Wired Lobby

M

motownjunk

Well-known member
I see that the Wired Lobby, the esports place in Captain Cook Square, has shutdown. Only been open 4 months but managed to trouser 1/4 million grant and 1/4 loan from the council. Surely the council is able to look into businesses and background of people that set things up like this before they cough the money up. I know this is an Andy Preston thing but you would think the council would be a bit wiser these days after things like the Snow centre.
 
I saw a post on Reddit about this, apparently the company involved screwed the staff over constantly, it'd a shame because done well this would have been great for the town but just been poorly implemented, apparently they also own another business opposite
 
Not my views - from a post on Reddit -

Have The Wired Lobby done a runner?

It’s been over two weeks now since they shut for the ‘Easter weekend’, and their shutters are still down. They’ve marked themselves as temporarily closed on Google, but have gone radio silent once again on all social media, despite all the poor press coverage from when they did it last time. They’ve turned the ability to comment off on their posts too?

What the hell is happening lol?




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I worked there as bar staff for the first month of open, and it wasn't as successful as it looked

We rearly got evening customers, only made money on the food, which didn't offset the costs of running and buying the gaming equipment.

The management and owners were terrible about the staff. Name calling being inappropriate calling to attention a few moments where female staff were crying because of the berating

They paid people half their wages before christmas rhen didn't paid until we got ACAS Involved and im sure some people still haven't



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I worked in here, digging up, prepping and fitting the flooring as it was getting stripped out and refurbished into the wired lobby, all the contractors were promised a free bar/party to celebrate it being completed (it took F***ing ages, many setbacks and ALOT of trades in a compact/tall space) and that just never happened.

Spoke to the owners/directors and they seemed to speak nothing but good things about the future of the place, so yeah it’s bizarre.

My guess is in the brief time they were open, it just wasn’t bringing the money in I assume. They spent a lot in developing it, a lot of bespoke material and custom stuff went into there.

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The thing is, they never gave it enough time to actually bring in any money. Every time they had something that was actually being successful, they'd change it, rather than build on it. Almost like they didn't want to make money .. completely weird.



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So the same company who own Wired Lobby, bought the space opposite, it used to be Thompson Bakery. It’s getting turned into a cinema, and our company had the contract again for all the flooring works, that was happening while wired lobby was being worked on, and I’m yet to set foot in that cinema job. It’s so odd. They PLOUGHED money into that place, I wish you could’ve seen it before.

I’m talking top spec on most things, unnecessarily so, it’s a weird one, almost like it was built on a fuckin weird promise or something idk it’s mad.
 
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And from another post (again not my view)

I worked there when it opened. They told us 2 days before the original launch date that it was delayed. At this point those of us who had already been in employment had given out notices and received our p45s from our previous employers. At this point the venue was very much still under construction despite assurance given by the owners that it would be ready by the date we were given. Over the next 8 weeks we were given various dates all of which were pushed back due to the venue not being ready. We were promised training but this was always just us helping them get the venue ready by painting or by assembling furniture.

Eventually 1st of December comes and they finally open. The venue was still a construction zone an hour before the launch event. The rota was only given that morning for who would be working.

Over the first week of opening shifts were getting cancelled due to lack of demand, staff didn’t know when or if they would be working despite having a rota. End of week 2 the rota is cancelled and staff are told they will be contacted when they are needed.

This brings us to 18th December, one week before Xmas. Staff are able to see the staff chat in the discord but cannot post. Approximately half a dozen staff received an email asking them to come in to speak to management about the situation. They all assumed it was about the rota, one by one they arrived and were taken into the streaming booth by one of the owners and promptly told their job was no longer there. This was repeated the next day. Staff were given the excuse of “lack of experience” (despite the fact that the owners personally conducted the interviews so knew what experience everyone had) and also “making too many mistakes” however no examples could be given.

Staff who were dismissed were told they would be paid for their shifts and would receive their p45 in due course. Some of these staff were paid on the payroll date but most were not, many remaining staff were not paid and those that were did not get paid correctly. P45s and payslips were not sent until February.

The remaining staff began to leave due to lack of pay and also the toxic and aggressive behaviour of one of the owners (I will not name him but if you have been in the venue you’ll know who it is, especially as he always had a drink in his hand). In February a group of the remaining staff took legal action over the lack of wages, seven days after they were laid following this action they were as dismissed by email.

This is on top of the sudden closure for the whole of February which staff only found out about via Facebook and only those which saw the post in the one hour it was up before being deleted.

The management are two faced as hell, one acts nice to your face but will stab you in the back the moment you turn away, the other is a bare faced bully and a drunkard who thinks he can treat people like crap and they have to put up with it.

The worst part is that the majority of the staff who they have screwed over are students from the local university that they are supposed to be partnering with. Some of these students have since made the university aware of the situation
 
North22 said:
And the alternative was another empty unit in Middlesbrough town centre. Most of the Captain Cook square development is a a gamble but the town centre is dying so at least theres some investment.
Click to expand...

No the alternative is that he didn't give £250k (assuming we get the loan back, which is doubtful) of our money away when there's kids starving a couple of hundred yards from his vanity projects, especially to one so niche.
 
News is this company owes Staff wages, Rent, Rates and insurance premiums.
Sadly there was no alternative but to take possession of the building.
 
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