Accept the season is OVER

[The History Man]

ok, this is my last word as we are gojng round in circles, however we have been tld we sold approx 4500 ST this year.

...

Fair enough, if that is what the supporters club, who had the meeting with the board, suggest then who are we to argue.

I don't know why Dave the Gaffer thinks the Supporters' Club have had a meeting with the board on the matter of ticket allocation in recent times, because we have not.

The last specific meeting we had was in 2003 when we came up with what we considered a workable away "passport" scheme, but the club turned it down.

At the time of the Spurs game in 2005 we made representations regarding a fairer allocation just as (probably) hundreds of other supporters did. The club then announced, perhaps on the basis of what we said or perhaps not, that they would allocate a proportion of tickets to season-ticket holders and a proportion to AMS members, on a 50/50 basis. (In fact, when the AMS started, this is how it worked.)

My own opinion is that the principle of the current policy is fair but I might well quibble over the proportions. A 50/50 split seems to be purely arbitrary - a more "scientific" basis for determining the proportions might see more people satisfied that the club has a fair policy.

I have heard so many groups that might be given priority that I think such a priority scheme would be unworkable for the club, an administrative nightmare. Here are some I have seen - you can probably add more:

Shareholders, Ten-year season-ticket holders, Nine-year season-ticket holders, Three-year season-ticket holders, Annual season-ticket holders, Litter patrollers, Active contributors to the Falmer For All Campaign, Alive & Kicking Appeal contributors, Lottery agents, Kit sponsors, Friends of the Albion companies, Match and ball sponsors, Executive Club members, Seagulls Club members, N&P Building Society Albion Club Savers Account holders, AMS (Away Membership Scheme) members (which includes season-ticket holders).

Any scheme ought to fair and ought to be simple, and I think we're not far from that. With the right proportions - I don't know what they are but I would think two-thirds going to season-ticket holders would be nearer the mark - then the current policy would be the one.

Tim Carder
Chairman, Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters' Club

 

[cjd]

So...we,ve now had another expert giving his thoughts on the matter...and like our other eloquent and respected poster ROSM, has stated that they played no part in the "policy" of 50% for STH and 50% for AMS. Therefore I,m led to assume that our CEO (M.PERRY) has made this decision on his own.Is he barking mad ?? giving 50% to AMS........Where an earth did he dream up this figure... As I see it, we have approx 5500 regulars at withdean, and 500 regulars at away games. ROSM, History Man and London Irish are suggesting 60/40 or 70/30 would be better.Didn,t anyone do basic arithmetic at school...? Given the attendance figures, if you,re going to have a "policy" surely a more realistic figure would have been 90/10. Jesus Christ....I bloody despair !!

 

[ali jenkins]

everytime I say " I'm Uncle Speilberg" people either just laugh, look puzzled or worse just feel sorry for me

Will that do?

 

[London Irish]

Re: Re: Accept the season is OVER

So basically because we lose at home to a very good Yeovil side that should be in the playoffs at least by the end of the season, our season is a right off?

Our season is not a right-off, but I don't believe Yeovil are as good as you say, they are a decent upper mid-table team who we made look good with a very average display.

I reckon there are 4 certs for the top 6 - Forest, Scunny, Brizzle and Oldham. Swansea will probably make it too. I would say Tranmere or Blackpool will fight it out for the last spot.

Have you seen Doncaster's record lately?They are flying

I was at Belle Vue and was not overly impressed, O'Driscoll, good manager but Jonathan Forte looked their only really good player. Upper mid-table is their limit too.

Yeah but surely Bristol City had over half their team out that day injured and suspended.

No they didn't - they had Brooker in the clink and one other guy suspended. The guy they brought in for Brooker ran round half of our defence and created the winner. Meanwhile, we were without our two best defenders Hinshelwood and Butters, and those were the crucial absences.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

So...we,ve now had another expert giving his thoughts on the matter...and like our other eloquent and respected poster ROSM, has stated that they played no part in the "policy" of 50% for STH and 50% for AMS. Therefore I,m led to assume that our CEO (M.PERRY) has made this decision on his own.Is he barking mad ?? giving 50% to AMS........Where an earth did he dream up this figure... As I see it, we have approx 5500 regulars at withdean, and 500 regulars at away games. ROSM, History Man and London Irish are suggesting 60/40 or 70/30 would be better.Didn,t anyone do basic arithmetic at school...? Given the attendance figures, if you,re going to have a "policy" surely a more realistic figure would have been 90/10. Jesus Christ....I bloody despair !!

