I write these notes before Monday night’s planning meeting on the club’s proposed new training ground, but I sincerely hope by the time you are reading these words we will have been given permission to build a training facility and academy to match the American Express Community Stadium.
Once again Saturday’s game saw another superb turnout of fans here at the Amex, which keeps us top of the Championship table of average attendances [see page 79]. This is a great effort, and I'd like to thank all our fans for their excellent support in our first four homes games of the season.
Away from home your support has been fantastic too. We are living in difficult economic times and we are grateful for the choice you make to spend your hard earned money supporting us on the road. It makes a difference and we very much appreciate it.
I’d like to take the opportunity of tonight’s notes to update you on some travel and ticket queries we have received.
Firstly, on the travel side, we are generally pleased with the way things are running. There's always room for improvement but the system is working well. We have many thousands of people to get home safely, and as quickly as possible. We will keep fine-tuning where we can but, having had two evening games with more than 26,000 fans at the Amex, our transport system has coped well with the numbers.
We do, however, still have one or two minor items still outstanding – such as reviewing the Lewes train travel boundary with train providers – which we will raise during our regular meetings with Southern Rail and I will keep you informed via these pages.
With regards to season tickets, some supporters have raised the issue of the increase in the charge for replacement tickets or smartcards. We introduced this at the start of the season because a small number of ticket holders were using this as a way to sell on their tickets and then simply cancelling their smartcard and requesting a new one from the ticket office. The exception is if you find that your smartcard is damaged or faulty, take it into the ticket office and we will issue a replacement at no charge.
While on the subject of tickets, we launched the ticket exchange for the Sheffield Wednesday game, and although this was only available for just a few days before the match, we saw well over 150 season holders who were unable to attend offering their tickets for sale – and many of those tickets were snapped up by other Albion fans keen to see the game at the Amex. The exchange wasn’t activated for Birmingham, as we didn’t quite sell out, or for tonight’s match, but there is a chance it will come into play for the Middlesbrough and/or Leeds United games. Of course this helps the club financially and ultimately gives more Albion fans the chance to see us live at the Amex.

Finally, Saturday night's game against Birmingham was another Amex first as we faced the challenge of a power supply problem which led to the floodlights going out. The problem was an external issue, which was out of our control, but due to the nature of the bulbs, it isn't a case of simply switching the lights back on again. There is a prescribed waiting time of around 15 minutes to allow the bulbs to cool down otherwise they will blow if you switch them straight back on again. What was extremely pleasing was the patience of the crowd, and equally pleasing as well as reassuring was the professionalism of our stadium safety, stewarding and maintenance team in dealing with the issue. Full marks to fans and to staff.
I hope you enjoy tonight's match.