[Albion] Fans' Forum 17/02/20 - my notes

[AmexRuislip]

Top work [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]

Have an urge to compose an email

 

[Thompson720]

Thank you [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] ! Great read and concise/clear notes

 

[Seasidesage]

Very interesting thanks for sharing..

 

[Quinney]

Just read through. Thanks for taking the time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Thanks. My Zoom link failed for some reason so good to have a summary,

Mine too - couldn’t get on.....
Thanks [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stat Brother]

Don't know what I'm looking forward too most.

An Albion 'fan' getting sent down for appalling behaviour on the socials.
Or
Someone on here deriding Barber-Out because it's only 'bantz'.

 

[Weststander]

I loved this:

“For me, it’s been a wonderful move. Did I expect to be here for nine years? No. But there’s something about this club that gets into you and you want to keep making things better”.

The same intangible that hooked other non-Sussex lads such as Sidwell, Aspinall and Bruno.

A special club in a beautiful part of the world.

 

[Weststander]

They have some season ticket ideas.

My guess would be allowing over 65’s to opt out for 2021/22 if they still feel nervous about CV19.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Thanks bozza.
Really appreciate your work on this.
Great to hear all the details but especially good to hear about the club working for the future of the club and also good to hear about Maty too.

 

[portlock seagull]

Still no news on the cup final money then

 

[lawros left foot]

Flasks and bottle tops not mentioned??

Barber out!!




Seriously, thanks @ Bozza for that, very encouraging all round.

 

[portlock seagull]

Is NSC “social media”?

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

They have some season ticket ideas.

My guess would be allowing over 65’s to opt out for 2021/22 if they still feel nervous about CV19.

Yes PB does give the impression that the club are anticipating changes in fans habits regarding how we pay and attend matches post pandemic.
I think maybe they are planning more flexible Season tickets for People who have lost incomes or as you said are still concerned about attending which will then free up spaces for more match by match ticket fans and those on the waiting list, especially if they bring in half season tickets or 4 match passes like we had before.
Certainly sounds exciting and it also sounds like the club are thinking of everyone and balancing the financial side of things with the fans welfare in mind and doing their best to make sure we can all get to a match whatever our post pandemic situation.

 

[portlock seagull]

They have some season ticket ideas.

My guess would be allowing over 65’s to opt out for 2021/22 if they still feel nervous about CV19.

Not sure how that can work, because club needs seats to be filled and can’t indefinitely allow someone to effectively own a seat without attending/seat doesn’t get sold on exchange. Because If you can’t afford to commit to a ST anymore, you have to relinquish and join the back of the waiting list when you can, as plenty have done/ waiting for a chance to get back in?

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Not sure how that can work, because club needs seats to be filled and can’t indefinitely allow someone to effectively own a seat without attending/seat doesn’t get sold on exchange. Because If you can’t afford to commit to a ST anymore, you have to relinquish and join the back of the waiting list when you can, as plenty have done/ waiting for a chance to get back in?

I reckon if someone over 65 doesn't want to attend then the club could give that fan a season off from paying but the fan retains Thier season ticket status
That fans seat could then be split into 2 half season tickets for someone on the waiting list for that season.
Or if not half season then 6 game match packs or something similar.

 

[essbee1]

Typed these whilst watching - a bit rough but should be vaguely legible if you weren't watching along...

PB on fans returning to stadiums
Hopeful this season but recognise its not a government priority. Premier League been pressing government - more important matters there.
Important as quick as possible due to financial loss. Being live on TV does not fill that gap.

PB on the recent football
Good few weeks. Results not reflective of performances. High possession, creating chances not getting results.
Last few weeks results have come. Been able to move players in and out for injuries/tactics.
Seeing what we’ve been working on for 18/19 months and good to see GP get the praise he deserves.

Want to push on that success on Monday (against Palace)

Q: Social media - club made announcement this week. Last year seen more use of social media to be abusive and bullying. Club staff get it from emails and phone calls too. Football want to draw a line under it.
Club have had to delete 300-400 comments from own social media accounts, and block people too.
Hard to fathom why people are abusive to clubs and players. People wouldn’t do it in a bank.
We’re prepared to find people even if they think they are anonymous. One case at the moment that could lead to a prison sentence for someone.
Is one bad result worth risking this impact on your life for?
We’ve got a duty of care to protect our staff, and stick up for them.