Presumably the AMS details are held on a database of some sort. Which should include (or could be updated to include) stuff like 'Number Of Applications Made For Away Tickets' and 'Date Last Application Made'. In which case it would take about a second and a half to sort the details into decending order of 'Date Last Used' / 'Number Of Applications Made For Away Tickets'. Which would instantly give a list of the club's most regular Away Members, STH or non-STH.

Simple innit?

 

[ROSM]

So...we,ve now had another expert giving his thoughts on the matter...and like our other eloquent and respected poster ROSM, has stated that they played no part in the "policy" of 50% for STH and 50% for AMS. Therefore I,m led to assume that our CEO (M.PERRY) has made this decision on his own.Is he barking mad ?? giving 50% to AMS........Where an earth did he dream up this figure... As I see it, we have approx 5500 regulars at withdean, and 500 regulars at away games. ROSM, History Man and London Irish are suggesting 60/40 or 70/30 would be better.Didn,t anyone do basic arithmetic at school...? Given the attendance figures, if you,re going to have a "policy" surely a more realistic figure would have been 90/10. Jesus Christ....I bloody despair !!

where did I suggest 60/40 or any other figure? I did explain that 50/50 was based on the take up of away tickets for big all ticket away games (but not total sellouts) in the seasons preceeding 2003. It may be that this figure is now arbitary as times have changed. I would certainly think that any decision is made by the board - maybe on the recommendations of one director - but certainly with collective responsibility for that.

I also totally disagree with your view that Martin perry wont deliver the falmer stadium. But that wont surprise you!

also, you are correct (as I had already said) that there was a change to the published policy by giving priority to the 900 who went to millwall midweek. strangely enough this is the one part of the way tickets have been allocated that nobody has really complained about.

also Tim (the History man) has explained that they made representations.

I think he is correct, I dont think the scheme is far from being correct and that rather than a total overhaul there does need to be just some small tweaks.

and at the moment, i don't know how many people have been unsuccessful for tickets. Whilst there are some obvious cases where loyal fans have missed out, these are certainly not running into the hundreds - it is my belief therefore that the ovwerwhelming majority (in fact I would suggest maybe c95%) of the regular 500 who go to away games have got tickets for this one.

But at this level not many away games are all ticket and so identifying those who travel to these games and pay on the day is not as simple as 'looking at the database'.

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

Going back to the original point of the thread, I do not think our season is over.

In fact I would go as far to say this is pretty darn interesting season at the moment. Bizarrely we are still able to keep the dream of an unlikely play-off place alive whilst being a hell of a lot more secure about staying up than we were earlier in the season.

I find it intriguing seeing how far our youth team players are able to push themselves at the senior level. It has been great seeing Robinson finally deliver on some of his promise. Cox has been nothing other than a revelation, whose impact on our play is out of all proportion to his size. It's also been good to see Fraser develop into a decent player depsite his rather muted start. Rents has also made the step up without too much trauma in a vital position. Add to them the revived form of Dean Hammond, who quite frankly has been shit for 18months but this season has responded to the captains armband with massively improved displays and we now MISS him when he is not in the side, who the hell would have thought that possible last season.

And I know he has not had the best of years but Joel Lynch is still there, and if he is still here post transfer window, I would like to think we will see an upturn in form from him also.

Another one to watch for the second half of the season will be Gatting, who I know many do not rate, but he is just beginning to get a sniff of the first team, and for me has improved with every opportunity given to him. Hopefully the success of the others will inspire him to better things.

I have not even mentioned the excellent Revell, a revived Butts and Hinsh (yeovil game not withstanding).

So all in all plenty to look forward to, even if a stabilising position of mid table mediocrity is what we achieve.

Accept it, the season ISN'T over yet.

 

[Buzzer]

After the last few years ups and downs, I'd have taken mid-table mediocrity and a half decent cup run if asked at the beginning of the season.

Why wasn't I asked?

