If you cant manage not have a drink for 2 hour i suggest wigan has a major drink problem.

We don't have a problem we just love it

What they should do is have some pouring the pints and some serving.

Most people are drinking lager or bitter.

So you build a "stock" up of around 20 pints from "the pourers". Sellers sell them while "the pourers" carry on pouring keeping an eye on the stock.

As kick off time approaches the pourers slow down and the stock diminishes.

5 minutes before half time, the pourers start again.

It's hardly rocket science is it?

After a few weeks of doing it they will get to know when to start and when to stop pouring.

HHMMMM Pourers!!!!!!

Good Idea that Bri!

You looking to create a Job Opportunity!

It has a major drink problem... really slow bars

Hi there.
I am one of the unfortunate to work the indoor bars, wearing our depressing black uniforms. As far as I know we are bossed by separate people than those who work on the concourse bars (I'd hate to work the concourse bars to be honest).

On a normal rugby match we have the south stand bar open prematch for season ticket holders, with 3 people on each bar, one on a "can bar", and one or two glass collectors. Then we have staff on the second floor for the match sponsors, and we have the north stand open for Max's kids club. We also have staff up on the third floor for the executive boxes. I was up working on the second floor, which was really busy postmatch.

Talking to my boss I found that there were quite a few people who had not turned up at all for work, so we were thinly spread across all the bars in the ground. We then had to spread the work force even thinner as they decided to open a bar for the players after the match (which is most likely why there wasn't a can bar in the south stand). I can't make excuses for everyone, and we have mentioned in the past to bosses that we think we are understaffed, and when they do hire people, the number of them that turn up for one shift and never return is quite high.

Was it the concourse or the south stand people had problems with most, and if anyone has any constructive ideas on how we can change anything on the indoor bars let me know, and I'll pass things on to the bosses.

I was in the East Stand and the queues were that bad I didnt bother stretching the width of the concourse. I think most people would like to see some preparation particularly when a big crowd is expected with staff pulling pints in advance to avoid lengthy queues and use of multi-pint pulling machines. You should sell this to your bosses on the basis that they are losing a fortune in revenue because the wait is so long and people just wont wait.

Both. Friday was a much higher crowd than normal but the numbers of bar staff was, or seemed, the same. I can appreciate the staffing issues though.

In the South Stand Lounge, To remove the can bar may have been seen by bosses to be a good idea but it takes seconds to buy 4 cans, if your buying four pints it's probably two minutes pouring and then taking money etc. So you could serve maybe four customers on the can bar in the time it takes to serve one on the taps. It's less of an issue pre match when everyone turns up a different times but post match when we all pile in a once.......... I mean the queue stretched from bar to entrance door.

Generally though the can bar is operating in the South Stand Lounge and it works well for me. Never a queue on it and quick service. Perhaps if bosses take that decision again they should just sell cans at the normal bars? Like I said giving cans out cuts out the pouring time and will speed the queue up massively, cutting the pressure on bar staff.

On the concourses I suspect their will be some health & safety legislation that'll prevent cans being given out to cut pouring time but I think the general moan from fans is what we see as lack of preperation for half time. I wouldn't know how busy the bars gets whilst the first half is in progress but we always think hmmm well why don't they get loads of pints ready for the half time rush rather than pouring pints one by one. Maybe I just don't see preperation and in fairness if I worked on the bar I'd probably take a break during the first half if it got quiet rather than keep working. The biggest moan though is that six pints at once machine. Why only one of them? - which often doesn't work anyway. Put four of them in and jobs a good un. But I suspect you'd never be able to prise Dave's wallet open!

Get another bar in the east stand. How can it make sense to have 2 bars in the south and 2 in the east when the east holds a few thousand more. Or get the plastic bottles like HKR at another selling point in the concourse. The whole operation is to cock if you ask me.

Plastic bottles is probably a good option to cut on pouring time as I argued in my last post. Long as it's not Carlsberg. The beer was dire when it was Carlsberg on tap. Lot better since they switched to Carling.

My two least favourite lagers. They should get bottles of VB

Carling is terrible!! Get Stella on draught, there'd be old fellas rolling down the steps onto the pitch

Off Topic, but I cant be bothered to give it a thread of its own, but LOL @ Warrington

Wire fans booing at half time

Time to crack open the hip flask and cuddle up to middle age!