Up to 18 Albion staff to lose jobs.

[rouseytastic]

I have been told by someone who job was on the line but now is safe, that the ticket office is going to be dealt with a call centre away from the ground.

Other jobs that are going are people who work in the club shop and reduced hours expected for part timers.

Remember the 'other' sponsorship announcement a few months back. I and someone else on here used to work at this place. I for one and not looking forward to this aspect of my new 'holistic' Albion experience!

WILL be a shambles

 

[Garage_Doors]

While it is sad for those involved, most aspects of BHAFC do seem to be overstaffed to me. Good on Paul Barber for swinging the axe, as that is 1/8 of our loss wiped out.

What aspects are you refering to? The staff concerned are not those on view on match days.

 

[Brovion]

If anyone is to blame for spiralling costs and the 'little people' being laid off it is the players and their ever increasing wage demands.

And perhaps the fans that demand that a club ignore financial reality when building a playing squad

This applies to most clubs of course, not just Brighton

Exactly. How often do we hear that so-and-so is 'only' on £4000 a week? That's £208,000 a year. Some of our players are rumoured to be on nearer £8000 a week. That's £416,000 a year. Per player! We could get rid of Harley say and employ two more Paul Barbers ...

 

[eastlondonseagull]

How many in AITC will lose their jobs, I wonder...

 

[somerset]

I very much agree with the last part of this post. The Albion Ticket Office for me, receive an awful lot of unjustified flak. In nearly thirty years of watching the Club, and having had literally hundreds of dealings with them, they have always acted in a very professional manner, and in ninety odd percent of cases I have obtained exactly what I wanted. I very much hope that their number isn't reduced in this cost cutting process.

I very much doubt the ticket office staff would feel the squeeze, they are as you say, a credit to the club, in my experience anyway, and don't forget this is the front line line of revenue generation, tickets and bums on seats, any shortcuts here would be false economy.

 

[somerset]

How many in AITC will lose their jobs, I wonder...

Not in scope at the moment according to the official communication.

 

[ROSM]

Not in scope at the moment according to the official communication.

Given that aitc is a charity, run by trustees, and not fully 'owned' by the club, I find the comment of 'not in scope at the moment' quite enlightening.

 

[essexeagle]

I also visit grounds all over the country and getting away from most of them takes an hour or so on average so to single out The Amex is plain lazy.

You should try getting to and from your place-especially if you are a Brighton fan. It is beyond abysmal.

Because you are unable to park right outside The Amex does not make the transport infrastructure 'woeful'. Have you tried going to Reading? West Ham? Charlton? any other London club? All fecking abysmal to get to and away from. The Amex infrastructure means that you walk 200 metres to the station and with crowds of over 25,000 for every game that means you are going to have to wait to get on a train-it isn't rocket science is it? Same for the Park and Ride buses-everybody cannot get on the first few buses so there will some waiting involved. Away fans have a 50 metre walk to get on the Park n Ride (apart from you lot who can't be relied on to act normal so you need to be escorted away). No stadium in the world can disperse a 25,000-30,000 crowd without there being a wait for most people. Even getting away from Selhurst is difficult for the 12-15,000 you have been getting during your good run. To say The Amex is any more difficult to get to and from than any other 25-30,000 attendance is, frankly, bollox.

I have been to Reading loads of times. There is a car park for a few quid within 10 mins walk. Easy. West Ham and the clowns...street parking everywhere, just as simple. The option of parking miles away and then waiting for busses just doesn't appeal to me Bwian, especially being surrounded by Tesco shirts, I might catch something! As for Selhurst, again, loads of street parking and if you wanted to go by train there are 3 mainline stations within a 10 min walk. How easy is that? As for Amex there is one small mickey mouse station that can handle a single 4 carriage train, that's all.
Look, I do understand the restrictions you had to accept to get the ground built but nice as the actual ground is, I'm pleased I don't have to put up with all that hassle for every home match.
I'm sorry for taking the thread away from the redundancy thing but I just wanted to reply to your points.

 

[Hillian1]

I have been to Reading loads of times. There is a car park for a few quid within 10 mins walk. Easy. West Ham and the clowns...street parking everywhere, just as simple. The option of parking miles away and then waiting for busses just doesn't appeal to me Bwian, especially being surrounded by Tesco shirts, I might catch something! As for Selhurst, again, loads of street parking and if you wanted to go by train there are 3 mainline stations within a 10 min walk. How easy is that? As for Amex there is one small mickey mouse station that can handle a single 4 carriage train, that's all.
Look, I do understand the restrictions you had to accept to get the ground built but nice as the actual ground is, I'm pleased I don't have to put up with all that hassle for every home match.
I'm sorry for taking the thread away from the redundancy thing but I just wanted to reply to your points.

I'm glad it pisses you off.

 

[essexeagle]

I'm glad it pisses you off.

Well I don't have to worry about it any more, do I?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I very much doubt the ticket office staff would feel the squeeze, they are as you say, a credit to the club, in my experience anyway, and don't forget this is the front line line of revenue generation, tickets and bums on seats, any shortcuts here would be false economy.

