Cajuns Fans Frustrated By Long Concession Lines, UL Apologizes and Vows to Do Better
If you were one of the 25,417 fans that were in the stands for the Nicholls State-UL game last night at Cajun Field, you saw a pretty good game with the home team victorious by a final of 27-24.
The game atmosphere was great leading up to the game with a full parking lot of tailgating. Inside the stadium was festive as usual.
However, there was just one glaring problem -- the long lines at the concession stand.
Me and my family walked into the stadium about 40 minutes before kickoff and made our way to one of the south-end zone concession stands. The line was about 15-20 people deep and I patiently waited...and waited...and waited.
It probably took a good 20 minutes before I made my order of a couple of sodas and a couple of hot items.
There were a few things lacking, in my opinion. One, there were no visible menu boards. There were TV screens that were blank. (I can't recall if those screens usually show the game or the menu items.) At any rate, I just kind of guessed as to what hot food items they had available.
I paid with a debit card and it seemed like that could have been one of the culprits to slower lines. It took a good minute for the worker to run my card. And I noticed several people were using cards.
Later in the game, my wife and several friends around us tried to get a drink or something to eat and either came back frustrated after a few minutes or waited for a good 30 minutes before coming back with food and drinks.
Scanning social media this morning, I saw a plethora of die-hard and fair-weather fans complaining about the concession lines.
It's the latter that concerns me. Will this be the reason they don't come back? It would be sad if it was, but that just might do it for them.
We need all the fans we can get at Cajun Field week in and week out.
The University did get the message loud and clear about the concession lines and late last night, UL's VP for Intercollegiate Athletics, Bryan Maggard, sent out the following email (I'm guessing to season ticket holders and/or RCAF members):
Please know we are aware of the unacceptable inefficiencies within our concession services yesterday evening that included infrastructure issues which negatively impacted the speed of transactions, resulting in long lines and congestion causing fans to miss portions of the game. Additionally, some patrons experienced menu item shortages that prevented them from purchasing products of choice.
For this, we sincerely apologize, as that is not the level of experience our fans deserve, nor is it the experience we wish to provide. Rest assured we will be working diligently to resolve both the infrastructure and supply chain issues, as your continued support and positive experience is of utmost importance to us.
Good for the university to recognize the gaffe and try to rectify the situation moving forward.
Hopefully, things are improved for the next home game. Oh, by the way, that game is this Thursday night at 7:00 pm against the Ohio Bobcats.
Let's hope Cajun Nation can forgive and forget, and still show up, despite this past Saturday. Maybe just tailgate a little harder before the game?