[Albion] Seagull travel next season

[Goldstone1976]

That is ****ing insulting.

Insulting? Which bits? Genuine question - no edge to my query.

 

[doogie004]

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”

More barber bullshit I’m alright jack I’ve just had a substantial pay rise . Rich get richer supporters have to pay for it .one day mr barber all this will come back and bite u in the arse


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[Goldstone1976]

Rich get richer supporters have to pay for it

I’ve got to say that I’m not totally convinced that pumping £250m into the Albion over the last decade or so has made Tony richer.

 

[El Presidente]

I’ve got to say that I’m not totally convinced that pumping £250m into the Albion over the last decade or so has made Tony richer.

That’s outrageous...it’s £300m

 

[Goldstone1976]

That’s outrageous...it’s £300m

You and your pernickity details. What's £50m between friends?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

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.

How are you working out the hour? As the crow flies I live about 4 miles from the Amex, but using public transport takes at least an hour even on a good day. That's actual travelling, not queuing.

 

[clapham_gull]

Fulham don't provide coach parking. It's on the main road quite a walk away from the ground.

Edit to add Charlton don't have a free coach park either, nor Brentford.

Note the city....

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Note the city....

Yes, I had noticed although there are teams in the city that have coach parks.

 

[dazzer6666]

How are you working out the hour? As the crow flies I live about 4 miles from the Amex, but using public transport takes at least an hour even on a good day. That's actual travelling, not queuing.

I drive from Burgess Hill, park up and then walk a couple of miles, takes around an hour and a bit each way (ish). Train and P&R is about the same when it all goes well but I enjoy the stroll and the ‘P&W’ time doesn’t vary much as not impacted by Southern Fail.

 

[doogie004]

I’ve got to say that I’m not totally convinced that pumping £250m into the Albion over the last decade or so has made Tony richer.

Barbers done alright though


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[LamieRobertson]

I think Barber does a great job

 

[clapham_gull]

I think Barber does a great job

He does, I just think its a shame that email doesn't include a thanks to the people who run the travel clubs unpaid with particularly attention to the work they put in before me moved into the stadium.

I'm also uncomfortable with the inference they are drain on the clubs resources.

 

[LamieRobertson]

He does, I just think its a shame that email doesn't include a thanks to the people who run the travel clubs unpaid with particularly attention to the work they put in before me moved into the stadium.

I'm also uncomfortable with the inference they are drain on the clubs resources.

Thats fair

 

[clapham_gull]

Thats fair

This is a particularly disrespectful sentence:

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;

 

[LamieRobertson]

This is a particularly disrespectful sentence:

When I said ''thats fair'' I meant your comments....just in case of misunderstanding

 

[timbha]

This is a particularly disrespectful sentence:

When I read that bit I took it at face value and didn’t see anything wrong. It depends what you are looking for I suppose. I saw it as factual.

 

[clapham_gull]

When I said ''thats fair'' I meant your comments....just in case of misunderstanding

Yes of course

Barber is the best man for the job, but I often don't like his communication style.

 

[clapham_gull]

When I read that bit I took it at face value and didn’t see anything wrong. It depends what you are looking for I suppose. I saw it as factual.

"We have no problem"

Why would they ? They encouraged their existence from day one for very obvious reasons. It's reads like the club are doing them a favour when in reality it's completely the other way round.

The inference they exist for "convenience" is a completely re-writing of history.

Sorry I'm not directly involved but have very close knowledge of how these travel clubs came into existence which pre-dates Barber. The club were bending over backwards to get them going because they needed to.

 

[drew]

More barber bullshit I’m alright jack I’ve just had a substantial pay rise . Rich get richer supporters have to pay for it .one day mr barber all this will come back and bite u in the arse


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Exactly how do you arrive at that? I must admit I was concerned the whole travel subsidy would be removed and that was my fueled by the fact the club unnecessarily put up ticket prices last renewal but fair play to PB for his response.

 

[El Presidente]

We've had further correspondence from Paul Barber, and would
pass on as follows

"- my previous message was to directly answer questions sent to me in the space of my journey to Yorkshire but I’m very happy to clear up any other queries or comments.

- we communicated our plan to remove the additional subsidy to Seagulls Travel (and other supporter travel clubs) in the summer giving everyone 12 months notice of the planned change.

- the chairman, myself and other senior staff regularly personally visit the different supporters’ clubs during evenings throughout the season to answer supporter questions and also to thank the organisers and members personally for the great work they do (for example, this past week the chairman visited Burwash).

- Seagulls Travel and the various supporters’ clubs have done a great job since the Amex opened. Everyone at the club recognises this and we want to help make the clubs have an even greater connection to the club hence the launch this coming month at the Amex of an official supporters’ club network of which all the different clubs have been involved in the design of over the past 18 months.

- this more formal structure will bring together all the different supporter groups at least once a year at events the football club hosts which will give them more access to players and staff when possible, will provide special access to the stadium for other events, access to special offers, and the ability to develop their own official merchandise through the club.

- it will also provide a framework and structure for other supporter clubs to start up helping us to to boost our fan base across the county, the south of England, across the country, and with supporter clubs in Australia and the US looking to join the network as soon as possible, well beyond the UK’s shores too.

- despite one or two comments to the contrary, I’m afraid it isn’t the case that many football clubs give up large prime car parking areas for HOME supporter coaches; such spaces are usually monitised for corporate members and away supporters (and many charge the coach operators for doing so); even though near site parking remains in great demand for fans, we have no plans to do that hence my comment that we are happy for supporters’ clubs to continue using our coach parks.

- it is inevitable that over the course of what is fast approaching a decade, we must evolve our policies and procedures for match day travel - our capacity and attendances have grown by 50% in this period - and, no, of course we haven’t forgotten why or how we encouraged the clubs to start in the first place. It has been a critical part of our fan base development.

- however, the make up of our fan base has changed - and is changing more: nearly 75% of current season ticket holders live in BN postcodes but only 57% of match day ticket buyers do. This means that, not surprisingly, as the club’s profile and support for us grows, more and more fans are travelling further distances to watch us. We can’t provide additional subsidies to all fans living further away and so we must be fair to everyone as far as is it is possible to do so.

- it’s absolutely ridiculous to suggest that anyone at the club thinks supporter groups are a financial burden or drain on our resources but by the same token we cannot continue to justify large six figure sums for additional subsidies on top of an already large (and expanded since the stadium opened) main travel zone which is hugely expensive.

- we will however be looking to invest further in technology and supporter facilities in and around the stadium over the next few seasons which will be designed to spread travel and match day dwell times even further by providing more entertainment and access for fans in and around the stadium before and after matches.

- finally, on this point, the club’s priority must always be to make sure the travel, operations and fan support budgets we do
have stretch as far as possible for as many supporters as possible; sometimes this will mean us taking decisions that aren’t popular with some but are for the greater good in terms of sustainability and wider fan engagement in the longer term.