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

[hans kraay fan club]

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)

Exactly. No difference.

(Except for the MotM text which is for CHARITY).


*and charging for the mascots, which is a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE decision. Please scrap it.

 

[Normandy seagull]

I agree with you Hans Kraay that getting the lost generation of kids back to the Albion is important. It would just be nice if the club could be upfront and honest and just tell us that- then people wouldn't mind. I guess it is about communication. since Dick left it has been woeful. Yes Tony Bloom did save the club and without his money the Amex would not have been built, but when was the last time you heard from him?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

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

If people abuse a system, what do you expect - how many other ticket schemes also include travel?

Safe standing is not something the club can change, it's banned by law and the only ones who can change this is Government. It wasn't allowed at Withdean so why do you think it has changed in the last couple of seasons since moving to the Amex?

Some people don't mind the marketing (like the special offers in the shop last season when a lot of gift shopping was probably done) It's very easy to ignore if it isn't for you.

How do you think they should engage the fabs more pre match ? They make far more of an effort than they ever did at any other of the Albions home grounds over the years.

The trains - i don't see the problem myself, why do some people expect to walk 30 seconds from the ground o the station following a match with a crowd or excess of 25k and expect no queues? Waiting for upto 30 minutes (the longest i've waited) is still far better than having to walk on either a long diversion along the main road at Withdean or along a muddy unlit track to the station at Preston Park.
What do you realistically think the club / rail authorities etc should do to make it better that is actually achievable?

Gully's gang - Its a great scheme to get youngsters interested in supporting our club, and to try to lure in the next generation of fans seeing as we lost so many due to Gillingham / Withdean and the end of the Goldstone era.
How many games do you think it would take for the child to attend with an adult for the club to make this money back, and that is before any potential returns through merchandising, food and drink sales, etc.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

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

Relaxed how? I have never had anyone come upto me and try to pursuede me to buy anything on the way to the ground? There isn't any pressure selling that i'm aware of

 

[Pavilionaire]

The club gave us the best stadium, decent beer, superb pies, good football, a decent club shop.

Yet I'm concerned about The Insider's response to the safe standing idea, I'm concerned about the transport being a bit rubbish and I'm concerned that despite living half an hour from the stadium my local kid's side has an official tie-up with Chelsea, and not the Albion.

To my mind the club should be doing more football coaching in the Greater Sussex region. Yes, they might have the Brighton Area sown up, but what about Horsham and anything West of the A24? I don't know about East Sussex but there's a lot more that could be done to raise the profile of the club with schools and kid's clubs to the west of Steyning.

This needs funding and, if the 1.8x multiplier of standing to seating is correct and the North Stand could hold another 1,800 people on matchday spending their money then potentially another £1-2 million could be raised each season that could be ploughed back into developing the fan base at the kid's level.

I think that there is a danger the Board might take the 25,000+ attendances for granted. The bottom line is the bulk of 6-12 year-old kids in Sussex support Man Utd and Chelsea, not the Albion, and a good deal of the JCLs are disaffected former season ticket holders of London clubs. We should aim to have that local market penetration of a Sunderland or Derby County who get massive attendances come what may. I think we'll carry on getting good attendances but the club need to work harder.

 

[Normandy seagull]

If people abuse a system, what do you expect - how many other ticket schemes also include travel?

Safe standing is not something the club can change, it's banned by law and the only ones who can change this is Government. It wasn't allowed at Withdean so why do you think it has changed in the last couple of seasons since moving to the Amex?

Some people don't mind the marketing (like the special offers in the shop last season when a lot of gift shopping was probably done) It's very easy to ignore if it isn't for you.

How do you think they should engage the fabs more pre match ? They make far more of an effort than they ever did at any other of the Albions home grounds over the years.

The trains - i don't see the problem myself, why do some people expect to walk 30 seconds from the ground o the station following a match with a crowd or excess of 25k and expect no queues? Waiting for upto 30 minutes (the longest i've waited) is still far better than having to walk on either a long diversion along the main road at Withdean or along a muddy unlit track to the station at Preston Park.
What do you realistically think the club / rail authorities etc should do to make it better that is actually achievable?

