Modern football - Hype, hype and yet more hype.

[MattBackHome]

I used to think it was just Sky Sports with their incessant "Best League in the WORLD" crap, where they feel they have to just tell us that everything is so completely fantastic. But it has extended far beyond that in football these days, and in fact, while chatting to a mate today, I've realised it is the clubs approach of hype everything ALL THE TIME, is the driving force behind much of my growing frustration, and detachment from the club..

I spend all season fighting against giving myself false hope, “it’s the hope that kills you” and we all know it, so I was much more comfortable with the club openly saying “look we know this is a bit shite, and we’re so sorry that we can’t afford the players we’d like, but we can’t compete financially. Anyway, here’s a poncho, and if you could spare a fifty we’re having a whip-round to try and buy someone better.” Question for you good people to ponder, was last years team (“top 6 squad”, “most expensive EVER” and “Premiership Ready” don’t forget) any better than McGhees who we never made any bones about, were punching above their weight and 4th from bottom would be fantastic. Or indeed the squad Coppell put together, that would have stayed up if he’d been here to do it in August rather than after Hinshelwood.

If you think I pine for Withdean or wish that we weren’t at the Amex, that’s missing the point - like those who think a reaction to #together is anger, it's not, it's a great big sigh. I crave a return to a more HONEST assessment of where we are. Don’t treat me like a fool, I won’t buy into the nonsense, or be kidded into believing the overly positive outlook, but to make me feel like the grumpy, miserable one when I just try to return my expectations to something approaching realism is just not on. The club is doing the dreaming, and that should be MY thing. When the club told us we can’t afford anyone, I would convince myself that Cullip is a beast, and if the Coca-cola kid could only fulfil his potential, then with Leon Knight, we COULD do something here. I do that, ME, because I’m an optimistic fan, but these days, because the clubs picture is painted so much brighter than mine (and all reality), I end up feeling like the miserable, curmudgeon. And that’s not FUN! It also makes me feel like I’m being intentionally misled, I’m being sold something as gold, when it’s clearly not.

I was comfortable with the club being the voice of reason, while the fans delude themselves in blind optimism, seeing potential in everyone, waaay beyond what they will actually achieve. That’s how it should be. A friend of mine still laughs at me for once suggesting Codner could end up playing for England! But that’s what we do, we talk up our players to our friends, work colleagues, the Man Utd “fan” in the pub. I can take the player who once drove past Old Trafford and refer to him as ex-Man U, or the kid who scores 3 in 2 pre-season games as the new “goalscoring sensation”. But now it is the club that declares “Brighton sign Real Madrid striker!” NO! That is exactly what I may have said as a joke at work, but when it’s the club who do that, it’s just embarrassing.

As I say, everything is hype, hype, hype, and anyone who questions it is not really on the same side as the club. Whether it’s being told we increase the budget every year, or have the most expensive squad ever, or have a top 6 squad, or the thinly veiled fury at Poyet suggesting 4th was our ceiling, we just seem to have lost sight of reality OR we don’t want our customers to see the reality because they might stop buying. Go down THAT route and it’s a horrible realisation that perhaps we are at times being blatantly misled so that we empty our pockets over and over again.

Please can we sign someone to excite us before the season starts. Someone to REALLY excite us, a marquee feel good signing because at the moment it just feels grim. And if we can't afford it, let's just say so. No-one would blame Tony for saying "I have to slow down on the spending lads. Some clubs are spending crazy cash, and we can't live with that, we have to leave them to ruin themselves. We will NOT ruin this club by spending what we can't afford, and if that means we are not signing many, and leaning on the DS more, then I hope you all understand why, and get behind these kids, and the great opportunity this will give them".

I'd have no problem with that, I'd return to dreaming big, convincing myself that Rea, Tilley, Monakana and Harper will be our very own Class of 1992. But for some reason when it is the club setting unrealistic expectations, it just leaves me feeling deflated. Please can we stop the hype, stop the Corporate nonsense, and just get back to telling us how it is.

I’m very sympathetic to the gist of this post, but am not sure exactly what the issue is, or what a reasonable alternative would be. The examples that you’ve raised don’t necessarily point to hype, in my opinion.

If the club wants to market itself successfully it has to use a tone of communication that resonates with the fans, and as Bob Marley said it’s impossible to satisfy everyone. But it’s reasonable to assume that the club’s tone and message should be broadly optimistic whilst grounded in reality. I think the club still operates along those lines and this hasn’t changed from Withdean or Goldstone days. Old programmes from the first matchday of the season are always roughly the same; “We had a tough year last year but we’ve made some good signings and are excited about the coming season” (or some such). If you look at Bloom’s ST letter it’s frank about last season being poor, whilst being excited about the new players. Of course he could have ripped into Sami, or described 14/15 as a heap of gash pie, but what would that have achieved?

I also reckon that ‘Real Madrid Striker’ is justified. The opening paragraph immediately qualifies the fact that he’s 19, and CH in the article goes on to qualify the excitement by talking about how he’s still moving into seniors. The point of this is that signing someone from RM at that age is an exciting signing, and it would be strange for the club to try and downplay this in the hope of appearing either nonchalant or impassive.

