the stewards at Dens put so many folk of going, same could happen here

[westertonjagfan]

Going back to the experience at killie last week, it was almost the complete opposite of this...helpful and relaxed stewards and friendly and efficient catering. I wonder where else in the 'entertainment' industry what we saw on Friday night would be considered acceptable? Imagine paying less for a ticket at the citizens theatre and then being treated like a problem or a violent scumbag. Wouldn't be allowed. Pay more to see football and you can be treated like a child, it would seem.

[David Stevenson]

I experienced hospitality last season and it was dire. No chance of me wasting money on it again. Stewarding seems to be a problem at all too many home games and catering is of a very poor standard. I think we could get any organization to provide a crap package of match day services like that, and Sporting Solutions deliver it with bells on.

 

I reckon it would be close to impossible to find a service provider that could do a worse job.

 

Does anyone know what the relationship between the Club and this organization is? They use office space at Firhill. They are "not for profit" though I am hope the senior management ensure they get the remuneration they feel that they deserve.

 

There must be a reason why the link with this useless outfit seems unbreakable. Like a lot of things though, when popular dissatisfaction reaches critical, things change. When ST holders start to talk of non-renewal, even football club Boards have been known to respond.

[yoda-jag]

how many were refused entry to and turned away from the ns? 50? 100? 200? 300? more?

fine they may all have gone in jhs in the end, so (assume) no numbers lost to overall attendance.

in jhs did all those refused entry to ns sing as much and vociferously as they would have had they been allowed into ns?

 

its all hypothetical, but whats to say if that extra few hundred or however many it was, had been in ns, adding to the volume, numbers and visualness of the ns, even starting a song the ns didn't, any variation of possibilities that could have lifted the players that extra notch for just one extra split second moment in the game, which would have potentially given us an extra spark which could have , for example, even driven just one player to stretch that little bit harder to connect with the ball and either indirectly or directly lead to another goal for us?

we'll never know of course. it's all hypothetical, but a point to ponder.

 

firhill is our home.

we should be maximising every possible advantage or potential assistance to our efforts to make playing at home give us that edge over any visiting teams and supports.

the fuller and louder and passionate the ns is, the bigger chance we have (like any club doing similar) of possibly (and positively) affecting the outcome of any match at firhill.

the jhs is a great stand to sit in and view the game from, one of the best stands in scotland. but the ns is the focal point where people are allowed (and actively encouraged) to assemble together in one specific space, and stand, sing, be colourful, be energetic, and back the team to the maximum where their backing is projected onto pitch in a better way than the jhs allows.

 

and where was onethistle in all this? last season there was always a couple of them at ns entry turnstiles. so what happnened friday evening wouldn't have happened or would have been rectified and steward put in his place had onethistle reps been there. and who dispensed with onethistle?

 

for any steward to deny entry to even one supporter who has every legal right to enter the ns, is disgraceful. to deny dozens of, or possibly hundreds, should be a sacking offence, and grounds for any contract between ss and ptfc to be ripped up.

what's the betting the steward(s) who was acting like a smug arse on friday night was a st murn fan, or a old firm nugget, or a sad little man who gets his kicks out of acting like a complete turd and upsetting decent football supporters knowing full well if anyone gets angry at him or raises voices or takes a swing at them that police will huckle anyone away from him and protect him and thus allowing such stewards to continue being a complete bellend?

[Lance Gilmour]

Just a quick note to say we will look into this - our aim is to provide a great Matchday experience for all our fans and clearly, this has not been the case for a few people on this thread.

So firstly, apologies for that. Secondly, if I could ask you to drop me a mail at [email protected] with details of what happened, I will ensure we get to the bottom if it, fix the issues and get back to you.

We did have some operational/technical issues on Friday night, but that shouldn't stop us providing good service.

[yoda-jag]

I experienced hospitality last season and it was dire. No chance of me wasting money on it again. Stewarding seems to be a problem at all too many home games and catering is of a very poor standard. I think we could get any organization to provide a crap package of match day services like that, and Sporting Solutions deliver it with bells on.

 

I reckon it would be close to impossible to find a service provider that could do a worse job.

 

Does anyone know what the relationship between the Club and this organization is? They use office space at Firhill. They are "not for profit" though I am hope the senior management ensure they get the remuneration they feel that they deserve.

 

There must be a reason why the link with this useless outfit seems unbreakable. Like a lot of things though, when popular dissatisfaction reaches critical, things change. When ST holders start to talk of non-renewal, even football club Boards have been known to respond.

