How can we, as fans/customers, best voice our concerns over increasing costs to the club?

[Brighton Breezy]

But are they difficult for ALL people to attend?

If attendances drop to 18k, then somethings wrong.
But, all the time the AMEX hoovers around 30k, then is anything wrong?

As an old fashioned football purist I would say yes. Football should be accessible to all and, perhaps more importantly, just because fans will go without elsewhere in their lives or scrimp and save to fund a season ticket does not mean they should have to.

 

[cjd]

Market forces will dictate prices etc

We have suddenly a local journalist (Walt Jabsco) who has posted a few interesting articles and got some fast and informative answers from our CEO. Now he wants to galvanise a campaign....along with support from the usual crowd.

I would prefer it if he stayed with 'reporting'.

You can please some of the people all the time.

You can please all the people some of the time.

But you can't please ALL the people ALL the time.

Cue the campaigners ready to find a cause to attach their flag to the mast.

The problem re high supporter costs is national and lies with players salaries.

 

[Deadly Danson]

A ticket in the West Stand Upper is now more than £500 for Championship football. Current tickets on sale for Millwall at home are between £35 and £42.

I think it would be naive to assume those prices were not making it very difficult for some people to attend.

I think you're probably right but in terms of being priced out of the Amex I just haven't seen any firm evidence that tells me that people are choosing not to go because of the price. It's a very difficult balancing act for the club and I think the fact that we are looking more to youth this year highlights that the playing budget is being affected just as much as fan expenditure. There's no doubting that it's an expensive business watching Championship football nowadays so I have quite a lot of sympathy for your viewpoint - I just think the club will have to judge how far to push it and if the number of people going through the turnstiles goes down they've got it wrong, if it continues to rise they've got it right.

 

[Deadly Danson]

I completely agree with your wider points regarding football, and completely disagree that this is a remotely sensible way of doing anything about it.

Well put.

 

[ewe2]

I am willing to give the club the benefit of the dought ,for the moment.Transport strategy catering etc.,all needed to be revised after a period and losing 8ml is not good for our club and us the fans.I hardly think the Amex will ever be a cash cow,nor the white elephant that Coventry played in.If after this period of adjustments ,i am not happy ,then i can decide what i do .

 

[glasfryn]

Exactly. Assuming we want to be a top end Championship or Premiership club then we simply have to bite the bullet. If the club have got it wrong, which I don't think they have, then people will vote with their feet and they will be forced to act. Certainly boycotting catering outlets will starve the club of income and produce the opposite effect to that you want.

The only people you can really lobby is the football authorities, maybe to lobby for some sort of salary cap but then the FFP is effectively here make sure clubs live within their means and may eventually means that salaries naturally come down.

Alternatively, we can go back to being a League 1/2 team - it was fun but I don't think anyone wants that any more.

I have no problem with the way the club is being run at present.

the problem will be when we are 3rd from bottom with 5 games to go.

I just hope this does not occur,I know Tony is a gambler but this really is one hell of a punt .
I am normally a glass half full sort of guy but this senario really is giving me nightmares, don't get me wrong if Mr Garcia gets us up this season I will will be jumping up and down with the rest just not at the Amex.
things to remember here are that Barber is not a football man he is a business man, he is also Mr Blooms man the punt is we may have to get up to survive because if we don't many of the fans /customers won't be there the following season not because they don't want to be there ,they just won't be able to afford to be there.
and that my friends will be very sad.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Market forces will dictate prices etc

We have suddenly a local journalist (Walt Jabsco) who has posted a few interesting articles and got some fast and informative answers from our CEO. Now he wants to galvanise a campaign....along with support from the usual crowd.

I would prefer it if he stayed with 'reporting'.

You can please some of the people all the time.

You can please all the people some of the time.

But you can't please ALL the people ALL the time.

Cue the campaigners ready to find a cause to attach their flag to the mast.

The problem re high supporter costs is national and lies with players salaries.

I don't want to galvanise a campaign. I just wanted to start a discussion on how best we as supporters could best voice our concerns over increasing cost.

There does not seem, at present, many lines of communication between fans and club over anything.

Does the Supporters Club ever feedback to the clubetc? That's a genuine question which I don't know the answer to.

Without communication it is too easy for the club to assume everyone is happy just because season ticket sales don't drop off because, perhaps, some fans are cutting back elsewhere to fund their BHAFC habit.

I don't think the club is guilty of sinisterly trying to milk our fans for their last penny but if hey have nobody telling them directly how hard some and are finding it to meet the increased cost etc, they are going to keep acting accordingly.

 

[skipper734]

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

 

[martyn20]

I don't want to galvanise a campaign. I just wanted to start a discussion on how best we as supporters could best voice our concerns over increasing cost.

There does not seem, at present, many lines of communication between fans and club over anything.

Does the Supporters Club ever feedback to the clubetc? That's a genuine question which I don't know the answer to.

Without communication it is too easy for the club to assume everyone is happy just because season ticket sales don't drop off because, perhaps, some fans are cutting back elsewhere to fund their BHAFC habit.

