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Post by mikeyboy on Feb 13, 2024 10:35:59 GMT
Just to alert you to the fact that there is another Q&A with Ben and this time Martin Paterson at 6.30pm on Thursday 7th March. It’s a free event and is usually well worth attending. To book tickets go to www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TCNP2GV?pQuestions should be submitted to Nigel Powlson on nigel.powlson@burtonalbionfc.co.uk
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 5, 2024 8:42:54 GMT
I thought I’d better bump this up the board. It’s always an interesting evening and more so this time with Martin involved for the first time. I have posted the original email below.
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 5, 2024 8:47:25 GMT
MANAGER AND CHAIRMAN WILL TAKE QUESTIONS FROM FANS BREWERS fans are invited to pose questions to manager Martin Paterson and Chairman Ben Robinson at the second Fan Forum of the season. The forum take place on Thursday, March 7. It will be hosted by BACT Interim Head of Community John Widdowson who will be telling fans about the latest independent impact report. The forum will start at 6.30pm. It will last approximately 90 minutes. Martin Paterson said: I’m delighted to be able to meet supporters at the forum and to answer their questions. I’m looking forward to hearing their views as I know how passionate they are about the club. Ben Robinson said: The first Fan Forum of this season was a really productive evening covering a wide range of issues and I’m looking forward to now being joined by the manager to further engage with supporters. I hope to see as many of you there as possible. The Fan Forum is a free event open to all supporters. To book a space, please complete the survey: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TCNP2GVFans wishing to submit questions in advance should email nigel.powlson@burtonalbionfc.co.uk. These questions will be read out on the evening for those who prefer to have them read out by the host and this also gives fans who can’t attend a chance to have their questions answered. You do not have to submit questions in advance. Those attending will have opportunity to ask questions in person on the night.
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 7, 2024 21:13:04 GMT
An interesting evening - more than double the number from last time and therefore in the Albion Suite rather than the Tom Bradbury.
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Post by strettonbrewer on Mar 7, 2024 21:42:29 GMT
An interesting evening - more than double the number from last time and therefore in the Albion Suite rather than the Tom Bradbury. Care to provide a summary Mikey for those not in attendance? Be much appreciated!
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Post by overlappingteacup on Mar 7, 2024 21:45:32 GMT
Probably one of the best fan forums so far.
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 7, 2024 21:49:49 GMT
An interesting evening - more than double the number from last time and therefore in the Albion Suite rather than the Tom Bradbury. Care to provide a summary Mikey for those not in attendance? Be much appreciated! As soon as I can yes.
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Post by gorbybrewer66 on Mar 8, 2024 0:22:24 GMT
Main take away points I took:
MP is a genuine bloke and 'gets' the club at all levels.
Team is obviously 'work in progress' and he acknowledges the home performances/results are not good enough. He agreed that the ball was in the air too much last two home games. Working everyday on sorting it!
Realistic enough to acknowledge we need to attain the short term goal (staying in L1) first and then look to build for the future in terms of playing an attractive brand of football and being more than competitive at this level and having promotion ambitions (and hey why not!)...
Squad is giving him the non negotiables as he calls them, effort, commitment, playing for shirt type of things. He needs to fine tune the players self confidence, belief, playing without fear etc.
Recognises the striker situation is not ideal but we get on with it (he was not impressed with Lubala!)
Hates conceding goals from set pieces! Still hurting from the Carlisle defeat.
Makes no apologies for our use of the long throw, states we should've had 4 goals from them since he took over.
Agreed with a comment in the room that we have taken too many bookings lately. He is big on dicscipine and deals with players getting unnecessary cautions like kicking ball away & back chatting to officials. Althouh he doesn't discuss match officials he thinks we have got the thin end of the wedge on several occasions.
Spoke to all players who will be out of contract at the end of the season within the first 4 days of his appointment. Discussions are ongoing.
He will assess recruitment requirements at the end of the season, he has a worldwide network of contacts and a large database of player info. Eddie Howe is a long standing friend!
He, the staff and players really appreciate the fans support both home and away. They understand when fans level criticism at the players/manager and agree their right to dish it out but also like to see the fans recognise when the team perform well (which I personally think you do get with the Brewers).
Ben says there is an ongoing issue with regard to compensation to Dino, lawyers involved! The Dino era was challenging to say the least...
