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Middlesborough, 19/10/12



Bozza

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Jul 4, 2003
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Back in Sussex
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Albion’s chief executive brings us up to date with the latest news from inside the club, starting with a Boxing Day fixture change

BOXING DAY GAME SWITCHED
Our Boxing Day fixture with Millwall has been moved to Tuesday 18th December (kick-off 7.45pm). As Boxing Day is one of the key fixtures in the football calendar and we know our fans enjoy the occasion, we ideally wanted to stage the traditional festive fixture on the 26th as usual.
However, following discussions with the Football League and our safety advisory group – including the local police, fire and ambulance services – it was clear that for a stadium which relies so heavily on public transport it would have been impossible to be able to guarantee the safe and convenient movement of 26,000-plus spectators.

Our transport partners and their staff do a wonderful job for us on our regular match days but, in this day and age, when people are increasingly out and about on Boxing Day, socialising, visiting family and friends, shopping in the sales or enjoying leisure activities, including watching football and other sports, we see the availability of public transport as being absolutely key.

So, we will now work with the Football League and transport companies to find a solution for future seasons. Brighton & Hove Albion remain entirely committed to staging Boxing Day fixtures at the Amex and will work hard to find a solution for future years as quickly as we can.

NEW WEBSITE
Since our last home game we have launched the Albion version of the Football League’s next generation website – which has had a mixed reaction from supporters – some positive, some negative, some ambivalent.

The Football League, via their FLi offshoot, currently owns the digital rights to 86 Football League, Premier League and Conference clubs. This agreement has been in place since 2001 and runs through until 2017. In commercial terms, it has been a great success generating considerable and valuable revenue.

It is the clubs' collective strength that has helped to generate those revenues and in return we have all had to adhere to the same site framework. As a club we have been and will remain responsible for the provision of the majority of the content within the site, in terms of words and pictures, with FLi responsible for the framework, and other areas such as stats, fixtures and results.

While the deal has worked very well from the commercial side, the flexibility for clubs in terms of what can be offered to supporters has not always met expectations. However, with a new management team in place at FLi, working under the Football League’s new head of commercial operations Richard Heaselgrave, I hope we will see that change in the coming months and‘years.

As a club, we were the last to switch over to the new platform, as we had our own reservations, but having worked with service providers Sapient Nitro and Richard and his team to overcome the most pressing of those issues, we felt it was the right time to move across. There is still room for improvement, and we are working with FLi to improve the service and will be encouraging them to embrace new technologies to give our supporters, and those of other clubs, a cutting-edge service.

Alongside this we will continue working with a number of our own suppliers, from Talent who supply our ticketing solution, to Bright Site, who are responsible for the online retail site, and we will be asking the same of them over the coming months; while also developing other digital offerings to supporters such as social media and investigating the feasibility of other projects such as offering supporters Wi- Fi within the stadium.

PRICE OF FOOTBALL
On another note, this week saw the publication of the BBC’s Price of Football survey, which as always made interesting reading and generated a lot of publicity.

Our award-winning pies came out as the most expensive, but the old saying “you get what you pay for” could never be more apt. Not so long ago our pies were voted the best pies in the Football League – and at the last home game we sold 14,000!

Meanwhile, our programme won Programme of the Year, and of course the Amex won the best new venue in the world!
In terms of ticket prices, our lowest priced ticket costs around £18.50 per match, including travel, and we are the only Football League club to offer an interest-free direct debit payment option.

We are never going to be the cheapest stadium to visit but we will always aim to keep the prices in line with the experience we offer. The Amex is a great place to watch football, it's a great day or evening out, and I have no doubt we offer value for money.

Finally, on a personal note, I would like to extend warm congratulations to my great uncle John Curtis, a Hurstpierpoint resident and Albion fan, who celebrated his 100th birthday recently. John was presented with this special Albion shirt in the presence his three sisters, Irene, 98, Doris, 96, Mary, 88, and his best friend, Frank, who is 99! (John assured me that the five of them were not planning a night out on West Street to celebrate!). Congratulations John, from everyone at the Albion.
 



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