Paul Barber answers NSC questions/rants....

[Prince Monolulu]

I sent a question to PB at 6:58am this morning in relation to last night's postponed match.

Had a full, considered and professional reply at 7:08am.

Compared to other clubs we do get a very good level of communication from the Albion.

Is it just me that has a vision of PB laying in bed with his BHA dressing gown on, boiled egg on a tray 'answering these bl00dy emails'?

 

[Bozza]

But to your point about this being a business. The ticket exchange "system" has been haphazard for ever, and it always seems to me that someone like PB ("every penny counts") should have this as something of a priority. In fact, the more full-houses we get and the higher the % of tickets sold are ST's, then logically it's more important. How else to convert the no-shows into bums on seats. And selling the same seat twice is great business.

So rather than tell us it's a poor, manual process (which anybody who's used it would know), my suggestion was that PB and team might want to fix it. I know he says we are "working towards" it but where I've worked that's usually management speak for "if we get round to it".

To be fair to the club, there has been little demand for a ticket exchange prior to now. Only a couple of games sold out last season - I'm not even sure the play-off semi-final home leg was a full sellout in the end. So, regardless of cost, ticket exchange bolt-on functionality was not really needed.

What does seem strange though is that, from the outside at least, there seems to have been little plan in place to quickly implement something should there be demand in place, which is where we now seem to be.

As someone who made use of the ticket exchange for the QPR game, it's ridiculously poor. I submitted two SurveyMonkey requests and only one seemed to have been taken by the club. I phoned supporter services who confirmed that only one of my tickets had gone for re-sale. They were not able to offer what would have been the best solution "let me put your second ticket up for re-sale now", they could only suggest I re-visit SurveyMonkey and have another go.

When a fan click submit on SurveyMonkey it all disappears into a black hole and the fan has to cross their fingers that it's worked. Eventually an email should be received from the club, which is essentially the deactivation of the season ticket for the fixture in question. From there, no communication is received until such time as a club shop voucher arrives in the post. If that voucher doesn't appear it could mean one of several things...

- The seat wasn't put up for re-sale
- The seat was put up for re-sale but wasn't actually re-sold
- The seat was re-sold but the manual process fell down and no voucher was despatched
- The seat was re-sold, the voucher was despatched but got lost in the post

All in all, a horrible and clunky process for everyone involved.

 

[Bozza]

Is it just me that has a vision of PB laying in bed with his BHA dressing gown on, boiled egg on a tray 'answering these bl00dy emails'?

Just you, yes. My vision doesn't have him in a dressing gown.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Just you, yes. My vision doesn't have him in a dressing gown.

I have him stoking a fluffy cat instead of a boiled egg.

 

[nwgull]

Still not a fan of Barber.

I think the headmaster theme is a good one. Barber may be the head but TB is the Chairman of the governing board. Barber runs the club and makes all the penny pinching decisions which just serve to annoy supporters (no match day exchanges, stopping money off discounts, a rubbish ticket exchange which he won't upgrade etc), but the real decisions are taken by TB.

Some may disagree but I've always found him quite patronising in his explanations for trivial penny pinching. It's clear to me that this stuff has little bearing on FFP compared with the real transfer expenditure decisions which are obviously made by TB.

Barber is just TB's gofer really. I think TB is pretty clever in deflecting all the crappy stuff to Barber and avoiding being seen to be responsible himself. Still Barber gets pretty well paid for his troubles.......


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think that maximising income, or 'penny pinching' as you call it, is an important job for a club that's losing 2m a month.

The patronising tone (which I don't see myself) may be because he explains decisions so fully, so that everyone can understand the reasons.

 

[goldstone]

I don't want a return to terracing, I want to be able to stand at home matches without some utter knob tapping me on the shoulder.

Then you are a selfish bast**d. The bloke behind you and the one behind him and the one behind him might want to sit. As far as I'm concerned you should sit in seated areas.

 

[Steve in Japan]

To be fair to the club, there has been little demand for a ticket exchange prior to now. Only a couple of games sold out last season - I'm not even sure the play-off semi-final home leg was a full sellout in the end. So, regardless of cost, ticket exchange bolt-on functionality was not really needed.

What does seem strange though is that, from the outside at least, there seems to have been little plan in place to quickly implement something should there be demand in place, which is where we now seem to be.

As someone who made use of the ticket exchange for the QPR game, it's ridiculously poor. I submitted two SurveyMonkey requests and only one seemed to have been taken by the club. I phoned supporter services who confirmed that only one of my tickets had gone for re-sale. They were not able to offer what would have been the best solution "let me put your second ticket up for re-sale now", they could only suggest I re-visit SurveyMonkey and have another go.

When a fan click submit on SurveyMonkey it all disappears into a black hole and the fan has to cross their fingers that it's worked. Eventually an email should be received from the club, which is essentially the deactivation of the season ticket for the fixture in question. From there, no communication is received until such time as a club shop voucher arrives in the post. If that voucher doesn't appear it could mean one of several things...

- The seat wasn't put up for re-sale
- The seat was put up for re-sale but wasn't actually re-sold
- The seat was re-sold but the manual process fell down and no voucher was despatched
- The seat was re-sold, the voucher was despatched but got lost in the post

All in all, a horrible and clunky process for everyone involved.

