Just what consitutes a loyal supporter....?

[Billy the Fish]

If you spend loads of money in the club shop.

 

[Kukev31]

The idea of loyal or true fans is a concept created by fans who want to make themselves superior to other fans. There is no real measuring stick.

The idea of "going to as many games as you can" is so open that it's almost pointless. Other responsibilities, distance to travel, cost, job, kids, health, etc. can all play a factor in if you "can" go to a game.

Staying loyal and sticking with the club is also open to interpretation. If I criticise the chairman/board am I being loyal to my club? (A loaded question, I know). What if I criticise the manager or players for their mistakes?

I want to check Brighton's results first, but may also have an interest in how, say, Plymouth are doing, am I being disloyal if I happen to catch Plymouth's results first instead of making sure I go to Brighton's?

The idea of a "true" or "loyal" fan is a meaningless title some fans bestow on themselves in an effort to make them seema better fan, to make their opinion seem more worthwile or somehow more valid than someone else.

Can't put it better than that really. I'm sure we all follow the club the way we feel we best can, just depends what peoples priorities are.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

....its like saying how much do you love me....

Do you want to take this one Wild Years or shall I?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Norwich prices:
Cheapest adult price: £350
Cheapest over 75: £191
Cheapest 60+: £191
Under 21: £150
Under 16: £50
Under 12: £25

http://www.canaries.co.uk/staticFiles/5f/30/0,,10355~143455,00.pdf

With prices like that, at a fairly decent stadium, is it any surprise? I don't remember any ticket for someone between 21 and 60 for us being less than £500 (but might be wrong on that one, I'm sure someone will correct me).

Carrow Road certainly is a decent stadium but you're not really comparing like for like prices are you?
Norwich have frozen their prices for 2009/10 and those you've quoted are the lowest for STH's renewing prior before the end of February 2009 - the "early bird" price range (for adults) is £350-£427 and the full price will be £479-£617.
My ST in the South Stand (E block) was not the cheapest at BHA and cost me £414 this season. From memory, it would have been about £470 had I paid the full price.
I don't think that Norwich City have a Traffic Management Scheme to fund at every home game either.

 

[Austrian Gull]

You should have told the West Ham fan to keep his cockney mouth shout. You're an exiled fan with other commitments - it doesn't make you less worthy than him. If Brighton winning or losing still affects your mood on a Saturday night (or longer sometimes) then that's the most important thing.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Followed the Albion from the tender age of about 8 or 9 I think...Archie Mcauley at the helm. Spent my youth watching 4th Div footy week in and out and saw less games when we made Div 1 as you just couldn't get in a lot of the time.

Left Brighton 22 years ago but try to get to away games ( Yeovil, Swindon, Bristol etc ) when possible. Always try and listen to live commentary on Seagulls World and always watch match highlights etc on same site.

Have done my time and proud to be an Albion supporter till the day I die

 

[bellsize seagull]

i love the club, wear the badge with pride and can get over to loosing to Crewe 4-0 by regaining the buzz and walking in the rain to Rovers only to be told it's off..

 

[Acker79]

Carrow Road certainly is a decent stadium but you're not really comparing like for like prices are you?

I thought my uncertainty made that clear. I was comparing the prices for Norwich, which I knew because they were easily available, and going by what I remembered were available for brighton when I got my season ticket price list last summer.

I don't think that Norwich City have a Traffic Management Scheme to fund at every home game either.

Is there an option for a discounted season ticket without traffic management schemes? If it'll save me £50 I can walk to withdean.

Would Norwich have sold as many if they were that extra £50? Regardless of where the money is going, it still results in more expensive season tickets.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Is there an option for a discounted season ticket without traffic management schemes? If it'll save me £50 I can walk to withdean.

There is no option but to have the Traffic Management Scheme - it is a condition of the planning consent for playing at Withdean; there will also need to be a TMS in place for Falmer, although the precise details of this have yet to be agreed between the interested parties and subsequently approved by B&H City Council.
The current TMS covers regional bus and train travel, two park & ride bus services with associated stewarding (all of which a free to ticket holders), the costs of match day road closures and street stewards whose major role is to deter on-street parking in the vicinity of Withdean. I think that the best way of covering the TMS cost is in the general ticket price; others, mostly seem to be B&H residents, have a different view and want it as an option. However, if there was such an option then everyone might use it and if that was there case then where do you suggest the club gets the £300K (ie 6,000 x £50) annual revenue shortfall from?

