Are we losing something?

[imissworthing2]

Was just trying to advance the discussion but it isn't easy on a forum like this.

I'm just trying to explain how I feel a little differently about the club. I don't fully understand why if I'm honest.

I understand your point to an extent but making reference to loyality points has made this thread go off in a tangent imho. We've probably all at one time or another told our prem supporting mates that being in the lower leagues make you feel part of the club you love as opposed to just another number. On a personal level things arent overly that different, just on a somewhat larger scale, NSC still exists, insider will still answer your questions and as mentioned try hard enuf and you'll still get all the tickets you want!!!

 

[5mins-from-amex]

my dad said something at the peterborough game, it was the first game we managed to get tickets for and once we were in the ground we were both blown away with stadium and the atmosphere and he said that he ''feels like we are a big club again'' ill go with that.

 

[Commander]

I'll give you a little tip on how to get home tickets, but don't tell anyone because it's top secret. What you have to do is check Brighton and Hove Albion | BHAFC Scores, News, Transfers, Fixtures every few days until it tells you when tickets for the next home game will be on sale. Again, this is top secret information, so please keep it to yourself. Once we enter the period that allows tickets to be sold on general sale (every single game so far) what you need to do is click on 'buy tickets' and enter the exact same number that is on the plastic rectangular thing that lives in your wallet. Hopefully you should be able to manage this (most people of below average intelligence can) and then you will be sent this thing called a 'ticket' in the post. If you take this to the Amex on the day of the game and place it in the ticket reader machine, it should permit you entry to the stadium. Again, this is highly classified information, so please don't share this with anyone. Once inside you should find 20,000 other people who, like you, worked out an ingenious way to beat this undeniably near-impossible system. Good luck.

f*** me I'm a patronising bastard when I'm drunk.

Please accept my sincere apologies.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

People don't like change; many fear it; some just can't cope with it. Home, work and football are all subject to it.
The roller-coaster that is Brighton & Hove Albion will go on. We have had many good times and many bad ones in the 50 years I have supported them. Each season is an uncertainty - some years less certain than others. I remember promotion to the 1st Division; the excitement of joining the bigs boys and the trepidation of trying to keep up with them financially. Bamber, who at the time was the best chairment ever (according to Brian Clough), couldn't keep the train running and this basically crippled the club for years.
We now have another new dawn and loads of optimism for the future. It ain't going to stop me worrying about "what happens if", but it isn't going to stop me loving it.

 

[Brovion]

I was lucky enough to follow the Albion through the glory years of the late 70's and thought it would never be as good again but I'm starting to change my mind. These are truly wonderful times. Savour every moment.

Same with me. There are aspects of modern football that I don't like (all-seater stadia being the biggest), but would I rather pay £10 and stand on a terrace at Lewes or pay £25 to sit and watch the current Albion team at the Amex? No contest. I truly believe that before we become 'shit' again (which we will as football is cyclical) the club will achieve more than we ever did in the 'Glory Years'.

So yes we have 'lost something' - we've lost that aura of shitness and that feeling that we were slowly getting left behind, and also the feeling that we'd never again even match the achievements of the Glory Years, much less surpass them. I know everyone's entitled to their opinions, but I'm really glad I'm not bathseagull. (I think this is the first thread we've had pining for the days when we were a noddy, tinpot club - and we've only been at the Amex for a month!)


PS - On another point, I think the loyalty point scheme is a great idea. We've always had systems for regulating demand and the points system is the best we've come up with. Back in the 1970s I remember having to go and watch the reserves play Charlton (I think) as that was the only way you could get a ticket for the big Cup game against Derby!

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Yes but we have gained a lot as well.

 

[bathseagull]

Look, fair enough if you want to moan about the changing state of football over the last couple of decades. You have my sympathies on that.

But to moan, right NOW, that *Albion* isn't what it used to be is a joke.

We've been homeless for 14 years, and now we're in a luxury mansion,ffs! (reluctant to say 'palace').

We're in our highest league position for 28 years.

Our GENIUS manager could walk into many Premier League jobs.

We have a brilliant squad, with players competing for most positions and genuine game-changers on the bench.

The pies are great.

We're signing (crocked) Spanish superstars!

Etc etc

Are we losing something? Yes, our reputation as a noddy club. And our lower league status.

Everything about the club is better than 5 or 10 years ago. EVERYTHING.

You can't get a ticket for the Gus bus? Well, sorry about that, but you had your chance. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans have bought tickets knowing that they can't make every match*, and many of those are sharing with friends/family.

The irony about your post is that ticket availability is the best it's been for at least 20 years too…

So, no, it's not the same as it used to be. And, as someone who had season tickets at Gillingham and Withdean, I say THANK f*** FOR THAT.


* If you want to moan about something, how about the fact that there's no easy way for STHs to sell their spare tickets leaving empty seats at the stadium each week. THAT would get hundreds of, um, 'floating fans' in the Amex each week.

I agree with all of your points and as I said before, it's not so much about not being able to get tickets, or thinking they are too expensive, or thinking the club is out of touch. It's an intangible feeling of just not getting as much of a buzz as before.

For what it's worth, I think it could be partly down to the fact that I missed the Donny game (even though I had a ticket - had some interesting travel problems on the way). That broke my heart and I missed out on the first day, first view of the pitch, flags, tears, party atmos etc. I still struggle to look at videos and photos of that game without filling up. I went to Pompey the following week which was obviously class and then Peterborough last Saturday and while I obviously loved finally getting to a game at Falmer, I spent a good 15 minutes in the concourse before the game and didn't recognise ONE face that I saw. Then when I took my seat the overwhelming feeling was one of having arrived at a party a day late.