With regards to the hashtagging; it annoys me as well, but is just one of those things we’ll have to suck up. It’s been inexpertly executed in this case but fundamentally it’s no different to any promotion the club has done in the past.

I agree that the greater pressure these days on clubs to maximize revenue means that it can seem cheap, cynical and exploitative, but I reckon that’s a result of shifting behaviours in football as a whole and a more complex club/fan relationship. The money in the game has changed it, but to expect The Albion to not try and maximize revenues is a curious desire, especially as it ultimately does feed onto the pitch.

Excellent post though.

 

[Easy 10]

You might be right. There must have been some marketing going on to sell the additional seats after the first couple of seasons though.

I do know that it was tough selling the corporate hospitality.

Well, Withdean WAS a tough sell, no getting around it. You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig and the club were only too aware of that. Pointless pretending otherwise so they just had to make the best of it.

Now we've got this all-singing, all dancing stadium which the club (and we) are rightly proud of, which is fine. Except now the pig they're trying to put the lipstick on is the bloody team.

 

[WonderingSoton]

I can empathise with the OP, a very well articulated post with clearly a lot of emotion put into it.

All I would say on the at times slightly sickening marketing and hype, is that we are club who has grown it's matchday fanbase significantly in a short space of time. And that's to our credit and we should be proud. A lot of those folks, are going to be quite new, and have been attracted by the top class facilities we have and the buzz that generated over recent years. Nobody really knows how many of them are really going to be in it for the long term, through good and bad. I'm sure the club is worried that unless they keep cranking the hype machine, going on about 'Premier League Ready' etc, that some of that new found attendance will fall away as the buzz dies down. That's why it's crucial we stay in this divison at the very least, because it's only ever one good season away from the club's 'promised land' and the club can keep up that message with at least some legitimacy.

So unfortunately, if we want to keep seeing 20,000 in our lovely stadium, we need to put up with the hype. It can be avoided to an extent if you so wish by not visiting the websites etc.

 

[Notters]

Much as I would like to construct a verbose and witty response, I think the simple fact of the matter is that the club is damned if they do and damned if they don't. To a certain extent they have to appeal to all people at all times (old fans, new fans, potential fans, intelligent fans and stupid fans) and I don't think they really do a bad job, considering. So whilst I understand where the OP is coming from, I don't have a massive problem with it all myself.

 

[JCL666]

Much as I would like to construct a verbose and witty response, I think the simple fact of the matter is that the club is damned if they do and damned if they don't. To a certain extent they have to appeal to all people at all times (old fans, new fans, potential fans, intelligent fans and stupid fans) and I don't think they really do a bad job, considering. So whilst I understand where the OP is coming from, I don't have a massive problem with it all myself.

I'm not so sure.

Wouldn't it be great if they just took a completely open and honest approach?

People would find that refreshing. I bet the turnover would not decrease.

Plus the club could probably save a ton on money on marketing staff.

 

[MattBackHome]

I'm not so sure.

Wouldn't it be great if they just took a completely open and honest approach?

People would find that refreshing. I bet the turnover would not decrease.

Plus the club could probably save a ton on money on marketing staff.

But the assumption, which is both testable & provable, is that the marketing activity has a positive impact on revenue. Obviously if (for example) a "#Together" banner on the argus website generates no traffic at all then it's a dud and should go.

Once you agree that the activity has a positive effect it comes down to what they should say, or how should they say it. Again, I don't see a realistic alternative, and don't know how an 'open and honest' approach would differ from what they are currently doing.

I totally agree that they could do alot better by creating a totally distinct 'voice' and using this consistently. I also agree that this wouldn't necessarily have to be the bland corporatespeak we expect. But the further they stray from the straight and narrow the more fans they will alienate and the less value they'll get.

 

[Notters]

I'm not so sure.

Wouldn't it be great if they just took a completely open and honest approach?

People would find that refreshing. I bet the turnover would not decrease.

Plus the club could probably save a ton on money on marketing staff.

But I don't think they're being dishonest, just optimistic, but then I'm an optimist myself.

 

[lost in london]

I'm not so sure.

Wouldn't it be great if they just took a completely open and honest approach?

People would find that refreshing. I bet the turnover would not decrease.

Plus the club could probably save a ton on money on marketing staff.

Go on then, what would you do?

You've got 15,000 tickets to sell for Sevilla, would you email everyone on the mailing list? Or would you just hope they turn up?

If you do email them, is it just an email saying "Match on Sunday, £15, likely to be a bit sh*t, loads of subs, generally going through the motions hoping there are no injuries. Regards, BHAFC." The cynics on here already know that, more optimistic people looking for a family afternoon out might think it could be a good event, and a prod from the marketing department could easily help generate a few more tickets.

Or you're trying to flog season tickets, essential income for the club - if you don't do any positive marketing, how the hell do you hope to let people know about what they get for their money, the travel deal, the direct debit etc?

