Newsnow warning - Compass Catering

[Houso]

I'm guessing a few of you use the Newsnow feed for SUFC?

I just clicked on a link to a story at 'SportsPro Media' about Compass supplying United with food and drink for the next 10 years. Anyway, my virus protection blocked the below from getting in to my machine.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-031521-1825-99&tabid=2

It's not necessarily a virus, but better safe than sorry and all that.

Mods - possibly not the best place to put this, but I thought it may be where most would see it.

 

[Jon Bon]

Ahhhh, you got me all excited then, I read it as New snow warning.

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

I'm guessing a few of you use the Newsnow feed for SUFC?

I just clicked on a link to a story at 'SportsPro Media' about Compass supplying United with food and drink for the next 10 years. Anyway, my virus protection blocked the below from getting in to my machine.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-031521-1825-99&tabid=2

It's not necessarily a virus, but better safe than sorry and all that.

Mods - possibly not the best place to put this, but I thought it may be where most would see it.

I have used this site a lot as well. It has been excellent except twice now I've been hit with malware from dodgy links. A real shame that it can't check before it posts the link.

 

[Blade58]

Does this make economic sense?

We are to pay compass $50.6m over the next 10 years to do our catering?

I'm flabbergasted!

That equates to somewhere around £3m/year costs.

The game is headed for financial meltdown. We can't even put together a competitive wage budget for next season and yet we commit to a $50m bill?

I'm confused. Surely the uncertainty of where the game is headed over the coming seasons, dictates what sort of a contract we should sign up to? Wouldn't it have been more prudent ( a KM word) to sign up to a shorter contract, or a rolling contract that can be reviewed?

I know it also involves non-matchday events as well as matchdays, but I have my doubts that we'll sell out the corporate boxes for next season and what with the recession still dragging industry down, should we have committed to this long a contract?

Who knows where we'll be and where the game will be in 3 or 4 seasons time, nevermind 10?


http://www.sportspromedia.com/deals...tion+Websites&utm_medium=syndication_websites

 

[Houso]

Malware at that link. See my post further down.

Also, I'm sure it does make economic sense, otherwise we wouldn't have committed to it. That said, I don't know the ins and outs of football hospitality nor how much money it usually impacts on our accounts, so it's difficult to say really.

 

[Cool Clint]

So we're going to have new pies, but they may have worms and be infected by viruses?

 

[raul]

Also, I'm sure it does make economic sense, otherwise we wouldn't have committed to it. That said, I don't know the ins and outs of football hospitality nor how much money it usually impacts on our accounts, so it's difficult to say really.

Nice work Houso.:fishy:

 

[AlienWoodward]

So we're going to have new pies, but they may have worms and be infected by viruses?

Is it real horse pie or Trojan Horse pie do you know

 

[Chingo]

Surely they pay us ?

 

[GlosBlade]

Hard to see how this deal makes any sense...why are we paying them to use our facilities to sell products to our customers...hopefully someone from the club can explain the thinking behind this deal (ie do we get all the profit & they get the fixed fee?...although hard to see what incentive that would give them). I must admit I thought the whole article was a joke when I clicked on it from newsnow.

 

[Foxy]

More on the Catering / Cashcard situation...

Edit: Apologies I've stupidly double posted this .... merging threads now

Compass Group has agreed a ten-year catering deal with English soccer club Sheffield United.

The Blades, who play in the second-tier Coca-Cola Championship, will pay Compass US$50.6 million over the course of the contract to provide services at their Brammall Lane stadium. Compass will operate 16 retail outlets, 31 corporate boxes and three suites. In addition, Compass will provide sales, marketing, catering and hospitality for non-matchday events held at the stadium and the on-site hotel, while Brammall Lane will be added to the Lime Venue Portfolio's collection of meetings and events venues.

Sheffield United operations director Simon Argall said: "We were impressed by the sales processes that Compass had to offer us, as we felt that we had exhausted the local and regional markets and wanted to get more national business, which through Lime Venues they seem positioned to get."

Matthew Thompson, who is managing director of sport, leisure and hospitality for Compass Group UK & Ireland, added: "We know that fans and visitors to Bramall Lane are there for the football but food and drink is an increasingly important contributor to the day’s experience. It is for this reason that we will be looking to introduce new technologies and innovations, such as fast pour, to enable visitors to be served more quickly and efficiently, and to cut down queuing time."

Fans will be able to pay for Compass' catering services using a new dedicated cashcard, after United agreed a deal with prepaid card operator Yes!Money. The card, which is set to launch in three months, will have all the features of a Visa card, and can be used wherever there is a Visa symbol, but will be interest-free and will not require a bank account.

