[Albion] The Tunnel Club

[Mad as my Mother]

Scotch eggs and a view of the players in fog? Best ten grand you could ever spend.

Not to mention the non-removed bottle tops

 

[Arthur]

1901 has gone to shit over the last couple of years and this tunnel club is probably the final straw for me. It’s like one of those posh cinemas with food and drink being served during the game. Post game they were still all out there with someone on the door of MWB stopping normal 1901 plebs bothering them.

Not sure how the club think they can offer a premier service when the employ such awful catering staff. Appreciate its difficult when they only get to practice once a fortnight but if they are university students you’d expect them to have a bit of common sense and to have been in a bar before.

Oh and whoever thought it was a good idea to get rid of takeaway food needs sacking £10 for a sausage roll because it comes on a plate……f*** off!

 

[ElectricNaz]

Anyone spending £10k a year on watching football is thick as shit. Don't mind that they have money, but £500 a game for a 5 course meal and football. That's stupid.

Five pies and a match ticket (ST) costs £58 a game. Can't see how a window and different food costs £442

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Anyone spending £10k a year on watching football is thick as shit. Don't mind that they have money, but £500 a game for a 5 course meal and football. That's stupid.

Five pies and a match ticket (ST) costs £58 a game. Can't see how a window and different food costs £442

Two words. Scotch. Egg.

 

[seagull_si]

I'm trying to figure out the timing of that shot...

- The diners appear to be having their starter, so a lot of their meal still to come (although there is coffee on the table too)
- Are the players heading in or out? No mascots in sight and Dunk isn't at the front. I guess this could be as they leave the dressing room before they reach the mascots and Dunk takes the lead.

Could be as they come out for the 2nd half? I was in hospitality at spurs last year and we got a sausage roll at half time. Scotch egg is a similar snack?

 

[Beach Hut]

I'm trying to figure out the timing of that shot...

- The diners appear to be having their starter, so a lot of their meal still to come (although there is coffee on the table too)
- Are the players heading in or out? No mascots in sight and Dunk isn't at the front. I guess this could be as they leave the dressing room before they reach the mascots and Dunk takes the lead.

Surely the players are heading out as the TV screen says please take your seats

 

[dwayne]

Two words. Scotch. Egg.

I once went to an expensive restaurant in Vegas and they served me a scotch egg and tried to give me a speech on how this was high end fare in good ole England.

Hilarious

 

[Hovegull]

I still can’t get my head around it. Surely a football fan wants to see players on the pitch, not in the tunnel?

What’s next….£15k to sit on the players coach during the game and watch the action from a TV stream?

 

[ElectricNaz]

I still can’t get my head around it. Surely a football fan wants to see players on the pitch, not in the tunnel?

What’s next….£15k to sit on the players coach during the game and watch the action from a TV stream?

I'm in. Tbf travel to the game on the coach and thats an extra £10k. Selling my house now because of the potential

 

[Arthur]

Surely the players are heading out as the TV screen says please take your seats

I hate that f***ing screen. Yesterday they hadn’t even got through the championship half times on soccer Saturday when they put it on the screens.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

To clarify, the old press box has been effectively split in two with tunnel club members seated in what was the central area. Instead of pairs of desks allowing easy access, we now have rows of four seats, meaning that the occupants of the two seats in the centre of the rows have to inconvenience others and get past trailing cables etc. Plus you can't always see what's going on when waiting staff are taking food and drink to tunnel club members. Not the most convenient arrangement for professionals trying to do a job, although I believe I hear the sound of tiny violins.

It also means that some members of His Majesty's Press are sent up to the overspill in the back row of WSU, but as they are allowed to use the service lift that can almost be a better option, especially when it's raining.

No.....the old press box hasn't been split in two. The Tunnel Club have been allocated at least 2/3 if not 3/4 of the press area. The journalists are squeezed at both ends, with rows of four seats together. The large screens that were located on their stations have disappeared and been replaced by small tablets, two per four seats. Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall are at one end, sharing a station with three other journo's. They sit shoulder to shoulder, with little or no room to operate and no privacy.
Yesterday was a mess in the ' press area ' Journo's who arrived early, set up all their equipment and then were finding out that latercomers were allocated a seat the other side of them and couldn't access it. Once a member of the press was seated, it was impossible for another to pass them to get to theirs. It was too small and too cramped. Equipment and bags were being moved. Tempers were fraying and some still hadn't got settled near kick off.
The Tunnel Club have got 60 seats. They are like armchairs. Considerably more sumptuous than mere season ticket holders. Most arrived between 2.55pm and 3.05 pm, with their special lanyards and sunk back into their seats. I watched most of this unfold. It left me feeling, at the least, disappointed. If we can't provide comfortable and professional facility for the press, in a stadium of our size and from a club with our reputation, then its a sorry state of affairs.
It feels like another exercise in squeezing another hospitality area into the ground and of course, increasing revenue but to do it at the expense of the press is wrong. We will get a reputation of not looking after the press. Senior hacks will not want to work like sardines in a tin and will send juniors to cover our games or even, no one at all.

