Bantams Bar Refurbishment

It seriously needs it. It's certainly the ugly duckling of the suites at City. Fair play to Bingley Bantams and all those that have contributed their money, time & effort to the cause

 

I met with Keith and Ian Taylor from the Bingley Bantams to discuss the project and I'm really excited about the plans.

They and other supporters clubs do brilliant work beyond their valuable contributions at supporters board meetings.

I'd recommend fans attend their nearest supporter clubs and to go along their events. The manager and senior players will be appearing at Q & A meetings in the coming months.

Bingley Bantams are holding a Beer & Gin Festival at the Northern Commercials Stadium on the 29th June.

It's only £5 for a day of fun and you'll get to bump into a few of your City heroes.

Get your ticket here before they sell out.

 

Don't use the Bantams Bar but do they have any local beers on? If not, could that possibly be an option in the future if only to support local breweries?

 

The problem with having hand pulled 'Real Ale' is that once it's open it has a fairly short shelf life, As it's only open Saturday really it just isn't feasible.

Also the bars and food have once again been franchised out to Carlsberg so what is served is up to them

 

There are limitations on the beers that can be served inside the ground due to our tie in with Carlsberg.

But it's clear from the suggestions board thread that improving choice and offering craft beer is popular. The Gin and Beer festival will be an interesting event and I'll be attending in both a pleasure and research capacity

We want to pilot a Fanzone which can offer a variety of beers, food and entertainment which currently is not available inside. So hopefully having local breweries will happen. Watch this space.

 

There are plenty of great breweries around Bradford/Leeds that do kegs of good beer which would be great to see and has a longer shelf life. Spurs have strong links with Beavertown brewery in their new stadium.
But as you say, based on the franchising it'll be cheap lager that costs them maybe 20p a pint to make being sold at a fiver

 

Could be wrong but think they have a small brewery within the ground (that could be BS btw

 

You're correct

 

Glenn Ackroyd has provided a link above. All money raised will be spent on the Bantams Bar. The more we make the quicker we can finish the project.

 

Have you any ideas what you are going to do? Is it a case of a coat of paint and a new carpet or is there money in the budget for other improvements?

 

The only downfall is fans won't contribute if they don't have use of the facility but it's a great jesture on your behalf.

 

It's certainly true that once a barrel of proper beer is opened it doesn't keep very long and is soon past its best. As soon as oxygen comes into contact with beer it goes off in no time. That was one reason the terrible keg beer of the late sixties and seventies was introduced. Because it was pasteurised and used gas pressure to serve it, it didn't go off quickly and meant that sports clubs and other organisations that really only operated at the weekends could keep a keg going for several weeks. Pubs at the time would shift a barrel in no time so it wasn't an issue for them. A number of real ale outlets suffer from this even today, and while it is very laudable that they offer proper beer, sometimes it can be almost undrinkable. But if you have to chuck out half a barrel, there go your profits. Despite this I'm surprised that more football clubs don't realise that if they sold decent beer at a fair price they'd attract a lot of fans into the ground earlier and sell an awful lot of beer, particularly if people thought that the profits were benefitting the club. I seem to remember at Chelsea the beer was half price between 1pm and 2pm, something I took considerable advantage of.

 

Only if its going to make money. There seems to be more demand for better food options than there does for 'real ale'. I honestly don't think there is enough demand to make it viable once every two weeks of the football season.

 

Re-decoration of walls and windows etc. Brand new lighting ( 64 ceiling panel lights !!) New ceiling tiles. Additional seating in the form of bar stools and poseur tables. New toilet cubicles / flooring / hand dryers in toilets. This will take us a while to finance fully but we have agreed to take it on and do what we can when we can. Decorating and new lighting is the minimum we have promised during the close season.