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Ottawa CFL fans carp about long lines for beer, food unintended feature at Redblacks’ home debut
No touchdowns for a half, and no beer for half the stadium?
The Canadian Football League returned to our nation's capital on Friday when the first-year Ottawa Redblacks hosted the Toronto Argonauts at TD Place stadium, which underwent extensive renoativations over the past 2 1/2 years. There were bound to be some opening night glitches. As spectacular as TD Place (the centrepiece of the revitalized Lansdowne Park) looked on TV, there were patches of unoccupied seats throughout the stands due to extremely long lines at concession stands. Problems with cash registers and beer taps on the north side of the sold-out 24,000-seat stadium led to some upset fans through the first 30 minutes of football, which ended with Ottawa holding a slim 9-7 lead. Seasoned CFL chroniclers such as Sportsnet's Arash Madani (a former employee of the city's previous franchise, the Renegades) noticed the snag.
Hope @canadiancommish comes to check out the concession situation. Thats where the 10,000 fans absent from their seats are. #CFL
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) July 18, 2014
TD Place is packed and looks great, but major concession and logistical problems being reported so far. North Side out of beer before HT!
— Blog Smith (@BlogFuryFC) July 19, 2014
Redblacks apparently have driven skids of cases of beer to the north side stands and are selling them off the skid!!! @redblacks
— Dave Allston (@daveallston) July 19, 2014
One major logistical concern in Ottawa revolved around the lack of parking at the stadium. For the most part, fans seemed to have little trouble getting into the stadium.
Obtaining beer and food apparently proved difficult, though.
This is a great moment in Ottawa sports history and I'll remember it for years. Most importantly, how I was in a concession line.
— Bobby Kelly (@BobbyBKelly) July 18, 2014
Concession lines are ridiculous, willing to give the @REDBLACKS some slack for first game. Only. #WeRBack
— Gord Smith (@elgordo99) July 18, 2014
Oh, #Redblacks, I love you and all, but the four-mile line-ups at concessions on opening night aren't a good look. #CFL
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) July 18, 2014
#Rnation #TDPlace NO beer North Side #bleedredblacks @REDBLACKS not a good start with service
— bleedredblacks (@bleedredblacks) July 19, 2014
Major logistical problems. Concessions out of food, ATMs out of order, debit not working. No one knows what’s going on.#redblacks @redblacks
— Spencer Callaghan (@Senturion) July 19, 2014
@huntsy67 Jeff Section e Row 8 seat 14 Have waited one hour in 2 concession lines and came away empty handed. Please send beer and food now
— alan drummond (@alandrummond2) July 19, 2014
Concession disaster.. selling warm beer for inflated price #redblacks #cfl #ottawa #ottnews #ottcity #babydump pic.twitter.com/VZmIzFWSXF
— Mike Rideout (@rideoutmi) July 19, 2014
@REDBLACKS concession are a mess. No food... Registrars not working...mile long lines for beer. #hiccups
— Greg Banning (@GregBanning) July 19, 2014
Huge concessions fail @td_place. Frozen cashes, ran out of food, 45 minute wait. Seriously?!? Better fix it SOON! #Redblacks
— Genevieve (@hibiscus100) July 19, 2014
A new franchise can only do so much to prepare for such a large crush of people. Ottawa did not host a preseason game since the stadium was not officially opened until last week. It held an open house on July 9 that brought out an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people. No doubt the speediness of service will improve over time.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
