Originally Posted by lorend

Negatory. I need sleep, Temara needs to study, and Sabrina is a pooface who also needs to sleep...and should likely start essaying.

Thanks for the invite tho! They have good nom-ables...

Alright another time then.

Someone mentioned earlier that they didn't like the fact that there were underage drinkers in the bar. Personally, one of the reasons why I avoid going to Quarters and instead Phoenix (sad about the wentworth house demo'ing, never heard of that until now :() is because of that fact.

As well, when comparing, the atmosphere at the Phoenix is just more... I dunno, comfortable? It's like a place where you can eat and drink and just enjoy pub fare. I don't get that vibe from Quarters really.

Sorry I can't help too much about what specifically needs changing, but that's the least I can give.

How many people actually go to Quarters on an off-night to drink?

check your facebook rohan!

Originally Posted by lorend

I agree! But I think the football field floor thing is new! Or...I fail at being observant. Also possible.

not new at all... its hard to notice, I just found it out this last summer. Also note scoreboard at the end of the "field"

To answer Rohan's question, I've been to quarters once (I think it was a saturday, but this was years ago) and I hated the experience, not because the place itself smells or the dim lighting or any of those other asthetic complaints that people have made but because of the crowd that it draws in. I want to be able to hang out with my friends without my bottom being grabbed and without having drunk half dressed chicks falling over and spilling their drinks all over me.

Granted, one can't avoid drunk morons no matter where you go, and there is the occasional drunk idiot at the Phoenix too, but I feel that it is handled better by the staff and there are less of them because it is a more mature environment.

So no, I do not go drinking at Quarters, whether they're off days or not.

Quarters on a Monday or any day but Thursday is fine. Compared to the Phoenix I find it bigger, and you can still have drinks with your friends and stuff. Plus you can use the tables to make bigger tables :p....On an off day, its the same if not better than the Phoenix

Me and a few friends always go to quarters on tuesdays for acoustic night. Its always a great time, the performers are really good, but attendance is never consistent. It does seem like there is a lot of wait staff that do a lot of standing around though. this is my guess for the biggest draw on money.

If they really wanted to make money, allow students to purchase alcohol on their meal card. I would say that a lot of people would abuse this and be out of money pretty fast but if some kind of limit was set.

Originally Posted by kokosas

To answer Rohan's question, I've been to quarters once (I think it was a saturday, but this was years ago) and I hated the experience, not because the place itself smells or the dim lighting or any of those other asthetic complaints that people have made but because of the crowd that it draws in. I want to be able to hang out with my friends without my bottom being grabbed and without having drunk half dressed chicks falling over and spilling their drinks all over me.

Granted, one can't avoid drunk morons no matter where you go, and there is the occasional drunk idiot at the Phoenix too, but I feel that it is handled better by the staff and there are less of them because it is a more mature environment.

So no, I do not go drinking at Quarters, whether they're off days or not.

See, this is the entire problem. People don't know that on a normal non-bar night, the staff at Quarters is far friendlier, the drinks are far cheaper, and the atmosphere is literally much better than Phoenix.

Originally Posted by cocchiarella

If they really wanted to make money, allow students to purchase alcohol on their meal card. I would say that a lot of people would abuse this and be out of money pretty fast but if some kind of limit was set.

Mealcard is mandated by Hospitality Services, so Quarters has to play by the rules.

Originally Posted by kokosas

To answer Rohan's question, I've been to quarters once (I think it was a saturday, but this was years ago) and I hated the experience, not because the place itself smells or the dim lighting or any of those other asthetic complaints that people have made but because of the crowd that it draws in. I want to be able to hang out with my friends without my bottom being grabbed and without having drunk half dressed chicks falling over and spilling their drinks all over me.

Granted, one can't avoid drunk morons no matter where you go, and there is the occasional drunk idiot at the Phoenix too, but I feel that it is handled better by the staff and there are less of them because it is a more mature environment.

So no, I do not go drinking at Quarters, whether they're off days or not.

Well yeah, Quarters is full of pigs but there's no effective way to directly combat that. You know how they play classical music in subway stations during school hours to keep high school kids from loitering there? Adopt the same concept here. Class up the place a bit and it will attract the kind of people you want to go there and deter the ones you don't.


And I wasn't kidding when I said I ****ing hate those bouncers. Get better ones.

Quarters had tailgate parties for all of the football home games with the exception of homecoming if I recall correctly.

I was at every football game, one game we went for a beer and they were closed for a concert, we only got in because one of my friends was a bouncer at the time. They failed miserably to capitalize on this.

Furthermore, sports like rugby, soccer and lacrosse don't draw in large crowds, nor do basketball and volleyball.

