Stadium issues

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Gopher4life15

Gopher4life15

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Well First and foremost TCF Bank Stadium is simply AMAZING! :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

However, I did have a few semi-serious issues (as should be expected for the first real game).

1. Section 101 acoustics, could not hear the P.A. or the band at all. :(

2. The Concourse at halftime was nearly impossible to get anywhere and food lines were horrendously long. I gave up and went hungry. No I will not get up and do it during the game either. I am there to watch football.

Any other problems that might need to be looked at?
 

I don't know that a stadium can ever be designed to serve 50,000 people in 10 minutes. So halftime is basically going to be extremely busy in any stadium in the world.

The only solution would be to have some hot dog vendor types roaming the stands like beer salesmen.
 

How about a second, upper level, concourse? it has to be possible if they are going to eventually add an additional 30,000 seats. Get a head start on it and take away half of the congestion from the main concourse.

It was bad.
 

Portipotties up on the concourse up top! Im at the very top of 208 and its a long hike, im in good shape and am only 15 so I can endure it just fine, but it'd'be pretty nice to have.
 

There is no way that area can handle an extra 30,000 people. Also, unless they could add some gates you would have to open up the stadium 3 hours before the game to get everyone in on time. Tonight the lines were long and it took forever to get in. It didn't help that the ticket scanners didn't work when they first opened the gates.

The concession stand workers are using small calcuators instead of cash registers. People were in line forever or left without food instead of waiting. That has got to change. The workers look at chart to punch in the price, looks back at the chart and punch in another price and on on an on it goes.
 


Amazing stadium...love love LOVE what we now have.

However, disappointed they weren't prepared to handle the crowd at the gates...we were in line for about 30 minutes. Also, went to get a Sub from Subway in the 3rd qtr and they ran out of subs? So, went a cross the way and tried to get a slice of pizza @ Palermos and they were out of those too! FINALLY, the delay on the broadcast in the stadium on the TVs is a bit odd as they have the live radio feed going...and you can of hear the live game in the background (seemed to be a 10 second delay).

I'm sure they will get most of these things worked out...I'm VERY happy the game went the way it did and that we have outdoor football on campus!
 

We had an tremendous time at the game. Being outdoors on a beautiful night with fans clad in maroon and gold was tremendous.

Areas for improvement include a more streamlined and quicker frisk and scan at the gates. I had a serious concern about missing the flyover. Also, the point of sale system is a POS. They're using calculators to ring stuff up? Is this the plan or will we have registers later?
 

Entry gates

First and foremost, there is no way that tonight...even if a total disaster...would not beat the hellhole Dome for a college football atmosphere. That of course was not the case...

My biggest issue was the gate lines...and sitting here comparing to the dome...it just has more entry capacity than TCF...in terms of meeting security requirements. Initially, I thought they should just open more gates...but on reflection that is not easily done.

I think over time folks will know that doing things 15 mintutes earlier than what was done tonight will probably make a big difference.

On a gender-specific note, Mrs. Billd thought that there should be a "no bag" women's line because that's a significant source of "slow processing" for the gals. She herself travels lighter than other women, and of course it's typically not an issue with the guys.

Otherwise, we'll all learn how to deal with things over the rest of our lives as Gopher fans. TCF will never be completely perfect...but by definition we're in a much better place.

Go Gophers! Beat Cal!
 

Hey Troy McClure.....maybe you should do a documentary on your experiences tonight.
 



Stadium is beautiful and the atmosphere was great....but my original concern about the shared concourse came true. To share one large concourse for two large seating levels was a mistake. All I kept hearing Dave Mona and Maturi say about it was that they wanted to have an open concourse. Who gives a d@mn about an open concourse when you can't see anything going on down at field level anyway. The concession lines were a joke not just at halftime but throughout the game.

Did anyone else use the St. Paul campus shuttle system? Getting to the game was a breeze, getting back to the parking lot was HORRENDOUS! They need actual traffic cops to direct auto and pedestrian traffic out of the stadium over to the designated shuttle area. I and 20,000 others stood in the middle of the street for 45 mins to catch the bus back to the St. Paul campus.

Overall the evening was wonderful, but there are obvious wrinkles to be ironed out.
 

Did anyone else use the St. Paul campus shuttle system? Getting to the game was a breeze, getting back to the parking lot was HORRENDOUS! They need actual traffic cops to direct auto and pedestrian traffic out of the stadium over to the designated shuttle area. I and 20,000 others stood in the middle of the street for 45 mins to catch the bus back to the St. Paul campus.
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agreed
that was nuts and dangerous
 

3 kinks that need to be worked out.

1) Getting in the gates pregame. Took me 25 minutes.
2) The food lines. I didn't even try. On the positive side, the bathroom was 100x quicker and more efficient than the dome.
3) The shuttle to St. Paul. Stood in line for 45 min. Guess next time I'll just go to the bar.

