I just want to watch football, now I have to cconsider my Albion supporter "aspirations"

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'm really confused how this has become 5 pages of slagging off Barber when there has actually been nothing concrete announced, merely a loosely worded outline of a proposal. Can someone point me to where he has stated he wants to make an additional mandatory charge for existing season ticket holders at the Amex?

This is not the point of my thread. My point is the nonsense about aspiration etc. Call me old fashioned but I liked the old days when you went to a shop, airport or to the football. Now you get shopping experiences, airport experiences and I have to figure out my supporter aspiration to join a membership scheme... What's wrong with just buying stuff FFS?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

This isn't Barber's brainchild, this is becoming the norm at football clubs at all levels and of all sizes.

Palace sold several thousand memberships at £25 a time even though they would only be valid for 2 or 3 weeks before a renewal date as a loophole to guarantee Wembley tickets before being offered for general sale. Football is all about money , greed is good.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

If a new scheme is needed (which I doubt), the simple solution to your argument is to tell supporters a new membership scheme will be needed if we reach the Prem.

You've just given Paul Barber the missing ingredient

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Definitely not. For years we have prided on being a community club with a great & transparent club/fan relationship - His job at Spurs was different, Spurs fans probably accept that their club is a marketing machine with hundreds of thousands of football fans from all around the world competing for tickets and merchandise, and where money is of paramount importance and the fans are little more than numbers - But it will take a lot to convince Brighton fans that this is what our club should aspire to be like, I personally hope we never become like that.

To a select few (withdean regulars, etc) maybe but we have a larger number of fans who may not even be aware of that previous close relationship between a a small group of fans and the club and even most who went to Withdean were unaware of it too.

The club has moved on and is growing rapidly, maybe its that small group that needs to move on too and keep up with the times

 

[teaboy]

You don't put 100mil into a club without doing everything possible to ensure its run as financially soundly as possibly. Possibly on dangerous ground here saying anything negative about TB but IMHO everything PB is doing is with the approval of TB.

This. Why, as a group of fans that know how the board of a football club can royally screw us over is nobody asking the hard questions? Yes, I'm grateful we have a stadium, but we mustn't be distracted from how the club is being run.

 

[Man of Harveys]

If he and TB don't act to sort out the managerial mess pretty soon, I think we can rest assured that there will be more than enough tickets available next season to suit any aspirations ...

Precisely this.

I picture him typing away his airy emails about aspirations and priority schemes having squeezed onto the computer, casually passing the managerial black hole in the room. And is it controversial to suggest that his heavy-handed dealing with Poyet's raging ego etc has played a large part in bringing about the fact that...erm WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE A SODDING MANAGER AT THE MOMENT?

If I was Bloom - who's a good guy, no question - I'd tell him: ease off on all this stupid executive club/priority scheme/sponsored vol-au-vents bullsh1t, just for a couple of weeks, until someone, anyone, sorts out who might be that other small matter of who decides what happens on the pitch.

 

[Bra]

I just dont get the anti barber sentiment that seems to be in most threads relating to the club. The facts are simple. It made an 8m loss in the last account period and is in line for the same the following year. Maybe bloom is not happy to fund this each year plus the 100m plus for everthing else. The club have to maximise income and cut costs and barber is there to do that. If he went do you really think that the club would go back to the village fete type of old? No someone else would be employed to do the same job. No costs have yet been mentioned but everyone is getting carried away from barber bashing. Why not wait and see. For me if it costs to much I will not join, simple really.
Its about what you want. You either get that for championship football and the likes if bridge and ulloa there will be a cost involved and the club will try everything to generate income. You decide if to join the scheme or not, no one will force you.

It just seems that people prefer withdean and 4000 fans in the pissing rain.

 

[father_and_son]

I don't think he is at all. I think he is at the right club. This club has changed virtually overnight, and faces a whole new set of challenges for which the old guard and indeed old ways are not suited. This club needed someone with experience at the top level (I think Spurs and England will do nicely) and also with the transition of a small club to a big one (Vancouver).

If it wasn't Barber, it would be whoever was in his job getting the flack for changing things around, or even Bloom himself attracting some criticism. Considering we still have no details on what the scheme entails the over-reaction on here has been yet again mystifying to me.

That's not say there are not issues for which Barber/the club should answer i.e. the seemingly inexplicable way they release matchday tickets for sale for example; or the shoddy treatment that some 1901 members receive. But just going into overdrive at the merest mention of anything new does nothing to help anyone.