Gully's gang - Its a great scheme to get youngsters interested in supporting our club, and to try to lure in the next generation of fans seeing as we lost so many due to Gillingham / Withdean and the end of the Goldstone era.
How many games do you think it would take for the child to attend with an adult for the club to make this money back, and that is before any potential returns through merchandising, food and drink sales, etc.

Well pre-match they could do interviews with young fans, penalty shoot outs. Do player sign autographs any more? The safe standing was definately misold. I remember Ken Brown in the selling stage saying that the stewarding would be relaxed on this in the back few rows of North Stand.

 

[El Sid]

Yes Tony Bloom did save the club and without his money the Amex would not have been built, but when was the last time you heard from him?

I would like Tony to call me at least once a week to personally inform me of all club activities.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Getting more disconnected from football in general and I suspect that this is the case for many of my generation, having followed the albion since the early 60s. The Amex is great and the Blooms continue to be a positive influence on the club. I worry mostly about the ridiculous amount of money that is both generated and spent on players - there will be a tipping point at some stage when the pack of cards comes tumbling down. This may be a good thing and the whole game can be put in perspective. It just seems like a gravy train for the fortunate few. It is, after all, only a game of football - Shankly was wrong!

 

[Guy Fawkes]

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.

Well as we are playing at a higher standard now, the youngsters coming through have to be that much better.

Once we have the academy in place we should be able to attract better quality youngsters who would have gone to London clubs or others with a better set up in terms of standards of coaching and facilities. Hopefully then we will be able to bring through more youngsters into the first team. It took several years to happen at Withdean so i would expect it to take a while at the Amex too as we are now a top half of the Championship side.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Well pre-match they could do interviews with young fans, penalty shoot outs. Do player sign autographs any more? The safe standing was definately misold. I remember Ken Brown in the selling stage saying that the stewarding would be relaxed on this in the back few rows of North Stand.

I thought that they said that standing was against ground regulations but a blind eye would be turned towards those in the back 4 rows of the North stand only.

I don't know what it is like in that stand because i sit elsewhere but the guy who was thrown out the other day (reportedly for persistent standing) was located half way up the stand and nowhere near the last 4 rows and other people have complained that they were asked to sit (despite not being in the last 4 rows) what did they expect?

 

[Brian Fantana]

I find myself really torn on this issue, in a multitude of ways.

As an over-arching point, the commercialisation of football clubs is fairly widespread, particularly amongst clubs with new stadiums. The marketing collateral that goes alongside this is part-and-parcel, but fairly low intensity and very easy to avoid. In short, I would rather we weren't left behind in this regard, particulary with the ever-widening revenue gap between the Premiership and the rest.

I can totally empathise with those saying that since the move to The Amex, they have started to feel slightly disconnected from the club and its values. In my opinion, this is a natural by-product of moving operations from the Withdean to where we are now. The stadium change, along with the improvement of our on-field performance, has changed the atmosphere at the Albion from one of penniless backs-against-the-wall, fighting all comers, to something hugely more aspirational with much higher expectations. The former situation was always going to naturally lend itself to supporters feeling more like comrades than customers. The comradeship that us as fans felt over the last decade is virtually unique within the sporting community, and by its own aims has led us to where we are now. Now that we're here, we can hardly complain about the result!

There are a couple of aspects of our current situation which I'm less than happy about. First of all, the decision by the club to sell the most expensive match-by-match tickets is an outrage. The message from [MENTION=561]Insider[/MENTION] and other representatives of the club has always been that they wanted the Amex to be a very family-friendly and inclusive experience, regardless of circumstances. Selling the most expensive tickets first is hardly conduicive to those aims.

Secondly, the standing issue in the North Stand is something that bugs me a little bit too. I have my season ticket in the very back row, and remember quite clearly the indication that was given at the ST presentations about the area being stewarded in a sensible manner. I'm well aware of the laws regarding all-seater stadia, but it will turn out to be rather mis-leading of the club IF they start policing the entirerity of the North Stand in a different way to how they actively sold the tickets in that area.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Getting more disconnected from football in general and I suspect that this is the case for many of my generation, having followed the albion since the early 60s. The Amex is great and the Blooms continue to be a positive influence on the club. I worry mostly about the ridiculous amount of money that is both generated and spent on players - there will be a tipping point at some stage when the pack of cards comes tumbling down. This may be a good thing and the whole game can be put in perspective. It just seems like a gravy train for the fortunate few. It is, after all, only a game of football - Shankly was wrong!

