Fans' Forum tonight

[magpie_mania]

For me upgrade of the current stadium is significantly more important than increasing capacity. As mentioned cracked seats, handrails, lick of paint, more areas to eat and drink at games will all improve the match day experience of those in attendance.

The obvious way to increase the home capacity is to safely segregate the Jimmy Sirrel stand to allow flexibility and home supporters to use part of this stand. How practical this is I do not know.

The stadium is obviously more than big enough for Notts games. The average home attendances and importantly the occupancy of the home sections rather than the total crowd of just a few games a season is key. Until we get to a stage where the home sections are selling out regularly does it become an issue.

To be perfectly honest I can't believe the above is true for a Notts County side in League Two and even an discussion. It's frankly mind-blowing to me!

If you told me a few years back we would be having games during the season (and televised) selling out, out average attendance is likely to be over 10,000 for the season I would have thought you were mad! This is 4th tier football.

I never thought this was possible especially not following dropping to Non-League level even with ambitious, sensible owners, a very talented manager, entertaining tippy tappy football and top quality recruitment that we have not seen for decades.

The support home and away under this ownership and especially these coaches still hasn't fully sunk in and has me shaking my head in delighted disbelief.

Regarding the Jimmy Sirrel stand, I can't see a problem with the actual seating being segregated but I guess it's the access & entrances which might be more problematic. Can't remember what that stand is like though.

We use the Family Stand - now that they are selling beer from the refreshment bar I guess there could be a bottle-neck down there when it's pretty full - people have to congregate in what is quite a narrow concourse as they can't take the drinks to their seats.

[IrateKnight]

Been to watch quite a few games now over the last couple of seasons, as a new fan I would say overall the stadium is good for the level but definitely some improvements could be made to the matchday experience. Main thing for me personally is the food options are extremely poor, you see even non-league teams doing brilliant options now on the footy scran pages. I know personally I'd rather pay £7-8 for something nice than £5 for a ****e cheeseburger or microwaved pie maybe could help get extra revenue in from food sales?

[Kent Magpie]

Been to watch quite a few games now over the last couple of seasons, as a new fan I would say overall the stadium is good for the level but definitely some improvements could be made to the matchday experience. Main thing for me personally is the food options are extremely poor, you see even non-league teams doing brilliant options now on the footy scran pages. I know personally I'd rather pay £7-8 for something nice than £5 for a ****e cheeseburger or microwaved pie maybe could help get extra revenue in from food sales?

That's a really good point. I came up for the FGR game and had a burger, my partner had chips. Yuk. When we came for the Wrexham game we ate elsewhere despite running late.

[Magpies1959]

I buy my lucky cheeseburger from the van inside the ground, just before entering the DP stand, very tasty and all for a fiver. When the van is not open for trophy games stc, I have bought a pie from the food outlet under the stand, and again have found them both tasty and hot, all for £4.50.
I am not fortunate enough to have £8 pound to spend on a pre game snack.

[TSANHO]

The food from the ground is largely awful. The food wagons inside the ground used to be ok but they’ve significantly increased the prices lately and reduced the portion sizes. The food, and staff, at the kiosks under the stands are as bad as each other!

It really can’t be that hard to get decent original scran at decent prices to sell at football grounds. You see some great examples on ‘footy scran’, like someone else alluded to. But as long as people keep consuming that slop they will continue to sell it!

I wouldn’t mind paying 5-7 quid for something if it resembled something edible, but the prices they charge for substandard animal feed is just greed.

[Newish Pie]

On the food topic, I think football food (and drink, for that matter) is a particularly difficult problem.

Think it's a general rule of most things that you can only ever have two of Quick, Good, and Cheap... never all three. Football food needs to be Very Quick given the large numbers of people to be fed in a short space of time, so it's how they balance Good and Cheap. A chippie or a cafe might cater for similar numbers of people, but over a much longer and less intensive period of time.

Not saying whether they've got it right or not at the moment... I've always just assumed it's either overpriced or low quality or both and avoided it. Perhaps that's unfair.

[IrateKnight]

That's just it though a 'pre game snack' there's a lot of clubs where you can get an entire meal for £7-8 and people could treat buying food at the game as their lunch instead of getting food before/after outside of the ground.
Not sure how many of the crowd are season ticket holders vs not but the people that don't go every week would have more money to spend.

Not saying you can't have your Pukka pie but would be nice to have the option of cheap crap grub or pay a bit of a premium for something nice.

[matt_magpie]

I don’t always have a pint at the game, but I always wonder why they don’t pre pull them at half time as it’s literally a 10 minute wait and I imagine some just don’t bother because of it. I don’t know whether other people think that’s a good idea ???

[kill_the_drum]

I don’t always have a pint at the game, but I always wonder why they don’t pre pull them at half time as it’s literally a 10 minute wait and I imagine some just don’t bother because of it. I don’t know whether other people think that’s a good idea ???

I always wonder the same. Nobody goes into a football ground expecting a decent pint, but would like a quick pint. Just have someone constantly pouring.

[durhampie]

I always wonder the same. Nobody goes into a football ground expecting a decent pint, but would like a quick pint. Just have someone constantly pouring.

You should have been at Wimbledon, I was having to pay £7.60 for a pint of lager in the local pubs..