Like I said promotion of these sports. However, at the basketball game last night there were a fair amount of people, however an immense lack of spirit. If you use Quarters as a pep-rally type atmosphere we would see varsity sports and Quarters prosper.
In addition, Quarters, should be used to promote varsity sports (as another facet of the MSU is to foster school spirit). I am heavily observant both of the MSU and varsity sports and Quarters was not used at all for this.

So here's the general consensus:

Staff dressed in more classy attire
More spirit advertising such as sporting events
A better smell/overall cleanliness
Better pub fare
Bouncers who are trained properly and given performance audits
Tighten up on underage drinkers
Better daytime lighting

For whoever has a meeting coming up with quarters management or the exec board, maybe you guys should take down a few of these points.

Get rid of the bouncers that are pocketing the cash and implement a way to keep them responsible, so Quarters can actually profit instead of acting like a financial drain on the students.

- get rid of drunken underagers and pervey guys?

Ask the manager of Quarters what his inimitable advantage is, and how he capitalizes on that. If he doesn’t know what that advantage is, he might have to go.

Quarters has a monopoly as an on-campus club. It needs to capitalize on that. The problem with Quarters stems from it trying to be too many things at once. It’s a club, it’s a special event venue, it’s a bar, it’s a tailgate party, it’s a Karaoke place, and it’s closed on a Saturday Night! (Really, who closes a club on a Saturday? - The MSU).

As someone who watched the decline of Quarters first hand I feel like I can comment on a number of issues. (I went to Quarters a fair bit over the years. Ex: For my Halloween Party, “Bringing Slutty Back, Halloween 07” I booked the Quarters VIP section.)

Quarters needs to be THE Club for McMaster students. I know some of the people here don’t like the club scene. That’s why Quarters is failing. If the SRA and the MSU are run by people who don’t like clubbing, you’re going to see them run a club into the ground.

One of the worst things Quarters has to overcome is the line problem. I’ve heard every argument as to why the line is long, none make sense. The fact that Quarters is likely the only club in Hamilton that has an indoor line-up should make it the perfect place to go in the winter. But people don’t go because the line is so long, then when they get in, the club is dead.

The line should move as quickly as bouncers can check IDs. If the club is dead, there should be no line. One of the most annoying things about Quarters was the fact that they had cheap drinks before 10:30, but you’d show up at 9:50 just to wait in line for 30 minutes before they’d let you into a dead club. Bring back cheap early drinks. It cuts down on the number of people who pre-drink in excess and it will help pack the club early (if you let the line move).

In regards to under-age students, I have a few solutions:
1) Have video cameras covering all the entrances and exits with managers reviewing the footage later in the week. Any bouncer caught taking a bribe and letting anyone in at an exit will be fired. Zero Tolerance.
2) If an underage person shows up and smells of booze, tell them to go home.

Quarters needs to abandon the Pub idea, or at least needs to abandon it on Thursday – Saturday. People who want to go to a pub don’t go to Quarters. The comments above confirm this. I can’t blame them. People who like pubs tend to become regulars at said pub. A person who likes going to Phoenix on a Saturday isn’t going to go to Quarters on a Wednesday; they’re going to keep going to Phoenix!

In regards to band nights at Quarters, this is a good idea. However, the blame for a slow band night belongs to the band. A friend of mine from grade school has a band and he fills out the smaller pub venues his band plays simply because he does a great job marketing his band. If Quarters got bands that could bring in crowds on their own, this problem would solve itself. However, there does need to be some consistency. You should stick to one day a week for bands. People should expect live music at Quarters on ____day just like they know that you get Karaoke on Sundays at Snooty. This is where decent pub fair can come in, but it shouldn’t be crazy. Keep it simple so you don’t lose money by having a large kitchen staff that sits around doing nothing most nights.

The better dressed staff would be a good idea. However, the main issue should be courteous staff who try to get you in the bar fast so that you can enjoy yourself safely. This means faster lines, faster bar service, and bouncers that kick perverts out.

Right now Quarters has an image problem; long lines, dead inside, poor bar service, perverts and fights. Quarters needs to reimage itself as a safe club with some class. Better lights (having a real dance club light set and some black lights) would be a good start, so would turning off the TVs during a club night. You could go further with more courteous bouncers who keep the line moving. Pump up the proximity of EFRT and SWAT. If you have too much to drink, you’re safe and taken care of as opposed to worried about campus security fining you. You might even want to try throwing in a dress code & 19-year old age limit on Saturdays (aka no under-age students on Saturday).

Lastly, and this will probably never happen, take away the SRAs/MSU Execs Line Bypass cards until Quarters starts to run in the Black. Some motivation never hurt.

PS: The Vancouver 2010 Olympics happens during the school year next year. If Quarters can’t be the place on campus to grab a few Molson Canadians and cheer on our Athletes, then there’s no hope for it.