Football - all games live on TV. Hopefully most people are getting to see some live games if not highlights.
PL have decided to extend the current arrangement for as long as fans aren’t in stadiums.

UEFA talking about expanding CL. Talking about how that may impact PL.

Q: Why did we sell Murray to Forest when he’s scoring there and we have a starvation of goals?
Not always about what we want, but what the player wants. Not playing with us, not playing with Watford, unlikely of getting another contract with us, giving him the chance of getting another year maybe.

Mindful that our style of football does not entirely suit Glen’s game. He’s been fantastic for the club throughout and a great friend to me. Voicepiece to PB on how the players were feeling through the pandemic. Also assisting Lewis Dunk in helping him to understand decisions being made.

If we could have him back coaching or ambassadorial we would like to do that. We wish him well. He’s back amongst friends - Bong, Chris, Knocky. We know he can score goals there and do well.

Q: Confused about Percy Tau. Every match I see him on the bench. He hasn’t got injuries.
Great thing about being Chief Executive is I don’t pick the team. Tricky to answer. GP will pick the best side for the occasion - tactics and opposition. PT still learning in a new country, team.

Not unusual for a player to take time to bed in. Don’t be too concerned - he’s settling in well. Did well at Man City. Sure we’ll see more of him as the season goes on.

Q: You touched on financial challenges. How are club finances fairing? Expecting changes to help club’s cope?
Club’s position as good as it could be given the pandemic. Club expected and budgeted to lose 2/3 of the reported £67m. Decision of the board to keep our best players, recruit and build on last season's 15th/41pts.

Pandemic happened. Rebate to TV companies and loss of match day income. Loss of non-matchday income too. We hoped to have fans back this year and pushed plans to have fans back.

Tony is committed, and he’s very calm about the situation. We try not to spend and try to earn more. Russell Wood and commercial team managed to sign a couple of new deals. Need to keep looking after the pennies.

Opening the training ground expansion in the summer for women and girls. Enhanced facilities for the men.

Installed new seats at the Amex to get us to 32,000 capacity. We’ve been working hard through the pandemic investing in the future of the football club.

There aren’t queues of people lining up to buy football clubs. Owner may not be able to choose who to sell to if they need to sell. We don’t have an investor owner - TB is committed to the club and here for the long-term.

Club’s in between - financial investors, but are here for the long-term. Might have other assets or clubs.

Owners like Tony few and far between.

Think we’ll see more like ALK (Burnley), hopefully not more sovereign states buying clubs!

Q: Project Big Picture - expansion of CL. What pressure do BHA come under to support or otherwise these projects?
It was a complete surprise to us. Didn’t take Einstein to see it wasn’t good for us. TB/PB saw it as nonsense. We would not tolerate losing 1 member = 1 vote. Didn’t want Euro ambitions capped. Didn’t want to fund support package into the football league. Didn’t make sense to fund teams that wanted to replace us in the PL, some more wealthily than TB.

Big Picture idea closed down. Euro super league always being discussed. Having to get on a plane every other week to see your team - not sure many fans want that.

Someone has to finish bottom of a super league. Those kind of clubs aren’t used to finishing bottom of anything.

Q: In light of the pandemic, have PL and FL agreed on what would be done if a season was curtailed?
No. Mid-season impossible to do as people have vested interest. Need to be done before season starts.

Crazy - we shouldn’t be in his position (with risk of virus). A while ago PB was worried, but thinks we’ve come through that now and think we’ll finish the season. Situation needs to be addressed though.

Q: Is there any news on the 2021/2 kit?
Nothing yet. Worked on behind the scenes by the marketing and commercial teams.

Q: Good result against Chelsea for the women’s team. Any plans to develop and grow - big gulf in teams. Any plans to get back to Brighton?
Aim to be top 4 doesn’t change - want to do it over a sustained period. There is a gulf. Chelsea, City and Arsenal well established and they spend a lot of money to attract the best players.

