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- Jun 19, 2011
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Brighton and Hove Albion | News | Latest News | Latest News | Bloom Hails Barber Arrival
Albion chairman Tony Bloom has hailed the appointment of chief executive Paul Barber as "a great signing for the football club".
Barber took up his new role at the Amex Stadium this morning and Bloom was full of praise for the 45-year-old, who previously worked for the Football Association, Tottenham Hotspur and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS.
He told seagulls.co.uk, "It's a really exciting appointment for everyone at the football club. Paul's got massive experience; at the FA he was director of communications, commercial director and also marketing director at different times during his four-year tenure there. He was at Spurs for five years as executive director and for the past two years he's been at Vancouver where, as a new club in the MLS, he oversaw a move into a temporary stadium and then into their Olympic stadium, so a lot of experiences he had there is what we have been through ourselves at the Albion.
"There were some other outstanding candidates but he was the one who stood out. It was his demeanour, the confidence he exudes, his personable manner and his personal experiences that impressed us. Where we are as a football club, the commercial expertise that he brings, the deals he's done and the contacts he's got, is going to be essential as we look to bring in new sponsors, new partners.
"He will go down well with the fans, the staff and everyone connected to Brighton. He's a great signing for the football club."
Barber is the first of what will hopefully be a number of new faces seen at the Amex this summer. While transfer activity has been particularly quiet so far in the close season, Bloom reveals that the club are working hard behind the scenes to bolster the playing squad.
"I am totally relaxed about the situation but I wouldn't expect too much business to be done by the end of June. Obviously in an ideal world we'd have all our new signings done by the start of pre-season but in the real world that doesn't normally happen. But I'm confident that by the start of the season we'll have some very good new signings on show and we will be working on that right up until the end of the transfer window.
"Some of the names we are looking at are very exciting, others will be much less known and maybe totally unknown to a big majority of Albion supporters. But talks and negotiations take a while, because any signing we make needs to be right for the football club, for the player and if there's a transfer fee involved it's got to be right for the selling club as well,so it's not easy to get all of those things ticked and done early in the transfer window."
There has also been a lot of speculation this summer surrounding the future of manager Gus Poyet but, again, Bloom insists that the Uruguayan is very much part of the club's plans moving forward.
"I don't worry about these things [speculation]. They are totally outside of my control. Gus signed a five-year contract a year ago and I fully hope that he will be here for a long time to come.
"We have many conversations that don't get mentioned and all we talk about is getting ready for pre-season and getting ready for the first game at Swindon in the Capital One Cup then at Hull for the opening Championship fixture.
"These are such exciting times; it's amazing that we are going to be sold out of all 22,000 season tickets by the start of the season, that's four thousand more than second highest in the Championship.
"Our first year at Amex was a big success and we want to improve on that. We want to improve the experience for all of our fans and we want to improve revenues here at the stadium on non-matchdays. There's plenty of work to be done but we're all looking forward to the challenge."
Albion chairman Tony Bloom has hailed the appointment of chief executive Paul Barber as "a great signing for the football club".
Barber took up his new role at the Amex Stadium this morning and Bloom was full of praise for the 45-year-old, who previously worked for the Football Association, Tottenham Hotspur and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS.
He told seagulls.co.uk, "It's a really exciting appointment for everyone at the football club. Paul's got massive experience; at the FA he was director of communications, commercial director and also marketing director at different times during his four-year tenure there. He was at Spurs for five years as executive director and for the past two years he's been at Vancouver where, as a new club in the MLS, he oversaw a move into a temporary stadium and then into their Olympic stadium, so a lot of experiences he had there is what we have been through ourselves at the Albion.
"There were some other outstanding candidates but he was the one who stood out. It was his demeanour, the confidence he exudes, his personable manner and his personal experiences that impressed us. Where we are as a football club, the commercial expertise that he brings, the deals he's done and the contacts he's got, is going to be essential as we look to bring in new sponsors, new partners.
"He will go down well with the fans, the staff and everyone connected to Brighton. He's a great signing for the football club."
Barber is the first of what will hopefully be a number of new faces seen at the Amex this summer. While transfer activity has been particularly quiet so far in the close season, Bloom reveals that the club are working hard behind the scenes to bolster the playing squad.
"I am totally relaxed about the situation but I wouldn't expect too much business to be done by the end of June. Obviously in an ideal world we'd have all our new signings done by the start of pre-season but in the real world that doesn't normally happen. But I'm confident that by the start of the season we'll have some very good new signings on show and we will be working on that right up until the end of the transfer window.
"Some of the names we are looking at are very exciting, others will be much less known and maybe totally unknown to a big majority of Albion supporters. But talks and negotiations take a while, because any signing we make needs to be right for the football club, for the player and if there's a transfer fee involved it's got to be right for the selling club as well,so it's not easy to get all of those things ticked and done early in the transfer window."
There has also been a lot of speculation this summer surrounding the future of manager Gus Poyet but, again, Bloom insists that the Uruguayan is very much part of the club's plans moving forward.
"I don't worry about these things [speculation]. They are totally outside of my control. Gus signed a five-year contract a year ago and I fully hope that he will be here for a long time to come.
"We have many conversations that don't get mentioned and all we talk about is getting ready for pre-season and getting ready for the first game at Swindon in the Capital One Cup then at Hull for the opening Championship fixture.
"These are such exciting times; it's amazing that we are going to be sold out of all 22,000 season tickets by the start of the season, that's four thousand more than second highest in the Championship.
"Our first year at Amex was a big success and we want to improve on that. We want to improve the experience for all of our fans and we want to improve revenues here at the stadium on non-matchdays. There's plenty of work to be done but we're all looking forward to the challenge."
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