But when it's all said and done, this was infinitely better than the dome and I had a great time.
 

Lost revenue - food!!!

I waited to eat dinner in the stadium and was sadly disappointed by the lines. I ended up buying a hot dog from someone that was in line. That was it! I will bring my own food into the stadium next time.
:confused:
 



Overall, I had a fantastic night.

1.) I would add cash registers in all the concession area's, I think Dino's had them.
2.) I would have more cops to help cars get out of the parking lots and stop pedestrians, someone is going to get hit! They are needed at busy interesections too, 15th was a joke one little lady trying to stop 50 students at a time.
3.) Minor but my seats are in the second row of the upper deck, when a guy in the 1st row leaned on the railing he made it tough to see.
 

I echo the general sentiments on the entry lines and the concessions. Hopefully, as the workers get more experience, things will speed up. Waiting for my wife inside the entry gate, I watched an elderly lady who looked to be in her 70's being told to open her purse and the young lady at the gate took at least half a minute to go through the purse. Common sense says great-grandma isn't going to be smuggling in cow bells, booze, or firearms and could be cut some slack. I'm sure a lot of people could be which would speed things up greatly. Then I waited in the concession line before the game, and the line didn't move for at least five minutes. The customer at the front was waiting for something, and nobody else was getting served. I'd hope people are told to step aside while they're waiting, and the next customer is served. With those high tech calculators, it shouldn't be a problem.

The instant replays also left a lot to be desired. I really would have liked to have seen Gray's fumble, Tow-Arnett's catch for a first down, and Air Force's TD pass again. I don't think they were shown, but maybe there were more fly-over moments than I thought. It would also be nice to see plays where there's a penalty, but I assume that's a league or NCAA rule.

But those are minor bitches. It is a wonderful stadium, the crowd was great, and we won. Things will run smoother and smoother--even our offense I hope.
 

Rickman55 said:
There is no way that area can handle an extra 30,000 people. Also, unless they could add some gates you would have to open up the stadium 3 hours before the game to get everyone in on time. Tonight the lines were long and it took forever to get in. It didn't help that the ticket scanners didn't work when they first opened the gates.

The concession stand workers are using small calcuators instead of cash registers. People were in line forever or left without food instead of waiting. That has got to change. The workers look at chart to punch in the price, looks back at the chart and punch in another price and on on an on it goes.
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why is this? i don't understand this particular approach. am i missing something on why they are using calculators? seems rather odd.
 

I had a wonderful time at the game and I'm certainly not here to b*tch. But what is with the calculators? Seriously - I was at the scrimmage and they used them and I just blew it off and assumed everything wasn't set up yet. What am I missing here with no cash registers? Is it cost? Please help - I feel like we are running a lemonade stand, not a major college concession.
 

3 things

Need to speed up the intake. Open the doors I left through. Add more staff!

Today was visit the bathroom or get a Coke at halftime. Not enough time for both. Need more staff and 90's technology.

Bus getting there was fine. Leaving SUCKED. Get a few people directing traffic and better signage...

great day but need to work out the kinks
 

Was in line at Gate D around 5 tonight and saw a security guy pat down 2 85-yr old guys. Saw bulges in both men's pockets and asked them to remove whatever was in there. Both pull out apple slices and were forced to toss them in the garbage.

I know it's part of the rules, but geez. Apple slices are going to be the downfall of the stadium during the first game ever?

Student line at that point in time was about 4 blocks long. Probably need to iron out a few things there before next Saturday.
 

i asked one of the girls working if they were going to get cash registers, and she said yes, but not this year. Don't know why it would take so long to get them.
 

The lines at the concession stands were awfully long at halftime, I wouldn't have tried to buy food during halftime. I did fight my way through to get to one of the souvenier stands to buy a stuffed Goldy Gopher for my two year old. She loves Goldy, doesn't know anything about sports, but I'm getting her hooked on Goldy.
 


My concerns -

- The line to get in was bad. What's going to happen next week at an 11am game when people aren't going to show up early? I could see a crush of people all planning on getting in within 30 minutes of kickoff.
- Didn't use concessions - glad my wife got the dilly bars
- The scoreboard has problems. As someone else mentioned, they need to show way more replays. I'd love it if they went full screen for TD's too but that probably won't happen.
- Also, maybe it's me but I had a hard time reading the numbers on the board. I'm talking about the pass, run, yardage numbers in the bottom yellow are. It seems like the font used was bad or the white on yellow didn't work.
- Finally, getting out of the Oak St. ramp was terrible. It took 30-40 minutes. They need people directing traffic all the way out to 94.

It was a great day otherwise and fantastic to win. That game won't soon be forgotten.
 