We want to give them the best facilities and coaching we can. Want to build the academy. Where we can acquire talent we will do. Not as plentiful as the men’s game but it’s changing and getting better.

Hope for it to be a commercial arrangement we’ll make money from in the long term. FA doing deals that will bring more money in.

Want to get them back to Brighton, or closer to Brighton. Pandemic has slowed that down - only so many things we can do.

Medium term aim to do that.

Q: Cost of STH for next season?
Decision not made yet. Goes to the board for discssuin this month. Aware it’s been a very difficult year - people lost jobs or lowered income. You can be confident that we will be as reasonable as we can be.

Hopefully people have seen from this season that if you can’t see a game you won’t be paying for them.

Q: Do you listen to Albion Unlimited?
I get sent clips. I have Jonny questioning me enough as it is.

Q: My other half asking me, you go up to XXXL on clothing, are you going any higher than this?
We can only go as high as Nike go. Tricky one as we know some people can not always fit, and different items come in different cuts and fits. Worth checking across the range. We try t compensate with our own ranges.

Q: Dairy intolerant. Stadium are not providing for it.
They should be. Each stand has one concession that caters for this and provide all different types of milk for drinks etc. Let us know where you are and we’ll make sure you get what you want.

Q: Club’s ambition to become an established top 10 team. Interested to hear the club has Euro ambitions. Is there any timeline on that.
Not really. Coincide with long-term ambition with being top 10, as if you are top 10 you’ll be close to Europa League qualification and progressing in the cups. Need to be aware that if we do reach that level of ambition, you can still have a bad season. It would be one hell of an achievement for the club and we’ll keep pushing.

Q: Getting more footballers involved in running the game and overseeing VAR.
There are a few footballers who have ambitions to get involved in running clubs and leagues. These are large businesses - hundreds of mills of bills of pounds. Players have played to 35 - difficult to move from player to CEO. Happening a bit in Europe and some are looking at running to lead the PFA. Some coming through - more the exception than the rule.

VAR give more opportunity for players to help officials. Difficult for referees to go from reffing on grass to reffing on a screen in a room. May open up future careers for players.


Q: Prediction for Palace?
Last thing I want to do is make prediction and have it thrown back at me by our fans or worst that lot up the road. I’ll keep quiet. Should be a good game.

Q: Recruitment - what has changed?
We’re not doing anything different. We have a lot of good scouts in places. Have lots of information on players and when their contracts expire and clauses they may have.

Brought in Dan Ashworth who has been a wonderful addition.

Recruiting doesn’t happen in transfer windows - that’s the end product. Lots of scenarios of players wanting/not wanting to come/clubs not wanting to sell.

So many variables determine how players get on when they are moving countries or even moving across the country.

We’d love to pick up 2 or 3 Tariq Lamptey’s every season but we’re one of a number of clubs fishing in the same pond. We have to be shrewd.

Remember being asked in prior Fans Forum about when we’d see our own academy players through. We’re starting to see that now - it takes time. And we can supplement it with the likes of Lamptey, Veltman and Lallana. We have the 2nd or 3rd youngest team in the PL, in only our fourth season and with a young English manager.

Important to keep the faith, back Graham and believe in the long-term journey and progression. There will be ups and downs, bumps in the road. We can’t be hysterical when those bumps happen. Stay calm and focus on the positives.

PC: Possibly youngest PL team now with Sanchez in goal.

Q: Young team from different countries and they seem to have settled in well and providing great entertainment.
Thanks.

Reminds me of Southampton. Are we looking to make money from our squad to bolster future years?
One of the reasons for our financial position is that we haven’t sold players. It is likely that some of our young players will get the opportunity to further their careers. Difficult balance because if you repeatedly block these moves, it can affect how other young players may come to us. Important to give players a pathway, but allowing them to move onto the next level and having confidence that you can replace them.

Maximise value when we do release players. We might get some wrong as it’s difficult to get right every single time.

Mark Lawrenson did something similar. Not much has changed.

Q: Stadium expanded to 32,000. Where are those seats?
Everywhere.

Season ticket churn. Did have 8,000 waiting list. Impacted by Covid?
Haven’t properly tested it yet, but we think it will be. Going to give people as much flexibility as possible in the ST renewal process. Going to come up with a few ideas that we think people will like.