As it is, I'm more than happy with the management, got a good feeling about Falmer, we have a terrific young local side and are likely to end in the top ten.

and my 2 children are going to be Albion fans for life so all is well with the world.

 

[ROSM]

apologies for being dragged off thread.

I dont see the season as over. I haven't been this excited about an albion side since Micky Adams second season.

They are young, they're still learning and as a result, we will get games like we did against Yeovil. But the plusses so far outweigh the minusses and you know there is more to come.

Also with my little 'un due in Feb, we will be taking him or her to their first game before the end of this season and to me that will be one of my all time albion highlights

 

[goldstone]

Going back to the original point of the thread, I do not think our season is over.

In fact I would go as far to say this is pretty darn interesting season at the moment. Bizarrely we are still able to keep the dream of an unlikely play-off place alive whilst being a hell of a lot more secure about staying up than we were earlier in the season.

I find it intriguing seeing how far our youth team players are able to push themselves at the senior level. It has been great seeing Robinson finally deliver on some of his promise. Cox has been nothing other than a revelation, whose impact on our play is out of all proportion to his size. It's also been good to see Fraser develop into a decent player depsite his rather muted start. Rents has also made the step up without too much trauma in a vital position. Add to them the revived form of Dean Hammond, who quite frankly has been shit for 18months but this season has responded to the captains armband with massively improved displays and we now MISS him when he is not in the side, who the hell would have thought that possible last season.

And I know he has not had the best of years but Joel Lynch is still there, and if he is still here post transfer window, I would like to think we will see an upturn in form from him also.

Another one to watch for the second half of the season will be Gatting, who I know many do not rate, but he is just beginning to get a sniff of the first team, and for me has improved with every opportunity given to him. Hopefully the success of the others will inspire him to better things.

I have not even mentioned the excellent Revell, a revived Butts and Hinsh (yeovil game not withstanding).

So all in all plenty to look forward to, even if a stabilising position of mid table mediocrity is what we achieve.

Accept it, the season ISN'T over yet.

Couldn't have said it better myself (although I'm not so sure about Gatting). The season is not over by a long way and some exciting and interesting games to come as this young squad develops.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I don't know why Dave the Gaffer thinks the Supporters' Club have had a meeting with the board on the matter of ticket allocation in recent times, because we have not.

The last specific meeting we had was in 2003 when we came up with what we considered a workable away "passport" scheme, but the club turned it down.

n
Chairman, Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters' Club

Tim, in fairness, the club put out a statement saying that they had consulted fans and fans representatives and came up with what they regarded as fair end equitable. As the fans representatives is the official Supporters Club, I assumed you had been consulted as per this statement. If you had not, then it would be nice to know just what fans had been consulted. I certainly do not know anyone who has been asked about this.

If you were not consulted, can I just ask what exacly the point of an "official" supporters club is, as this appears to be one of the most contentious issues around at the moment and surely one that the official supporters club should be concerned about.

 

[3gulls]

Tim, in fairness, the club put out a statement saying that they had consulted fans and fans representatives and came up with what they regarded as fair end equitable. As the fans representatives is the official Supporters Club, I assumed you had been consulted as per this statement. If you had not, then it would be nice to know just what fans had been consulted. I certainly do not know anyone who has been asked about this.

If you were not consulted, can I just ask what exacly the point of an "official" supporters club is, as this appears to be one of the most contentious issues around at the moment and surely one that the official supporters club should be concerned about.

Dick Tight keeps claiming to be a fan - perhaps he just asked himself?

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Re: Re: Re: Accept the season is OVER

Our season is not a right-off, but I don't believe Yeovil are as good as you say, they are a decent upper mid-table team who we made look good with a very average display.

I reckon there are 4 certs for the top 6 - Forest, Scunny, Brizzle and Oldham. Swansea will probably make it too. I would say Tranmere or Blackpool will fight it out for the last spot.



We shall see at the end of the season, but I still think Yeovil will get into the playoffs at least.

 

[graz126]

would i not be wrong in suggesting that when mcghee took over we dropped out of a promotion spot, out of playoff spots and then scraped back in.??
when wilkins took over we seemed to be falling through the leagues again. look at the w,d,l column in results and fixtures and see how it has improved.