I wanted to start a thread that discusses the changes in the protocols and whatnot about getting to the stadium and our experiences once there.

1. TICKETS There is already discussion about the mobile tickets here: 

But here are some links...

Link to Mobile Ticket Guide: https://www.bluebombers.com/mobile-ticketing
Link to PDF instructions: https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/07/Bombers_MobileTickets.pdf

You need the app:

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ticketmaster/id500003565
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ticketmaster.mobile.android.na

Make sure you have the BLUE app. The old GOLD one is no longer valid. 

I discovered today that you can link your Ticketmaster and your Bomber accounts. I was able to see my season tickets in the app and the extras I purchased through Ticketmaster for the Banjo Bowl. 

 

2. TRANSPORTATION (Parking, Park & Ride, Biking)

PARKING remains $20 to park near the stadium. You can purchase tickets here and see the map: https://www.bluebombers.com/tickets/game-day-parking/

They have a value lot ($5), which is the "B" lot for those that are familiar with UofM parking lots. It's a good hike and will take you about 10-15 minutes each way to get to the stadium and back. The issue I've had parking there in the past is that you're behind all the traffic and it takes while to get out. That was based on a my experience a couple of years ago, so it may be smoother now. 

PARK & RIDE

More information: https://www.bluebombers.com/park-and-ride/ 

Route 1 – McPhillips Station – 484 McPhillips Street

Route 2 – Club Regent – 1425 Regent Ave West.

Route 3 – Hudson’s Bay at St. Vital Centre – 86-1225 St. Mary’s Road

Route 4 – St. Norbert Hotel – 3540 Pembina Highway

Route 5 – at Assiniboia Downs – The Assiniboia Downs Park & Ride

Cost: Remains $5 per person 12 and over. Cash or digital payment methods 

THERE IS NO LONGER PARK AND RIDE FROM TAYLOR or GRANT PARK. 

NEW for 2021 – Winnipeg Transit Park & Ride (replaces 2019 Grant Park Mall Park and Ride)

Choose one of the following two locations to access the BLUE rapid transit line:

Seel Station Park and Ride – 1550 Seel Ave.

Clarence Station Park and Ride – 1240 Clarence Ave.

Cost: Winnipeg Transit Fare $3.05 (pay when you get on bus and when you leave after the game) for anyone 12 and over. Transit does NOT charge for children 11 and under, as long as they're with a paying adult. 

BIKING 

Same as before, no changes. 800 spots and no charge for the valet. 

 

3. STADIUM PROTOCOLS https://www.bluebombers.com/2021-stadium-protocols/

1. Manitoba Immunization QR Code - you need to prove that you're double vaxxed. 
2. Mobile Tickets - mentioned earlier
3. Cashless Venue - everything it electronic payments now. No cash. 
4. Fan Health Promise - you better be healthy if you're going!
5. Know Your Gate - you MUST enter through your designated gate.
6. Face Coverings - masks must be worn in the indoor common areas but not outdoors (ie seats). 
7. Parking and Transportation - mentioned earlier

 

4. Week One Info - August 5th

Here's a link to the Game Day guide: https://www.bluebombers.com/game-day-guide-august-5-2021/

Gates open at 6pm. Game starts at 7:30pm

GAME DAY SPECIALS

$5.00 355ml cans of Coors Original, Coors Light Beer – Available from 6:00PM – 7:30 PM

$3.00 Fountain Drink – Available from 6:00PM – 7:30PM

$3.00 Hot Dogs – Available all game

Defend the cup t-shirt: $24.99 – Regular price: $29.50

Championship Replica Ring – $49.99
Season ticket member price: $34.99

 

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Please let me know if there is any other info I should include here. I'll update things as we learn about them.

Edited August 4, 20214 yr by JCon

Yeah the concessions were terrible. 30+ minute wait for beer and lines that went on for days. They need to add some staff and speed up the process big time.

3 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Yeah the concessions were terrible. 30+ minute wait for beer and lines that went on for days. They need to add some staff and speed up the process big time.

I think it's a matter of having the staff that they DO have on knowing what to do and doing it well / efficiently .. the real problem was people milling around, poorly defined lines for queues and just the general shitshow of having 30K people out at the stadium for the first time in two years.

53 minutes ago, blue85gold said:

Didn't attend but am curious about how the vaccine checks went. Heard anecdotally that they weren't checking some people at all.

It wasnt great but it was unprecedented so not surprised. They had QR scanner people that would come to you in line and scan your QR code + ID before you got to the ticket checker. So by the time you got to the ticket checkers, they would have just assumed that you would have already had your QR code scanned. Problem was people were standing in one line, getting fed up, then jumping in a new line. So i imagine it was really hard for these QR checkers to remember who they scanned and who they didnt yet. It seemed like it would have been really easy for someone to bypass the QR checkers and just go directly to the ticket scanners. Hopefully that wasnt happening.

One thing they can do to improve the gate entry, which wasn't great for gate 4, coming off the buses, is having staff direct people. Let people know where the shortest lines are and what's going on. If you got off the bus between 6 and 6:30, the line was huge and it wasn't clear that you could move around. Only when you got close, could you see. Hopefully, they can improve that experience for the next game. But, I doubt we'll see a crowd like that for the Argos. 

