Albion 'Off the Pitch' scorecard 2013- how has the club performed?

[Bry Nylon]

From a supporters point of view, how have the Albion's various and varied 'off the pitch' functions performed over 2013? Disregarding isolated cock ups or one-off flashes of excellence, are things away from the playing staff headed it the right direction overall?

Tony Bloom - seems to have handled the Poyet crisis as well as could be expected and maintained the dignity of the club.
Mr Barber - steadily and efficiently carrying out his remit to improve margins by cutting costs. Never popular, but somebody has to address it.
Stewarding - compared to previous seasons, hardly a whisper about them on here, unless I have missed it?
Catering - still very much work in progress, both on the concourses and in 1901?
Ticket office?
Shop?
Travel / park and ride / parking?
Any other areas?

Overall, I'd say the non-playing aspect of the club haven't had too shabby a year.

A solid 7/10.

 

[sparkie]

All very good, except selling policy for match by match tickets. I can't comment on 1901 'food' myself.

9/10

 

[clippedgull]

Multi Media (specifically Seagulls Player) 2/10 A paid for service where the club don't seem to have any muscle with the content providers to improve things.

 

[Bob!]

Thanks,
this thread reminded me that the 'Club Text' service is awful. I have just stopped it.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Pretty satisfied really. Only minor niggles are:

1. Kettling of the North Stand concourse after matches in an unseemly manner by the stewards obviously acting under orders (thought the whole idea was to have fans linger longer spending money, not to start edging them out of the spiritual homeland concourse an hour after the final whistle?)

2. Mad scramble for trains after midweek matches. That's not going to end anytime soon. I want buses! cabs! Anything but join a crap long queue. Happy to pay a premium. As things stand, will just keep on doing the dull walk down Lewes Road until a non-rubbish transport solution presents itself. (will happily pay for anybody's midweek match Uni parking in total if they'll give me a lift back to Preston Park and drop me off at the offie halfway up Preston Drove - send us a PM if interested, seriously)

3. Would like some sane queuing system in Dicks Bar. It's a ridiculous free-for-all at the moment with bar staff running the full length of the bar constantly to the point where they forget who they're supposed to be serving in the three-deep throng. it's a Primarkian shambles to be sure.

Having said all that, I realise that my idealised Amex of zero queues would equate to zero on-field success as the JCLs would be long gone and we'd be back down to the sub-10K Withdean-era faithful. So it 's a case of grin and bear it for now, up to the point where you say f uck it.


For now: 8/10

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

The club handled the Poyet saga well and the club didnt spend anything in the transfer window - yet still made some good signings. Barber is doing well in his job of maximising the revenue streams to reduce the losses. The communication with fans has been excellent too, with Barber replying to e-mails very quickly also him and TB regularly attending meetings of fan groups is a great way to gauge how satisfied your customers (sorry, fans) are. The stewarding situation has massively improved too, I havent noticed any problems so far this season and the relaxed stewarding is certainly the way forward. The clubs media and PR team (excl Seagulls Player) are getting a lot more professional too, you just have to look at the advert for the Half Season Tickets (great idea) to see this.

Now the negatives, Seagulls Player is absolute dogshit - enough said about that. Poogate could have probably been cleared up (literally) a bit sooner. The charge on booking fees, especially if your buying at the Amex is pretty poor too and would have almost certainly put people off, that said the ticket website has been improved. On the subject of tickets, on sale dates are frequently missed with no message explaining why to the fans.

All in all - its a solid 8/10........unless Tony Bloom decides tomorrow to apply to the FA to change our name to "Brighton and Hove Dolphins".

 

[Seagull on the wing]

The club handled the Poyet saga well and the club didnt spend anything in the transfer window - yet still made some good signings. Barber is doing well in his job of maximising the revenue streams to reduce the losses. The communication with fans has been excellent too, with Barber replying to e-mails very quickly also him and TB regularly attending meetings of fan groups is a great way to gauge how satisfied your customers (sorry, fans) are. The stewarding situation has massively improved too, I havent noticed any problems so far this season and the relaxed stewarding is certainly the way forward. The clubs media and PR team (excl Seagulls Player) are getting a lot more professional too, you just have to look at the advert for the Half Season Tickets (great idea) to see this.

Now the negatives, Seagulls Player is absolute dogshit - enough said about that. Poogate could have probably been cleared up (literally) a bit sooner. The charge on booking fees, especially if your buying at the Amex is pretty poor too and would have almost certainly put people off, that said the ticket website has been improved. On the subject of tickets, on sale dates are frequently missed with no message explaining why to the fans.

All in all - its a solid 8/10........unless Tony Bloom decides tomorrow to apply to the FA to change our name to "Brighton and Hove Dolphins".

And brings back the 'Chewing Gum kit'...yuk!

 

[severnside gull]

Multi Media (specifically Seagulls Player) 2/10 A paid for service where the club don't seem to have any muscle with the content providers to improve things.

not true as otber clubs offer full match video rather than our 12 minute highlights.
Matchday commentary seems to be getting worse in terms of how often it disapoears into the ether.
All in all we are in agreement - it is hardly an efficaceous experience but there are elements the club can improve and chooses not to

 

[Joe Gatting's Dad]

Ticket office is still as bad as ever.

Received Blackpool ticket over two weeks ago, but still waiting for Middlesbrough ticket even though I was assured it would be sent out on Monday. Four times this season I have been charged the full adult price instead of senior price, in spite of being one of the 27 platinum members. Unimpressed!

 

[Billy the Fish]

Satisfactory 7.8

 

[Guinness Boy]

The catering is now awful almost beyond words. Offset, however, by a hugely improved stewarding policy. PR and Marketing have had a nightmare yet I am confident that our financial position will be the most positive for years and that we have appointed a manager - sorry coach - who has integrity and who will eventually make this club great. I found Spanish Day embarrassing but not as embarrassing as the clackers. However, the pricing of the Reading game has shown the club are listening to us.

7/10 for me. There is room for improvement but I honestly think we are heading in the right direction when you have to balance everything out.

 

[Seagulls Downunder]

Multi Media (specifically Seagulls Player) 2/10 A paid for service where the club don't seem to have any muscle with the content providers to improve things.

After many emails to the club about this they have now stopped responding, it's just mot good enough especially for those of us that wait until the early hours of the morning to find it's not working.

 

[Seagulls Downunder]

not true as otber clubs offer full match video rather than our 12 minute highlights.
Matchday commentary seems to be getting worse in terms of how often it disapoears into the ether.
All in all we are in agreement - it is hardly an efficaceous experience but there are elements the club can improve and chooses not to

Other clubs have at least a 30min build up before kick off on our App it never seems to start until 2mins in to the match, it's about time we all got together on this subject and got it sorted rather than complaining posts here and there.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The catering is now awful almost beyond words.

The queues or the product?

For the queues, depends where you are in the ground and when you roll up, I'd have thought. And if you're refering to the product, can't remember the last time I didn't manage to score a tasty pie and a pint of Kronie for 7 quid. That'll do for me