[Albion] FAB member vote

Gazwag said:

Long old trip from New Jersey for a STH

Also strange comment about away fans at the Amex being treated inhumanly

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Happy Exile said:

It might be that I'm just getting old and grumpy but the whole premise that comes across in a number of them, explicitly and implicitly, that the "fan experience" needs to be improved and that the club have a responsibility to do it, makes me nauseous. It just seems like it reinforces the increasing customer-isation of fans. I don't want to feel like a customer who is there to be treated like the club owes me more than the game I'm going to see.

I know it's subjective, and some people want more, and things can definitely be improved, but there's a balance between "making food service in WSU a bit quicker" and turning football into something where the game becomes secondary to all the paraphernalia of the "experience" around it, and the number of those standing who talk about "fan experience" is a bit worrying. Times change but not always for the better - the better safety is good, I like that we can go to the toilet without having to pay the ferryman to cross the yellow river flowing around our feet, it's good that the food isn't going to poison us...but...

...generations of us grew up not needing to be told what to start singing or when, not needing shooting flames to get excited, not needing a countdown to the players coming on the pitch so we'd know when to start clapping, without a "fan zone" to feel part of it...and it didn't put any of us off...I'd argue that the addition of all those things detract from the "fan experience", they don't add to it.

So many of our kids won't grow up with that visceral excitement of feeling a crowd organically grow in voice as one and start singing in the build up to players coming out - 30,000+ unorchestrated fans all combining in the same song, with natural support and passion coming out at full volume, and after a great game celebrating their heroes with their own song instead of what the PA decides to broadcast. Yes, they'll be excited, they'll have great moments, but not as great as they could have been. Chelsea next week - imagine how epic it'd be if there was no PA, no songs played, no flames, just the tension and songs from the opposing fans building before the players come out. That's a fan experience. What we currently have is in danger of becoming a curated, managed, customer experience.

If I think about the away stadiums I've most enjoyed over the past few seasons it's in inverse proportion to the amount the host club curates and controls the "fan experience". One of the best is Anfield where there's little artificially constructed hype outside the ground or in it, the fans generate the experience. One of the worst is Leicester because they hype it up so badly (and goal music...vom)...or Old Trafford where the club spend so much time going on about how they are the "greatest club in the world" and their history that they've forgotten about the present, but the "fan experience" for home fans is probably great because so many are insecure nostalgia junkies...or Arsenal where the club have made it so sterile it's like going to the opera and the "fan experience" is choreographed by the people waving the club-provided big flags.

There's a law of something, I don't know what, but how often things can be improved not by addition but by subtraction. If people think we need to improve the "fan experience" they need to be looking at what needs to be taken away more than looking at what needs to be added. If the club is asked to provide the "fan experience" then like those clubs above we'll get what the club thinks that experience should be, and because that has to cater for everyone from those of us who just want to go to the game to those who pay thousands a year for fine dining alongside the match there's precisely zero examples in sport where that's an improvement on what the fans themselves generate, instead you get a beige mess of managed fun. And honestly, I think our "fan experience" and how well we're looked after is better than almost every other ground in the league and it's a bit weird how much focus there is on it. That's not to say some elements can't be improved around food and drink for example, but the disproportionate focus on it seems to me to suggest people either don't realise how lucky we are or don't have experience elsewhere, or maybe both those things.

All this is, of course, entirely subjective and I'll get off my soapbox now.

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Happy Exile said:

Chelsea next week - imagine how epic it'd be if there was no PA, no songs played, no flames, just the tension and songs from the opposing fans building before the players come out.

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Giraffe said:

It’s a waste of time. I see a couple of the names on there, and one in particular, where I just think please god not them. Seems a little bit too much “look at me”. And as discussed at length what is the point of it anyway. Just box ticking.

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BN9 BHA said:

I have just received an email from the club and voted for the person that stood out.
No disrespect to this person below, but I’m not voting for someone that tries to get the Amex once a season, i don’t really care how long they have supported the Albion for.

View attachment 181995

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Giraffe said:

It’s a waste of time. I see a couple of the names on there, and one in particular, where I just think please god not them. Seems a little bit too much “look at me”. And as discussed at length what is the point of it anyway. Just box ticking.

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Publius Ovidius said:

It’s the further Americanisation of soccer I tell thee!

It will come to a sticky end for us old skool fans, or we will be driven away or just die out.

MFIS.

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chaileyjem said:

The current members of the FAB are well aware that dozens of people come on NSC when its mentioned and say they are a "waste of time" or mock what they do . And are also well aware of the constraints under which they operate - and that Barber/Bloom have effectively said "we don't need it".
Nonetheless, they're all volunteers, care about fans, aren't dupes, and have made some small underreported changes and have done what they can.
So all credit to @Bozza and others , who have done what he can to help support them (website etc, advise about sharing info on NSC) and work with them instead of explaining why they shouldn't be bothering. Good luck to anyone (on here) standing this time and thanks to the rest of the board in the first few years for doing , what has been , a pretty thankless task.

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

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chaileyjem said:

...one has just started going to the WSL and the mens game and football makes them "happy"

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jackalbion said:

I have no issue with the people on it and what they do, I just think its all a bit pointless, when the club aren't as proactive as they can be.

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chaileyjem said:

Of course and i agree with you that the club have curtailed the scope of what they can do / their influence.
However these threads on NSC often stray into mockery , and tired reminders of JUST HOW POINTLESS IT IS - rather than practical suggestions of how to change , for the better, how fans experience the Albion - be it working with that group or outside of it.

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chaileyjem said:

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

Click to expand...

chaileyjem said:

The current members of the FAB are well aware that dozens of people come on NSC when its mentioned and say they are a "waste of time" or mock what they do . And are also well aware of the constraints under which they operate - and that Barber/Bloom have effectively said "we don't need it".
Nonetheless, they're all volunteers, care about fans, aren't dupes, and have made some small underreported changes and have done what they can.
So all credit to @Bozza and others , who have done what he can to help support them (website etc, advise about sharing info on NSC) and work with them instead of explaining why they shouldn't be bothering. Good luck to anyone (on here) standing this time and thanks to the rest of the board in the first few years for doing , what has been , a pretty thankless task.

See more here

Update from the Fan Advisory Board: No one likes us, we really care

Clive Stead from the Brighton Fan Advisory Board provides an update on what the group have achieved in their first year working with the club

www.wearebrighton.com

Click to expand...

Arthur said:

So in 18 months they've bought a flag and had a shed moved.

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