 

sporting solutions. nothing to see here. all legit and above board. please move on.

 

relationship between ss and certain members of ptfc. nothing to see here. all legit and above board. please move on.

[Fawlty Towers]

Just a quick note to say we will look into this - our aim is to provide a great Matchday experience for all our fans and clearly, this has not been the case for a few people on this thread.

So firstly, apologies for that. Secondly, if I could ask you to drop me a mail at [email protected] with details of what happened, I will ensure we get to the bottom if it, fix the issues and get back to you.

We did have some operational/technical issues on Friday night, but that shouldn't stop us providing good service.

 

Lance, I appreciate that there were technical issues on Friday night but over the course of the entire season the performance of Sporting Solutions has not been good enough in my opinion - would you agree with that assessment?

 

I will send you an e-mail with my observations.

[potty trained]

Yoda, I think you do the JHS a disservice. I think they are very good with joining with the NS singing section. On Friday you could see the majority of JHS folk clapping in time to songs we were singing, so they were singing them too.

 

My dad sits right in the half way line and he says the NS move has completely changed the atmosphere in sections 3 upwards as they used to be really quiet when we were up the back corner.

 

He believes we should never consider moving out the NS to the MS as the sound levels leaving each stand are night and day.

[Fawlty Towers]

]

I experienced hospitality last season and it was dire. No chance of me wasting money on it again.[/b] Stewarding seems to be a problem at all too many home games and catering is of a very poor standard. I think we could get any organization to provide a crap package of match day services like that, and Sporting Solutions deliver it with bells on.

 

I reckon it would be close to impossible to find a service provider that could do a worse job.

 

Does anyone know what the relationship between the Club and this organization is? They use office space at Firhill. They are "not for profit" though I am hope the senior management ensure they get the remuneration they feel that they deserve.

 

There must be a reason why the link with this useless outfit seems unbreakable. Like a lot of things though, when popular dissatisfaction reaches critical, things change. When ST holders start to talk of non-renewal, even football club Boards have been known to respond.

 

I can't disagree with what you are saying but just to point out tha En Croute who did the hospitality before Sporting Solutions are back and from my experience they are excellent.

 

http://ptfc.co.uk/co...ial/hospitality

Edited April 27, 2014 by Fawlty Towers

[yoda-jag]

Yoda, I think you do the JHS a disservice. I think they are very good with joining with the NS singing section. On Friday you could see the majority of JHS folk clapping in time to songs we were singing, so they were singing them too.

 

My dad sits right in the half way line and he says the NS move has completely changed the atmosphere in sections 3 upwards as they used to be really quiet when we were up the back corner.

 

He believes we should never consider moving out the NS to the MS as the sound levels leaving each stand are night and day.

 

pt, not trying to belittle the jhs or do it a disservice (have sat in jhs a couple of times since our ns move), there is no doubt it is a better atmosphere than it was in the tumbleweed days.

agree they do join in with ns on lots of occcassions, and even hear them starting their own chants on occassions. will always acknowledge and give them credit for this.

my point was if the ns was fuller, it would have been even louder, even more energetic and potentially (only potentially) have helped make a difference in some way. as your dad rightly observes the sound levels of ns means we should never vacate it as a home support and the sound levels are night and day now from past, hence the fuller ns is, the greater the volume and overall atmosphere and backing for the thistle players. as i said originally, all hypothetical whether more in ns on friday evening would have made a difference, and thats thanks in no small part to a trumped up turd of a steward in a high viz jacket acting like he owned firhill.

[Mr Scruff]

 

The stewards who made those decisions last night were just plain wrong. Why they weren't briefed about who was allowed in to the NS is beyond me.

I got the strong impression that the stewards were operating under instruction. I'd just like to know who isntructed and why. It might be entirely reasonable. But they should have communicated it to avoid the unpleasant shambles it was (I wouldn't have got the u16 tickets for the North Stand earlier in the day otherwise).

 

If it was the individual stewards making autonomous decisions about who gets admission where that's criminal.

 

Might take the offer of emailing the club to give them info, but we really should know now who's decision it was. Non season ticket holders wouldn't have this hassle. Sadly it suggests we'd be better giving ours up next season.