Waiting list consists of different categories. Some will take any seat. Some want a specific seat. Some want a specific stand. Some want to have a chance of a ticket at some point. Waiting list doesn’t mean all of those people will take a seat as soon as one is available.

As soon as we sign an exciting young player and team doing well, we get more interest. Our job is to keep building that interest.

Need to get the balance right between STHs and their revenue and retain match day tickets for those who can’t or don’t want a ST.

We hope our package will keep as many STHs as possible. We want to minimise the churn. We think some people will be nervous to return, even with a vaccine. Some eager to come back. Some unable to come back due to finances.

We’ll make details available in a month or so.

Q: Player retention. More saleable assets than we’ve had since I’ve been supporting the club. Will the pandemic impact clubs being able to buy?
Much lower volume of activity in January as there’s less cash around. The biggest clubs will find a way to buy the best players. We don’t need to sell and have no desire to sell. We’re making good progress with young players. We had interest in the Summer and we didn’t yield to that.

We have no pressure to sell. The pandemic won’t stop the biggest clubs if they want to buy.

We’re looking forward to keeping our best players for as long as we can.

Q: Appetite for future TV deals to have all games shown live in the UK?
Believe that is very, very slim. Government want to help protect grass roots.

Hopefully after the pandemic, at the end of this season hopefully, we’ll be back to the usual schedule for the PL on Sat, Sun and Mon nights.

Q: We have three chaps from Sussex in the first team. We don’t seem to make much of that. We got excited when Tony Towner was going up and down the wing. Should we make more of it?
It’s a good point. In the match programme we do try to highlight the lads that were brought up in the county, and we mention it to broadcasters. Could we do more? That’s something we can look at.

We want to stay on Southgate’s right side as we want him to pick our players!

Q: Concussion / concussion substitutes
You can have up to two and once made they are permanent, and the opposition gets the right to an extra substitute too. This is to stop club’s playing silly buggers.

I think it’s a good thing and long overdue, particularly considering the number of dementia cases being linked to players from a time when the balls were a lot heavier.

More work needs to be done on the link between heading football and later in the life.

In academy football, the ball isn’t headed very often as the ball is played on the ground most of the time.

it’s an area that is concerning but action is being taken with substitutes and research on the effects of heading footballs.

Q: Villa still can't believe we didn't score.
It was great to see Joel play Grealish so well. and to be fair to Jack Grealish he gave us some credit after the game.

Q: More than three subs?
We were in favour of and voted for five this season but were out-voted. But we did agree on nine. There’s a benefit to Graham who is more fluid in his tactics as he has more options. The other benefit is that we can include more players in the squad, particularly younger players, making journeys and getting a sense of what it’s like to be on the team plane, bus and hotel, and it’s been good to get up to nine.

Suspect we’ll be at three for some time.

Q: When will Lamptey be back?
I’m sure Roy Hodgson is watching so I won’t be giving details on player injuries but he’s doing well and will be back soon.

Q: Maty Ryan. Contributed a lot to keeping him in the PL. Disappointing to see comments from fans on social media saying they never liked him and he wasn’t right for us. Also some comments that he punched Neal Maupay.
Absolute rubbish. It’s the sort of thing that does the round on social media and says more about the people who make those comments.

Had texts with Maty last night and he’s not happy with the context of comments made in an interview in Australian media. He’s been tremendous for us.

He had a great opportunity to play with a big football club and he’ll always welcome back with us whatever happens with his loan at Arsenal.

People forget we brought him to the Premier League and gave him that chance but he’s been unlucky that we’ve developed Robert Sanchez and Christian Walton and you can only play one goalkeeper at once.

We never close doors on loan players as we don’t know what will happen in the future. He did a great job for us and is very popular in the dressing room.

Q: Solly March - any updates on his injury.
Solly took a knock and has had to have surgery and is early in his rehab. I’ve exchanged messages with him and he’s feeling positive. What a great season he’s had.

