How connected do you feel to the club's values?

[Springal]

Fine. Then why call it the "community" stadium when, because of business necessities admittedly, the prices are only affordable for a certain aspect of the community. In comparison to what's on offer, it would be like calling Chelsea's ground "Stamford Community Bridge". It just doesn't make sense, imo.

There is a lot that goes on, that benefit the community. Just because they do a lot of community work, does not mean offering chartiable entrance prices to the 'main' event ?

 

[Normandy seagull]

There seem to be alot of issues that the board need to address
1) The rip off charges to print tickets etc
2) Not being allowed to cancel your season ticket under any circumstances
3) Safe standing not to be permitted
4) Stop the 'marketing crap'
5) Engage the fans more pre-match- not commercial cheerleadingetc
6) Rethink the train travel arrangements - It is like being a sheep heading to market in the queueing system.
7) Only selling the expensive tickets first for home matches. Price structure generally of tickets.
8) Selling tacky crap in the shop- Who the fcuk wants to buy an Albion Gnome

Maybe I am just being a miserable git with Seasonal affective disorder

 

[Driver8]

The massive and extremely fast transition from a club run from a portacabin to a £100m state of the art stadium is bound to leave people feeling a little alienated.

The club are now having to deal with a much larger fan base and this inevitably leads to a less personalised service.

I bet any member of Albion staff who has been here any length of time will make similar comments about the change in their roles.

As to "money making", well there is a £100m stadium to pay for so you can't have it all ways!

 

[Crofty]

Sad innit?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

There seem to be alot of issues that the board need to address
1) The rip off charges to print tickets etc
2) Not being allowed to cancel your season ticket under any circumstances
3) Safe standing not to be permitted
4) Stop the 'marketing crap'
5) Engage the fans more pre-match- not commercial cheerleadingetc
6) Rethink the train travel arrangements - It is like being a sheep heading to market in the queueing system.
7) Only selling the expensive tickets first for home matches. Price structure generally of tickets.

Really?

1) Been done to death on here already. If its to stop people selling their tickets on, its understandable why they've introduced this (whether you agree with it or not). I'd personally advocate allowing one or two reprints per season to allow for genuine cases of forgotten ticket, etc.
2) That does seem unfair.
3) It not our board's decision to 'permit it'.
4) Is it a big deal? Really? How hard is it to ignore 2 or 3 e-mails a week?
5) Open to ideas on this. How would you wish to be 'engaged'?
6) Again (within the limitations of the actual railway system) what do you wish to see?
7) Agreed.

 

[Normandy seagull]

Really?

1) Been done to death on here already. If its to stop people selling their tickets on, its understandable why they've introduced this (whether you agree with it or not). I'd personally advocate allowing one or two reprints per season to allow for genuine cases of forgotten ticket, etc.
2) That does seem unfair.
3) It not our board's decision to 'permit it'.
4) Is it a big deal? Really? How hard is it to ignore 2 or 3 e-mails a week?
5) Open to ideas on this. How would you wish to be 'engaged'?
6) Again (within the limitations of the actual railway system) what do you wish to see?
7) Agreed.

Regards the train queing system- there has got to be a better system. There have been so many times that trains have left empty of half full and a barrier made to stop any more people entering the platform on the Lewes side. Surely there should be separate queues for Lewes/ Eastbourne/ Seaford trains. With regards to the marketing it is not just the emails- it is the whole selling approach the moment you set foot at the amex.

 

[rool]

It's more than just 2/3 emails a week. All these shite such as Hat-Trick, text your MOTM, Gully's gang, and all the other marketing crap is really taking the soul away from the Albion. We have become, well, plastic.

If the club communicated their intentions in operational areas (i.e. stewarding/standing) half as well as their ability to send out marketing messages most of these gripes wouldn't be an issue.

 

[RexCathedra]

Near every complaint made above will be made worse, not better, by promotion to the EPL.
Unless promotion would somehow lead to lower ticket prices, less marketing, smaller crowds, less plastic, less corporate....
Yet, strangely, everyone wants precisely that to happen, <I>now</i>.

On reflection, it might kill off the Albion Gnome. But everything else would get worse...

 

[Normandy seagull]

I would also like to know 1 thing that the so called super exec Paul Barber has actually done for the fans since his arrival.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

It's more than just 2/3 emails a week. All these shite such as Hat-Trick, text your MOTM, Gully's gang, and all the other marketing crap is really taking the soul away from the Albion. We have become, well, plastic.

E-mails: You must be on a different list to me then. I get 2 a week. Maybe 4 if there are 2 games.

Hat-trick: You walk past a girl selling scratchcards. If you want one, you buy it. If not you walk straight past. How does that in any way detract from YOUR matchday experience?

MotM texts: Anyone who pays their quid to do that is a bit odd in the head! Saying that, the revenue from this does go to the AITC in fairness, so it NOT a scheme to make money for the club.

Gully's Gang: This is the junior fans 'club' which is FREE to enrol in, has THOUSANDS of members, and brings a host of goodies, and info packs, etc plus a FREE shirt on each child's 7th birthday. Please explain who is being fleeced there?

it is the whole selling approach the moment you set foot at the amex.

As per response to the chap above - who is forcing you to buy anything. Between getting off the train, and sitting in your seat, you probably walk past two program sellers, and a Hat-trick seller. If you're not interested, ignore them. I'm genuinnely struggling to see the problem here.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I would also like to know 1 thing that the so called super exec Paul Barber has actually done for the fans since his arrival.

Responded to fans dissatisfaction with the performance of Azure, by giving them the boot?