Any fan can email Mr Barber at anytime and I understand he usually responds to everyone, communication does not get any better than that surely

 

[Tricky Dicky]

the problem will be when we are 3rd from bottom with 5 games to go.

I just hope this does not occur,I know Tony is a gambler but this really is one hell of a punt .
I am normally a glass half full sort of guy but this senario really is giving me nightmares, don't get me wrong if Mr Garcia gets us up this season I will will be jumping up and down with the rest just not at the Amex.
things to remember here are that Barber is not a football man he is a business man, he is also Mr Blooms man the punt is we may have to get up to survive because if we don't many of the fans /customers won't be there the following season not because they don't want to be there ,they just won't be able to afford to be there.
and that my friends will be very sad.

If we go up, we'll certainly be paying rather more next season

 

[Commander]

Now that most of the players are contactable through their twitter accounts perhaps they should be approached directly to suggest they share some of the pain of FFP.

They should at least know how people feel.

Yeah that'll help us make the signings we need to get to the Premier League, the fans hassling players on the internet, asking them to volunteer for salary cuts!

It's not the players' fault, its football as a whole. No doubt someone working stacking shelves on minimum wage would say I get paid too much, does that mean I should offer to give some of my money to them? Of course it doesn't, so why should footballers be any different? It is a highly skilled profession.

The problem is that there is no legislation on what the players can earn. If FFP said that only X% of income can be spent on players wages, then maybe it wouldn't be such an issue. Or thinking about it that would probably mean the clubs would just charge the fans even more. I don't know, I don't have the answers. Pub time.

 

[Stat Brother]

As an old fashioned football purist I would say yes. Football should be accessible to all and, perhaps more importantly, just because fans will go without elsewhere in their lives or scrimp and save to fund a season ticket does not mean they should have to.

That's what we all want, but you can't have everything for free.

The Albion isn't a charity.
It isn't local government, we can't just put our expenses in and money appears.

The Albion is a business, a big business, in a cut throat environment.
The club has badly mishandled the information, but the core point still stands, it can't loss £8m a year and happily carry on like nothings happening.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Any fan can email Mr Barber at anytime and I understand he usually responds to everyone, communication does not get any better than that surely

Indeed. But how many do? Mr Barber is impressively accessible and for that we should be grateful but perhaps an independent supporters body might hold more weight than a few people sending moaning emails.

 

[MattBackHome]

I don't want to galvanise a campaign. I just wanted to start a discussion on how best we as supporters could best voice our concerns over increasing cost.

There does not seem, at present, many lines of communication between fans and club over anything.

Does the Supporters Club ever feedback to the clubetc? That's a genuine question which I don't know the answer to.

Without communication it is too easy for the club to assume everyone is happy just because season ticket sales don't drop off because, perhaps, some fans are cutting back elsewhere to fund their BHAFC habit.

I don't think the club is guilty of sinisterly trying to milk our fans for their last penny but if hey have nobody telling them directly how hard some and are finding it to meet the increased cost etc, they are going to keep acting accordingly.

Agree entirely that this is exactly the sort of thing that the supporters club(s) should be pushing through.

Though if you did want to galvanise a campaign I'd gladly help out!

 

[Man of Harveys]

Very good thread this and I totally agree with the thrust being made. Brighton fans ARE being taken for granted - it's simple economics to do so - and a robust stance is crucial. And the idea of pissing off your fanbase for the sake of saving the cost some youth teamer's fortnightly salary is just stupid.

Howabout a simple refusal from fans to sign up for either the new away travel scheme or this new bus bullsh1t? Neither scheme sounds worth signing up for anyway so it would hardly be a great loss.

 

[Beach Hut]

Perhaps some simple protests like all leaving seats at a certain time for 10 minutes, boycott the food and drink ?

 

[Stat Brother]

They will see from my ticket history that I have barely missed a home game for 13 years - but this season I will be attending only a handful. I usually spend around £30 on a match day, so I suppose the club won't be seeing any of that either.

Is that £30 on top of your ticket price?

 

[Brighton Breezy]

An interesting stat is that for a fan to have attended every Brighton league game with an average price season ticket, using free travel for home games, car for away and buying a pie, pint and programme at each game last season would have cost around £3,300.

 

[martyn20]

As I mentioned in another thread, I am voicing my concerns with my feet & wallet - not so much out of choice, but I have simply been priced out.

They will see from my ticket history that I have barely missed a home game for 13 years - but this season I will be attending only a handful. I usually spend around £30 on a match day, so I suppose the club won't be seeing any of that either.

I intend to compensate by attending more away games this season - and I can only speak for myself and my friends - but the club is driving away passionate, loyal and long-term fans with the recent hike in prices - We spend a lot on match days, which we will now be spending at other clubs' stadia instead, or not at all.

I don't know how to voice my concerns to the club on an individual level, if there is some sort of fan campaign I will join it, but my hope is that the club studies cases like mine and considers that it could prove to be counter productive.

But have ST numbers not gone up this year?

 

[R. Slicker]

How can we, as fans/customers, best voice our concerns over increasing costs to

For crying out loud, do you remember when we really had something to moan about?
Talk about 1st world problems!