Quality location & 42 licenced premises in Lewes is a bonus. They get 1k in there on occasion (usually 400-500).
The club is owned by the fans as well (i have owned a share for the last four seasons - but im not Frankie Valli!).
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Quality location & 42 licenced premises in Lewes is a bonus. They get 1k in there on occasion (usually 400-500).
The club is owned by the fans as well (i have owned a share for the last four seasons - but im not Frankie Valli!).
I went to the dripping pan for non league day last season because my uncle is one of the elected board members. Had a great time watching even if the quality wasn't exactly great. Sadly they threw away and 2-0 and 1 man advantage in the last 5 mins and drew 2-2 with the met police. Always really interesting to catch up with him about running a supporter owned club.
The Met police run out to I fought the law and the law won by The Clash at their home matches.
Love that.
Love that.
I agree about the location, we stopped the night and sampled the fantastic ale in many a pub, funny enough the brewery tap didn't sell the best ale.
I must say Lewes do produce some really great match day posters, looking forward to going down there again.
Let me know when & i will let you buy me a pint!
Players were more approachable in those days. I remember when I was young going to Coventry away with the SSC. The coach arrived back at WHL and when we got off the players coach pulled up. The players spent a lot of time with us and were happy to have a chat. I talked to Ardiles, Hoddle & Perryman and they all signed the programme. I even flicked through the pages of the coventry programme to a picture of Ossie to get him to sign that. You couldn't get near the players now.
I have the same feelings about football. The cheating that's acceptable, the influence of money. However, most players were still posers back then. Charlie Nicholas, Tony Woodcock, Paul Mariner, Keegan etc. ffs they loved to show off their legs, all had mullets or perms. Then of course you had some who weren't.
We were treated like cattle, with no regard for our safety. Most pissed in rolled up newspapers as you couldn't get to the undersized dirty, stinking toilet. Then we were caged in. But it was great, and we put up with it.
I think the only thing that will save football is safe standing and a cap on player salaries.
A world class player can make lots besides his wages, i.e., the Bale's, Ronaldo's and Messi's. Good luck to them.
However, £70,000 a week is plenty, It's £3.6m a year. A five year contract is enough for anyone to do ok, even if the career is short. It's more than some will make in a lifetime.
They fought against the maximum wage, well maybe there should be a cap now.
Some people work for companies that make billions and get paid £8ph. Why should footballers be any different?
Agents should have less influence. Something has to be done in. Until then the gulf will widen.There is a great article here.http://www.theguardian.com/football...ort-blog/2011/jan/18/jorge-mendes-super-agent
I have the same feelings about football. The cheating that's acceptable, the influence of money. However, most players were still posers back then. Charlie Nicholas, Tony Woodcock, Paul Mariner, Keegan etc. ffs they loved to show off their legs, all had mullets or perms. Then of course you had some who weren't.
We were treated like cattle, with no regard for our safety. Most pissed in rolled up newspapers as you couldn't get to the undersized dirty, stinking toilet. Then we were caged in. But it was great, and we put up with it.
I think the only thing that will save football is safe standing and a cap on player salaries.
A world class player can make lots besides his wages, i.e., the Bale's, Ronaldo's and Messi's. Good luck to them.
However, £70,000 a week is plenty, It's £3.6m a year. A five year contract is enough for anyone to do ok, even if the career is short. It's more than some will make in a lifetime.
They fought against the maximum wage, well maybe there should be a cap now.
Some people work for companies that make billions and get paid £8ph. Why should footballers be any different?
Agents should have less influence. Something has to be done in. Until then the gulf will widen.There is a great article here.http://www.theguardian.com/football...ort-blog/2011/jan/18/jorge-mendes-super-agent
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I agree but the World has changed, we live in an increasing global society with a huge population, mass media on a insane scale, in such an environment people at the top of their profession get rewards way beyond what they deserve and many people in the middle who bust a gut get under rewarded. We seem to be in a situation we this will just keep increasing and if we do try and cap without agreement with other leagues the top players will all go Spain or Germany.
