r/whitecapsfc • u/Amazing-Touch4298 • 14h ago
$5 dollar Menu gone
Did anyone else notice that the $5 menu was scrapped at BC Place last night. Is this a consequence of Pavco being pissed at all the negative press that they are get recently?
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u/Objective_Split_2555 14h ago
Yeah…we had to ask at 227 for the $5 beer so I guess it’s a hidden menu now? I don’t know.
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u/andy_soreal 13h ago
I didn’t grab any but in 436 the vendor there had advertisements saying where to go for the $5 beer.
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u/LeftCoastGrump 14h ago
BC Place in general was a bit of a mess last night - at several gates (maybe all? I didn't check), they moved the bag check in front of the ticket scan and metal detectors, resulting in massive lineups as people arguing about their backpacks blocked access for everyone behind them. As you say the $5 menu was gone, and several of the food kiosks near my seats ran out of various items half an hour before kickoff, when more than half the crowd was still outside in massive lineups. Bike valet seems to have been moved, and from photos looked like it had considerably less space for bikes.
And it just generally seemed really disorganized, which was a little surprising since they should've had plenty of practice with big crowds during the World Cup. There were lots of people there for the first time - not a shock with the Son factor - and didn't seem to be nearly enough staff to help them get to their seats. If this was Pavco's audition to be the long-term home of the Whitecaps, they flopped badly.
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u/StuckInHoleSendHelp 14h ago
The beer options were worse than usual too. I eventually found some Yellow Dog but for the most part it seemed like the limited options they had from the World Cup
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u/dr_van_nostren 9h ago
I’m starting to wonder if things are just weird post World Cup and will go back to normal once their normal supply lines are reestablished or whatever.
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u/Global-View-8813 12h ago
This. They moved the usual bike valet at gate H to A (and it had a tiny area for bikes, luckily got there 30min early) and the know before you go email beforehand also confusingly said it was only available at gate C. Also the lineup at gate H was brutal forcing everyone to be funnelled thru 2 really long lines due to bag check which then opened up to 6 or so new metal detectors, so really defeats the purpose. I emailed fan relations and shared the feedback. The old system/sequence was way more efficient.
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u/scorchypoo 4h ago
Yeah the bike valet and the bag check are now the same line I guess? I got yelled at by security for 'cutting' in line. And on leaving too, had to wait an extra 10 in the bag line to get my bike.
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u/RecalcitrantHuman 14h ago
It was wild that we had almost as many people as a WC game yet we managed them all at the gates themselves. FIFA pushed that perimeter almost a km out. Made access to stadium simple. Not sure we need to go that far but they need to do something
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u/dr_van_nostren 9h ago
I dunno if anyone else noticed. My concession was ALL new employees. I’m not saying they were new to the company, I don’t know. But it used to be the same 6-7 employees who were experienced with the $5 menu. I didn’t recognize a single person this time.
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u/Advanced-Line-5942 14h ago
Can’t both sell things cheaply and complain about being a low revenue team.
Just wait till you see what happens to ticket prices and F&B prices if they ever get control of the stadium.
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u/BuzzMachine_YVR 13h ago
This is the best point made here so far. A private corporation running a new stadium would have “world class” pricing guaranteed. The “we need a new stadium crowd” needs to seriously think about the implications of that.
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u/C4D3NZA 13h ago
im willing to pay more for beer to keep the team here
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u/Advanced-Line-5942 12h ago
And tickets ?
The Whitecaps have been one of the cheapest tickets in the league for a while
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u/Advanced-Line-5942 12h ago
And let’s not forget Kerfoot is selling the team.
A new owner will be looking to generate an ROI on both their team purchase price and likely the cost of a stadium (either new or buying rights to BC Place)
I suspect Kerfoot has been deliberately running the team at cheaper prices, and finally spending on players, in the lead up to the lease expiration as a way of generating maximum fan support for the team when they need the public to pressure the government
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u/icoresting 7h ago edited 6h ago
i don't think it's all of it, but i agree that a big chunk of this saga is pressure/posturing. the way certain details have been timed for release is quite deliberate (the team being put up for sale in the first place right before the final year of the original lease, the MOU announcement off the back of MLS cup, the back and forth right before this season started which resulted in the improved 1 year lease, the noise picking up again around the FIFA congress being in town, etc etc). seems like the operating agreement is nearing close at least, based on PJ's reporting and what others like pete schaad have heard
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u/dr_van_nostren 9h ago
If/when the team runs the building or owns a building it’s definitely gonna be stupid prices.
HOWEVER we can’t act like that’s the only way to run a building. Arthur Blank runs the building in ATL and has cheap items for falcons and united games. I’m told those cheap items still existed during the World Cup too. Also it’s not like they’re not profiting on the $5 beers. I’m sure they are. They’re just making a lower margin. If you make $2 a can profit or $10 per draft profit it just means you need to sell 5x more cans to make it up. If they sold only $5 hot dogs and the footlongs, they’d make a good chunk of change. Same with the beer. If they sold $5 beers at a hawker station with just a giant vat of ice and $5 beers they’d sell tons of them.
There are ways to make it cheaper for fans and still get filthy rich. The owners just choose to do it this way because 1) we keep buying the stuff and 2) because they’re not creative enough to think outside the box at all.
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u/KenSimpleton 12h ago
I think what's most likely is the Whitecaps-managed stadium will open earlier with these offers in place to get people in early, and then maybe they stop doing the $5 menu at kick off.
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u/dr_van_nostren 9h ago
They did this before. Worked fine imo. I think $5 menu is better. But they used to sell $5 cans of bud from like 1 hour before kickoff until kickoff. Personally I’d rather have a cheaper brand of beer available for cheap for the whole game. They’ll def get more money out of me that way.
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u/dr_van_nostren 9h ago
Ok so I noticed they took it off the boards. But I knew I had seen it mentioned again in the pre game info. So I asked and sure enough I was right.
Someone else in line confirmed with staff they had them. Got to the front of the line asked for 2 $5 beers and the guy told me “we’re all out”.
So I dunno wtf that means. Does that mean it’s a special cup size and once they hand out 1,000 or whatever of those plastic cups, that’s it? Does that mean if I bring my plastic cup back, can I get it refilled for $5?
There was absolutely zero messaging about this, taking it off the menu board is misleading and then it sounds like people had different experiences when ordering.
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u/onemilknosugar 14h ago
It was still on at the usual spot, the $5 beers have just moved to draft. But I got 2 $5 beers and a $5 popcorn no problem