[Albion] FAB member vote

[Dave the OAP]

It’s the further Americanisation of soccer I tell thee!

It will come to a sticky end for us old skool fans, or we will be driven away or just die out.

MFIS.

 

[pigmanovich]

Long old trip from New Jersey for a STH

Also strange comment about away fans at the Amex being treated inhumanly

Think he meant how our fans are treated at away games? But I did a double take as well.

 

[Insel affe]

I feel they needed pictures as I nearly always judge a book by it's cover.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

It might be that I'm just getting old and grumpy but the whole premise that comes across in a number of them, explicitly and implicitly, that the "fan experience" needs to be improved and that the club have a responsibility to do it, makes me nauseous. It just seems like it reinforces the increasing customer-isation of fans. I don't want to feel like a customer who is there to be treated like the club owes me more than the game I'm going to see.

I know it's subjective, and some people want more, and things can definitely be improved, but there's a balance between "making food service in WSU a bit quicker" and turning football into something where the game becomes secondary to all the paraphernalia of the "experience" around it, and the number of those standing who talk about "fan experience" is a bit worrying. Times change but not always for the better - the better safety is good, I like that we can go to the toilet without having to pay the ferryman to cross the yellow river flowing around our feet, it's good that the food isn't going to poison us...but...

...generations of us grew up not needing to be told what to start singing or when, not needing shooting flames to get excited, not needing a countdown to the players coming on the pitch so we'd know when to start clapping, without a "fan zone" to feel part of it...and it didn't put any of us off...I'd argue that the addition of all those things detract from the "fan experience", they don't add to it.

So many of our kids won't grow up with that visceral excitement of feeling a crowd organically grow in voice as one and start singing in the build up to players coming out - 30,000+ unorchestrated fans all combining in the same song, with natural support and passion coming out at full volume, and after a great game celebrating their heroes with their own song instead of what the PA decides to broadcast. Yes, they'll be excited, they'll have great moments, but not as great as they could have been. Chelsea next week - imagine how epic it'd be if there was no PA, no songs played, no flames, just the tension and songs from the opposing fans building before the players come out. That's a fan experience. What we currently have is in danger of becoming a curated, managed, customer experience.

If I think about the away stadiums I've most enjoyed over the past few seasons it's in inverse proportion to the amount the host club curates and controls the "fan experience". One of the best is Anfield where there's little artificially constructed hype outside the ground or in it, the fans generate the experience. One of the worst is Leicester because they hype it up so badly (and goal music...vom)...or Old Trafford where the club spend so much time going on about how they are the "greatest club in the world" and their history that they've forgotten about the present, but the "fan experience" for home fans is probably great because so many are insecure nostalgia junkies...or Arsenal where the club have made it so sterile it's like going to the opera and the "fan experience" is choreographed by the people waving the club-provided big flags.

There's a law of something, I don't know what, but how often things can be improved not by addition but by subtraction. If people think we need to improve the "fan experience" they need to be looking at what needs to be taken away more than looking at what needs to be added. If the club is asked to provide the "fan experience" then like those clubs above we'll get what the club thinks that experience should be, and because that has to cater for everyone from those of us who just want to go to the game to those who pay thousands a year for fine dining alongside the match there's precisely zero examples in sport where that's an improvement on what the fans themselves generate, instead you get a beige mess of managed fun. And honestly, I think our "fan experience" and how well we're looked after is better than almost every other ground in the league and it's a bit weird how much focus there is on it. That's not to say some elements can't be improved around food and drink for example, but the disproportionate focus on it seems to me to suggest people either don't realise how lucky we are or don't have experience elsewhere, or maybe both those things.

All this is, of course, entirely subjective and I'll get off my soapbox now.

I can’t help but think there’s a lot of rose-tinted glasses at play here. For example, this never happened at the Goldstone:

“a crowd organically grow in voice as one and start singing in the build up to players coming out - 30,000+ unorchestrated fans all combining in the same song”

Where exactly did you experience this? And how often?

You talk about “So many of our kids won't grow up with that visceral excitement”. Things have changed and what excites a kids these days is very different to our youth. It’s the same with music, if you believe some, there hasn’t been any decent music since 1979 and the kids are missing out. I can assure you they’re not, I don’t exactly understand it all but they’re not…they just engage in a very different way.

 

[Insel affe]

Chelsea next week - imagine how epic it'd be if there was no PA, no songs played, no flames, just the tension and songs from the opposing fans building before the players come out.

No Fkn thanks, there will be a slight mummer as the plays trot out, Chelsea fans spread around the ground.
Chelsea fans drowning out the north stand, because of the shite acoustics.

Times change, and if your not willing too, tut tar.

 

[Giraffe]

It’s a waste of time. I see a couple of the names on there, and one in particular, where I just think please god not them. Seems a little bit too much “look at me”. And as discussed at length what is the point of it anyway. Just box ticking.

 

[jackalbion]

It’s a waste of time. I see a couple of the names on there, and one in particular, where I just think please god not them. Seems a little bit too much “look at me”. And as discussed at length what is the point of it anyway. Just box ticking.

And I'm not even on there!

 

[chaileyjem]

I have just received an email from the club and voted for the person that stood out.
No disrespect to this person below, but I’m not voting for someone that tries to get the Amex once a season, i don’t really care how long they have supported the Albion for.