I have done my job for 3-4 years, enough time to become quite good at it, if I left tomorrow I would make life difficult for my team and one or two teams that work alongside but not much more. Bale has turned out to be hard if not impossible to replace for an entire club and he works in professional sport I just work in a bank. A while ago I asked a question on a thread about paying Prem staff (cooks, cleaners etc) the living wage (not the min wage, the living is a pound or two more) and all I got was basically fuck off. Most of society has accepted that footballers or CEO's should get stupid amounts of cash rightly or wrongly.
Bit of a side point, but I don't agree with this 10-20 years kind of stuff, which I've seen a few posts about. I don't want us to get relegated, but if we were in the Championship for 1-2 seasons, then came back up, we would be in a very similar position to the one we're in now (IMO), not 10-20 years behind. Look at Newcastle- they went down, came up, and are now much the same as they were before. Obviously if we didn't come back up that would be a different matter, but it would all depend on that.
First things first - we can forget about any form of new stadium - no one worth their salt would drop 200m naming rights for a yo-yo, 2-bob club
That in itself defeats everything ENIC have been (supposedly) aiming to build in the last decade.
When is the last time (even now) Newcastle signed a top class name - or even someone who's of Top 4 quality? If we're going for eternal mediocrity - sure, by all means
8 games ago they were at the "lowest of lows" with the Pardew-Ashley hate.
As a club we've always floated around the 2 steps off being where we need to be to push for top 4 and beyond. Sad thing is every step forward since the CL campaign is followed by 2-3 backwards. Which now leaves us all in this shitty no-mans land where we are actually in a worse place as a club as any point in the past 10 years!
Think Newcastle is more down to Mike Ashley and how he runs the club, rather than the fact they were relegated and came back up. Also- when was the last time we signed a top class name? Like Newcastle, we have our pick of the players the bigger clubs don't want, and have to rely on unearthing a gem. We are probably a more attractive proposition than them due to our location and paying higher wages.
But having said that, I think you are right about the stadium. Not sure whether or not it would mean we wouldn't get one, but we certainly wouldn't sell the naming rights for as much, which would affect our finances- so you are right...it would set us back somewhat.
This article could have been written any time in the past 20 years, especially when it concerns Tottenham. The author makes some valid but hardly original points, which makes me wonder what was the straw that broke the camel's back? There have been ample opportunities, if you are so inclined, to walk away from Spurs or football in general, so what is it that has finally consigned football to history for him.
I think age plays a big part, responsibilities change, your energies are directed to a myriad of activities which range from very important (wife, kids, work) to very important but fucking boring and time consuming. Therefore it stands to reason that something, which ultimately you have no influence over has to assume its position of importance.
There are so many reasons that football has lost what I thought made it stomach churningly important but I still can't tear myself away, even if defeats hurts less, and victories whilst still sweet don't result in my drinking 15 pints to celebrate.
I think age plays a big part, responsibilities change, your energies are directed to a myriad of activities which range from very important (wife, kids, work) to very important but fucking boring and time consuming. Therefore it stands to reason that something, which ultimately you have no influence over has to assume its position of importance.
There are so many reasons that football has lost what I thought made it stomach churningly important but I still can't tear myself away, even if defeats hurts less, and victories whilst still sweet don't result in my drinking 15 pints to celebrate.
Something is definitely a bit off at our club (can't talk for all clubs but looks like it's not just a problem with us). I can say from my own point of view since moving here about 18 months ago that it's not what I thought it would be. I used to get up or stay up to watch every game back home between 11pm - 4am, or go into work 1/2 hour late for mid-week games (Bale at West Ham made for a happy day in the office). Every game I'd be on absolute edge for and be buzzing despite it being unnatural to have such energies at those hours, but over here it's been a bit of a chore. Apart from those first few buzzing experiences the atmosphere at games has underwhelmed as has the football on the pitch. Even what I'd consider my WHL highpoint in that time, Bale's last minute winner vs Southampton in his last season, was somewhat of a disappointment up until that moment of magic.
I agree - summers past always seem warmer, sunnier and longer.
The author has just grown up imo......perhaps if/when he has children that take in interest in football he'll start to warm to it again as well.
In terms of the atmosphere, it is still good in away games, in my opinion. As you saw at Chelsea last week.
At the Lane- this has been done to death- but there are too many people who come to experience the atmosphere but don't contribute to it. By this I mean tourists (not real fans from abroad like yourself), corporates, fairweather, occasional fans, and people who just want a day out. It's a cliche, and it's not the only problem, but it is genuinely part of it.