[Norgethistle]

Sporting Solutions appear to be the sand in the ointment for the matchday experience (Bar us trouncing teams week in week out), stewarding and catering is a massive part of the image for the club for the punters who attend from both home and away supports, if you have hassle at the gate it sours the whole experience from the start, if the stewards cause problems it causes tension and causing the Police to look closer when they see flare ups and increase presence (and probably cost), catering has been atrocious with hospitality not much better (seen by it being taken out their hands), for a midweek game especially folk are looking for something to tide them over with coming straight from work (especially away fans) and can put folk off attending, then dropping our gate income. Hopefully this deal is up soon and a proper feasibility study is being carried out to actually in-source the whole deal, hospitality, catering, bar, and stewarding, run by Thistle for Thistle.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Norgethistle

[David Stevenson]

In response to Fawlty Towers, that is good news. Hopefully SS are stripped of their other roles shortly, though Yoda's "intriguing" comments imply that might be less likely to happen. Hope not, though.

[Fawlty Towers]

Sporting Solutions appear to be the sand in the ointment for the matchday experience (Bar us trouncing teams week in week out), stewarding and catering is a massive part of the image for the club for the punters who attend from both home and away supports, if you have hassle at the gate it sours the whole experience from the start, if the stewards cause problems it causes tension and causing the Police to look closer when they see flare ups and increase presence (and probably cost), catering has been atrocious with hospitality not much better (seen by it being taken out their hands), for a midweek game especially folk are looking for something to tide them over with coming straight from work (especially away fans) and can put folk off attending, then dropping our gate income. Hopefully this deal is up soon and a proper feasibility study is being carried out to actually in-source the whole deal, hospitality, catering, bar, and stewarding, run by Thistle for Thistle.

 

The only thing I would slightly disagree with you there is about in-sourcing all those areas. I don't think that out-sourcing is a bad thing if it is with the right company and everyone is working together. Who were the company that did the catering a few seasons ago as they provided a decent level of service and used to post on here for feedback? That is the sort of thing we need to get back to.

[Norgethistle]

The only thing I would slightly disagree with you there is about in-sourcing all those areas. I don't think that out-sourcing is a bad thing if it is with the right company and everyone is working together. Who were the company that did the catering a few seasons ago as they provided a decent level of service and used to post on here for feedback? That is the sort of thing we need to get back to.

 

Thats why I had stated a feasibility study, if and its a big if , the club can run and man this through the fanbase then we could be quids in, we should be able to get pies at cost price

[westertonjagfan]

I keep going back to the example of Clubs like Killie and Motherwell, both of whom IMHO get stewarding and catering pretty much spot on. It can't be that hard to get simple customer care right, surely?

[Charlie Endell]

I keep going back to the example of Clubs like Killie and Motherwell, both of whom IMHO get stewarding and catering pretty much spot on. It can't be that hard to get simple customer care right, surely?

I haven't been to Fir Park in many years but totally agree on Killie. I nearly wandered into the Killie-end turnstile (for ST holders - I think) that's strangely located beside the turnstiles for away fans - a sharp-eyed steward spotted I only had five digits on each hand and kindly redirected me.

 

Seriously, I thought the Killie stewards were excellent - one didn't even react or call for back up when met with an aggressive Thistle fan who was watching the game while standing in an aisle and didn't take kindly to being asked to move.

 

The catering set up was impressive by football standards - I was served in jig time and they'd enough pies to ensure there was no chance they'd run out.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Charlie Endell

[Third Lanark]

I haven't been to Fir Park in many years but totally agree on Killie. I nearly wandered into the Killie-end turnstile (for ST holders - I think) that's strangely located beside the turnstiles for away fans - a sharp-eyed steward spotted I only had five digits on each hand and kindly redirected me.

 

Seriously, I thought the Killie stewards were excellent - one didn't even react or call for back up when met with an aggressive Thistle fan who was watching the game while standing in an aisle and didn't take kindly to being asked to move.

 

The catering set up was impressive by football standards - I was served in jig time and they'd enough pies to ensure there was no chance they'd run out.

I agree completely - Stewarding and catering at Killie were first class

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Who were the company that did the catering a few seasons ago as they provided a decent level of service and used to post on here for feedback? That is the sort of thing we need to get back to.

 

I do mind that but the cynic in me would suggest the best company is usually called Under New Management. Too often they kick off with good intentions but end up just going thru the motions. The ones that corresponded with us thru the website were great to start with but I'd take a guess that the excellent customer relations wasn't sustained throughout their tenure.