Would Norwich have sold as many if they were that extra £50?

No idea - do you?

However, selling nearly 17,000 ST's by the end of February at prices that are not dissimilar to the Albion's, does demonstrate a significant loyal/true fan base. On this point, I personally categorise those who have and continue to fund/underwrite the Albion's annual deficit (currently £2.5-3.0M pa) as true supporters.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Ooops - double post.

 

[ali jenkins]

Buying a season ticket doesnt mean your a better fan than someone who cant go to every home game or cant afford to shell out £400+ in one lump sum.

 

[Acker79]

However, selling nearly 17,000 ST's by the end of February at prices that are not dissimilar to the Albion's,

Except, there's quite the difference between a 30-something buying a ticket for himself and his ten year old at Norwich as compared to Brighton.

Even just the thirty year old on his own, while it is "only" £50 difference, there is a huge psychological difference between £350 and £400. Any shopping psychologist will tell you that

On this point, I personally categorise those who have and continue to fund/underwrite the Albion's annual deficit (currently £2.5-3.0M pa) as true supporters.

You mean people who pay less on a per match basis, people who pay less for merchandise from the club shop, people that put an administrative burden on the club (both in the form of the cost of printing price lists, letters, postage, and in the cost of man hours, plus money the club loses out on for the "free" dvds (the club has to foot the bill for their production then by giving them away free are missing out on recouping that outlay).

The people who any time there is talk of doing discount tickets in an effort to bump the attendances and make more more scream "what about us?! You can't give them discounts on the prices we paid!"

Those people who are trying to get the cheapest deal they can, but begrudge anyone else getting more, try to get the most for their money, put demands on the club to reward this "loyalty" that is more of a strain, taking more money from the club.

If every season ticket holder paid full price for each match day ticket, all merchandise, pay for their friends full price, and didn't demand special treatment for "the big games", maybe the claim that "they underwrite/fund the deficit might hold weight, but since their adding to it by trying to not give the club full price, I can't accept they are more loyal or truer than nn season ticket holders.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Except, there's quite the difference between a 30-something buying a ticket for himself and his ten year old at Norwich as compared to Brighton.

Even just the thirty year old on his own, while it is "only" £50 difference, there is a huge psychological difference between £350 and £400. Any shopping psychologist will tell you that.

Norwich City (2008/9 & 2009/10)
Cheapest Adult STH (earlybird price): £350
Cheapest Adult STH (full price): £479
Cheapest Adult + 10yo STH's (earlybird price): £375
Cheapest Adult + 10yo STH's (full price): £559

BHA (2008/9)
Cheapest Adult STH (earlybird price): £362
Cheapest Adult STH (full price): £426
Cheapest Adult + 10yo STH's (earlybird price): £446
Cheapest Adult + 10yo STH's (full price): £522

The first age threshold at BHA is U10 and at Norwich it's U12.

You mean people who pay less on a per match basis, people who pay less for merchandise from the club shop, people that put an administrative burden on the club (both in the form of the cost of printing price lists, letters, postage, and in the cost of man hours, plus money the club loses out on for the "free" dvds (the club has to foot the bill for their production then by giving them away free are missing out on recouping that outlay).

The people who any time there is talk of doing discount tickets in an effort to bump the attendances and make more more scream "what about us?! You can't give them discounts on the prices we paid!"

Those people who are trying to get the cheapest deal they can, but begrudge anyone else getting more, try to get the most for their money, put demands on the club to reward this "loyalty" that is more of a strain, taking more money from the club.

If every season ticket holder paid full price for each match day ticket, all merchandise, pay for their friends full price, and didn't demand special treatment for "the big games", maybe the claim that "they underwrite/fund the deficit might hold weight, but since their adding to it by trying to not give the club full price, I can't accept they are more loyal or truer than nn season ticket holders.

I think you've misunderstood here; it's not the STH's, regular fans paying by game or those who rarely get to Withdean who are underwriting the annual deficit. It's the shareholders and they do so every year - puts the regular NSC bitching about having the TMS costs incorporated into the ticket price into some perspective imo.

