Tuesday 29 October 2013

Dear ANZ Stadium

Today I am writing a letter of complaint.

On Saturday we went to Monster Jam (monster trucks) at ANZ Stadium.  The show its self was beyond awesome, we walked out of there pretty much booking tickets for next year.  It deserves a post all to its self!!

My complaint is with what happened before hand.

We brought "pit party" passes for an extra $10 which meant we could go into the fenced off area outside the stadium and see all the trucks and hopefully meet some of the drivers and get photos etc.  12000 passes were sold and they were sold out.  Apparently they were being sold on gumtree and ebay for insane amounts of money.  The pits were open from 2-6pm and we got there about 330pm hanging to have a look.

First stop for me was to find a seat and feed a screaming baby.  We went with friends and we were going to set up somewhere and take it in turns minding bags etc or kids so we could all get a good look around.  There was not one seat in the area we were.  Not one, not like they were all taken but nothing no seating at all.  I ended up sitting in the shade on the floor along with a lot of other people.  Had we been able to get pass outs I could have at least sat on a bench.  It was a gorgeous Sydney afternoon but it was fairly warm.  I did not take a bottle of water or food figuring we would be able to buy something there.  The lines were ridiculous.  Just after 5pm I got the "I need to do a wee mum" so we high tailed it to where the toilets were only to find them closed off to the public.  Our only option was to leave the pit area and go in search of toilets elsewhere.  This sucked as the pit area was thinning out and we were getting to look at the trucks without a million people around, however when you have to go you have to go!!

Another issue was the merchandise stands.  We had promised the boys they could buy something with money they had been given and they just wanted a monster truck each.  People stood in line for quite literally hours to buy things.  I lined up for about 40 minutes to get the kids their little trucks and I only did that as they were getting upset and didn't understand that there were massive lines and there was a big wait.

So ANZ Stadium-

  • This was well and truly a family event, from babies to elderly people.  You need facilities to cater for everyone.  It would not kill you to hire some chairs or at least allow pass outs from the pit party.  I get that the majority of events at the stadium are not aimed at the family market but you really need to take this into account for next year which I guarantee will sell out.
  • Could you at least have some extra stands just selling drinks and the basic merchandise?
  • There is no excuse for not having adequate services, as 12000 passes had been sold there is no surprise to how many people were going to be there.  Not to mention the 50000 tickets for the actual event.
  • Lastly I have to commend you on parking.  We did not book parking so we had to park in a parking station away from the stadium.  The shuttle buses came pretty much one after another on our way in which was awesome as it reduced walking for little legs plus they got a bonus bus ride.  Leaving the parking station took less time than it took me to leave a shopping centre last week.  We were waiting for the chaos to get out and there was none.
All in all it was fantastic and as I said we will be going next year for sure.  I will have my pictures up tomorrow!!  Linking up with Essentially Giraffe/Jess for IBOT.






    This was right at the end, the Yanks are insane!!

    7 comments:

    1. That's disgusting. I hope you send this to them, or they read this blog post, because it's not good enough really! Such a shame to have this put a bit of a wet blanket over an otherwise great time. -Aroha (for #teamIBOT)

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    2. I hope that you email them this post because it is great feedback for them! Glad you had a great time! Big events with kids are hard!

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    3. That last one is nuts!! I was half horrified, half impressed.

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    4. I really think you should sent this to them? or the organisers? Truly the more feedback they get the better! Glad you had fun though - THOSE ARE SOME CRAZY ASS trucks, I have to show my son when he's home from kindy! xx

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    5. You are so brave going to an event like that with a tiny baby!! Such a shame your experience was less that fabulous - casts such a downer on what would have been an awesome family outing. Definitely pass it on to the organisers.

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    6. We went to a concert two years ago and the drinks and merchandise stands were ridiculous. Even for a bottle of water it was $8! It was nearly cheaper to just buy alcohol.
      Mr 4 would have loved the monster trucks though! We watch Monster Jam on TV and he loves it.

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    7. Nothing worse than being at an event and you miss half of it because you have to line up to pee and the line takes ages.

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