I think you are right about the money side and the whole results driven era that football has entered due to the creation of the premier league and as a fall out of the Bosman ruling. If Sky ever pulls out or decided to pay just a fraction of what they pay now, then a lot of clubs would be at severe risk of bankruptcy.

Sadly a lot of clubs are having to spend silly amounts on players to meet the expectations from their own supporters (as some are demanding we do - as seen by some on here) knowing that they risk the clubs future (like Pompey, etc) because the top flight is now seen as the only place that a club should be. How many of our fans would be happy to watch us as a competitive team in the Championship for the next decade? and how many feel that for the sake of the clubs future that we must get promoted to the top flight and whatever it costs.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Exactly. No difference.

(Except for the MotM text which is for CHARITY).


*and charging for the mascots, which is a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE decision. Please scrap it.

My understanding is that instead of one free chance to be a mascot, there are now 11 youngsters going out with the team, of which 3 are free?

 

[Crawley 'Gull]

I started watching Brighton just before the Archer/Bellotti regime so the earliest memories I have was of a club run by a chairman/board who were trying to destroy the club......watching some of the most awful, depressing football in a decaying, rickety stadium with crowds of barely more than 5,000. I remember the run down club shop that could probably fit no more than 5/6 people in at any one time and remember paying £4 to watch on the the North stand.

As I much as I hate the sterilisation of football and the way money has influenced the game I think as a Brighton fan it's a small price to pay for having a stable club that you know is going to exist next year, with a chairman who actually loves the club and a chance to watch good quality football each week.

If I supported another club I'd probably feel different however I can deal with it at Brighton because I can remember just how bad things were! I wouldn't say I feel less connected to the club or it's values...I'm just aware that I'm now part of something a lot bigger and a lot more different than when I first started supporting them.

 

[Buckley's Mad Eye]

I'm not sure really, it feels like we're back to the Goldstone days to a certain extent. The Withdean years were exceptional in bringing the fans together, it felt like we kept things going via weekly jumble sales, and now things are back to normal...eg a proper football club again.

Has the club and fans moved apart again? Yes we probably have.
Did we need to move apart again? Yes we probably did.
Were the Withdean years better because of the close bond? Not sure.
Am I willing to sacrifice the unique bond for what we have now? Yes I am.

As for Barber, the architect of the downfall of the cottage industry, I suspect he'll be the one who'll make the difference between making the PL or not. His dealing will get us the players we need.

 

[ewe2]

I don't worry about the clubs values,they have make some money after all. I have my own values ,and that means.....just keeping the faith,through thick and thin......loyal for 50 years. (and don't forget that includes some very poor club value times )

 

[Dave the OAP]

To be honest, I don't care anymore.

All I want to do is go and watch a game of football, be entertained and chat with a few mates- not that I get to see a lot of people I used to see at withdean.

I used to take this really seriously, marches, archers house, f a headquarters letters, cards, placards etc.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Its a far slicker operation for sure, and things like the ticketing horrors of the recent past seem to be largely sorted. Its football business as usual in the North Stand where we are mercifully fairly free of the strutting lanyard wallahs and the trolly dollies and all the sanitised niceties that do make some parts of the stadium resemble a regional conference centre.

 

[brakespear]

If the Albion became the plaything of a rich owner with no connection to the club I would have serious misgivings.

But we remain in the hands of a lifelong Albion fan and, apart from the odd glitch, the club is moving in the right direction and taking the majority of fans with it.

And I still bloody love going to the Amex.

this.

 

[drew]

How connected to the club did you actually feel when we were at the Goldstone prior to when there was a 'cause' to fight for. For me, I go and watch football on a Saturday afternoon at the club I have supported since 1975 through thick or thin but it is not the centre of my life. Never has been and never will be. I was there long before any of the current squad were even born and shall be there after they have all stopped playing. But it is still only what happens on the pitch that matters and the rest is a peripheral sideshow. Yes it's great they have AITC but it doesn't really affect me. It's what the 11 on the pitch do.