In case anyone is wondering what the experience is like...
Some background: We have considered Champions Club tickets, have been UCC members for years, had not seen it finished until this past weekend. Family of 4, kids are 10 and 8.
During the spring game more than half the upper deck was blocked off and I'd say it would be a reasonable assumption approx 50 percent of the seats that were open sold. They have a full season under their belts to work out the kinks so life should have been good....
The way the food is served is asinine. You are feeding a couple thousand people, maximum flow is the name of the game, they failed at every turn. The buffet lines are all set up single sided so they only get half the flow they should. The burgers and hotdogs should be ready made / foil wrapped with a separate condiment center... instead you make your own in line, with the condiments on the buffet table. The condiments weren't even unwrapped so people had to stop, unscrew the lids, pull off the seal, then rescrew on the lid when one ran out. Nachos are the same way... you get a plate, load up your nachos, then move down to get sauce/chili and toppings. It looked better but the reality is standard fair nachos that you could just grab and go would fit the bill and wouldn't have a big line. Every station is setup as a bottleneck. Ironically I took a class at FSU about this exact subject and how to avoid the turd they created.
The quality and variety of the food was pretty solid. Better than expected and tasty. Food served was: Shrimp Cocktail, pulled pork, beef brisket, hot dogs, burgers, chicken wings, pizza, sausage sandwiches, ice cream, nachos, and more. We got our money's worth in this category based on the tickets being $40 for adults and $15 for kids. There were plenty of times that there was no food out / totally empty buffet tables. Food eventually came back. They do not have the workflow setup for the demand.
Other issues...
--Sodas are free but you have to go to the bar to get it. My daughter was blown off for about 20 minutes until I waited with her for another 10 to get a coke. There are not enough bartenders. Sodas should be out in coolers.
--Water... empty water containers pretty much the whole game. Why in the heck do they have water pitchers on a table instead of water machines?? Again, the shiny pitchers may look better but functionally they need the 5 gallon water stations to keep up with demand.
--Napkins. empty by the 2nd quarter and never refilled. Really? They keep putting chicken wings out and there isn't a napkin in site to wipe your hands.
--The seats are comfortable but still tight. If you have a middle seat everyone has to get up to let you out. Not very user friendly when trying to watch a game and snack / drink. This is probably the biggest reason so many people don't actually sit in the seats.
--Drink prices are stupid. I got a beer for my wife and it was served in a small champions club plastic cup. That cup was fine for my scotch/ginger but way too small for a beer. Upstairs they served beer in normal sized cups. No idea why downstairs was different than upstairs. The scotch pour downstairs was super light, upstairs they had no scotch but got an average bourbon pour.
--Downstairs they had Gene Deckerhoff piped in but it wasn't loud enough. The place is very much soundproofed so you couldn't hear any game noise and even the band was effectively quiet even though they are right out the window.
--Shade... don't let the cover fool you, you aren't getting shade on the most of the upper deck seats in the later afternoon.
--Elevators... Why these things aren't set up to automatically return to floor 1 at the beginning of the game, and automatically go up to 6 at the end pretty much blows my mind. Just another example of how they do not understand how to deal with a crowd.
There were some FSU greats floating around in there so that's always a plus. Corey Simon flagged me down while my head was in a plate of BBQ. I'm sure there were more but I'm bad with recognizing people.
Summary: for the price we paid it was a good experience. If they were expecting to get more sales after this weekend I highly doubt they will get much of any considering the flaws and considering the normal price is so much higher. I do find it interesting that they finally considered that kids should be cheaper but highly doubt they will do it in the normal season. They also need to get the Hospitality school more engaged to make the experience like they teach it.
Some background: We have considered Champions Club tickets, have been UCC members for years, had not seen it finished until this past weekend. Family of 4, kids are 10 and 8.
During the spring game more than half the upper deck was blocked off and I'd say it would be a reasonable assumption approx 50 percent of the seats that were open sold. They have a full season under their belts to work out the kinks so life should have been good....
The way the food is served is asinine. You are feeding a couple thousand people, maximum flow is the name of the game, they failed at every turn. The buffet lines are all set up single sided so they only get half the flow they should. The burgers and hotdogs should be ready made / foil wrapped with a separate condiment center... instead you make your own in line, with the condiments on the buffet table. The condiments weren't even unwrapped so people had to stop, unscrew the lids, pull off the seal, then rescrew on the lid when one ran out. Nachos are the same way... you get a plate, load up your nachos, then move down to get sauce/chili and toppings. It looked better but the reality is standard fair nachos that you could just grab and go would fit the bill and wouldn't have a big line. Every station is setup as a bottleneck. Ironically I took a class at FSU about this exact subject and how to avoid the turd they created.
The quality and variety of the food was pretty solid. Better than expected and tasty. Food served was: Shrimp Cocktail, pulled pork, beef brisket, hot dogs, burgers, chicken wings, pizza, sausage sandwiches, ice cream, nachos, and more. We got our money's worth in this category based on the tickets being $40 for adults and $15 for kids. There were plenty of times that there was no food out / totally empty buffet tables. Food eventually came back. They do not have the workflow setup for the demand.
Other issues...
--Sodas are free but you have to go to the bar to get it. My daughter was blown off for about 20 minutes until I waited with her for another 10 to get a coke. There are not enough bartenders. Sodas should be out in coolers.
--Water... empty water containers pretty much the whole game. Why in the heck do they have water pitchers on a table instead of water machines?? Again, the shiny pitchers may look better but functionally they need the 5 gallon water stations to keep up with demand.
--Napkins. empty by the 2nd quarter and never refilled. Really? They keep putting chicken wings out and there isn't a napkin in site to wipe your hands.
--The seats are comfortable but still tight. If you have a middle seat everyone has to get up to let you out. Not very user friendly when trying to watch a game and snack / drink. This is probably the biggest reason so many people don't actually sit in the seats.
--Drink prices are stupid. I got a beer for my wife and it was served in a small champions club plastic cup. That cup was fine for my scotch/ginger but way too small for a beer. Upstairs they served beer in normal sized cups. No idea why downstairs was different than upstairs. The scotch pour downstairs was super light, upstairs they had no scotch but got an average bourbon pour.
--Downstairs they had Gene Deckerhoff piped in but it wasn't loud enough. The place is very much soundproofed so you couldn't hear any game noise and even the band was effectively quiet even though they are right out the window.
--Shade... don't let the cover fool you, you aren't getting shade on the most of the upper deck seats in the later afternoon.
--Elevators... Why these things aren't set up to automatically return to floor 1 at the beginning of the game, and automatically go up to 6 at the end pretty much blows my mind. Just another example of how they do not understand how to deal with a crowd.
There were some FSU greats floating around in there so that's always a plus. Corey Simon flagged me down while my head was in a plate of BBQ. I'm sure there were more but I'm bad with recognizing people.
Summary: for the price we paid it was a good experience. If they were expecting to get more sales after this weekend I highly doubt they will get much of any considering the flaws and considering the normal price is so much higher. I do find it interesting that they finally considered that kids should be cheaper but highly doubt they will do it in the normal season. They also need to get the Hospitality school more engaged to make the experience like they teach it.
