Stoked by Splitsville Bowl — Attraction in Saskatoon

NYE Stoked 2023 event doors opened at 9 and I ended up in by 11, others told us they got in by 11:30, or minutes before the countdown. Those who got in right before were rushed in with no security checks, Pat downs, bag checks, everything to keep an event safe.

As we got to doors of the event, I only saw a couple of workers checking ID but not tickets. This made the line longer since they combined people who bought tickets with those who did not. I was surprised because the post on their FB page said they had sold out. What I didnt notice was they decided to sell what seems like an unlimited amount of tickets at the door. I saw many security members to the side that were ensuring people could not sneak in, but I don't understand why they weren't using both sets of doors to bring people inside quicker. There were people in dresses, shorts, open toed shoes that were forced to leave. If this would have been a regular December, people would have gotten frost bite or hypothermia.

In the arcade, there were no distinct signs saying where to go. I asked a worker and they asked if we had tickets, I was shocked to realize they were still selling tickets after seeing outside. The line went from the building down the street and to the condos at the end at this point. I saw no security or employees monitoring this and we saw a large group of people break out in a fight while in line. Full drinks were being thrown and people were punching each other before security finally noticed as line slowly moved up. I believe that this fight would have been prevented if they had staff controlling the line. When they noticed the fight they did not rush over.

When we got to the 'inside line' we went through a hallway by the go kart tracks and got to an area with coat and ticket check. Those who pre-paid for coat check were told their credit cards were never charged. This added even more chaos, as many people there believed they had paid for it already. After, I saw some staff standing around behind us, but I wasnt sure when our tickets would be checked because the line disappeared. Finally someone checked our tickets and told us to walk behind to get a wrist band. Again, no lines as we walked to the table which had a a pile of wrist bands and stressed out staff frantically putting them on guests who randomly walked up. I wouldn't be surprised if people snuck in without tickets.

Immediately we went to washrooms since we were in line for so long. They were in the same area as the smokers pit. So, you were forced to walk through cigarette smoke to get there. Since the area was so crowded, people didn't know what was a line and what was not. I observed many people peeing on the side of the smokers pit, and even some sneaking through the fencing to go outside the event. Even worse, there were not enough washrooms and septic services arrived mid-event to empty tanks. The smell was awful and there was liquid pooling around the washrooms, I am convinced it was the washrooms overflowing since there was not nearly enough for the guests.  I watched multiple instances where a person would enter washrooms and not come out for a while, even if the door was knocked. There were no staff in the area ensuring the guests were safe.

I watched people squeeze through the gates inside and run into the Wilsons store. It was like the fences were placed for optics with no regard for the actual purpose.

I bought drinks and asked for 9 tickets for 3 drinks. I noticed after I was charged for extra tickets. I'm willing to let this go as it could have been miscommunication, but after hearing others say they had this happen to them, it makes me question. It seemed like the bar staff were inexperienced, I watched them run off, handle credit cards, with no area to wash their hands.

My friends lost $300 because they did not  make it inside, I can't imagine how many others didn't. With Ubers, this was an expensive night. Telling guests that it is their fault since they didn't show up at 9 sharp is a lazy deflection of blame. You were understaffed and...

Handled: I bumped my rating from 1 star to 4 for the time being until after the complimentary birthday party in 2021. I was called by the manager of "The Stoked Centre" today. He came off friendly and concerned, never pointed a finger or accused anybody of wrong. He and I spoke, he seemed to genuinely understand my concerns and the reasoning of my poor rating/low review. He did tell me how he was going to address each of my concerns and offered to compensate me for the issues, which I found were amazing especially for the party size we had(25 kids). He offered for us to redo our birthday party as one of the things, as there was a lot of misguided/miscommunication that resulted in the misfire in our birthday party after the first 45 minutes went by. I informed my daughter of this, she is pretty delighted to know - side note, at least I got next year planned. I do hope they stick to it! When he first called, he mentioned he heard their side, read the reviews I listed, but still wanted to hear my side. I appreciated this as he showed from the start of our conversation that he was wanting to fix and address this properly. I hope the staff learn when to approach people, as there is a time and a place, which he also agreed with. Thank you for calling, hearing my side, expressing how you were going to fix this. :)

I can add: That they do want to fix and correct problems, that they take issues strongly and only want people to experience it how they are meant too. That having a really rough/horrible experience seems to be what they DO NOT want people to have. Which I find for a place like Stoked, is a great mentality to have. :)