 

[Normandy seagull]

E-mails: You must be on a different list to me then. I get 2 a week. Maybe 4 if there are 2 games.

Hat-trick: You walk past a girl selling scratchcards. If you want one, you buy it. If not you walk straight past. How does that in any way detract from YOUR matchday experience?

MotM texts: Anyone who pays their quid to do that is a bit odd in the head! Saying that, the revenue from this does go to the AITC in fairness, so it NOT a scheme to make money for the club.

Gully's Gang: This is the junior fans 'club' which is FREE to enrol in, has THOUSANDS of members, and brings a host of goodies, and info packs, etc plus a FREE shirt on each child's 7th birthday. Please explain who is being fleeced there?



As per response to the chap above - who is forcing you to buy anything. Between getting off the train, and sitting in your seat, you probably walk past two program sellers, and a Hat-trick seller. If you're not interested, ignore them. I'm genuinnely struggling to see the problem here.

Do you come on the train? Walking up from the station it is impossible to miss someone trying to get you to part with money. I have been told that this is all part of the marketing strategy.

As for your comment about Gully's gang- It may seem like its free all the goodies but it has to be paid for-not by the club but by the rest of 'us' in some way shape or form.

 

[Normandy seagull]

Responded to fans dissatisfaction with the performance of Azure, by giving them the boot?

Bollocks- this is not for the fans, they have been given the boot because Azure has been costing the club a small fortune and not making enough profit. Wastage has been huge

 

[Guy Fawkes]

The ONLY way in which I feel that the club has become slightly detached from us, is the lack of local lads in the first team. That was a real source of pride in the Wilkins era.

Again, thanks to TB and his investment in the new Academy, that will also be corrected in the years ahead.

We have El-Abd, Hammond and Dunk - How many did we have playing 1st team football during Adams first spell in charge?

 

[ATFC Seagull]

I don't find that anything specific has happened since we moved into the Amex that has "distanced" me from the club as such. It's different but that's life, I am quite happy looking back at the fun times (and they were) at Withdean and to some extent Gillingham/Goldstone (although was just a young kid with my dad in those days) and, as I think the Atilla poem says being able to say "I was there".

We always knew we were gonna fill our new ground with 15-20k fans who didn't necessarily go through all that and they're the ones that have missed out, but we can't make new fans feel like 2nd class citizens.

As much as I'm not massively knowledgeable about new grounds I can't imagine many new builds have been so accomodating to the wishes of the fans:

No goal music
It is VERY easy (comparatively) to get a beer, at least in the North Stand
The selection of beer and food is based on what we've wanted
Prices not more expensive than Withdean despite a better team being put out in front of us against better opposition

The only thing I am reserving judgement about is the standing issue - I have thought it was great but will see if they start hassling the back of the North Stand.

 

[portslade seagull]

The club needs to make money from non football activities to allow them to grow, so anything geared towards this is great in my eyes

 

[Normandy seagull]

Sorry, by Gully's Gang , I meant Gully's Group - the dancing nonsense. Gully's Gang is indeed one of the great remaining aspects of our football club inherited from the Withdean years (how long before the club starts charging for that, like they have for mascots?)

I agree we have the option of walking past, I suspect most of us do - but the reality is that Hat-Trick & the £1 MOTM text are both cons, why is the club resorting to conning its own fans? Is it really that desperate for a few quid?

The club has become all about the money, it's selling its soul and shafting its fans for the sake of a few more quid, or at least that's how it feels to me for the first time in my lifetime as an Albion fan.

We're no longer fans of a football club, we're customers of a business

couldn't agree more THIS

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Do you come on the train? Walking up from the station it is impossible to miss someone trying to get you to part with money. I have been told that this is all part of the marketing strategy.

As for your comment about Gully's gang- It may seem like its free all the goodies but it has to be paid for-not by the club but by the rest of 'us' in some way shape or form.

How is having programme sellers, fanzine sellers and raffle sellers and a shop any different from Withdean where, as you approached the ground we had the same? (programmes, Withdean wager, club shop / van and fanzines for sale)

 

[Normandy seagull]

How is having programme sellers, fanzine sellers and raffle sellers and a shop any different from Withdean where, as you approached the ground we had the same? (programmes, Withdean wager, club shop / van and fanzines for sale)

You are right Withdean did have all of this but it was far more relaxed

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Do you come on the train? Walking up from the station it is impossible to miss someone trying to get you to part with money. I have been told that this is all part of the marketing strategy.
.

Okay - so you are forced to SEE them. Its still no big drama to just walk past them. Its not like they accost you or anything.

As for your comment about Gully's gang- It may seem like its free all the goodies but it has to be paid for-not by the club but by the rest of 'us' in some way shape or form.

Fair comment. I'm personally happy to pay it. GG has been a hugely important tool, in the lead up to Falmer, in getting local kids into the Albion. The more local kids swapping their Chelsea shirts for ours, the better. If I'm paying a few pence towards it - good.

Bollocks- this is not for the fans, they have been given the boot because Azure has been costing the club a small fortune and not making enough profit. Wastage has been huge

Same difference. The fans, especially in 1901, voted on Azure's performance with their feet (or wallets). Barber gave them the boot. The fans get what they want - a better service, hopefully. I never said that the decision was altruistic.

We have El-Abd, Hammond and Dunk - How many did we have playing 1st team football during Adams first spell in charge?

Not all that many.

I said that during WILKIN'S era it was a source of pride - to me and to others I know. There were sometimes up to 12 local kids in the first team squad. They weren't all very GOOD, so I'm not for a moment suggesting its the way forward - just that it was one aspect that made some of us feel closer to the club.