Very well put. A transparent and simple process where you can put the seats on offer online, accept/decline voucher should seats be sold, and see status (sold/unsold) would be excellent.

 

[goldstone]

PB is quoting 200 resold tickets for QPR as a super acheivement but the simple fact that the game was officially sold out nearly a week before, that there were hundreds more (maybe 1000's) of empties and a clear demand suggests there is huge room for improvement, not only in the process of offering a ticket for exchange but how its communicated.

I had a spare ticket for the QPR game. I had a look at the Seagulls website and there most certainly wasn't any clear indication as to how to access the ticket exchange arrangement ... so I gave up. It would have been very simple if we could still buy/sell tickets on NSC. That always worked a treat .... until the club stopped it.

 

[El Presidente]

Still not a fan of Barber.

I think the headmaster theme is a good one. Barber may be the head but TB is the Chairman of the governing board. Barber runs the club and makes all the penny pinching decisions which just serve to annoy supporters (no match day exchanges, stopping money off discounts, a rubbish ticket exchange which he won't upgrade etc), but the real decisions are taken by TB.

Some may disagree but I've always found him quite patronising in his explanations for trivial penny pinching. It's clear to me that this stuff has little bearing on FFP compared with the real transfer expenditure decisions which are obviously made by TB.

Barber is just TB's gofer really. I think TB is pretty clever in deflecting all the crappy stuff to Barber and avoiding being seen to be responsible himself. Still Barber gets pretty well paid for his troubles.......


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think you are being harsh. I have had a few run ins with PB, but he doesn't bear grudges, and sometimes you have to agree to disagree on matters. He's paid by TB to make decisions in the best interests of the club, and whilst there are areas that are still in need of attention (the ticket exchange being a prime example), the club, IMO, get far more things right than wrong.

What you refer to as 'penny pinching' has resulted in the club reducing non playing costs by about £3-4 million a season over the last few years, and it's been achieved by an almost obsessive attention to detail. Without such an approach either (a) the playing budget would have been cut and/or (b) we would have failed to meet FFP targets and be facing penalties as a consequence.

I'm fortunate enough to teach quite a few people in the game who work either for clubs or organising bodies, and PB is streets ahead.

 

[chaileyjem]

thank god for that.

"we are not looking at goal celebration music, we will not enhance crowd noise, and the general feeling is that the introduction of musical instruments would not be welcome by the majority of supporters. "

 

[Biscuit]

All pretty common sense answers from Barber. Nice to have it clarified though,

It amazes me the never ending list of tedium that our fans get upset about. It beggars belief when everything on the pitch is looking so rosy!

 

[Lower West Stander]

I think you are being harsh. I have had a few run ins with PB, but he doesn't bear grudges, and sometimes you have to agree to disagree on matters. He's paid by TB to make decisions in the best interests of the club, and whilst there are areas that are still in need of attention (the ticket exchange being a prime example), the club, IMO, get far more things right than wrong.

What you refer to as 'penny pinching' has resulted in the club reducing non playing costs by about £3-4 million a season over the last few years, and it's been achieved by an almost obsessive attention to detail. Without such an approach either (a) the playing budget would have been cut and/or (b) we would have failed to meet FFP targets and be facing penalties as a consequence.

I'm fortunate enough to teach quite a few people in the game who work either for clubs or organising bodies, and PB is streets ahead.

Fair enough.

I fully accept the club is very well run in comparison to some of the shitshows out there and I don't begrudge Barber his money for overseeing a tight ship. I guess a just struggle to see the business aspect in some of the decisions made by the club when operating costs are so heavily dwarfed by transfer fees.

 

[FatSuperman]

How is this going to cause hell for some people?

Giving away free stuff to kids doesn't really say soulless, commercial juggernaut to me

Was just referencing a modern classic NSC thread about the current rules around the Junior Seagulls free shirt.

 

[BN9 BHA]

thank god for that.

"we are not looking at goal celebration music, we will not enhance crowd noise, and the general feeling is that the introduction of musical instruments would not be welcome by the majority of supporters. "

I have always said PB is a sensible chap.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Was just referencing a modern classic NSC thread about the current rules around the Junior Seagulls free shirt.

Indeed, one for the archives. https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?343953-Poor-show-BHAFC-very-poor-show

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Not sure why, works ok for me?

It's on the club site still "ticketing travel and retail" in the latest news.

Thanks, found the article.

Guess it's a Tapatalk issue with the link.

 

[BadFish]

Was just referencing a modern classic NSC thread about the current rules around the Junior Seagulls free shirt.

I think i missed that one will have a look

 

[The Oldman]

I sent a question to PB at 6:58am this morning in relation to last night's postponed match.

Had a full, considered and professional reply at 7:08am.

Compared to other clubs we do get a very good level of communication from the Albion.

He was live on BBC Sussex this morning between 7.00 and 7.30 explaining what was considered in postponing the match.

 

[Langley]

I don't want a return to terracing, I want to be able to stand at home matches without some utter knob tapping me on the shoulder.

You are the knob, he paid to sit and watch the match, not to stare at you back, it is you breaking the rules by standing.why not move your seat to, say the back of the North stand.

 

[Nixonator]

You are the knob, he paid to sit and watch the match, not to stare at you back, it is you breaking the rules by standing.why not move your seat to, say the back of the North stand.

It was as far back in the NS as I could get tickets for. Nice comment though.