Half-time kiosks to reopen outside ground

Food and drink outlets outside Fratton Park will once again be open at halftime against Shrewsbury in a bid to ease queues.

For Saturday’s clash with Crewe, the Blues announced supporters would be able to bring food and drink into the ground.

In addition, fans were allowed to leave the ground at the interval to visit hospitality areas behind both the Fratton end and North stand.

The idea is to ease pressure on kiosks within Fratton Park and cut down on potential queues.

And the system will once again be in place for tonight’s visit of Shrewsbury

(7.45pm).

Andy Cullen explained to The News: ‘We’ve been in a pandemic for 18 months and that gives us challenges, not just for tickets, but also being without our match-day staff, such as stewards and catering staff. ‘The whole hospitality industry at the moment is experiencing shortages right across the board.

‘I read on Friday night that even some of the independent caterers were not able to open on Saturday because they couldn’t get staff into their business.

‘We foresaw those issues, which is why we are allowing people to bring their own food and drink into the ground.

‘We have also hired additional facilities, which are open at half-time so people can go outside the stadium. That also applies on Tuesday. Fans can go outside and give us a bit of extra flexibility, when normally neither of those things would have happened.

‘The kiosks were previously outsourced, but the company which used to do that can’t make that work any more post-pandemic, so it has come back to the club.

‘If we can find a partner who can help us with that, that's our preferred route forward.’