Q: In June you celebrate 10 years with BHAFC. How do you sum up the 10 years and the future 10 years.
You’re ahead of your time - it will be nine years. It’s been an incredible nine years. Very lucky to work with a fantastic chairman, and I knew it would be a great relationship. The things he promised me about the club and what we could build have all come true.

I inherited great work from Martin Perry which I’ve built on a bit.

The most important work has been on the pitch.

For me, it’s been a wonderful move. Did I expect to be here for nine years? No. But there’s something about this club that gets into you and you want to keep making things better.

Once it’s in your blood it won’t leave. The last nine years we’ve had far more good times than difficult times.

Q: Social media - if you find out a BHAFC fan/STH has been doing this, would you name and shame them?
It’s a tricky question and we’ve discussed this internally. In some ways it may be the best deterrent, and it’s one our lawyers would have to think about.

I’d like that we don’t have to do worry about any of this, and people speak respectfully. We might not agree, but we’ll be transparent and honest.

It would be a low point for me if we had to do that.

PB on his future at the club.
The club has a fantastic platform to set out and achieve TB’s vision to be a top 10 club. 5 or 6 years after opening, our training ground is still one of the best in Europe and up there in the UK with Man City and Spurs.

The investment in training facilities for the women and the expansion of the Amex - we are trying to move closer to Tony’s vision. It would be great if we could reward Tony with some silverware.

Well done Bozza and thanks very much for the write-up.

 

[portlock seagull]

I reckon if someone over 65 doesn't want to attend then the club could give that fan a season off from paying but the fan retains Thier season ticket status
That fans seat could then be split into 2 half season tickets for someone on the waiting list for that season.
Or if not half season then 6 game match packs or something similar.

Each season, fans of all ages decide not to renew for multitude of reasons. If 12 months later they want to ‘renew’ a) it’s not renewing, they’re classed a new fan b) they’re at the back of a long queue for a ST, quite probably unable to be in the same stand never mind row of seats they were previously. Is it fair to treat someone who may or may not return any differently? How do you know it’s really because of Covid? It’s a bit of a minefield isn’t it? I think the club are right to do everything can to help fans to be able to afford renewing the ST in such difficult, uncertain economic times as these. Just not sure how or even if that can be extended to pandemic fears.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Each season, fans of all ages decide not to renew for multitude of reasons. If 12 months later they want to ‘renew’ a) it’s not renewing, they’re classed a new fan b) they’re at the back of a long queue for a ST, quite probably unable to be in the same stand never mind row of seats they were previously. Is it fair to treat someone who may or may not return any differently? How do you know it’s really because of Covid? It’s a bit of a minefield isn’t it? I think the club are right to do everything can to help fans to be able to afford renewing the ST in such difficult, uncertain economic times as these. Just not sure how or even if that can be extended to pandemic fears.

It would be nice if the club could offer the so called Premium seats in West Lower with a Seniors discount like the rest of the ground, even if only for the return of fans season.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Each season, fans of all ages decide not to renew for multitude of reasons. If 12 months later they want to ‘renew’ a) it’s not renewing, they’re classed a new fan b) they’re at the back of a long queue for a ST, quite probably unable to be in the same stand never mind row of seats they were previously. Is it fair to treat someone who may or may not return any differently? How do you know it’s really because of Covid? It’s a bit of a minefield isn’t it? I think the club are right to do everything can to help fans to be able to afford renewing the ST in such difficult, uncertain economic times as these. Just not sure how or even if that can be extended to pandemic fears.

Yes that is a good point,and also I was just thinking it could backfire on the club if more people than they expected took up the offer of a season ticket holiday and then the club failed to sell the seat for that season if those on the waiting list were also not keen on going?.
I'm not sure how it will work but PB does give the impression there will be some flexibility with renewals and he mentioned nervous returners as a case in point.
Maybe those people would be asked to pay a small amount whilst they have a season ticket holiday period .
I guess we shall have to wait and see what the club decides but PB seemed upbeat and positive about accomodating everyone rather than preparing us for some ruthlessness from the club.

 

[Birdie Boy]

It would be nice if the club could offer the so called Premium seats in West Lower with a Seniors discount like the rest of the ground, even if only for the return of fans season.

Are seniors any worse off this year due to the pandemic than last year?