1901 Club are paying over the odds, much of it up front. There are clear and necessary financial reasons for the club doing this. I'm thrilled that the club has done this so well that they have had to find more "expensive" seats to sell. All this will help our great club to grow and thrive.
I have not bought a 1901 seat - although I did consider it. I drive down from Kent and frankly the parking has an appeal. But I can't justify the additional costs. So it's P&R for me as it is every game at Withdean.
A few things do strike me:
- I'm disappointed that ALL the premium seats in the stadium have had to be used for the 1901 Club, but completely understand why;
- 1901 membership is not a lot more in than the top season ticket prices (around a grand as opposed to £600 - about £1 a day extra). Because of this, it is patently childish to label everyone in the 1901 club as prawn sandwich brigade. Many of these people will be normal fans like you and me;
- I've seen the list of companies who have signed up for seats - frankly, the majority are electricians; garages; builders; pubs; fire alarm companies; glassworks etc etc and small companies from all over Brighton. Don't kid yourself these are primarily faceless corporates of the type they get at The Emirates at al;
- there are thousands and thousands of seats left for the rest of us. We won't get as good a choce of location as we would have done, but we've agreed above that we had to sacrifice those seats;
BUT
The literature about the 1901 club clearly says that one of the benefits is "Priority tickets to "A" list away games". (whatever an A list game is). My personal view is that this wasn't necessary. 1901 is about the Falmer experience, and it wasn't necessary to gild the lilly like this. Especially as it might be at the expense of die-hard fans getting away tickets.
The flip side of this is that bar the really big away games, like huge cup games, or whisper it, Premiership away games, there won't be a problem. The 1901 club members who signed up for business won't got to away games and those that will go away are probably the fans just like you and me who joined 1901 for their own reasons and who would be competing with you/me for away tickets anyway.
Conclusion: necessary, and very succesful, fund raising but with one ill thought out benefit that could have been omitted with no effect on sales.
I have not bought a 1901 seat - although I did consider it. I drive down from Kent and frankly the parking has an appeal. But I can't justify the additional costs. So it's P&R for me as it is every game at Withdean.
A few things do strike me:
- I'm disappointed that ALL the premium seats in the stadium have had to be used for the 1901 Club, but completely understand why;
- 1901 membership is not a lot more in than the top season ticket prices (around a grand as opposed to £600 - about £1 a day extra). Because of this, it is patently childish to label everyone in the 1901 club as prawn sandwich brigade. Many of these people will be normal fans like you and me;
- I've seen the list of companies who have signed up for seats - frankly, the majority are electricians; garages; builders; pubs; fire alarm companies; glassworks etc etc and small companies from all over Brighton. Don't kid yourself these are primarily faceless corporates of the type they get at The Emirates at al;
- there are thousands and thousands of seats left for the rest of us. We won't get as good a choce of location as we would have done, but we've agreed above that we had to sacrifice those seats;
BUT
The literature about the 1901 club clearly says that one of the benefits is "Priority tickets to "A" list away games". (whatever an A list game is). My personal view is that this wasn't necessary. 1901 is about the Falmer experience, and it wasn't necessary to gild the lilly like this. Especially as it might be at the expense of die-hard fans getting away tickets.
The flip side of this is that bar the really big away games, like huge cup games, or whisper it, Premiership away games, there won't be a problem. The 1901 club members who signed up for business won't got to away games and those that will go away are probably the fans just like you and me who joined 1901 for their own reasons and who would be competing with you/me for away tickets anyway.
Conclusion: necessary, and very succesful, fund raising but with one ill thought out benefit that could have been omitted with no effect on sales.
