[Albion] Seagull travel next season

sussex_guy2k2 said:

where kids were after the other team's autograph:

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chaileyjem said:

There's one well known example of this - the kid who asked and received Eden Hazard's shirt last January. He was, his uncle admitted, a Chelsea fan who had secured tickets in the Albion end (east stand) and didn't even live in Sussex. .
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...-gives-shirt-to-young-fan-two-goals-brighton/

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sussex_guy2k2 said:

My experience of Mill Road, in particular, isn't great. We used it for a season and the organisation pre-game was really poor. To get on the first, second or third batch of buses, you had to leave the game early. Not doing so led to us, at times, waiting in a queue for over an hour and a half. I'd call that a shambles. For us, that then led to a journey of 45 minutes plus to get home, which was almost untenable on a weekday game.

Furthermore, to ensure we got into Mill Road, we often had to be there 2 and a half hours before the game; often on arrival we'd be waiting for an hour for a bus because of the mass disorganisation. That's fine if you have a totally free weekend (four of us used to share a car and we all have varying work schedules so this simply never happened). But ultimately, it extends the day and almost, at times, makes it an away game for us fans from further afield. For me that's a bit of a shambles.

So all in all, whilst you may have had good experiences of it, I definitely have not.

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clapham_gull said:

My understanding (may be wrong) the subsidy is being removed from other coach operators.

You have to remember back to the time when this was all being set up.

The club needed to provide incentives for private groups to provide better means of transport than simply arriving by car. That was a requirement for the planning permission for the stadium.

A lot of people put a lot of their free time into organising these groups, most I'd imagine running on a non profit basis - safely getting people in and out of the stadium.

I don't run one, but if I did - it feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Every week they are actively helping to generate income for the club , stopping people using cars and keeping the crush down on the trains....

.. unpaid.

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sussex_guy2k2 said:

My experience of Mill Road, in particular, isn't great. We used it for a season and the organisation pre-game was really poor. To get on the first, second or third batch of buses, you had to leave the game early. Not doing so led to us, at times, waiting in a queue for over an hour and a half. I'd call that a shambles. For us, that then led to a journey of 45 minutes plus to get home, which was almost untenable on a weekday game.

Furthermore, to ensure we got into Mill Road, we often had to be there 2 and a half hours before the game; often on arrival we'd be waiting for an hour for a bus because of the mass disorganisation. That's fine if you have a totally free weekend (four of us used to share a car and we all have varying work schedules so this simply never happened). But ultimately, it extends the day and almost, at times, makes it an away game for us fans from further afield. For me that's a bit of a shambles.

So all in all, whilst you may have had good experiences of it, I definitely have not.

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drew said:

We've always used Mill Road since the Amex opened and can't recall ever having to wait an hour and half. We are in West Upper and never leave before the final whistle. At most, we wait about half an hour.

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Acker79 said:

Personally, that doesn't sound like it fits the definition of 'shambles'. With limited buses, and a high volume of customers there will always be queuing and waiting, limited space with large volumes of customers will of course lead to spaces being used up and a need to get there early. Shambles would be a lack of organisation, buses breaking down, pulling away half full, no clear signs where you need to go.

All you've described is a very busy service that has resulted in delays for you.

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sussex_guy2k2 said:

Yep, both. I'm talking about making the effort to come from further away.

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El Presidente said:

We’ve had a message from Paul Barber in relation to this issue:

“A few emails today stemming from Seagulls Travel’s email to their customers last night. I’ve just arrived in Yorkshire and seen the NSC thread created as a result. Just to round up the main queries:

- there are no plans whatsoever to scrap the subsidised travel zone - or the club’s substantial contribution towards it;

- a sustainable travel plan was a condition of our planning consent (but the club subsidising the cost of that travel plan forever wasn’t. That said, we have no plans to reduce or stop our contribution towards the cost of running the travel zone or maintaining the infrastructure on or around our land);

