Why HAS Dick Tight and his book been BANNED from the AMEX ?

[ROSM]

7000 junior seagulls when we were averaging 6,000 fans?

Yes, when it was made free and actively promoted by visits to schools from players and staff.

At the time our ticket database was nearly 40k people so not that unlikely

 

[Beach Hut]

Yes, when it was made free and actively promoted by visits to schools from players and staff.

At the time our ticket database was nearly 40k people so not that unlikely

Have to say that is something the club have badly messed up recently through complacency, the Junior Seagulls is the future

 

[portlock seagull]

I've put this on my Xmas list - inc the link via NSC! Can't wait for this book, legend over used in football but this man is one exception. I just hope Ernest gets a mention, I will wet myself if he does!

 

[Lenny Rider]

I've put this on my Xmas list - inc the link via NSC! Can't wait for this book, legend over used in football but this man is one exception. I just hope Ernest gets a mention, I will wet myself if he does!

He does, but only as his true identitity, Ernest is merely an alter ego, a smokescreen, a bit like Batman and Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent and Superman, you will never see 'Ernest' and Liz Costa in the same room.....

A bit like the Santa Claus urban myth I feel a bit of a spoilsport lifting the facade on the biggest twist in the history of the NSC and possibly the Albion but everything will drop into place as you read through Dick Knight's submission. (Liz/Ernest love a bit of wrestling don't you know)

 

[Beach Hut]

He does, but only as his true identitity, Ernest is merely an alter ego, a smokescreen, a bit like Batman and Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent and Superman, you will never see 'Ernest' and Liz Costa in the same room.....

A bit like the Santa Claus urban myth I feel a bit of a spoilsport lifting the facade on the biggest twist in the history of the NSC and possibly the Albion but everything will drop into place as you read through Dick Knight's submission. (Liz/Ernest love a bit of wrestling don't you know)

Fantastic, I am now the approved agent for Ernest so I had better start booking the £8 a head lecture circuit.............

 

[Giraffe]

So will this be like the Harry Potter books? Will it be a late night purchase and then a dash to read before anyone else?

 

[Medwayseagull]

Based on many of the statements in this thread this seems ripe to be made into a TV blockbuster. Who do you think could play the leading roles ?

 

[Giraffe]

Warwick Davis = Tony Bloom

 

[Giraffe]

Paul Hollywood = a young Dick Knight
Sean Connery = old Dick Knight
Dawn French = Costa and Watts
Tom Hanks = Paul Samrah
David Jason = Norman Baker
Bill Archer = Anthony Hopkins
David Belotti = ?

 

[Lenny Rider]

In the current climate would it not be fitting for Belotti to be played by someone of the ilk of Jonathan King or Paul Gadd?

Martin Perry = David Walliams
Matt Lucas= Ken Brown
Emma Thompson= Sally Townsend
William Roache=Derek Allen
Paul Giamatti=Paul Barber
Danny De Vito= Nigel Erskine
Don Cheadle= Robert Codner

 

[Racek]

Anyone going to get a signed copy from Mr Dick? If you are, would it be possible to pick me up a copy and I will send you the money through PayPal?

PM if anyone would be so kind.

Thanks,

 

[Tooting Gull]

We can't have David Jason playing Norman Baker, the bloke's a national treasure. Jason, not Baker clearly.

Surprised at some of the apologists for the club on this issue saying 'if it slates the club it shouldn't be stocked'.

Very small-minded and thin-skinned. If there are bits like that, while they will be disproportionately zoomed in on and highlighted, they will represent a fraction of a book that is about the wider history and struggle.

It is very clearly a book that should be in the club shop, a total no-brainer, an important record of the most important years any Brighton fan will ever experience.

What Bloom needs to think about is this. If he was booted out by another chairmen having himself saved the club, how would he feel if his book wasn't stocked?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Yes, when it was made free and actively promoted by visits to schools from players and staff.

At the time our ticket database was nearly 40k people so not that unlikely

We took 28K to the Millenium which included a lot of kids.

 

[drew]

Awesome stuff. Being out of line with the increasingly bullying tactics employed by the club towards its own fans these days is a badge of honour to be worn proudly.

I, like probably most people, don't feel bullied by the club.

I think we should also consider the fact that he still holds a position at the club. So we have someone still currently connected to the club, holding an official club position and who has written a book which the club won't stock - slightly strange. If DK was that bad surely he'd be removed from his position ?

NSC is going to explode when a few revelations are revealed about some individuals at the club.

Of course, those revelations will be one persons view of what happened!!

But there would have been no club for Bloom to invest in if Dick hadn't kept it afloat for 8 years.

Wasn't just DK though was it. He was the figurehead that galvanised the club but a lot of the money came from other directors, including TB.

I heard that he refused to allow the albion to vet its content and as a result he was refused permission to use photos from the amex and have it launched there.

If this is true, I think it's a bit unfair on the guy, cos like him or not, he was the one person who took a grasp of our plight and promised fans he would only release control when the right person turned up. To his credit he did this despite other interested parties.

I suspect that a lot of his problems with the club relate to the community scheme that he loved so much but was effectively taken away from his control. The community scheme got us the stadium approval - some people need to remember our heritage. I've no axe to grind with Barber but sometimes "he knows not what he does".

After what went before, it was a bold statement by DK that he wouldn't allow control of the club to rest with one person but the reality is that without TB we would not be where we are.