 

[BN9 BHA]

When I see The Tunnel Club mentioned I can only think of this

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Two words. Scotch. Egg.

That you don’t even have to cut

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

“Oh, you’re only regular 1901, I see”

We’ve come a long long way together….

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No.....the old press box hasn't been split in two. The Tunnel Club have been allocated at least 2/3 if not 3/4 of the press area. The journalists are squeezed at both ends, with rows of four seats together. The large screens that were located on their stations have disappeared and been replaced by small tablets, two per four seats. Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall are at one end, sharing a station with three other journo's. They sit shoulder to shoulder, with little or no room to operate and no privacy.
Yesterday was a mess in the ' press area ' Journo's who arrived early, set up all their equipment and then were finding out that latercomers were allocated a seat the other side of them and couldn't access it. Once a member of the press was seated, it was impossible for another to pass them to get to theirs. It was too small and too cramped. Equipment and bags were being moved. Tempers were fraying and some still hadn't got settled near kick off.
The Tunnel Club have got 60 seats. They are like armchairs. Considerably more sumptuous than mere season ticket holders. Most arrived between 2.55pm and 3.05 pm, with their special lanyards and sunk back into their seats. I watched most of this unfold. It left me feeling, at the least, disappointed. If we can't provide comfortable and professional facility for the press, in a stadium of our size and from a club with our reputation, then its a sorry state of affairs.
It feels like another exercise in squeezing another hospitality area into the ground and of course, increasing revenue but to do it at the expense of the press is wrong. We will get a reputation of not looking after the press. Senior hacks will not want to work like sardines in a tin and will send juniors to cover our games or even, no one at all.

This is a disappointing read.

 

[Easy 10]

I still can’t get my head around it. Surely a football fan wants to see players on the pitch, not in the tunnel?

What’s next….£15k to sit on the players coach during the game and watch the action from a TV stream?

Its not designed for football fans.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

“Oh, you’re only regular 1901, I see”

We’ve come a long long way together….

Judging by other current threads, looks very much like the 1901 is being softened up for splitting into Silver, Gold, Platinum membership tiers. And just wait til the club starts in on slum clearance of the NS, re-branding it as 'Premium Ringside Seats To The Action'. Think it won't happen? Watch this space

 

[trueblue]

I still can’t get my head around it. Surely a football fan wants to see players on the pitch, not in the tunnel?

What’s next….£15k to sit on the players coach during the game and watch the action from a TV stream?

I think Tunnel Club fans want to be seen on Instagram and say they were at a Premier League game, especially if we're playing Manchester United/City, Chelsea etc. The football is largely irrelevant.

 

[amexer]

Hospitality priority, Lack of staff for food on concourse, travel etc should have been discussed at fans forum not who did mananger suppurt as a boy Will he manage Southampton etc

 

[trueblue]

No.....the old press box hasn't been split in two. The Tunnel Club have been allocated at least 2/3 if not 3/4 of the press area. The journalists are squeezed at both ends, with rows of four seats together. The large screens that were located on their stations have disappeared and been replaced by small tablets, two per four seats. Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall are at one end, sharing a station with three other journo's. They sit shoulder to shoulder, with little or no room to operate and no privacy.
Yesterday was a mess in the ' press area ' Journo's who arrived early, set up all their equipment and then were finding out that latercomers were allocated a seat the other side of them and couldn't access it. Once a member of the press was seated, it was impossible for another to pass them to get to theirs. It was too small and too cramped. Equipment and bags were being moved. Tempers were fraying and some still hadn't got settled near kick off.
The Tunnel Club have got 60 seats. They are like armchairs. Considerably more sumptuous than mere season ticket holders. Most arrived between 2.55pm and 3.05 pm, with their special lanyards and sunk back into their seats. I watched most of this unfold. It left me feeling, at the least, disappointed. If we can't provide comfortable and professional facility for the press, in a stadium of our size and from a club with our reputation, then its a sorry state of affairs.
It feels like another exercise in squeezing another hospitality area into the ground and of course, increasing revenue but to do it at the expense of the press is wrong. We will get a reputation of not looking after the press. Senior hacks will not want to work like sardines in a tin and will send juniors to cover our games or even, no one at all.

I'm with you but, if it's 10k per membership per season, probably fair to say that £600,000 p.a. is considered good business compared to providing free seats for the press. The publicity has a value but at Premier League level there's no lack of publicity regardless. It's only TV companies stumping up huge amounts to cover matches and they're not affected by the changes.