THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Doubt any chain sees pissed football fans as a prized demographic.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

But I also doubt the restaurants who don't intentionally cater for them yet still have them fill up the place every other week do either..

Yes, but those places, pubs and restaurants, haven't moved to be next to a football ground. It's historical; they tend to be close to older grounds, which generally sit in the centre of towns and cities. So it wasn't a choice. I suspect they enjoy the bi-monthly cash injection, whilst disliking the downside that may come with it (scaring off non-football customers on match days, drunkenness, "boisterous" behaviour etc.).

So I don't see a pub/restaurant choosing to set up by S:MK. If they'd seen that as an attractive place to be, surely they'd have bid for one of the sites around the Odeon? Look at most newer grounds - they are built on the outskirts of towns, perhaps near a cinema or bowling alley or whatever and generally are devoid of the sorts of pubs and food joints the typical footie fan would enjoy (think Colchester, Oxford et al).

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Apologies, I don't think I explained myself. I mean that Turkish and Bella Italia or whoever see the drunk football fans as something they want nor does the layout particularly suit them yet they will be pretty busy with away fans every other week. An establishment that is more of a pub vibe would be built with more leaners, bar space and standing area, so the drunk football fans wouldn't be as much of a nuisance to normal trade.

I can't imagine a world where, say, Wetherspoons wouldn't be popular during the week, even... I go to the cinema often with my friend, and afterwards we enjoy a pint to catch up.. discuss the film etc. I'm sure many are the same. Same for shoppers. Spoons' food is popular because it's cheap (and disgusting) and its be popular with hotel residents* throughout the week.

* another reason a bar of any kind would never ben approved. Take away from the expensive bar(s) in the hotel.

I've recently started drinking at The In on the Lake which by pub to ground standards, the walk isn't that bad. Generally, I've encountered pubs that are further walks and it's a good 19 mins which is often a welcomed one when you've guzzler a few pints. It's just a "shame" (for want of a better word) it'd way too plush and cosy for football fans to congregate and use as a local.

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#DonYourWhite

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It's a retail park though. Admittedly I've not visited many retail parks but of those that I have, I've never once seen a Weatherspoon's or similar venue there.

Almost every single Weatherspoon's I have been to, has either been in a town center or within a reasonable walk from a train station.

No venue that relies on alcohol sales being a large part of their revenue is ever going to open in a retail park.

I'm not disagreeing mate, I'm just suggesting that the point it wouldn't make much throughout the week doesn't sit with me. I think it'd be fine.

But, as we've all established, there are plenty of reasons that it would never happen.

Winkelbot is so far detached from what fans want that he'd ask what we want for a pre match experience and you tell him we want a bar or pub like most other grounds and he'll tell you there are bars in the stadium. You tell him a £5.50 pint of watered piss in a plastic cup is shit, and he'll tell you every ground offers shit lager...you point to the first point, and he'd tell you you can't have everything.

I've just posted on VFTOS - Cambridge pretty much all I need to say, might even copy and paste it here so we don't have to jump between threads, but for what I want at the football, stadium MK offers precious little, what Keyser, who I know and has posted about it before, and say dons50 want, is opposite to what I want entirely...

Winkelbot does not want our fans to be drunk and rowdy. And if they do they bloody better line his pockets on the way...

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#DonYourWhite

Turn Stadium MK WHITE In The Playoffs

https://donsaction.co.uk/

GET THIS SEASONS HOME SHIRT FOR £16.50 ↓↓↓
https://shop.mkdons.co.uk/collections/23-24-home-kit

Well I agree with him on that; I don’t want our fans to be drunk and rowdy either.

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I like clean air and low traffic

The fact that the Tim Martin's of the world don't open pubs near football grounds suggests you're incorrect. If their market analysis highlighted otherwise, we'd be seeing new pubs popping up near every new ground.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

I can't speak for D50 but you're not entirely right about me. I do primarily go for the football itself and to chat to mates. But I don't enjoy the lack of atmosphere (I'm one who likes to sing) and I enjoy a pint or 6 before a game (but have to drive to S:MK so that's out, apart from one before and one at HT). I used to watch Man U from the Stretford End in the early 80s and the atmosphere was epic and I miss it. Apart from maybe Playoff games etc (and Man U of course), I never get that at S:MK, only at away games (Derby, Forest, Posh and St. Evenage away being amongst my faves).

What I don't want at football is coked-up, aggressive wanna-be hooligans. I saw enough of that shit in the 70s and 80s. I'm not saying that's what you want either BTW! I actually don't think what we want is all that different, other than now that I'm old I'd probably want the pub to be a little less boisterous than you might.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.