Two versions will be produced: one for fans aged 12 to 17, and the other for fans aged over 18.

Sheffield United executive director Mike Farnan said: Sheffield United has decided to introduce the card as we see this as providing a worthy service to our fans in today’s economic climate. It also provides the club with a great platform to interact with our fan base, offering exclusive Blades discounts and money-can’t-buy prizes."

Linky: http://www.sportspromedia.com/deals...tion+Websites&utm_medium=syndication_websites

 

[bricktop]

What the thing about the cashcard. Does that mean that we will only be able to pay for stuff via this new cashcard?

It all seems a bit fishy to me. I'll be refusing to get one as a matter of principle, as i already have a Visa Debit card, and in any case when i get a pint at half time i usually deal in cold, hard cash.

 

[Foxy]

What the thing about the cashcard. Does that mean that we will only be able to pay for stuff via this new cashcard?

It all seems a bit fishy to me. I'll be refusing to get one as a matter of principle, as i already have a Visa Debit card, and in any case when i get a pint at half time i usually deal in cold, hard cash.

I'd imagine it's more just an "option available" and marketed extensively to you. They do away with cash sales, they do away with custom, they aren't gonna do that.

It's been vaguely mentioned here and there for the last few months, but nothing solid. I'd imagine its just a case of us getting kickbacks/benefits from the card company whilst also increasing the focused marketing and customer tracking facilities.

 

[Jon Bon]

I despair, I really do. I promised myself I wouldn't get dragged into all the usual Blackwell-McCabe brouhaha that abounds on here, but for the love of dog, how the fuck is this going to win the fans back and put bums on seats? Definite proof that the lunatics really have taken over the asylum.

 

[Foxy]

Definite proof that the lunatics really have taken over the asylum.

Or that they are taking a wider view of the whole operation, trying to streamline/make more efficient the various services/avenues the club have.

Sure, we'd all rather be seeing news stories about how we are to focus/build the first team next year in an attempt to go forward... But the club aren't pushing this out to us as the flagship scheme to put bums on seats (at least not yet! ).

 

[AlienWoodward]

Or that they are taking a wider view of the whole operation, trying to streamline/make more efficient the various services/avenues the club have.

Sure, we'd all rather be seeing news stories about how we are to focus/build the first team next year in an attempt to go forward... But the club aren't pushing this out to us as the flagship scheme to put bums on seats (at least not yet! ).

I have never understood why we don't have a branch of toys r us in the family stand.

 

[Foxy]

I have never understood why we don't have a branch of toys r us in the family stand.

To be fair, with the families sat near us on John Street, we'd probably make more out of a junior branch of Stone Island

 

[Jon Bon]

Or that they are taking a wider view of the whole operation, trying to streamline/make more efficient the various services/avenues the club have.

I fail to see how this benefits the average Blade who goes to the Lane hoping to see the team win and hopefully get promoted - or used to anyway. I don't ring my mate up to ask him if he's coming down the Lane on Saturday for a friggin compass burger or taunt the pig fans at work because their pie crusts are less fluffy and light than our Compass ones. This just stinks. We're crying poverty, selling our playing assets left, right and centre but yet we can afford to pay a food company over £37m...?

Sure, we'd all rather be seeing news stories about how we are to focus/build the first team next year in an attempt to go forward... But the club aren't pushing this out to us as the flagship scheme to put bums on seats (at least not yet! ).

Yes I'd fuckin love them to announce a £37m 'flagship scheme' which includes a new manager and a decent squad of permanent players, but hey-ho, I guess I'll just have to make do with the pies.

 

[GlosBlade]

I'm with Jon Bon on this one, the loonies really have taken over the asylum if we are going to pay someone $50M over 10 years to sell stuff to us and run our facilities. Please someone point out something that I am missing because this is barking mad.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

There must be something in it if we are paying out that amount of money over 10 years.

I know we are happily kicking the board at the minute but these guys do know business, if not football, according to some. They must think that we will generate more money than we are paying out and that must be short term if our financial position is as precarious as some like to say.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

There must be something in it if we are paying out that amount of money over 10 years.

I know we are happily kicking the board at the minute but these guys do know business, if not football, according to some. They must think that we will generate more money than we are paying out and that must be short term if our financial position is as precarious as some like to say.

Do they not realise that most fans prefer to spend money in the local hostelries/fish and chip shops/burger vans outside the ground than inside the ground because what's on offer inside the ground is over-priced crap?

How this will benefit the club I really am at a loss to understand.

