Club's Attitude To Family Stand & Gully's Gang

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Like others I'm sure this has to be a wind up but I feel like welcoming our latest empty headed contributor with a response.

Why do 'modern day parents' like you insist that your kids have to be included in everything? There are times when adults want an all-adult environment and a pre match pint or two has that appeal to many of us. I don't use Dick's Bar but if I did, I wouldn't want it full of kids-adults have the right to a kid free zone and a football bar fits the bill. The club has provided you and your spoiled, chip eating kids a whole SECTION of the East Stand. A large Section, it's not the whole of the East Stand (thank f***). It has a roof over it that will sometimes be ineffective down at the front because, as you may have noticed on your daily runs to the chip ship or McDonalds, rain rarely falls straight down.

By going to The Amex you are going to watch a football match. It isn't a f***ing creche. It isn't a kiddies play area. Kids are welcome but they should fit in with the adults-not the other way around.

The Amex is, first and foremost, a FOOTBALL STADIUM. If you don't like being amongst a load of football fans, enjoying a beer or two in our fantastic new stadium then please, do us all a favour and cancel your direct debit. Then you and your brats can pig out down the local chippy to your (clogged with saturated fat) heart's content-but only if it isn't raining.

Bozza, have you been playing with the moron magnet again?

Agree 100%

 

[Bold Seagull]

I note the OP has put this in 'ask the club'. I hope the Insider has enough good sense to treat the question with the contempt the majority of people have on this thread...

 

[Daffy Duck]

I really thought this thread was a wind-up, but it seems that the OP is actually being serious!

When we were kids and started going to football we sometimes got wet, couldn't buy sweets in the ground, and didn't have face-painters and funny linesmen.

My Dad first took me to the Goldstone in the late 50's, we first took our son in the late 70's, and now my grandsons go to most games having been introduced to the Albion at Withdean.

And guess what? We go for the f*****g football!!!!!!!

If your kids need other entertainment at a match, then I would hazard a guess that they're not really going for the football.

 

[ozzygull]

I bought a season ticket in the West Stand Upper for my 9 year old daughter as I wanted her to feel a real football atmosphere. I also wanted to be able to upgrade her seat, for evening games when she can't make it. I had taken her to withdean a couple of times before and a few away games. I am not a drinker and don't swear (very often) But going to the football is about getting behind your team and showing some passion. My daughter loves the fact she can say "your shit ahhhhhhh" and not get told off. I explain what she hears and says at football, stays at football. I wanted her to feel that it is different to the other things she does. She is now starting to stand up and have a go if a player makes a bad tackle on one of our players. She is turning in to a true football fan and enjoying it for what it is and not what she gets. (it's great

 

[Publius Ovidius]

My daughter loves the fact she can say "your shit ahhhhhhh" and not get told off.

mmmmmm...not sure I necessarily agree with that.

I suppose its "this day and age"

 

[Randsta]

If you cant afford kids don't have them....seem's pretty simple to me! or don't buy them everything they want!

 

[backson]

I haven't read through the whole thread, so apologies if someone has put something similar.

I was 9 at my first game in 1980. My Dad brought me, we had to park well away from the ground and walk for ages, go through a separate turnstile on my own and stand on my own and wait, whilst my Dad had to join the grown ups queue, got inside, one tiny stall doing food and tea, no seats to to sit on, standing on a already crumbling terrace, with no roof, caged in, crappy toilets, no artwork, no sweetshop, no entertainment other than the football.

I couldn't wait to come back.

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

but if you want real ale and pies and tvs then thats a different matter the kids are bored stupid while the adults.... i give up lets just stick a beer tent up on the pitch and ban anyone not old enough to drink!

In all seriousness if the kids are bored they are probably too young to be going to football. My lad started at 4 and loved it . Is now 16 and in the WSU with me.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Part of the lead up to Falmer was the regeneration of the Seagulls Club. They stopped charging for it and must have shelled out a fortune in "goodies" for the kids last season (unwritten by Tony Bloom I understand). I don't think the organisation or focus has been as good as previously. We are now in a different era and, like it or not, everything Albion is going to be money orientated. It's no surprise that the "package" this season is inferior to previous years and my guess is that they will start charging like most other clubs do. Most clubs do a really good package for their juniors and I think we still have a bit to do to get where most parents would probably want to see.
Most of these kids will never get to see a match - either their parents aren't fans or they can't afford to take them to matches, or can't get tickets. The juniors club is their main link with the Albion. It is also ironic that they are no longer offered the discount in the club shop (that has been available for manay, many years) unless they have a Smart Card - err, no season ticket, no smart card, no discount.
The Albion have had greater priorities this season but I am sure they will be reviewing the junior package for next season.
As for the sweet stall - if people are mug enough to pay over the odds, it's all money in the Albion kitty.

 

[Knotty]

This thread is hard to take seriously! Sadly, we live in an age when it is normal to expect so much from others, but not of oneself.

This seems to be particularly true of football supporters, who expect so much from their club all for the price of a match ticket ...in addition to the match itself.