- the subsidised travel zone is open to ALL supporters with a valid season or match ticket (this includes home and away fans);
- in addition to the very significant capital costs for transport infrastructure and facilities at the time of the stadium build, we currently make a substantial contribution to the cost of supporter travel to and from matches (as we have for over 7 seasons). No other club does this as far as we are aware (and I’m told Southampton stopped their contribution to theirs soon after St Mary’s opened);

- of course, ALL supporters also contribute towards the cost of our travel zone and infrastructure in the cost of their season ticket or match ticket because every supporter uses some part of the infrastructure to get to and from the stadium (bus, train, park and ride, road junction, car park, coach park, foot path, cycle path, cycle park etc);

- we are only stopping the additional subsidies paid to Seagulls Travel (a commercial operation) and a number of other supporter groups who use private buses/coaches for the added convenience of a door to door service with some sitting outside the travel zone (as opposed to joining the subsidised travel zone at a convenient point for them);

- however, we now have many supporters who travel from outside the subsidised travel zone who do not receive any additional support towards their travel costs for getting to the zone or stadium, as well as many other fans within the subsidised zone who pay to park their cars or private mini buses and who also do not receive any additional subsidy;

- we appreciate that some fans are travelling from outside of the subsidised zone and making huge efforts to organise travel to and from home games, but it doesn’t seem fair that the club should in effect pay a double subsidy for some supporters to enjoy a door to door service when we are not able to support all supporters to do similar;

- we have no problem with all the current buses/coaches operated by Seagulls Travel or the other groups continuing to organise trips to and from the Amex or using our facilities to park their buses/coaches;

- we will still make our coach park available, free of charge, to any supporter bus/coach that wishes to park at the Amex provided they have contacted our operations team in advance (I’m not aware of any other clubs that provide free bus/coach parking).

Finally, the club’s board continues to have a significant responsibility to manage the club’s costs as efficiently as possible, and to continue to reduce our dependency on Tony Bloom year on year. Yes, our revenues are significantly higher in the Premier League but so are our costs. Tightly managing our costs is therefore an important part of our strategy to remain as competitive as possible.

The cost of the additional travel subsidies we are stopping ran to large six figures per season - and this was on top of a very substantial ongoing contribution to the main subsidised travel zone which is open to everyone - costs that our rivals do not cover.

Regards, Paul”

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stonski said:

PB said "- we will still make our coach park available, free of charge, to any supporter bus/coach that wishes to park at the Amex provided they have contacted our operations team in advance (I’m not aware of any other clubs that provide free bus/coach parking).' Off the top of my head i can think of palace Southampton Bournemouth chelsea arsenal fulham Man u reading wba charlton brentford liverpool and i expect many many more.

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Weststander said:

Have used the park n rides since the Amex opened, without any bus breakdowns.

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sully said:

You stated that you (and everyone else using ST) “made the most effort” to get to games.

I disagree with this specific point. As you went on to say in the bit I deleted, you’ve tried the other methods but they’re too much hassle, so I stand by my disagreement with your original statement.

There are also plenty of others who travel further than the end of the ST line......

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- we have no problem with all the current buses/coaches operated by Seagulls Travel or the other groups continuing to organise trips to and from the Amex or using our facilities to park their buses/coaches;

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sussex_guy2k2 said:

I don’t use ST, I use NWS. I would wager the vast majority of our fans don’t come from much more than an hour+ away. Or at least not the core fan group that have been with us since the Championship and before. I’m more than happy to be proven wrong if there is a substantial proportion that come from further afield to every game, though I’m not sure how you’d prove it.

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sully said:

You probably mean you haven’t been on a bus that broke down. Nor have I, but they often break down and cause huge delays. I’ve twice only just made it on time and once been late from Mill Road having got there 90 minutes before kick-off. All due to buses being out of service. There’s been a few occasions when it’s delayed departure, too.

I was on a bus that caught fire back in the Withdean days, mind you!

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dazzer6666 said:

They really break down ‘often’ ??

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