Albion £2.8m loss From The Argus)

That's a seriously bitter rant about STH's but I really don't think that the vociferous opinions of a few posting on NSC reflects the views of the majority of them.
Have you ever thought what might happen to the club's cash flow if the season ticket price were the same as 23 single tickets? Why would anyone buy one and how then would the employees be paid during the close season when there's no income - extended bank overdraft and you don't even have any assets to be overvalued?
To use a building analogy, if a single pallet of bricks costs £300 and you want a further 22 pallets delivered at regular intervals over the next year, then how much do you expect to pay for the entire order if you pay for it all up front - would you really shell out £6900? Of course not, you'd expect and get a bulk discount and that is exactly what happens when buying a BHA season ticket.

 

[medicine man]

Just keepin it real. I don't go to many games at all- but I live and breathe Brighton And Hove Albion FC. All my kids know there is no other option. They all know Palace is scum. They have all seen the DVD about the Goldstone shed a tear and asked Why? They know. You don't have to go to all the games to be a fan, those that do we salute you, when you are there at a game- feel the warmth of all those listening in on their wireless'- imagine there are extra people behind you willing our boys to do well- really we are shouting in our kitchens, front rooms, sheds- probably too loud.
We are a beautiful team, with the very best fans- come on Brighton, WE CAN DO IT!!!

 

[Acker79]

I think you've misunderstood here; it's not the STH's, regular fans paying by game or those who rarely get to Withdean who are underwriting the annual deficit.

Oops, my bad. So close to the mention of STH to underwriting the club made me misunderstand. Sorry.

That's a seriously bitter rant about STH's

Yeah. I just resent the idea that STH are "better fans", I was looking at the concept of STH from an extreme angle. I don't actually hate them. I have been one on various occasions (with the last few being quite negative seasons - last year at goldstone where we just stayed up, the year we got relegated from the championship under McGhee, I feel cursed as a season ticket holder - worse, I went to the Notts County play off, we lost, I stayed away from the bristol one, we win. - how does superstition factor into this true/loyal supporter?)

Why would anyone buy one

Habit. Guarantee of a seat at every game, of the same seat. Save the hassle of going to the club shop every other week. A sign of status/wealth.

and how then would the employees be paid during the close season when there's no income

Maybe I'm being naive here, but other than poor money managemet, how is getting a chunk of money in july equivalent to 90% value of 3000 x 23 tickets, then slots of 2000 full price tickets for 23 weeks going to put more money in your account than 5000 full price tickets for 23 weeks?

To use a building analogy, if a single pallet of bricks costs £300 and you want a further 22 pallets delivered at regular intervals over the next year, then how much do you expect to pay for the entire order if you pay for it all up front - would you really shell out £6900? Of course not, you'd expect and get a bulk discount and that is exactly what happens when buying a BHA season ticket.

Comparing a customer of a business to a fan of a football club is always risky. If it was for a struggling business that I held dear to my heart I would either pay per pallet as I could afford it, or if I could afford the bulk buy I would do it to support the business I love.

 

[coventrygull]

My grandson got in to trouble at school because he refused to sign the good luck coventry card. He wanted to write seagulls in it and they wouldn't let him. Top fan

 

[algie]

My grandson got in to trouble at school because he refused to sign the good luck coventry card. He wanted to write seagulls in it and they wouldn't let him. Top fan

Reminds me of my ex when she lived in the states and went to school there.She refused to salute the American flag? Is that right or wrong as she is English? She was only over there for a couple of years.

 

[coventrygull]

Reminds me of my ex when she lived in the states and went to school there.She refused to salute the American flag? Is that right or wrong as she is English? She was only over there for a couple of years.

No she was right why salute something you don't beleive in. The funny thing is I am in trouble with his mum because she blames me. As if

 

[algie]

No she was right why salute something you don't beleive in. The funny thing is I am in trouble with his mum because she blames me. As if

In American schools they salute the flag every morning from my understanding.The Yanks thought she was being disrespectful and called her parents in.It ended in her having to salute the flag in the end just to keep the peace.This was going back a few years now.

 

[coventrygull]

In American schools they salute the flag every morning from my understanding.The Yanks thought she was being disrespectful and called her parents in.It ended in her having to salute the flag in the end just to keep the peace.This was going back a few years now.

Wouldn't be a bad thing to be brought in over here.