I appreciate a lot of the constructive comments on here and I'm sure it will change. I still love the club, of course and I look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come.

 

[bathseagull]

f*** me I'm a patronising bastard when I'm drunk.

Please accept my sincere apologies.

All good.

 

[bathseagull]

'i've followed THEM for twenty years'...says it all

Sorry, I tried to ignore it but... What's your point?

 

[Gazwag]

I'll give you a little tip on how to get home tickets, but don't tell anyone because it's top secret. What you have to do is check Brighton and Hove Albion | BHAFC Scores, News, Transfers, Fixtures every few days until it tells you when tickets for the next home game will be on sale. Again, this is top secret information, so please keep it to yourself. Once we enter the period that allows tickets to be sold on general sale (every single game so far) what you need to do is click on 'buy tickets' and enter the exact same number that is on the plastic rectangular thing that lives in your wallet. Hopefully you should be able to manage this (most people of below average intelligence can) and then you will be sent this thing called a 'ticket' in the post. This ticket may not actually arrive until two weeks after the game so you may need to queue at the Amex ticket office in the Superstore with your email before the game. If you take this to the Amex on the day of the game and place it in the ticket reader machine, it should permit you entry to the stadium. Again, this is highly classified information, so please don't share this with anyone. Once inside you should find 20,000 other people who, like you, worked out an ingenious way to beat this undeniably near-impossible system. Good luck.

Sorry had to edit that a bit

 

[Simster]

Sorry, I tried to ignore it but... What's your point?

I agree. Pointing out the use of "them" amounts to a feeble point scoring exercise.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I moved house when i was 11. We moved about 200 yards, possibly to be in another school catchment area. Thanks to my father's untimely demise and his insurance paying off our mortgage, we moved into somewhere slightly bigger and a slightly newer built. One of those streets exploded a tad in the second world war, unless someone made that tale up (not of the second world war, i believe in that) of that street being remade. I went to school that day from one home and returned to another, but of the course the second one, which of course my family still live in, just off sunny Upper Lewes Road, could only be thought of as a house, an oddly taller edifice, a chiselled sculpture of an item i couldn't recognise or name, an empty building despite the furniture from house 1 being the same. It took some 6 months, i'd say, before house 2 was home. The routines stayed the same and our family relations sustained their lack of visitation, but it was eerier than before and perhaps even ghostly in spite of me not for one second thinking my ghoulish father had made his phantomic return to tease us after life even. It wasn't until curtains were accidentally torn and a mattress or two singed with teenage smoking that it began to become mine, ours, lived-in.
It seems that only in waste, when the cracks of abysses first appear and life unquestionably grows in and through it do we begin to accept our surroundings. Beforehand, we might have a modelled imperfection, but an innate faultiness soon casts itself atop it and leaves it with fingerprints and besmirchments. I suppose we'll have that in the near future at the Amex and have it as ours more.

 

[bellsize seagull]

So you can't get a ticket for Liverpool? Maybe!

It was no different at Withdean or even the Goldstone in later years. If you want to be sure of going to big matches, get a season ticket. This is the first season in 24 years i have got one and I'm glad I did, especially after missing out on cup tickets before.

don't really think there was any mention of a Liverpool ticket in the first post was there ?

 

[bellsize seagull]

Still, TWO Albion games live on telly within three days in a couple of weeks' time.

Ah, don't tell me: you hate Sky too...

blimey pal you struggling to write anythign nice or objective ?

 

[westy]

We're all different. I've followed the team all my life, and have never loved it more than I do now.

Same! Honestly its such a great time to be an Albion fan.

 

[bellsize seagull]

I can assure you that if Bathseagull is in the seat to your right, you'll be seeing plenty of passion for the Albion. Having stood with him at dismal grounds from Belle Vue, to Dean Court, to Bristol, he's one 'part time fan' whose Albion credentials I'm more than happy to vouch for.

i can back that up too !

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Fear of flying | North Stand Blog

Good article...but I don't think anybody has a fear of flying...fear of crashing -yes!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

blimey pal you struggling to write anythign nice or objective ?

He's not the one struggling to write 'anything'...


(Sorry, couldn't help myself)

 

[Wozza]

blimey pal you struggling to write anythign nice or objective ?

Sorry, was a tad unnecessary, but the moaning from the OP was spectacular mistimed imo. These are GREAT times for the Albion, and yesterday was massively exciting.

 

[Seagull Steve]

Whilst I understand where Bath is coming from, looking backwards now is not going to help. Yes remember the struggles, yes have pride in the part you played in saving this club. But if it wasn't for times like this, why else did we try and save our club? Like so many others on here I look back fondly of my days in the North stand, and the journeys to Carlisle, Hull, Chester etc etc. Although we should never forget or forgive the Belloti's and Archers of this world, we have so much to look forward to. Clinging on to the bad old days will set the club back and get us nowhere. What Mr Bloom and Gus are building here is nothing short of amazing. I'm loving my football now more than ever, but I have no feeling of grandeur because I have a season ticket, and you are no less of a fan for not having one. Circumstances change every year, and hopefully you will be able to get a season ticket, and stop feeling like this, and enjoy the fact that we are f***ing brilliant.