I think the biggest issue is seating structure for home games. Seems to be a problem most clubs face in England. I'll put my hand up I've been to quite a few different grounds just something I wanted to do while living here not the scum though! Like minding vocal supporters don't have to be a majority to create a buzz (see away games) they just need to be near each other and the types who are so-so about will catch on and it has a ripple effect from there on. Problem is when you have 3 or 4 guys sitting together who'd normally sing at an away game in the large group find themselves sitting in a bay with about 4 or 5 other loud supporters. Same thing in the bay next to that etc. and you get the disjointed, underwhelming singing that seems to happen at WHL and at most sides. That's why 1882 works.
Not sure how the club can go about implementing this into home games, but an active support area like they have at many European clubs is the way to go. I recently snuck a PSG game into a trip to Paris with the missus and bought a couple of tickets of viagogo, turns out they were in the "Active Liberal Seating Stand". Much to the missus dismay our ticket which had a seat row & number just essentially gets you into the bay and from there fans can go and stand and sing at the front 1/2 or sit and sing at the back 1/2 of the stand. It was absolutely electric, neither of us speak a word of french and were still humming the chants & songs hours after the game!
You need a bigger ground and less season ticket holders - if fans have the freedom to congregate in a natural 'singing section' over the course of a few games then they will.
The problem with WHL at the moment is the club have completely maxed out the number of ST holders in preparation for building the new stadium.
Not sure I quite get what you mean here. Is that because ST holders have set seats in chosen bays? If so the following suggestion wouldn't work at all..
Bays 33 & 34. Liberal seating plan (can't get in without a seat in there) can sing & stand, drums, flag displays etc. If people don't want to stand for 90 minutes they don't sit in the allocated bay or move to the back of said bay
I agree.
However, those top players still have not made us the best league in the world. Germany has done just as well in the CL since the EPL inception and La Liga and Serie A better. Also we have not been that good in the UEFA/EL since the 'best league in the world' was formed.
Germany doesn't pay it's players that much anyway. The EPL average is £43k, Germany 28k, Italy 25k and Spain 23k.
Those top players will only go to 3 clubs in the EPL.
Mass media has something to do with it though as football is everywhere now. MOTD used to televise 2 matches, you only saw football on Sat and Sunday afternoon. You had to go. Less media attention at grounds made everyone involved more approachable and open. Now anything you say or do may be tweeted or you tubed.
I realise the world has changed, but I feel football is no longer a game for the masses in the UK.
I used to travel home and away when I was 13 -17, before I had left school. I used to be able to afford going when I did not have a job.
Ticket prices are going up -unless your the cheating Chavs or City - to pay the wage bills. Otherwise clubs could not afford better than average players.
Some are being priced out of the game. How many kids do you see on their jack jones now? The cost of the cheapest ticket should be about £10 if you go on the amount the cheapest ticket cost as a proportion of the average wage when I first started going regular , £1.50, as the average wage has not even risen 4 fold.
Price of bread 79 about 33p ( cheapest ticket price for kid 5 loaves Adults 8) Price of bread now about £1 (cheapest ticket price for kids17 loaves- 25 for Cat A - adults 32 & 48)
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/da.../aug/16/premier-league-football-ticket-prices
Very good post. If you look at the Italian ultras, they have their curva and there may not be many fan in there, but they are all together and will create a good atmosphere. 1,000, even 500 people, can make a lot noise if they all sing at the top of their voices. I'd say we must have at least 3,000 people who want to make noise at a home game, probably more like 5,000. If they well all together we would be consistently outsinging the away fans.
Like you suggest, if you just buy a season ticket for a certain block with unreserved seating, then it could be first come first served on the day, in terms of your actual seat. This would allow different season ticket holders (who sing) to stand together at the front, and sing. I guess the problem is also that our noisy fans are split between season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders.
A big problem is the club actively prefers the more sedate fan, who doesn't swear, fight, sing or make "obscene gestures" because said fan will (a) spend more money on merchandise, programmes, food etc. and (b) won't scare off other fans of that ilk. This leads us to the over-zealous stewarding we currently have.