It's a sparse crowd here tonight . I'd say 16000 or less through the turnstile .

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I think it's clear we missed our window against Palace,

True. But there were no guarantees against Watford. I bet they would have preferred us than Palace.

 

[Black Rod]

True. But there were no guarantees against Watford. I bet they would have preferred us than Palace.

Still think we had a side good enough to go up automatically that season

 

[Tooting Gull]

True. But there were no guarantees against Watford. I bet they would have preferred us than Palace.

Obviously, they would have been slight favourites even had we made the final but in a one-off game anything can happen (as Palace showed). But at that time we were a better team than Palace, or certainly in better form. The same certainly couldn't be said of Derby, who ended up beating us four times last season.

 

[Albion_Dave]

On the bright side, the sparse crowd meant I could arrive at Brighton station from London at quarter past seven, wander straight onto a Lewes train (never happened before) and arrive at the Amex in time to get myself the delicious BBQ pork pie.

Trains were a dream last night. Clapped the players off, wandered down to the platform & on to the 22.06 to Eastbourne for the first time ever.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Still think we had a side good enough to go up automatically that season

Yep. There was a striker who excused himself for 8 matches when we needed him.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Obviously, they would have been slight favourites even had we made the final but in a one-off game anything can happen (as Palace showed). But at that time we were a better team than Palace, or certainly in better form. The same certainly couldn't be said of Derby, who ended up beating us four times last season.

I agree completely. It is just when the Palace game is mentioned - we still had another very difficult game. We beat the Golden Boys (snigger) at their place - but we were grimly hanging on that night - and they were simply better than us for the home game.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Where - show me where this was said.

This 5 years thing.

Myself and Buzzer have a chum who was at the original 1901 business presentations and signed up the company he was MD for at the time. TONY BLOOM himself was at the presentation and yes categorically without a shadow of any doubt whatsover 5 years was mentioned to get to the Prem League, by Tony himself at these presentations. This was when they extended it to the East Stand because demand outstripped supply.

However of course the club would now wish to distance itself from these stories but they live in the memory and yes of course it would have been part of the overall sales pitch. But it was definitely said at the time.

 

[MattBackHome]

False analogy. If the club announce an attendance of 23K and nearly 10K less people actually turn up, then that may be up to 10K x the average spend per 'customer' they've lost. They should care.

Besides, makes you wonder which of the two figures gets reported where, and for what reason. Not suggesting there's anything untoward going on, obviously, but it does give a very skewed picture.

They were pressed on this a while back (I think when they first started stating pretendances) and Insider clearly stated they do keep track of actual attendance, and that Attendance vs Pretendance is a KPI they care about. This is the same at every ground in the Championship - they all announce pretendance. So if everyone else is doing it that way then fair enough, I reckon.

What galls me is the fact that they don't officially release the actual attendance to Joe Public, on the grounds that it would "confuse us". Utter gash.

FWIW I agree entirely with you and think it does present a skewed picture.

 

[The Grockle]

It's a little bit disapointing there were so many no shows last night but hardly surprising given our shocking form and the oppersision.

What really surprises me is the negativity and doom and gloom on here. We are experiencing our first poor season in six and some of the fair weathers are feeling disillusioned and choosing not to turn up...so what? It's hardly surprising, that particular demographic are notoriously fickle and will come back in the droves when results improve or we have another successful season.

Also to those picking up on the 'premier league ready' comments from a season or two ago, this was not adopted as a club motto or matra it was simply Barber indicating that if we as a club have premier league ambitions we would need to make sure everything behind the scenes was up to premier league standards ie infrastructure, staffing ect. In the context of how 'premier league ready' was meant, we have achieved this objective thanks to the generosity of our chaiman. Anyone using this comment as a rod to beat the club completely missed its context.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

This 5 years thing.

Myself and Buzzer have a chum who was at the original 1901 business presentations and signed up the company he was MD for at the time. TONY BLOOM himself was at the presentation and yes categorically without a shadow of any doubt whatsover 5 years was mentioned to get to the Prem League, by Tony himself at these presentations. This was when they extended it to the East Stand because demand outstripped supply.

However of course the club would now wish to distance itself from these stories but they live in the memory and yes of course it would have been part of the overall sales pitch. But it was definitely said at the time.

Thanks for the confirmation

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

The club only have themselves to blame. The whole spin from day 1 and in the lead up was that BHAFC would be a premiership side within 5 seasons, MAXIMUM.

Myself and Buzzer have a chum who was at the original 1901 business presentations and signed up the company he was MD for at the time. TONY BLOOM himself was at the presentation and yes categorically without a shadow of any doubt whatsover 5 years was mentioned to get to the Prem League, by Tony himself at these presentations. This was when they extended it to the East Stand because demand outstripped supply.

Thanks for the confirmation

Not really though is it ? 5 years "mentioned" to get to the Premier League and "would be" in 5 years MAXIMUM.

An ambition and aim is not the same as a guarantee. I would hope TB was telling potential 1901 the club's ambitions. He will not have been guaranteeing anything though. He is a bit brighter than that.

 

[Bozza]

It was a stated plan, 5 years Premiership, of course there were no guarantees attached to it but lets please not pretend this did not happen

It should be easy to find the publicity of this plan, some marketing materials perhaps. Please post a few links - I'd love to see them.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

It should be easy to find the publicity of this plan, some marketing materials perhaps. Please post a few links - I'd love to see them.

