Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Apologies in advance for it. being quite wordy
I'm curious to get other people's views on this. I have a dispute with the club/Sportsman bar at Withdean. Leaving aside for one minute your opinions on the pub itself what do you think of their policy of insisting that EVERYONE remove their hats in the pub. I'm aware that there is CCTV at the pub and with home and away fans mingling there is always a chance of trouble. Very slight when you consider there are a couple of hundred Brighton and Wycombe fans genially mingling but it's there. But surely a bit of common sense ought to prevail on this.
*
A bouncer told*my 7 year old to remove his hat the other week.*My main beef is the attitude of the door staff (so won't comment further on that) but I'm also baffled by this nonsensical rule. I've spoken to the manageress of the pub and she told me that the pub can't be seen to discriminate against certain types of fan. Absolute nonsense in my opinion. The club do this every week. Compare the searches and who gets searched in the different stands each game. In the family stand I*get searched only occasionally, my bag gets checked but my 2 boys always get let in without any further ado. If I go to the South Stand, I expect to get searched every time. I don't see anyone can moan much about this. It's all common sense. Different rules for different situations.
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I was also told that the club/pub need to be seen to have a uniform policy for all games. Once again this is just flannel in my opinion. The police certainly don't take that attitude to football games and in the past the club/pub have also barred away fans from the bar. I'd hazard a guess that if we played Palace at Withers then they'd be barred too.
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I've also been told that they need to identify faces in case there is trouble. Number one - when was the last time there was trouble at the Sportsman on match day? Number two - when there was trouble when was it necessary to identify the face of a 7 year old?
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I know rules is rules but the club/pub make the rules and they seem to slavishly apply them without any discretion at times nor with a common sense attitude. I have my son's safety as my number one priority. I'm not going to put him into a position of peril and getting him to remove his hat adds nothing, in my opinion, to his safety.
*
Dunno. I know it seems like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill and tell me if I am but this lazy, lazy attitude does nothing to empower staff to use their initiative, it makes them look like jobsworths and just seems plainly a huge overkill.
*
A piece of advice though - don't try and raise any of these points with the door staff.
*
The best thing about that little incident, though?*The* Wycombe fans (male and female) who were in fancy dress, including large wigs who were not asked to remove them. The reason - because they're wigs, not hats. You really couldn't make it up.
I'm curious to get other people's views on this. I have a dispute with the club/Sportsman bar at Withdean. Leaving aside for one minute your opinions on the pub itself what do you think of their policy of insisting that EVERYONE remove their hats in the pub. I'm aware that there is CCTV at the pub and with home and away fans mingling there is always a chance of trouble. Very slight when you consider there are a couple of hundred Brighton and Wycombe fans genially mingling but it's there. But surely a bit of common sense ought to prevail on this.
*
A bouncer told*my 7 year old to remove his hat the other week.*My main beef is the attitude of the door staff (so won't comment further on that) but I'm also baffled by this nonsensical rule. I've spoken to the manageress of the pub and she told me that the pub can't be seen to discriminate against certain types of fan. Absolute nonsense in my opinion. The club do this every week. Compare the searches and who gets searched in the different stands each game. In the family stand I*get searched only occasionally, my bag gets checked but my 2 boys always get let in without any further ado. If I go to the South Stand, I expect to get searched every time. I don't see anyone can moan much about this. It's all common sense. Different rules for different situations.
*
I was also told that the club/pub need to be seen to have a uniform policy for all games. Once again this is just flannel in my opinion. The police certainly don't take that attitude to football games and in the past the club/pub have also barred away fans from the bar. I'd hazard a guess that if we played Palace at Withers then they'd be barred too.
*
I've also been told that they need to identify faces in case there is trouble. Number one - when was the last time there was trouble at the Sportsman on match day? Number two - when there was trouble when was it necessary to identify the face of a 7 year old?
*
I know rules is rules but the club/pub make the rules and they seem to slavishly apply them without any discretion at times nor with a common sense attitude. I have my son's safety as my number one priority. I'm not going to put him into a position of peril and getting him to remove his hat adds nothing, in my opinion, to his safety.
*
Dunno. I know it seems like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill and tell me if I am but this lazy, lazy attitude does nothing to empower staff to use their initiative, it makes them look like jobsworths and just seems plainly a huge overkill.
*
A piece of advice though - don't try and raise any of these points with the door staff.
*
The best thing about that little incident, though?*The* Wycombe fans (male and female) who were in fancy dress, including large wigs who were not asked to remove them. The reason - because they're wigs, not hats. You really couldn't make it up.