This... I think the hostility towards him from NSC is both unjustified and disproportionate. I don't like every thing he has done, but I see why he's doing it and accept that.
He's a professional, doing a professional job for a business. We can't survive in the top tiers of football as anything other than a business and, as far as I can tell, PB is dragging us kicking and screaming to where we have to be to survive. Good on him.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

These sort of threads are ridiculous. With Tony Bloom beyond and criticism, Paul Barber, based upon no solid evidence is the whipping boy for many peoples' angers and frustrations.

 

[Knotty]

If I was Bloom - who's a good guy, no question

So Tony's the good guy and has nothing to do with all the terrible decisions Barber is making?

Do you really believe this? I can't believe that Barber introduces anything major without the approval of Tony and the Board, so how can Barber be singled out for all this wild criticism? Surely, in that case, Tony deserves equal criticism.

Also how do we know that all the decisions we are criticising Barber for actually came from him? Perhaps some came from Tony and the Board, and Barber was simply asked to implement them...

I know it suits the agenda of many to want to believe that everything 'nasty' comes from Barber, but we simply don't know that.

So much criticism being thrown about by so many who have so little knowledge of the facts. 'Twas ever thus on NSC!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

This... I think the hostility towards him from NSC is both unjustified and disproportionate. I don't like every thing he has done, but I see why he's doing it and accept that.
He's a professional, doing a professional job for a business. We can't survive in the top tiers of football as anything other than a business and, as far as I can tell, PB is dragging us kicking and screaming to where we have to be to survive. Good on him.

The dark days of Gillingham and Withdean are behind us , the club is evolving and some of us will be left behind as the club progresses , that's just the way it is because we cannot continually live in the past.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

The Board,
TB specifically
The Argus
National Press
The Football League
The FA
The LMA
Other Clubs' CEOs
BHA playing staff
BHA admin staff
BHA volunteers
Us

No priority order assumed. Just making the point that he's actually communicating with a HUGE number of people, all with totally different agendas.

Can anyone name a single CEO at a Championship or Prem club whose fans think is doing a brilliant job?

My point, which you can just see flying over your head, was - why does he attempt to communicate with them in a language none of them speak?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

we cannot continually live in the past.

I find this a bit rich coming from someone whose name indicates they live in Grimsby

 

[Was not Was]

who can blame the club to maximize this now with the large numbers we are seeing though the gates?
It is all about the future and the expectations of reaching the Premier League

Well, in the future, we might not make the Premier League. And if we do, we might drop out of it at some point. We might even find ourselves in the third tier. It would be good for the club not to have burnt bridges with their core supporters, wouldn't it?

 

[Buzzer]

My point, which you can just see flying over your head, was - why does he attempt to communicate with them in a language none of them speak?

One of two reasons as I see it. Either he doesn't realise because that's his natural style which would make me wonder if he is the right man for the job or it's deliberate because he's using it to change the culture of the club. He's alluded to this before and very recently regarding "Withdean practices". If it's the latter, and I think it is, then he's playing a very risky game.

 

[Munkfish]

My understanding of this is, loyalty point and st priority will continue.

However under the new scheme fans who are non season tickets can sign up and will get priority. You will be provided with a smartcard much like a st which games will be loaded onto instead of a paper ticket. For this priverlidge you may have to spend £30 however this gives you a smartcard and bonus loyalty points as well as some free shit like a poster or end of season DVD.

 

[Arkwright]

You are not being a numpty. Absolutely nothing has changed. Yet. I think is what is termed a binfest.

Thanks, so really it's something about nothing and just another excuse to get on the anti-Barber bandwagon. Well I'm alright if nothing has changed.

 

[OzMike]

So we now have the birth of the 'elitist fan', those who pay the most money get the best seats, regardless of anything.
They book them at a moments notice, for a fee.
Better add prawn sandwiches to the menu.

 

[Postman Pat]

My understanding of this is, loyalty point and st priority will continue.

However under the new scheme fans who are non season tickets can sign up and will get priority. You will be provided with a smartcard much like a st which games will be loaded onto instead of a paper ticket. For this priverlidge you may have to spend £30 however this gives you a smartcard and bonus loyalty points as well as some free shit like a poster or end of season DVD.

That would make some element of sense, and I assume would allow them to get the 10% cashback on beer, pies and merchandise and allow the to gain back the cost of membership in no time!!

 

[Was not Was]

So we now have the birth of the 'elitist fan'.

"Just because I know my aspirations as a supporter doesn't make me elitist"