Issue: We hosted a birthday party on January 26, 2020. There was a dozen issues, regardless, I did not mind. It was not till the end. One of the issues I experienced was the pizza being late and the final pizza not coming out till 20-30 minutes prior to the my party ending. That was fine, they gave nachos as a complimentary even though I said the kids would not eat them(They had nothing else on stock for party mixes). I felt that if I did not inform them of the slurpee flavours, I would not have had pizza out at all. As they gave me the impression my pizza was to be out at 2:00 for an 11:00am to 1:00pm party. The first hour was amazing, including the staff. It ran smoothly and efficiently. The last hour was hell. As we were opening gifts they kept pulling me to the side to discuss well my daughter was opening gifts, which we had a lot of kids and we had a short amount of time as we had to keep switching up the last hour because of the pizza issues. Well, technically the last hour they kept bothering me. I just feel that if they need to address issues not to do it during a time of gift opening?! I just was quite disgusted and the adults at my party were too. The door issues had some guests at the beginning not able to enter as they were unaware they had to manually open the doors theirselves. After he offered me vouchers, I requested a gift card instead to go buy a plant. I got a $10.00 gift card for their go karts, bouncy castles, and zipline. He could have told me right there an than that he could not do that. But, instead handed me the card and went away. My husband walked over to confirm it could be used for a plant when he was told he could not. I walked over and returned the card.

I spent so much money for this party, I felt I was super forgiving, with all the issues. It was the constant bother well my daughter was opening gifts. I felt disgusted with how it was handled by the staff.

I personally would not recommend having a birthday party hosted here. However, I do want to add that it is a GREAT place for kids to burn energy.

Please be better staffed in the morning or not host a ton of birthday parties running almost all at...

NYE party at Stoked was just simply, atrocious. After reading the HONEST reviews of the event, I wasn't sure what else I could add... but seeing as Stoked is taking the position that it is the attendees faults for not arriving promptly at 9 PM when doors opened for the event being disastrous, I'll give it a go.

While my friends and I did not show up at 9 on the nose, we were in line no later than 9:45PM and the line was already long and unmoving. We stood in the exact same place for 30 minutes before moving up, what I would say was 6 feet. By then the rest of line forming behind us was wrapped around the block. I am unsure why Stoked is claiming that the line didn't form until 10:30, this is a lie in and of itself. Rather, they were unorganized and did not address it until they heard chanting, angry attendees, and fighting outside. It was only then did they increase security outside to ensure people were not just simply cutting the line entirely. We did not get into the venue until 11:20, where we were met with ANOTHER line inside. The initial line outside got you into the main Stoked centre area, which apparently both show goers and regular Stoked attendees could both enter. They checked for ID here but no ticket. You then entered a second line which was unmarked, going through a small hallway, which turned out to be one line for coat check and ticket holders. It does not make any sense to combine these two lines. Once we realized this, we opted to just hold our coats all night instead since we fairly assumed the line to get them at the end of the night would be just as chaotic and unorganized. We ended up bypassing the line in front of us waiting for coat check, and walked to the staff standing around waiting for ticket holders, to get our wristbands. The logistics of entering the event was incredibly poor thought out. We did not purchase drink tickets, or end up using coat check and STILL were not on the floor until 11:45PM. Once inside, we got caught in the cross hairs of a brawl, and security was no where to be seen, and it was at least 6 people involved, in the middle of the dance floor. Completely unacceptable for a venue and the safety of everyone else trying to not have enough security to notice until the brawl had been pushed out of the middle of hundreds of people.

Essentially we paid $60 a ticket to stand in line for the majority of the night. I cannot speak to the bar/smoke/bathroom areas as we didn't even try to deal with it given the chaos that was just getting into the building. I can say that this was the worst managed, poorly organized and executed show I have ever been to, as someone who attends shows that are almost double the attendance. Seeing that people are not receiving refunds and are getting snubbed by Stoked when they weren't even able to get into the venue is an appalling lack of professional decency. It was your job to have the proper staffing, organizations and gall to host an event of this magnitude, which clearly you are not able to execute. Hire better event coordinators and event staff, and organize yourselves for the next time you attempt this, however I don't see as large of an attendance after this.

The fact that Stoked is removing their online content regarding the event EXCEPT for their happy little reel of what fun it looked like, signals to all attendees that Stoked MUST know how much of disaster this was, and a public acknowledgment would be appropriate.

Overall this sucked. But the...