Why are you asking again, another person has confirmed it ? If you want to disbelieve it, that is your preogative

 

[spanish flair]

Thanks for the confirmation

I also remember the 5 year plan that TB stated in I think a TV interview, which was his first after taking over as Chairman, he said as I remember, that it was vital that we gained promotion in our last season at Withdean, so that our first season at the Amex was in the Championship and then he planned to be in the Prem at the end of his first 5 years.

 

[spanish flair]

Where - show me where this was said.





I think it's somewhat unfair to use Premier League Ready' as a stick to beat the club with...

1. It was intended for internal use only.
2. It was used to show a drive for club operations to perform at the highest level - a pursuit of excellence.

To the best of my recollections, the club have never pushed this line at supporters in any way shape or form. The club, led by Tony Bloom, clearly has ambitions to take the Albion to the Premier League, but I don't think promises have ever been made. Bloom is far too savvy for that, and clearly recognises that it's an extremely difficult task to achieve. Regardless of that, the club with all other operations to be the very best they can be. You may not like the PLR line, designed to illustrate that drive, but it wasn't intended for you anyway.

It was being discussed on here 3 years ago https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?198884-Five-year-plan

But to be fair the only quote from TB and the Premiership, I can find, is for us being there at the latest 2019

http://www.theguardian.com/football/football-league-blog/2011/apr/13/brighton-hove-albion-the-lizard

 

[Man of Harveys]

Can someone please tell me why they are allowed to call it ATTENDANCE?

It's false. It's a lie. It is not the amount of people at the game. It's the amount of tickets they've sold. So why not announce it as such? Give both figures. "We sold 20 thousand tickets for today's game. But only 14 thousand of you good fans bothered. Well done you."

A small thing, but it really does my head in.

It's not a small thing at all: it's a big fat LIE, as you say. Great post.

Think about it this way: realistically, how many potential sponsors or advertisers, say, are likely ever to be picky enough to turn around and ask: "Well, when you mention 'average attendance of 25,000' (or whatever) in your marketing material here, that presumably means the, erm, number of people who were in attendance, right? That is the normal, customary, traditional dictionary definition of the word, i.e. the number of people who would be seeing our adverts while actually attending a game?"

I hasten to add that I'm sure of course that the club would at that point admit "well, no it's not actually that - on occasion it's been closer to 2/3 that amount". But aggregate the difference between the two over the course of a season and it adds up.

They're not doing this by accident: it's a ploy, of course. Some people may have no problem with the club lying like this, it seems. Some might find it a bit...dodgy.

 

[rippleman]

Does Barber really think that sponsors / advertisers (and potential sponsors / advertisers) are going to be taken in by the ridiculous inflation of the attendance figures? Does he really? If he does, then maybe I should try to tempt him with my magic beans!

 

[Weststander]

The fact is that Brighton and Hove Albion's core support is about 15,000. Even at the Goldstone we'd do well to pack in anything like 25,000 when the ground could handle it. The new stadium, successful side factor pulled in an additional 10,000 or so people who support Premier League clubs but got on the bandwagon with the club doing so well.

Some of them are starting to give up now four seasons in as a fair few people predicted. If you don't actually support Brighton, why would you want to traipse all the way out to Falmer to watch a team battling relegation playing against Wigan in the pissing down rain? Especially when there is Champions League football on the television?

Alot of truth in all that, but some are in denial.

The wilderness years of mismanagement/ground asset-strip, post-Mike Bamber & Keith Wickenden, and the hyped PL, meant 10,000's of existing Albion fans and new football fans in Sussex fell for televised ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and latterly ManC and Chelsea too. We all probably know many Sussex colleagues/friends/family who are fans of each of these clubs. The combined mega wages bill and transfer spend of the first 2 Amex seasons (as borne out by the £20m+ wage bill, and corresponding huge audited losses), funded players of top flight experience ..... Vicente, Orlandi, Upson, Bridge, Kuzschak, Ulloa, Andrews, etc, together with some huge gaffs on fees/wages compared to their ability (CMS). IMO, TB succumbed to the pressure from GP for spend, spend, spend, but even then GP still wasn't happy with the budget!

Now the player budget has been reined in so severely, there's a feast to famine feeling, giving a bit of a downer. Not for many of the c.15,000 loyal longterm supporters, but for the aforementioned fans of large PL clubs who signed up for Amex s/t's.

In hindsight, the sensible organic growth of say Derby and Ipswich would have been a better, steadier path.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Does Barber really think that sponsors / advertisers (and potential sponsors / advertisers) are going to be taken in by the ridiculous inflation of the attendance figures? Does he really? If he does, then maybe I should try to tempt him with my magic beans!

Put it this way: why else would they do this?

 

[N17]

Sorry to hijack. As i live in the area i thought i might start to take in a BHA game or 2 when it doesn't clash with my Spurs attendance. I had a quick look at the ticket site & thought the Fri night game vs Millwall might be worth the trip.......... £42! 'Kinnell! Eight of the thirteen Spurs home games i will have done before Christmas will have only been £25.

Anyway, any recommendations for a good location for a 'neutral' to sit? Well, sort of neutral, i will want BHA to win whatever game i might be at.