I arrived at 2 PM (an hour before the game), and the ONE parking attendant in the north lot west of the field was leisurely taking payment while the lineup backed up to the highway... couldn't they just get, you know... get more attendants taking payment? Really easy solution...
Anyways, what a crowd today! Supporters section was packed, same with the main stands. Loved the excessive smoke bombs, more of that please! Also Chowed down on currywurst and the new PIE STAND at the SE tents - and they were DELICIOUS. The new digital scoreboard on the south end of the field is awesome! Looks like Spruce Meadows is really investing in the product / game day experience, great to see!
Cavalry FC only have two players who seem to like to move the ball with possession. Escalante and Musse. Otherwise they are keen on getting the ball off their foot as quick as possible. Chima in particular was not a calming presence when it came to possession, same for, Aird.
Bevan is a quality attacker, the ball is dangerous on his foot, but getting it to him is a challenge. Last year the Cavs fell in love with lobbing 50/50 balls to move through the middle of the pitch and it looks to me like that will be the strategy again. It is going to be frustrating watching this team try to break through the middle.
I parked in the west lot and arrived really early with Howie_16 to visit a tailgate, so we missed all of the "fun". But I was meeting some others that got caught up in the parking shenanigans. Not only did the club simply give up on collecting parking money, anyone entering the match from the NE lots just walked right into the ground. There was a gate in the fence and everyone was just streaming right through instead of having to walk around to the pavilion to enter the proper way.
If you're coming all the way down to Spruce Meadows, you probably already have a ticket, so I doubt that it "cost" them anything to throw the gates open. But giving up thousands of parking revenue due to pure incompetence - unfortunately not surprising, but pretty disappointing at this point. They've had a few years to figure this out.
I suppose a smidge of credit is due for them recognizing their failures and throwing the gates open, so as not to make it any worse for people. But cancel the shuttles AND make parking more difficult? Who could've foreseen a gong show?
But if we ignore the negative stuff (but honestly, come on, this is ridiculous), it sure was great to be back. Full credit to Kildares who were great as usual. They had a bus that left 60 and 30 minutes prior to the match (and back again afterwards), everything was nicely organized with wrist bands, and lots of supporters. We didn't take the bus because we have a parking pass and we were dropping in at a tailgate, but I really hope that there is enough demand to keep the bus going. It is a great option to save yourself the headache of Spruce Meadows parking.
Spruce Meadows was beautiful as always. Black jerseys looked better in person, but I'm a traditionalist and think that red is the proper colour to be worn at home. Save the black for colour clashes and merch shop shelves. Foot Soldiers were loud and smoky.
The match itself wasn't great, but not terrible either. I think that we could've/should've done better against Valour, but I am actually pretty impressed by the parity in the league this year. Of course things will stretch out a bit as the season progresses, but there have been lots of close games and draws, which hopefully makes for good competition (as long as Cavalry are on the right side of it).
Crowd and atmosphere was pretty good too. Home opener buzz, obviously, and a beautiful day. Not a full sellout, but a very healthy crowd.
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That's good to hear about the Kildares bus. I heard things were quite smooth with the Ship busses which "sold out" long before the busses were to leave.
I'm really curious to see how things go in Langley next weekend. Think there's a decent sized crew going for the away day.
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Problems with parking intake, 5 years in, is shocking. Yet, there it was yesterday for all to be encumbered by. They need to position Police Officers again, at key intersections to expedite traffic.
Problems with parking intake, 5 years in, is shocking. Yet, there it was yesterday for all to be encumbered by. They need to position Police Officers again, at key intersections to expedite traffic.
It is totally inexcusable. The fact that you have to pay for parking at all is a little strange since there isn't another option. Hell tack the $10 onto ticket prices and offer free parking just to move people in and out more easily.
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I had no problem with parking because I arrived really early to do a bit of tailgating with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, but the parking issue is disappointing. I’m sure they’ll fix it quickly like they have with all the other issues, but these type of things scare off new fans. That was a great crowd yesterday and I hope it didn’t wreck the experience for a lot of people.
Can't comment on the game day experience yesterday as I was sick and couldn't make it, but this club has a tendency at times to talk big and fail to back it up. We should be talking about a massive crowd and getting a win on a glorious sunny day but instead everyone is talking about issues with parking and concessions and security.
I would love to say that we as a supporters group could work with the club to improve that experience, but at times the front office can be set in their ways and unreceptive to our feedback. I think there are a lot of great people at the club who are doing the best with what they are given, for example the person running the social media or the people behind the register at the understaffed store; to me this is an issue at the top and I'm not sure what it will take to have them be more receptive to the issues we bring forward.
"We know best" sums up the attitude. You know equestrian inside and out. But soccer is totally different.
Now, what we have seen over the first 4 years is that when the club ####s up (and it sounds like they ####ed up pretty bad yesterday), they have typically remedied things very quickly and change course. Hopefully this is the case again.
And while it sounds like the game day experience yesterday was pretty poor, at least we are talking about the club not being able to handle big crowds instead of asking why no one wants to go to games like other clubs in the league are asking.
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It is totally inexcusable. The fact that you have to pay for parking at all is a little strange since there isn't another option. Hell tack the $10 onto ticket prices and offer free parking just to move people in and out more easily.
Cancelling the shuttles didn't help. For "not being well utilized" or whatever the club claimed, I always saw multiple packed buses leaving the match. Those passengers became traffic.
I wasn't a shuttle user because of where I live (far NW), but reducing options and then crapping the bed on parking - sadly par for the course.
To be fair, everything about the game day experience was awesome on Sunday. It was just parking that was annoying - and I'm sure they'll rectify that. Was the parking a missed opportunity? Sure, but hardly one worth holding the team over the fire for right now. IF that happens all year, then sure, but I doubt that happens.
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One of the folks who liaises with the club just sent the club a pretty lengthy email with some solutions to the issues we saw on Sunday.
Some good suggestions on traffic control, speedier payment, speeding up parking pass holder access again, happy hours, general communication style, and letting them know that the shuttles we have (2 busses from the Ship and the bus from Kildares that did multiple trips Sunday) are full.
Fingers crossed it's received well.
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