That's a bold statement to suggest that if it wasn't for AITC we wouldn't have the Amex!

TB has certainly publicly supported the FFP regulations and seeing as one of the stated aims of UEFA and the League in introducing these regulations is to reduce the proportion of players wages to turnover I would have thought that implies that TB is in favour of an overall reduction in the player's wage bill

So you support higher wages for all players! I thought everyone would like to see better control of spiralling wages but it can only be done if all clubs adhere to it, hence FFP.

Can I just point out that as the owner of a bookshop, I have been offered sight of books about to be published about 5 times in 8 years, so I would doubt that it is standard practice, frankly. Maybe for the likes of Waterstones it is, but not for anyone else. It may be the club wanted to see a draft and it was refused, who knows. It is somewhat churlish of them not to stock it though.

On the matter of price, my UK suppliers have it on a special Xmas trade discount, otherwise the price Amazon are selling it at is only 40p more than the standard trade discount. So maybe that has something to do with the club's decision also.

Also, has your book store every been included in any of the books that you sell?

It's not about the club it's about DK - that's why it's called an autobiography !

Is that a serious comment?

It was significantly more than 1000 before TB made it free of charge (which resulted in the significant increase in membership, esp under 7s who got a free shirt and cost the club a fortune). They are now looking to charge £10 for a membership that is worth something, hence the reduction in real numbers to a couple of hundred.

Thought it only became free when it was sponsored by Legal and General! Having said that, surely that was a good move with the Amex on the horizon and needing to fill it. The club needed to claw back some of that missing generation.

Have Manchester United banned Fergies book from their club shop?

He seemed to upset enough people at that club in his book.

Haven't read his book and probably won't. However, did he publicly criticise the current regime at the club. What I have gleaned from press reports is that he has slagged off former players and former colleagues but generally doesn't have a bad word for the Glazers.


With regard to the crux of the story, nowhere has it been said that the club are refusing to stock the book. Bearing in mind you could anticipate that the Albion feature heavily in his book and, assuming in terms of sales a launch of the book at the Amex would have done wonders, why did DK and/or his publishers refuse to let the club see an advanced copy? If I was TB I would not invite DK to a book launch or a book tour at the Amex where you would be expected to pat him on the back, shake his hand etc etc all for the press and then potentially open up the book to find you have been slagged off. One reason why Dk might have done this is to do what he does best, ie advertise the product. Probably find out that it is a storm in a teacup to generate publicity and once the book is out it'll soon end up on the shelves of the club shop.

On a more general point, we can probably be grateful to the mismanagement of the US mortgage market because without the global crisis, we may well have ended up with the Amex and a substantial debt to a host of banks and, as a result, a considerably smaller playing budget!!!

 

[drew]

We can't have David Jason playing Norman Baker, the bloke's a national treasure. Jason, not Baker clearly.

Surprised at some of the apologists for the club on this issue saying 'if it slates the club it shouldn't be stocked'.

Very small-minded and thin-skinned. If there are bits like that, while they will be disproportionately zoomed in on and highlighted, they will represent a fraction of a book that is about the wider history and struggle.

It is very clearly a book that should be in the club shop, a total no-brainer, an important record of the most important years any Brighton fan will ever experience.

What Bloom needs to think about is this. If he was booted out by another chairmen having himself saved the club, how would he feel if his book wasn't stocked?

Where has it been said the club will not stock the book? According to the Argus, all they have done is so far not invite DK to launch the book and/or be part of a book tour without knowing what is in the book that is likely to include comments about them.

 

[The Large One]

That's a bold statement to suggest that if it wasn't for AITC we wouldn't have the Amex!

I think it's bad wording on his part. What I think he means is, if it wasn't for AITC, American Express may not have got involved.

They were sold the 'dream' (I'll think of a better word later) on the back of the club's community programmes.

 

[papajaff]

Cup Final Money?

Does he admit this (and the sale of Withdean) funded his Torremolinos life style?

 

[drew]

I think it's bad wording on his part. What I think he means is, if it wasn't for AITC, American Express may not have got involved.

They were sold the 'dream' (I'll think of a better word later) on the back of the club's community programmes.

I hear what you are saying but would be sceptical to think that American Express got involved because of a community programme. I suspect they see the bigger picture relating to exposure for them should we achieve the goal of premiership status. The Amex was never a stadium just designed for a championship team.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I hear what you are saying but would be sceptical to think that American Express got involved because of a community programme. I suspect they see the bigger picture relating to exposure for them should we achieve the goal of premiership status. The Amex was never a stadium just designed for a championship team.

I hardly think a globally-known brand like American Express needs bigger exposure, and they could surely have got the naming rights to an existing Premier League ground if they had wanted it. Wasn't this about brand values, which can only be improved by being linked with community involvement?

 

[The Large One]

I hear what you are saying but would be sceptical to think that American Express got involved because of a community programme. I suspect they see the bigger picture relating to exposure for them should we achieve the goal of premiership status.

While it's true that American Express needed a vehicle for 'corporate responsibility', the money that American Express paid for the naming rights went towards AITC. Plus American Express (or rather, their employees) get themselves involved in various projects.

The shirt sponsorship deal went to the club's coffers.

The Amex was never a stadium just designed for a championship team.

When the conversations originally took place, permission had only just been granted, we were near the bottom of the third division - with no guarantee of Championship football in the foreseeable future.