3 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

It wasnt great but it was unprecedented so not surprised. They had QR scanner people that would come to you in line and scan your QR code + ID before you got to the ticket checker. So by the time you got to the ticket checkers, they would have just assumed that you would have already had your QR code scanned. Problem was people were standing in one line, getting fed up, then jumping in a new line. So i imagine it was really hard for these QR checkers to remember who they scanned and who they didnt yet. It seemed like it would have been really easy for someone to bypass the QR checkers and just go directly to the ticket scanners. Hopefully that wasnt happening.

Yeah, I think the issue is exactly as someone else said where they were going down the line and not just waiting in one spot.  I got scanned by one guy, and then asked by 2 more  if I had been checked yet.  If they stay in one spot, nobody gets missed, but I think they were trying to make sure it didn't slow down the lines at all.  I'm hopeful that even if they did miss some people, that they were vaccinated because everybody should have known that it was a requirement to get it.

4 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

It wasnt great but it was unprecedented so not surprised. They had QR scanner people that would come to you in line and scan your QR code + ID before you got to the ticket checker. So by the time you got to the ticket checkers, they would have just assumed that you would have already had your QR code scanned. Problem was people were standing in one line, getting fed up, then jumping in a new line. So i imagine it was really hard for these QR checkers to remember who they scanned and who they didnt yet. It seemed like it would have been really easy for someone to bypass the QR checkers and just go directly to the ticket scanners. Hopefully that wasnt happening.

Saw more than a few instances of this last night while my wife and I entered the stadium.  We moved well through our queue and the people assisting / checking us did a great job but I can't say the same for lines adjacent to us.

3 hours ago, Mike said:

Lines for concessions is one thing.

having 100 people in line because there’s one guy running the register, pouring beers and grabbing the food while his 5 coworkers stand around doing nothing is kind of poop.

The vendors were a mess, no question about that... but the Bomber lost a whole ton of money by not being able to sell more booze... if there's one thing I know about the Wade Miller era of management it's when there's money to be made, he'll make sure it gets made... and if there's a major problem in the stadium, he'll fix it, ASAP (ok, that's two things)...

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by bearpants

Some concessions were bad. I didn't have a single problem the entire night. Driving there, the only place that got backed up was near Kelvin High school. Smooth sailing after. I got there and say a line that went from the stadium to university Cresent....so I just walked an extra 5 meters (no lie) and joined the next line which was about 10 people deep. Got checked and was in. No hassle at all. Went up to my seats, grabbed a couple beers after waiting behind two people. 

Sat down for a bit, went back to grab some food. Probably the longest wait of the night....about 15min. Noticed the one beer line was legit 40 people deep...figured I'd wait till the game started, but turned to my left and the beer kiosk in the middle was empty...went there and grabbed some more beer, no wait.

After the game, I didn't hang around like I normally do, just straight back to the car(gold lot) Sat in the car for about 15min waiting for the line to move and then was gone.

Some of you sound like you just sat around in lines, try looking for other options next time, you'll save yourself a bunch of time.

One thing I’ll comment on that hasn’t been mentioned yet: the new jumbotron layout is horrible. Way too busy and hard to read. 

Sitting in the end zone, you have no hope in hell of being able to read what down/yardage it is when it’s crammed in the top left corner like that. Kept having to turn around and read the one behind me, but then you miss the action. 😕

21 minutes ago, Mike said:

One thing I’ll comment on that hasn’t been mentioned yet: the new jumbotron layout is horrible. Way too busy and hard to read. 

Sitting in the end zone, you have no hope in hell of being able to read what down/yardage it is when it’s crammed in the top left corner like that. Kept having to turn around and read the one behind me, but then you miss the action. 😕

YES!!!! And, why no STATS?

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by JCon

2 hours ago, MOBomberFan said:

The vendors, security, event day staff, volunteers... all wore masks to protect us fans. It wasn't hard for me to do the same in return for them. Its just a matter of being decent and respectful, not ignorant or fearful.

Being polite to strangers is optional but I do it anyway. I see this much the same.

I assume  that would not apply to Rider fans, and they are VERY strange.

56 minutes ago, JCon said:

YES!!!! And, why no STATS?

Pfft who needs stats when I can perpetually stare at their instagram hashtag?

Delete!!!!!!!!!

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by Bigblue204

Sorry guys, I removed all the covid related posts.

My patience for the 'covid is not a big deal' posts, has gone to absolute 0

More football talk please!

I will update the main post with anything you think I should add for our fellow fans who could not attend game 1? 

23 hours ago, itchy said:

Anyone coming in still and seeing this- avoid gate 1 and 4 at all costs.

Came in my gate 2 and absolutely zero hassle

Gate 4 went extremely fast. maybe 12 minutes on avg. However there was the 1 line that went back deep cause everyone stood in 1 line and not move to the other 8 choices

3 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Sorry guys, I removed all the covid related posts.

My patience for the 'covid is not a big deal' posts, has gone to absolute 0

More football talk please!

Mark. I sent you a private message on your issues with covid. 

8 hours ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Yeah the concessions were terrible. 30+ minute wait for beer and lines that went on for days. They need to add some staff and speed up the process big time.

 

According to the Blue Bombers email that I received from management about the matter that 2 issues were the problem. 1) Many staff didn't show up to work 2) New staff that had no knowledge of how to run a concession. 

 

They know the problem and promise changes

1 hour ago, PolarBear said:

Mark. I sent you a private message on your issues with covid. 

Yuck. It's everyone's issue. 

1 hour ago, PolarBear said:

Mark. I sent you a private message on your issues with covid. 

Can’t wait to eyeroll about this in the mod forum later