Good morning Mr. Wonderly.
I appreciate your taking the time to write with your observations of last evening. I could not agree more with your observations. Now for the rest of the story….at 12 noon the Secret Service took control of ALL crowd management responsibilities for the Palin Rally. From the very beginning we were telling the Palin Advance Team and the Secret Service that they did not have the resources to appropriately manage the Crowd. In the first hour only 2,400 people had gained entry into the Arena. I told the Advance Team and Secret Service that at this rate, the crowd would not be in until after 9PM. It was not until approximately 8PM when I again met with the Secret Service that we were able to agree on a plan of action that would get the approximately 5,000 guests still waiting in line into the Arena area.
I apologize for the experience your family had at our facility last evening. We are not happy with how our guests were treated. We had many out of town guests attending the event and this is not the kind of first experience we want anyone to have. I can tell you that the responsibilities left under Coliseum control went very well. We had talked to other facilities that had hosted the Rally in the last ten days and we were prepared. We host large events on a regular basis and we could have done a better job on our own!
Again, thank you for taking the time to write. As you can probable read into my writing I am still venting over the whole experience. This is NOT how we treat our guests at the Memorial Coliseum.
Randy
Randy L. Brown, CFE
General Manager
Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
4000 Parnell Avenue
Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1498
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I’ve been at a number of events, for both parties, and with both Presidents themselves and Presidential Candidates, and the one thing I’ve learned holds up across all of them. The only constant is the Secret Service.
At the end of the day the Secret Service doesn’t care about “your experience”. They care about keeping the person they’re on detail for safe. If you get into the arena, or onto the parade route, or into the room, all of these things are completely incidental to them. If they had their way, all of their charges would be locked in underground bunkers and never see the light of day. Seriously.
It’s not surprising to me that the USSS blundered getting people into the arena. It happens all the time, unfortunately.
The Coliseum did a GREAT job getting people in and out of the parking lot only to have the Secret Service ruin the event by handling the crowd so badly.
My next door neighbor and I drove right onto the lot just before the doors opened, no waiting. Two hours later, still standing in the parking lot, he gave up and had his wife come and pick him up. At 6:30 p.m., she drove right onto the lot to get him!
The only people who did ANYTHING right last night worked for the Coliseum.
Seen a couple folks here who expected to drive in at door opening time and walk right in. Why did the thousands in line since before 2 PM know better? And, while I’m sure the Secret Service gave the OK to open the doors, who decided what doors to open? Of course, the discussion has moved on from my original letter to Brown to a whole different topic. My original letter to him was about the line the coliseum formed and then the doors being thrown open and people who had just parked-or sat in their warm car having a salad-rushing the doors.
I undersand the hold up by ss. But who’s bright idea was it to allow the outside line to go as it did. The way i see it the ss was responsible for the hold up, but the poor crowd management on the outside was what really sucked.
Was that the crowds fault or the ss. Because we know it wasn’t randy’s.
Why there wasn’t anyone out there to keep order is amazing to me. It took 30 min for them to realize they needed cops out there and lock the doors. I realize an event like this is unique, but the one thing they could forsee and control was what happened outside.
Once you got in though it was a great event.
There were conditions inside the coliseum that I think Mr. Brown could have controlled: There were coffee machines which didn’t work at concession stands, attendants who wouldn’t refund money, a poor selection of cold nachos and hot dogs, no alcohol, no seats on the ice-cold floor, and cold air blowing on the standing people.
Jennifer, your arguments are out of line.
Machines will break, the attendants never refund money – ever-, my hot dog was quite warm, alcohol was likely asked not to be served by the McCain campaign or the SS (who paid for the facility), the floor was standing room only (just like it would be for a concert or any staged event in the coliseum), and the AC was probably on to keep the crowd from overheating (as they would have if the heat was at 70 degrees.)
Perhaps this was your first visit to the War Memorial Coliseum for an event?
Kiss my ass.
Tell me there is no quality control, no attendant training, no menu options and the secret service had their orders for that, too.
I brought up a simple point that comfort could have been a key role SOMEONE at the Coliseum could have controlled.
Want more solid arguments? How about the safety factors, fire exits, handicapp accomodations? Rotten.
Hey Jennifer, choke on it.
I’m not sure what you are talking about for “attendants” but I can only assume you meant parking attendents. If you were referring to the food service workers, I would assume you would call them vendors or food service workers. As for attendents, you NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER got your money back for parking at the coliseum. EVER. If it was food service, why would you expect a refund, because your nachos weren’t warmed to your specific liking? ITS A HOCKEY ARENA, get over it.
There was a WIDE variety of food available. I wasn’t particulalrly looking, but I did see: hot dogs, jumbo hots dogs, brats, pizza, popcorn, nachos, and pretzels. Not to mention vendors selling nuts and Dippin Dots. What did you expect, Casa’s to roll up with a catering table for you and your friends? If you were going to get hungry you should have eaten a good lunch like someone who thinks ahead.
The Secret Service was in charge of fire exits, safety factors (whatever you mean by that), and elevators. Period. Not Randy Brown, not the coliseum staff, the Secret Service. I can GUARANTEE that if you needed handicap accomodations, the coliseum staff would have bent over backwards TWICE to help you if you asked.
If you were just going to bitch and moan about the accomodations, why did you go? If you went to see Sarah Palin, then you got to see Sarah Palin. Otherwise perhaps you should have stayed home and watched it on NBC 33.
AS a matter of fact, the incidents I am talking I WITNESSED.
A man and his son ordered and paid for coffee. The attendant came back after a few minutes and said “it’s not working, we have none.” She said “You can go to such and such a place to find out if they have a working machine. Ours broke.” He then asked for his money back. She said “No, we can’t do that.” Unhappy customer. Bad training.
No, I didn’t wander around the arena to submit to a menu check, but the two places I did go which weren’t closed down had very MINIMAL food available. Just nachos, cold pop, and hot dogs. Not one person I came across who ordered and got their nachos were happy. The two places I went, also, had only a couple hot dogs. This was NOT at the end of the session, but at a good point where they should have had more than two ready.
There’s no real reason for your hostility other than your personal reasons. Grow up.
I was PROUD to be there, and PROUD to stand in line for 3 hours, just simply stated it could have been handled better. I didn’t give you a review of the entire evening, just offered my two cents worth about things I believe were in the control of someone other than the “Government”.