Monday, April 02, 2007

Your Corporate A-Hole O' The Day

Enter Dave Freireich:
"You're going to have lines at any stadium on Opening Day," said Dave Freireich, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Aramark. He added: "By and large, I think that we did a very good job."

Yes, because Aramark has such a long track record of speed and efficiency...

Needless to say, the commenters (undoubtedly trusting their lying eyes), are having none of it. Raw hotdogs? Ick! I did notice the lack of vendors in the upper deck. There was one kid with cotton candy, and that was about it.

The traffic sucked going into the game. They're claiming that it's because they had a lot more cars than they expected (does that one really pass the smell test with you?). Coming out of the game was a complete nightmare. It took me (I literally mean literally) an hour to get out of the lot, and another 1.5 beyond that to get home. It just sucked the life out of me.

9,000 cars X $15 = 135,000 = Smiles for the Lerners

posted by Chris Needham at 11:56 PM

14 Comments:

  • Excuse me, don't you mean "Smiles for the Minors"?Oh wait. I bet parking money has no connections to the Nationals. It is probably under the "Nationals Parking Ain't Cheap Authority" whose revenues are in no way related to the Nationals. (although it is owned and run by the Lerner's. Peter is robbing Paul!)

    By Blogger Harper, at 4/03/2007 12:13 AM  

  • Opening day and the gates still opened at the regular time with thousands of people standing outside to spend money;food vendors still not ready at 11:30am when the gates did open;Texas BBQ vendor ran out of food by the 4th inning and there were no hot dog rolls in the 5th inning at the vendor I went to (gave us hot dog on a hamburger roll instead). Lerner's still don't have their act together!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 7:31 AM  

  • The season ticket problem:
    Tickets printed in Canada because of some cheap contract with MLB; bad weather in Canada in shipping the tickets; a customs problem getting the tickets into the U.S. and the use of FedEx "economy class" to mail the tickets and save money. The Nationals are starting to resemble the "Keystone Kops". Why do other MLB clubs delivery their season tickets without all these problems? Its difficult to have faith in the future of this team when the off field management is so poor.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 7:42 AM  

  • I was really shocked by how poorly the "fan" experience went down for yesterday's opener. I agree that the traffic in and out was terrible. I noticed almost no traffic direction once inside the lot. Getting into the stadium was a joke. There are what 7 entrances and they choose to use only three?? The food was up to or rather down to its usual standards. But running out of hot dogs on opening day?? That's just wrong. Very few vendors in the upper decks? I did see two peanut hurlers in the 8th inning, however, shambling between the 4th and 5th sections.

    All in all a pretty miserable opener. Thank goodness the Nats played well . . . .

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 9:06 AM  

  • I did not see a single beer vendor all day in the upper deck, let alone soda or food vendors. It was absolutely pathetic! I was extremely disappointed with the preparations for the expected large crowds of opening day. Hire some temps or something!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 10:22 AM  

  • Maybe you guys are finally realizing how cheap Stan and the Lerners really are. Cheap people don't provide their customers with any amenities. Not having vendors, ushers etc. saves lots of money. Actually, the fan experience was better when MLB ran the show.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 11:10 AM  

  • That's not really true though. When they took over last year, those things really improved. Lines went down, and there were plenty of vendors.

    That's what makes this so frustrating... they've regressed, all the while preaching fan experience, especially as they're basically admitting that their on-field product is unwatchable.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/03/2007 11:13 AM  

  • 9000 cars * $15 = $135,000 = 1/2 of Matt Chico's salary = 17 more excuses to believe in THE PLAN!

    By Blogger Harlan, at 4/03/2007 11:30 AM  

  • This is the third opening day in a row with NO beer vendors upstairs. What's up with that?

    They could give us free parking and make it all up if they staffed the concession stands properly.

    Aramark must go.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 1:37 PM  

  • The only vendor that walked through our area all day was the cotton candy guy, and I am on the lower level near home plate. The beer vendor closest to us ran out of cups -- twice.

    I am a full season ticket holder. In years past, our tickets came with nice boxes and pins. This year, I get 2 ticket books in an envelope with a letter talking about "the plan" or something. On my way home from work last week, knowing the tickets were at my house, I was actually thinking about the pin and how some day I would have a collection of all of them. Well, now I do have all of both of them.

    By Blogger Natsfan74, at 4/03/2007 4:21 PM  

  • I don't feel sorry for those who dealt with traffic. There is no reason to drive to a game when the Metro is so accessible.

    That being said, this is the third Opener in a row where the team was unprepared. (I remember last year when they ran out of hotdogs and they ran out of cups for beer - I saved mine and made them refill it, but that was just stupid.) The Lerners really don't know what the hell they're doing. And the fact that they gave out hats that they gave out during the grand reopening last year is pathetic.

    By Blogger Cathie, at 4/03/2007 5:42 PM  

  • "they gave out hats that they gave out during the grand reopening last year is pathetic."

    In all fairness, they weren't the same hats. They were red "W" hats, but they weren't the same.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 6:08 PM  

  • Hey Daed,

    Don't feel sorry for the fans who drove? I assume you didn' take the Metro. So how did you get to RFK? UFO or F-18????

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/03/2007 8:29 PM  

  • I learned my traffic lesson last year. Get to the stadium by 11:00, and relax while talking to friends. No traffic problem there.

    Leaving, however, yes, it was a God-awful nightmare. It took me almost 90 minutes from the time the game ended until I got back to my store in upper northwest (granted, it was rush-hour, but still...)

    Did anyone else mention the low water pressure in the men's room sinks? Didn't happen early on, but by the 4th inning, it was a trickle.

    By Blogger Joe Riley, at 4/03/2007 11:45 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home