Long lines, crowds, wait times...this is life at a sold-out venue, folks! It takes a half hour or more to get into the Big House before a game, and the streets around Camp Randall are a mess for hours after the game. We have all been spoiled by a half-empty dome these past 30 years I guess.
 

Gopher4life15 said:
Well First and foremost TCF Bank Stadium is simply AMAZING! :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

However, I did have a few semi-serious issues (as should be expected for the first real game).

1. Section 101 acoustics, could not hear the P.A. or the band at all. :(

2. The Concourse at halftime was nearly impossible to get anywhere and food lines were horrendously long. I gave up and went hungry. No I will not get up and do it during the game either. I am there to watch football.

Any other problems that might need to be looked at?
Click to expand...

The concessions were HORRIBLE. There are NO CASH REGISTERS, so everyone was tallying with calculators and pads of paper. When asked about this, the cashier literally said, "no other Big Ten teams have cash registers and we didn't want to look stupid, like we couldn't add. The only logical counterargument to this, of course, is, "if your friend jumps off a bridge, are you going to too?"

Of course, other than the concessions and third-world-like Oak Street ramp congestion, the other 90% of the new stadium experience was absolutely unreal fantastic.
 

kevin in az said:
Did anyone else use the St. Paul campus shuttle system? Getting to the game was a breeze, getting back to the parking lot was HORRENDOUS! They need actual traffic cops to direct auto and pedestrian traffic out of the stadium over to the designated shuttle area. I and 20,000 others stood in the middle of the street for 45 mins to catch the bus back to the St. Paul campus.
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This was a failure of epic proportions. I stood there, also for 45 minutes, just dumbfounded by the incompetence. No one was directing anyone. They had no control of the situation whatsoever. What a complete disaster, one that unfortunately took off some of the luster from an otherwise great day and night.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
3 kinks that need to be worked out.


3) The shuttle to St. Paul. Stood in line for 45 min. Guess next time I'll just go to the bar.

But when it's all said and done, this was infinitely better than the dome and I had a great time.
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You can't go to the bar, as the shuttles only run for one hour after game time, which is also a complete joke considering they apparently can't figure out how to shuttle that many people in an hour.
 

Long lines, crowds, wait times...this is life at a sold-out venue, folks! It takes a half hour or more to get into the Big House before a game, and the streets around Camp Randall are a mess for hours after the game. We have all been spoiled by a half-empty dome these past 30 years I guess.
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I agree. I think people have forgotten the congestion around Memorial Stadium back in the day.

The long concession lines though, makes it look like someone "miscalculated". 21st century technology should be able to come up with a better system and it likely will. They lost a TON OF MONEY.

The shuttle system to and from the Fair grounds??? It works great for the state Fair right? Why shouldn't it work great for a Gopher Game. Somebody forgot not all 100,000 Fair goers leave at the same time. Because they din't allow any non lot parking anywhere near campus they better get that one worked out and fast.

Next weeks 11;00 A.M. start should lessen the rush to leave campus all at once but they have to run the shuttles longer than one hour after the game. Who ever decided that was not thinking clearly.
 

I agree on the limited replay issues, but I figured it partly a function of Air Force going no huddle and getting up to the line with about 25 seconds left on the play clock, sometimes there just wasn't time to show a play. Of course that is only when they were on Offense.

Getting into the stadium is going to take 30 minutes every week. It always takes that long to get into Lambeau, they have to pat everyone down, wand you, etc... Unless they open up the end gates and let people in that way. My guess is this will get worse as it gets colder and people are wearing more layers and coats, just more to search.

Most of the other stuff I am sure they will work to improve.
 

Just a few thoughts regarding cooncerns mentioned on this board:

I too thought that the lines at the gates were way too long. However, I did talk to a couple of people that went into the gate nearest their seat (Gate B) and they said entry was breeze. I think that too many people wanted to enter via gates A or E. I also think that the frisking and scanning will eventually become faster.

Regarding concessions, no cash registers should not surprise anyone. The people that got the bid for the stadium do concessions at Mariucci and Williams and I believe that they do not use cash registers there either. That does not excuse them from trying to speed up the process in some way.

Regarding post game traffic. My group went to the McNamra Center after the game and watched the rest of the OSU-USC game. When we got out traffic was cleared. Why not tailgate or go to a bar and let traffic clear. Why do you think tailgating was started anyway. Transportation systems are not designed to get large amounts of people out of an area quickly and nor should they(too costly for the number of times needed). Yes they can and I am sure will come up with traffic solutions, but relax and factor in a little post game fun into the experience.

Also, I cannot remember, but there was either a phone or email addressed advertised on the big board that asked for feedback regarding your game expierence. I hope people take the opportunity to express their concerns via this vehicle.

Go Gophers!!
 

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