This is the best news this year other than Day signing for another two seasons, well done all.

For all the effort, time and money spent by supporters and the club in other projects like raffles etc, nothing provides the return on investment that this will. A football club needs a sports style bar, and longer opening hours, to make it more attractive to football fans. It'll also encourage people to arrive earlier, stay later and bring a mate etc. That's just match days, non-match days will now bring income as well, unlike recent seasons.

It's depressing to see the Guy Earl of Warwick getting literally £100s every week between 4.45-7pm on a Saturday when that money could/should be being spent over the Wings bar.

Can't wait to see it. Please do it properly and it will make the club a lot of money. Decent pubs in Welling are hard to find.

Excellent news. Well done to the club and Pure - just what was needed.

Yet again I can't get on the main website on my laptop or phone (?) but this sounds like excellent news. We can't just rely on gate receipts, and this is a massive step in the right direction. Well done Paul and the club! Can't wait to see it

Absolutely brilliant news. Can't wait to use this instead of meeting in The Guy at 12.30 pm on a Saturday.

Well done to all involved

Cheers

Lou

Fantastic news.

I wonder if a deal could be done with E&B&Q to share their changing rooms so that the Bar could be extended? This would also help after game sales as currently The Wings Bar ends up having 40 players and staff, all with big sportsbags filling the room. 

 

Simple....closed to general public on match days!!!

Kevin wrote:

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This is the best news this year other than Day signing for another two seasons, well done all.

For all the effort, time and money spent by supporters and the club in other projects like raffles etc, nothing provides the return on investment that this will. A football club needs a sports style bar, and longer opening hours, to make it more attractive to football fans. It'll also encourage people to arrive earlier, stay later and bring a mate etc. That's just match days, non-match days will now bring income as well, unlike recent seasons.

It's depressing to see the Guy Earl of Warwick getting literally £100s every week between 4.45-7pm on a Saturday when that money could/should be being spent over the Wings bar.

Can't wait to see it. Please do it properly and it will make the club a lot of money. Decent pubs in Welling are hard to find.

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 A step in the right direction no doubt and bringing the club into the 21st century.

Without wishing to put a dampener on things will the club benefit financially or is this a franchise agreement where profits go to PURE rather than the football club??

Mark, I don't think that can be done unless the bar operates as a private club.  Otherwise, I suspect it could contravene the local authority licence if it is generally open to the public but discriminates against them on match days.

Russ wrote:

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Why does everyone think this is a great deal? I suspect there will only be one winner financially.

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 I don't think the club would go ahead with this if it wasn't financially beneficial for the club.

A further thought on this.  What will happen to such events as the Quiz Nights, Band Nights  and other WUSA events and also to private hire of the clubhouse?  Will all of these now get transferred to the Eric Brackstone Lounge?

Great news about the works, really mean that, I've always wanted to stick around in the bar more, but as a football fan, like most, the draw of the football on the tele before and after games in the Nags and/or Guy earl of Warwick loses the club money. Glad that is sorted it seems.

However, some questions, rhetorical to a degree.

How much is the club getting out of this opposed to Pure?
What's happening to the stuff WUSA bought for the bar that it appears now isn't needed. Is this a total waste of money?
With someone on the board from WUSA, how did we not know earlier about this, because I believe part of WUSA's plans in the short term involved bar improvements?

I agree. They'll be getting my money. But my questions still apply.

Why was this forum in uproar over the outsourcing of catering but is applauding outsourcing of the bar?

Russ wrote:

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Why was this forum in uproar over the outsourcing of catering but is applauding outsourcing of the bar?

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 hence me asking what the club is getting out of it rather than Pure?

Kevin, this did all happen rather quickly, i got an email on Saturday or Sunday saying this was proposed and then it was on the site early this week so it's not something that was held back from the members delibrately.

The questionnaires have been looked at and a big topic that came up was communication and we are looking at steps to improve this next season for all members. The only reason the full results have not been published yet is because a lot of it had to do with the bar and our plans to help put BT sport, wooden flooring in etc which obviously we don't need to do now Dean Lee has stepped in. I honestly don't know the details of the arrangement, how the income will be spit between Dean Lee and the club but I think this is a great thing for the club. A much better bar open 7 days a week and with sky sports, this should hopefully mean people don't use the pubs outside the ground and spend their cash in the football ground. This is something i will be doing from now on and I hope others do the same.

There has been a topic posted on this subject on the WUSA forum.

I believe The Wings Sports Bar will only succeed if it successfully competes with its competitors and attracts customers from the local area and not just WUFC supporters visiting though blind loyalty- that approach has failed!  

I think one of main things will be it needs to be able to serve food lunchtimes and evenings. Most pubs nearest to the ground have pretty decent food at reasonable prices.

Russ wrote:

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Why was this forum in uproar over the outsourcing of catering but is applauding outsourcing of the bar?

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I'm guessing one look at our bar, the hassle of running it with limited club staff and the option of a big improvement by a local company with links to the club was appealing to the Hobbins. Be good to know if the profits from running it via the club (in its current state) was really that poor to outsource it? Any other club I would say you would be mad not to run it 100% yourself, but with Welling, I can see the logic!

Can't say I'm bothered anyway - our bar use to run our of beer, the queues on matchdays was a joke and was in dire need of a refurb.

One thing no-one has mentioned, if the bar is outsourced, if it frees up Barry and Barrie's time to focus on other things that benefit the club then we can benefit indirectly as well.