The only change I can see which might save money is to centralise phone bookings/enquiries for tickets (some of this work is already outsourced to a call centre) so The Amex and Queens Road ticket offices only deal with the postal and personal sales.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Well I don't have to worry about it any more, do I?

A good and valid point.

 

[Bruno]

I would add to that there are way too many staff in 1901. I don't need someone to open the door for me and another person to say hello. Complete waste of money.

You miserable bar steward - you really object to someone greeting you and holding the door open for you. Next time you go to 1901 make sure you wear an appropriate badge so the stewards can swear at you as you go past and slam the door in your face.

When things are going smoothly as they normally do in 1901, it may seem as if there are too many stewards but if an incident occurred then you would be glad of them. I expect you are one of those people complaining about the wrong people getting into your lounge when they shouldn't t be there. Well if there were less stewards around there would certainly be more undesirables in your 1901 area!

Finally Paul Barber is clearing up the mess he inherited from Ken Brown. A bulge of middle management excised at a stroke to save the club about £1M a year with their job responsibilities spread amongst those left or devolved to lower management. Who is next ? The staffing levels of stewards and security will have come under severe scrutiny , is there an over reliance on agency workers ? Surely it is cheaper to employ a steward on say £10 an hour than a steward to be paid £10 an hour by an agency who then invoice the club at £15 an hour to cover overheads ?

I am sure most of the stewards would love £10 an hour!

The reason why there are so many stewards is linked to the safety certificate and ongoing work at the Amex last season.

In order to satisfy the safety officer, the club had to employ more stewards than they felt necessary. This season, because there has been a lot of construction work during the season, there has had to be extra security and stewarding for H&S reasons.

Now that the club have proven to the authorities that the running of the Amex is both professional and reliable from a transport and H&S perspective the council are prepared to reduce the number of stewards from next season.

It won't make a mammoth difference to the accounts though. 50 stewards x £15 an hour x 6 hour shift x 25 matches = a saving of £112,500.

Mostly correct however the majority of stewards are on less than half that hourly rate. For crowds of 25,000+ there will be a minimum number of stewards required, probably around 300, to satisfy safety licences etc.

Is there scope to lose 100 stewards ?

No!

 

[bravohotelalpha]

How many in AITC will lose their jobs, I wonder...

Well they have already got rid of the two directors ...

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

I have been to Reading loads of times. There is a car park for a few quid within 10 mins walk. Easy. West Ham and the clowns...street parking everywhere, just as simple. The option of parking miles away and then waiting for busses just doesn't appeal to me Bwian, especially being surrounded by Tesco shirts, I might catch something! As for Selhurst, again, loads of street parking and if you wanted to go by train there are 3 mainline stations within a 10 min walk. How easy is that? As for Amex there is one small mickey mouse station that can handle a single 4 carriage train, that's all.
Look, I do understand the restrictions you had to accept to get the ground built but nice as the actual ground is, I'm pleased I don't have to put up with all that hassle for every home match.
I'm sorry for taking the thread away from the redundancy thing but I just wanted to reply to your points.

It takes 8 carriage trains, and I stay back for 1 pint after the game and then walk straight onto the platform, no hassle at all..

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

When things are going smoothly as they normally do in 1901, it may seem as if there are too many stewards but if an incident occurred then you would be glad of them. I expect you are one of those people complaining about the wrong people getting into your lounge when they shouldn't t be there. Well if there were less stewards around there would certainly be more undesirables in your 1901 area!

Actually I disagree, there are too many stewards in the 1901 area. Whilst I agree regarding the welcome and Host, there do seem an excessive number of stewards, and I can only think of one incident in the last two seasons. (Somebody taking alcohol outside when they had been asked not to).

I did write to Paul Barber regarding the number of stewards and he did confirm this would be reviewed, but was dependent on the Health & Safety certificate etc....

 

[Bruno]

Actually I disagree, there are too many stewards in the 1901 area. Whilst I agree regarding the welcome and Host, there do seem an excessive number of stewards, and I can only think of one incident in the last two seasons. (Somebody taking alcohol outside when they had been asked not to).

I did write to Paul Barber regarding the number of stewards and he did confirm this would be reviewed, but was dependent on the Health & Safety certificate etc....

Have you not thought that it might be because of the stewards that there aren't many incidents? And if they weren't there that there might be more incidents? Prevention rather than cure.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

there do seem an excessive number of stewards, and I can only think of one incident in the last two seasons

Couldn't agree more.

Crime seems to be falling in recent years. I might write to David Cameron & tell him we need far fewer police on the streets.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Have you not thought that it might be because of the stewards that there aren't many incidents? And if they weren't there that there might be more incidents? Prevention rather than cure.

How about the fact that people are paying an excessive amount to sit in the 1901 so perhaps they're more inclined to behave, rather than be ejected and have their ticket removed for a period of games?

Clearly there are not the same issues regarding standing for example.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Couldn't agree more.

Crime seems to be falling in recent years. I might write to David Cameron & tell him we need far fewer police on the streets.

Great comparison!

How about we appoint more Community Officers rolleyes