 

[JCL666]

Go on then, what would you do?

You've got 15,000 tickets to sell for Sevilla, would you email everyone on the mailing list? Or would you just hope they turn up?

If you do email them, is it just an email saying "Match on Sunday, £15, likely to be a bit sh*t, loads of subs, generally going through the motions hoping there are no injuries. Regards, BHAFC." The cynics on here already know that, more optimistic people looking for a family afternoon out might think it could be a good event, and a prod from the marketing department could easily help generate a few more tickets.

Or you're trying to flog season tickets, essential income for the club - if you don't do any positive marketing, how the hell do you hope to let people know about what they get for their money, the travel deal, the direct debit etc?

The core elements are fine.

However #together ............ Good example of bllx dreamt up by someone in marketing.

look https://instagram.com/explore/tags/together/ No mention of BHAFC.

 

[MattBackHome]

Go on then, what would you do?

You've got 15,000 tickets to sell for Sevilla, would you email everyone on the mailing list? Or would you just hope they turn up?

If you do email them, is it just an email saying "Match on Sunday, £15, likely to be a bit sh*t, loads of subs, generally going through the motions hoping there are no injuries. Regards, BHAFC." The cynics on here already know that, more optimistic people looking for a family afternoon out might think it could be a good event, and a prod from the marketing department could easily help generate a few more tickets.

Or you're trying to flog season tickets, essential income for the club - if you don't do any positive marketing, how the hell do you hope to let people know about what they get for their money, the travel deal, the direct debit etc?

 

[Hiney]

Much as I would like to construct a verbose and witty response, I think the simple fact of the matter is that the club is damned if they do and damned if they don't. To a certain extent they have to appeal to all people at all times (old fans, new fans, potential fans, intelligent fans and stupid fans) and I don't think they really do a bad job, considering. So whilst I understand where the OP is coming from, I don't have a massive problem with it all myself.

This

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Much as I would like to construct a verbose and witty response, I think the simple fact of the matter is that the club is damned if they do and damned if they don't. To a certain extent they have to appeal to all people at all times (old fans, new fans, potential fans, intelligent fans and stupid fans) and I don't think they really do a bad job, considering. So whilst I understand where the OP is coming from, I don't have a massive problem with it all myself.

Agree with this. Much is left down to the individual as to how much they get drawn in or not, but it is certainly not worth getting worked up about either way.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I'm guessing all the hype and BS must be aimed at either the young and impressionable and/or the simple-minded.

Easy enough to dodge the hype and BS at the Albion - turn up on the last train before KO, leave on the first train after FT, don't buy lurid kits in random colours.

Easy enough to dodge the hype and BS on a wider level also - don't subscribe to anything at all. Just watch MOTD and whatever that terrestrial League show is called nowadays.

Just say no, kidz

 

[Richy_Seagull]

Completely agree with OP.

"If you think I pine for Withdean or wish that we weren’t at the Amex, that’s missing the point - like those who think a reaction to #together is anger, it's not, it's a great big sigh. I crave a return to a more HONEST assessment of where we are. Don’t treat me like a fool, I won’t buy into the nonsense, or be kidded into believing the overly positive outlook, but to make me feel like the grumpy, miserable one when I just try to return my expectations to something approaching realism is just not on. The club is doing the dreaming, and that should be MY thing."

Exactly how I feel.

 

[chaileyjem]

Completely agree with OP.

I crave a return to a more HONEST assessment of where we are.

Exactly how I feel.

Fair enough . So what is a honest assessment of where we are ?

 

[spanish flair]

Fair enough . So what is a honest assessment of where we are ?

Can I ask Chailey, how you do feel defending the club 100% against the op's post and you get two thumbs up and OP has now reached 30, does that tell you anything or not?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Can I ask Chailey, how you do feel defending the club 100% against the op's post and you get two thumbs up and OP has now reached 30, does that tell you anything or not?

It's a terrible job, but somebody has to do it on NSC full-time. Hope the pays and perks reflect the long hours put in by [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION].

 

[Man of Harveys]

Can I ask Chailey, how you do feel defending the club 100%

Just that little bit better off probably.

 

[spanish flair]

It's a terrible job, but somebody has to do it on NSC full-time. Hope the pays and perks reflect the long hours put in by [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION].

This wasn't meant as a dig at Chailey, who cut in half, I am sure you would find Albion written right through him. But I am genuinely interested to know if he thinks all those 30 posters are all wrong?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Just that little bit better off probably.

From Wikipedia:

On 28 May 2012, it was announced that [Paul] Barber would be returning to the United Kingdom after more than two years in North America to take up a new role as Chief Executive of Championship side Brighton & Hove Albion

From NSC 'View Profile' for [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION]:

Join Date 27-06-2012

Big surprise there then

Good luck to [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION] with at least attempting to keep official club dissenters in, er, line. @TLO tried it for a while. Never worked for him. Won't work for [MENTION=24867]chaileyjem[/MENTION] either. Just makes you look like a club lackey on a hiding to nothing.