Paul Barber: his best and his worst decision to date - in your opinion.

[Withdean Wanderer]

The club have been very dense to ignore the student population.

Their first effort was laughable.

They don't seem to be very good at ensuring the seats are full. Whether that be pricing or complacency.

Disagree, I wouldn't say they've been completely dense. The Amex has been, in the main, full. Discounted pricing hasn't been required, and therefore the club have avoided a culture where people expect to be able to pick up tickets on the cheap because it's so much easier to watch Brighton now they're at a 30,000 stadium.

Where the club have (in my opinion) been foolish is not to be a bit more flexible with matchday pricing, Tuesday night games in particular. Would any season ticket holders really care if Tuesday night games were £20 in all areas of the ground to try and get it full? I know I wouldn't. While it's good that this is being addressed next year with A, B and C games, I think they could have intervened at a much earlier stage when it became apparent early on in the season that selling out Tuesday nights would be a big struggle.

 

[The Large One]

It certainly will be more telling, but I can't think of that many professions where you get a 2 year probation and don't get judged in that time!

WE can judge him then. The club and rest of the board will have a much better idea way before that, if not already.

 

[Ringmer Seagull]

I think Paul Barber was a good appointment and is exactly what we need to take us forward. That said , I am amazed that no one on this thread has mentioned his worst mistake: calling the fans "customers". I am sure for the many JCLs it means nothing but for those of us who went through the dark days it was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

WE can judge him then. The club and rest of the board will have a much better idea way before that, if not already.

To a certain extent, but the CEO of a football club is quite different to the majority of CEO's in that they are the face of the organisation to the clubs fans, who are very different to your normal, erm, customers, and therefore maintaining a good relationship with them is something you'll be judged on, long before the accounts get published.

 

[bhabrian]

telling us all off collectively in the bolton program,regardless of the fact he should of addressed a few idiots

 

[ac gull]

Starting to make changes before explaining why first i.e saying about £8m losses earlier

Getting rid of Azure his best decision

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Best decision - Bizarrely its with the ST price increases, got it spot on in my eyes.
Worst decision - Calling fans "customers"

 

[8ace]

If all Boxing Day games are now away

Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

 

[Philzo-93]

I'm going to wait for his best in the summer, he is after all employed for sponsorship and transfer dealings too!

Be very interesting to see his REAL talent!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Get Gullys Girls back and he'd appease a fair number of fans. Frankly bizarre decision which he has never explained properly, any questioning on the subject and he gets all cagey and overly defensive - odd.

He did explain it, in full, in the match day programme. His programme notes are on here as well.

 

[Knotty]

Obviously, there isn't a definitive list of which decisions have been Mr Barber's handiwork, so we'll just have to use our judgement on that.

That's the problem with this thread - our judgement has, of necessity to be based on little or no knowledge of the facts which is a very poor basis on which to make any judgement.

Which of the contentious issues have been his decisions and his alone?

Which have been his ideas and agreed by the Chairman and the Board?

Which have come from the Board and merely implemented by Barber?

If he is to be praised for some decisions then so must the Board because they will have ratified those decisions. But, by the same token, criticism of certain policies should be directed at the Board too, not just Barber.

 

[Knotty]

Best decision - Bizarrely its with the ST price increases, got it spot on in my eyes.
Worst decision - Calling fans "customers"

Am I the only one who is not the least bit bothered about being called a customer? From the first time any one of us bought a match ticket, or even a just keyring from the shop, we were a customer.

I was a fan for ten years before I was a customer, but I didn't then change from one to the other.

 

[El Presidente]

Agreed. Although strictly speaking, the NSC exchange was actually illegal, but to have it closed down comes across as petty.

Not many people really care that much about Gully's Girls, US. I quite liked them but really getting rid of them hardly ranks as a bad decision let alone the worst IMO. You don't see people looking around whistfully at half time thinking "I'd really love to see Gully's Girls back for the visit of Huddersfield Town".

I suspect some would rather see Gully's Girls on the pitch against Huddersfield than Ashley Barnes.

 

[The Large One]

Get Gullys Girls back and he'd appease a fair number of fans. Frankly bizarre decision which he has never explained properly, any questioning on the subject and he gets all cagey and overly defensive - odd.

He has explained by use of plain English.

What I suspect you mean is he hasn't given an explanation you want to hear.

Besides - the supposedly mythical, non-existent Gully's Girls will be sending a team to this week's REMF Quiz Night.

 

[Hotchilidog]

I think Barber has got off to a decent start. Getting rid of Azure showed a willingness to deal with problems head on without messing around. The ST increases have been reasonable so far (I reserve judgement on any PL increases should they be needed though). I like the way he engages with the fans and his programme notes are actually quite informative and answer many of our queries directly whether we like the answers or not.

His biggest test will come with the deals that he has been hired to strike, so we wait with baited breath for the new kit sponsor, catering deal, and associated commercial deals.

As for his worst, well I'm not bothered about the 'customers' reference I think people have been way too precious about it, but I was sad to see Gullys Girls though as they were very good at what they did. Whilst I accept Barber's explanation, I still think they could have been kept on as on pitch entertainment.

 

[Gazwag]

Worst - getting rid of Gully's Girls, Saturday's effort was shambolic.

I agree with you there, I almost called a St John volunteer over as I thought they were all having epileptic fits - I have nothing against kids performing but please do some practice before you join in, it seemed they got 20 kids from the stand, put them in a jumper and said "dance".

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

He has explained by use of plain English.

What I suspect you mean is he hasn't given an explanation you want to hear.

Besides - the supposedly mythical, non-existent Gully's Girls will be sending a team to this week's REMF Quiz Night.

Will they be dancing Al ? And for the record Barber was wrong on this one.

 

[The Large One]

Will they be dancing Al ? And for the record Barber was wrong on this one.

Is that all you think they do? Shame on you.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Will they be dancing Al ? And for the record Barber was wrong on this one.

Come on. At best they were amateur and at worst sexist crap. That said I did rather like Billie.

 

[Marshy]

Not having Gully's Girls is a definate miss in my Opinion, and that of my 10 year old lad.

Jo is now doing an awesome Job with Gully's Gang however.