I pay my money to watch a game of football, nothing more. There are many peripherals like food, drink, entertainment, whetever. Those that I am interested in I will enjoy. The rest I ignore.

I'M THERE TO WATCH FOOTBALL!

 

[e77]

I don't have any kids but brought nephews and a niece to games when they were younger and one is now a fully paid up season ticket holder.

If kids don't like the core product, they won't become life long fans, even of they are given free McDonald's Happy Meals by Dick and Dom.

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

Maybe the club are missing a trick to make money. At the Formula 1 you can hire a little TV to watch the action happening at different parts of the track and it works really well (based on my experience of 1 race). Anyway perhaps the club can take this idea and use the same principle to rent out handheld games consoles, PSP, nintendo DS etc then the kids would be catered for entertainment wise (this would have to be an additional cost to the parents though).

I do understand about the sweet shop being overpriced however if you're child doesn't accept a "no" or you decide to treat them then please only fall into this trap once. It doesn't take much planning (and this is coming from a bloke) to have a pack of chocolate buttons (other varieties of sweets are available) in your pocket

To respond to your questions one by one:
1)kids aren't in Dicks bar for the pleasure of the grown-ups
2)the sweets stall is for the kids however if you buy them everything they want then i assume you must have very long shopping days with them
3)if its the Football leagues intiative surely its their fault not the clubs
4) In regards to the chips, i'm actually pleased it isn't possible to get chips there. Yes my daughter likes chips (which kids don't) however there is a time and a place and she also likes bananas, can you get bananas at the AMEX, if not i'm going to extremely upset.
5) are the clubs prices for shirts any different to the other 92 league clubs? do cardiff give free kids shirts out? If you look at general branded clothing you will often pay £20 for a top so £30 isn't actually that unreasonable however if you can't afford it (like myself), don't buy it

 

[c0lz]

God there no pleasing some,still they do say you can't please everyone all the time.

 

[pigbite]

Maybe the club are missing a trick to make money. At the Formula 1 you can hire a little TV to watch the action happening at different parts of the track and it works really well (based on my experience of 1 race). Anyway perhaps the club can take this idea and use the same principle to rent out handheld games consoles, PSP, nintendo DS etc then the kids would be catered for entertainment wise (this would have to be an additional cost to the parents though).

No no no no no. The other week I said to my two girls (10 & 8) they could bring two of their friends, who not really been to football before, to the Hull game. Biggest mistake I've made. The two older ones were fine overall - a bit of chatting but they were interested. My younger daughter is normally fine but her friend's mum had given her a colouring book and her DS in case she got bored and right from the 1st minute all she wanted was distraction. In turn this distracted my 8 yr old which then distracted me. By the second half they were just giggling etc and I had to sit inbetween them and explain the game just so everyone around was not put off by the fidgeting and giggling.

When I bring my kids on their own, with no DS etc., then I have no problems and they get into the games much more. On Sunday my 6yr lad was saying he wanted to go home after 15mins but I put him on my knee, helped him follow the game a bit, did some singing etc. and he was fine. I don't force them to come to every game and sometimes I do wonder if they are a bit bored but they always thank me and tell me something they've enjoyed.

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

No no no no no.

I wasn't actually being serious and i did stop short of suggesting the club installed games consoles on every seat like an aeroplane

 

[pigbite]

I wasn't actually being serious and i did stop short of suggesting the club installed games consoles on every seat like an aeroplane

Sorry - my irony filter must have been set to American.

 

[Kneon Light]

Cannot believe this thread.
Does any club in the country do as much for young supporters as us?
Free gifts every year, free shirts on 7th birthday, entertainment in front of family stand, season ticket for less than £50.
I have 2 kids who LOVE the AMEX (aged 8 and 10) - Can't believe anyone could possible have anything to complain about!!

 

[bha blue&white army]

This is a f***ing joke. Im 14 and I have had a season ticket at withdean since i was 4 and my dad even took me in my baby carrier to Gillingham. All I cared about was for us to win. Ive grown up being called a faggot but kids dont have to go through that because suddenly were doing well and weve got a nice new ground. Football is about the match and the atmosphere not about f***ing clowns and jugglers. Some good people who fought for the club to survive and they cant go or have died and not seen the ground. Get a life.

 

[Ernest]

This is a f***ing joke. Im 14 and I have had a season ticket at withdean since i was 4 and my dad even took me in my baby carrier to Gillingham. All I cared about was for us to win. Ive grown up being called a faggot but kids dont have to go through that because suddenly were doing well and weve got a nice new ground. Football is about the match and the atmosphere not about f***ing clowns and jugglers. Some good people who fought for the club to survive and they cant go or have died and not seen the ground. Get a life.

Only 14 and using SUCH bad lanuguage. YOU need your MOUTH washing out WITH carbolic SOAP.

Who DO you think YOU are ? Frankie Cockozza ?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Never mind the rest of it, I just can't stop laughing at the best line of all in the OP's whinge:

"To cap it all, we got wet. Why? How?"

Do you want to tell her or shall I?