Can someone please explain how we are make any money on this?

 

[Blade58]

There must be something in it if we are paying out that amount of money over 10 years.

I know we are happily kicking the board at the minute but these guys do know business, if not football, according to some. They must think that we will generate more money than we are paying out and that must be short term if our financial position is as precarious as some like to say.

Bob,

In these most uncertain of times regards recession and football in general, do you think it makes financial sense to commit to a 10 year deal costing the club $50m?

If we get relegated next season, what effect will that have on the clubs finances?

I don't profess to be a financial whizz, nor do I know or understand the clubs finances, or thinking in this matter, but why did we commit to 10 years? Why not a shorter contract that has a proviso to extend/roll over?

We can't find a decent wage bill for next season, but we can commit to a £37m bill for catering?

Astonished.

 

[cooperblade]

What the thing about the cashcard. Does that mean that we will only be able to pay for stuff via this new cashcard?

It all seems a bit fishy to me. I'll be refusing to get one as a matter of principle, as i already have a Visa Debit card, and in any case when i get a pint at half time i usually deal in cold, hard cash.

I met someone from Yes!Money at a conference recently. He said he'd just signed a deal with United. He told me he found it very funny that the day after the deal was signed, he had Lee Strafford on the phone saying "We need to do this as well".

I explained that whatever United do today, Wednesday will do (or try to) tomorrow.

 

[cooperblade]

Question to those of you who seem very upset about this deal. Do you honestly think that the board of SUFC would pay out millions and millions of pounds to a catering company if they didn't feel very certain that they were going to make a profit on the deal? Do you really think we've scraped together £30m (or however much it is) and said 'let's hand this over for some pies' without any return for the club?

We'll pay them to provide the services and we'll expect to make a profit on the deal from what they sell at the ground. I'm staggered that people think the board of SUFC are so stupid (I know they appointed Robson but still...) that they would just spunk millions and millions away on a catering deal.

 

[raul]

Presumably the only way to win is to receive a royalty on all purchases made by the fans. Presumably, given the windows available to sell to fans are constant they must be expecting this outfit to be able to shift more stuff. Presumably, as attendances drop this will become more difficult so presumably prices will go up in a running-to-stay-still scenario.

Whichever way you look at it, they've paid money to someone and the only way to get a return is to charge the fans more.

When did the Glazers take over?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

McCabe/Argall do you ever listen to your supporters/customers?


SORT IT OUT ON THE FUCKING PITCH!!!!!!!!!

 

[Blade58]

Question to those of you who seem very upset about this deal. Do you honestly think that the board of SUFC would pay out millions and millions of pounds to a catering company if they didn't feel very certain that they were going to make a profit on the deal? Do you really think we've scraped together £30m (or however much it is) and said 'let's hand this over for some pies' without any return for the club?

We'll pay them to provide the services and we'll expect to make a profit on the deal from what they sell at the ground. I'm staggered that people think the board of SUFC are so stupid (I know they appointed Robson but still...) that they would just spunk millions and millions away on a catering deal.

For those who think that the board should be trusted cart blanche, would you honestly have expected us to be 48m in debt?

Works both ways.

I don't question the boards intentions, but does anyone, board included, actually know where football will be in 10 years? In the space of 18 months meltdown has well and truly set in. Where will football be in a further 18 months time, nevermind 5 years or 10 years.

To commit to such a long term contract, in football world of so much uncertainty,frankly astonishes me.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Pay by card? Not a problem for about 5000 of us who won't be there. Hope Argall has taken this into account?

 

[cooperblade]

Presumably the only way to win is to receive a royalty on all purchases made by the fans. Presumably, given the windows available to sell to fans are constant they must be expecting this outfit to be able to shift more stuff. Presumably, as attendances drop this will become more difficult so presumably prices will go up in a running-to-stay-still scenario.

Whichever way you look at it, they've paid money to someone and the only way to get a return is to charge the fans more.

When did the Glazers take over?

And they obviously expect more corporate/conference bookings as they go on Compass lists of venues etc. An improved service, particularly in terms of the long awaited 'fast pour', should also increase sales.

Season ticket prices haven't shifted much, I have no problem with them sticking 10p on pints and pies (especially as I never buy them in the ground!).

If they make more money out of the fans then the debt gets paid quicker or we have a bigger budget. Isn't that what we all want?

I think with the way things are going at the moment, whatever the club announces is going to be met with a certain amount of derision. They're partly to blame for that as the communication to fans recently has been sadly lacking.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Perhaps Compass are looking to build a new hotel somewhere and need a builder?

Do we know a builder?