View attachment 181995

The FAB have a category for A+ members you can vote for , who by definition aren't going to be able to attend every game. Trying to reflect the very different experience they have of the club (there's thousands of them) compared to those of us who come every week. There are 4 other fans in that category - so vote for them ? - one of whom is young and goes to away games, one has supported the club for 60 years!, one has just started going to the WSL and the mens game and football makes them "happy" , and finally one of whom is new to the club but thinks fans deserve a voice.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

It’s a waste of time. I see a couple of the names on there, and one in particular, where I just think please god not them. Seems a little bit too much “look at me”. And as discussed at length what is the point of it anyway. Just box ticking.

Very much this. "I want more Diversity and Inclusion!" "I worked in Big Business" "I can increase the Revenue stream" Have a day off the lot of you. What exactly has any of that got to do with pies running out, transport to and from the ground and the additional queuing in the stands particularly when then uni students aren't in town which are the major (but minor in the grand scheme of things) gripes raised predominantly on here? I appreciate that there is probably little that can be done in a number of these instances that hasn't been thought about already but the Billy big bollox linked in types will be worse than useless and gone in 6 months.

 

[Is it PotG?]

If such a thing is going to have any credibility or impact, then a totally broad canvas of members is essential.
A long term fan, a young fan, a commited fan of the women's game, a less tainted and more objective view from fresher eyes, and finally a total cynic.
Should do it.

 

[studio150]

It’s the further Americanisation of soccer I tell thee!

It will come to a sticky end for us old skool fans, or we will be driven away or just die out.

MFIS.

Ok stand up and get ready with the arm movements, you know what's coming and will enjoy joining in to this 10 minutes before kick off.

Young man, there's no need to feel down, I said...

 

[chaileyjem]

The current members of the FAB are well aware that dozens of people come on NSC when its mentioned and say they are a "waste of time" or mock what they do . And are also well aware of the constraints under which they operate - and that Barber/Bloom have effectively said "we don't need it".
Nonetheless, they're all volunteers, care about fans, aren't dupes, and have made some small underreported changes and have done what they can.
So all credit to @Bozza and others , who have done what he can to help support them (website etc, advise about sharing info on NSC) and work with them instead of explaining why they shouldn't be bothering. Good luck to anyone (on here) standing this time and thanks to the rest of the board in the first few years for doing , what has been , a pretty thankless task.

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

 

[jackalbion]

The current members of the FAB are well aware that dozens of people come on NSC when its mentioned and say they are a "waste of time" or mock what they do . And are also well aware of the constraints under which they operate - and that Barber/Bloom have effectively said "we don't need it".
Nonetheless, they're all volunteers, care about fans, aren't dupes, and have made some small underreported changes and have done what they can.
So all credit to @Bozza and others , who have done what he can to help support them (website etc, advise about sharing info on NSC) and work with them instead of explaining why they shouldn't be bothering. Good luck to anyone (on here) standing this time and thanks to the rest of the board in the first few years for doing , what has been , a pretty thankless task.

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

I have no issue with the people on it and what they do, I just think its all a bit pointless, when the club aren't as proactive as they can be.

 

[Bry Nylon]

...one has just started going to the WSL and the mens game and football makes them "happy"

Give it a couple of seasons.

 

[chaileyjem]

I have no issue with the people on it and what they do, I just think its all a bit pointless, when the club aren't as proactive as they can be.

Of course and i agree with you that the club have curtailed the scope of what they can do / their influence.
However these threads on NSC often stray into mockery , and tired reminders of JUST HOW POINTLESS IT IS - rather than practical suggestions of how to change , for the better, how fans experience the Albion - be it working with that group or outside of it.

For starters - the £30 Away cap is coming up for discussion in 25/26. . How do we make sure that Albion vote to keep it ?

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Of course and i agree with you that the club have curtailed the scope of what they can do / their influence.
However these threads on NSC often stray into mockery , and tired reminders of JUST HOW POINTLESS IT IS - rather than practical suggestions of how to change , for the better, how fans experience the Albion - be it working with that group or outside of it.

It's ironic to highlight the pointlessness of anything on an Internet message board really.

 

[hart's shirt]

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

"Fortunately, I remembered what PB had said at our first FAB meeting: “If I had listened to all the advice on North Stand Chat, the club would be bankrupt and out the Football League. Sometimes, you have to listen to what people say and then get on with what you think is right.” That is what we did with the RDZ flag."

 

[SAC]

Where is Count Binface when you need him?

 

[Arthur]

The current members of the FAB are well aware that dozens of people come on NSC when its mentioned and say they are a "waste of time" or mock what they do . And are also well aware of the constraints under which they operate - and that Barber/Bloom have effectively said "we don't need it".
Nonetheless, they're all volunteers, care about fans, aren't dupes, and have made some small underreported changes and have done what they can.
So all credit to @Bozza and others , who have done what he can to help support them (website etc, advise about sharing info on NSC) and work with them instead of explaining why they shouldn't be bothering. Good luck to anyone (on here) standing this time and thanks to the rest of the board in the first few years for doing , what has been , a pretty thankless task.

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

So in 18 months they've bought a flag and had a shed moved.

 

[chaileyjem]

So in 18 months they've bought a flag and had a shed moved.

And your suggestion for organising fans to make (what you think) are real improvements is ... ?