Anyone who wants to pay for their season ticket via installments can do so by contacting the club. This should probably be made more explicit by the club at the time when renewal details are publicised IMHO.
Probably missed some stuff but others will no doubt fill in the blanks.
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 8, 2024 13:25:40 GMT
Personally I think that is an excellent resume of the evening from gorbybrewer and there is little I could add. Perhaps realistically the most controversial/interesting moment was when Ben described working with Dino as ‘challenging.’ Which probably answered a lot of questions on here and he added later on, that he felt that too much money had been spent in the close season. He had hoped for a cup run to stabilise the situation but that hadn’t materialised, which meant we needed to pare back costs in the January window and that discussions were ongoing between legal representatives of the two parties currently.
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Post by bennyboy on Mar 8, 2024 13:33:11 GMT
Ahh, the self appointed Dino, wasn't easy going then. Self appointed was a joke BTW, what do we know.?
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Post by everard on Mar 8, 2024 14:15:49 GMT
Thanks to Gorby and Mikey for summary...appreciated by those of us who couldn't be there for whatever reason....
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 8, 2024 17:39:27 GMT
Without a doubt an interesting and successful evening. You can surmise a lot through body language. I’d add that Martin spoke very eloquently and I felt knew his stuff. As with all managers he needs time and our support. I’d also add that John Widdowson, interim head of community, was very impressive in chairing the forum - what the Community Trust do should make us all proud.
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Post by bartonyellow on Mar 8, 2024 20:23:06 GMT
Thanks for the summary. Was anything mentioned on the ground and the amount of terracing ?
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Post by gorbybrewer66 on Mar 8, 2024 21:21:57 GMT
Thanks for the summary. Was anything mentioned on the ground and the amount of terracing ? No, nothing mentioned re ground capacity/seating/terracing etc. Ben just reiterated his disappointment in the "town's" apathy in terms of home attendances.
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Post by bartonyellow on Mar 8, 2024 21:35:04 GMT
Thanks for the summary. Was anything mentioned on the ground and the amount of terracing ? No, nothing mentioned re ground capacity/seating/terracing etc. Ben just reiterated his disappointment in the "town's" apathy in terms of home attendances. The apathy is very complex and for a variety of reasons. Hopefully we can start to address that with a series of measures off the pitch - and on it.
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Post by strettonbrewer on Mar 9, 2024 9:46:39 GMT
For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground
1. I've never understood why we don't reduce the prices for a season and trial what morecambe did once.
For every 100 ST sold, the price came down 'x' amount so the more people purchased, the less you paid.
2000 season tickets at 275 is much better financially than 1000 at 360
2. Snack bars - you have almost 1000 people roughly on a matchday in the popside and maybe 7/800 or so behind the goal who each only have one kiosk with 3 people working to get them served! No wonder people don't buy food there when it'll take 45 minutes to get served and you either take the hit on several minutes of football being missed or you just eat beforehand thus bringing no revenue to the club.
3. The football is shocking. Why would people want to turn out and watch some of the most dire football we've seen for a while at home? For 3 years we've been fighting relegation deep into the season. It's getting boring now. No energy, no ambition
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Post by bennyboy on Mar 9, 2024 10:41:44 GMT
For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground 1. I've never understood why we don't reduce the prices for a season and trial what morecambe did once. For every 100 ST sold, the price came down 'x' amount so the more people purchased, the less you paid. 2000 season tickets at 275 is much better financially than 1000 at 360 2. Snack bars - you have almost 1000 people roughly on a matchday in the popside and maybe 7/800 or so behind the goal who each only have one kiosk with 3 people working to get them served! No wonder people don't buy food there when it'll take 45 minutes to get served and you either take the hit on several minutes of football being missed or you just eat beforehand thus bringing no revenue to the club. 3. The football is shocking. Why would people want to turn out and watch some of the most dire football we've seen for a while at home? For 3 years we've been fighting relegation deep into the season. It's getting boring now. No energy, no ambition It's "Her Game Too" today and what are the club doing about encouraging our female fans, maybe cheaper entrance, no chance. I've got two granddaughters with me today, I don't mind paying full price, they are under 17 anyway. Another possible chance of attracting more fans. Not today but have we had a kids for a quid at all this season, can't remember?
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Post by strettonbrewer on Mar 9, 2024 11:44:45 GMT
For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground 1. I've never understood why we don't reduce the prices for a season and trial what morecambe did once. For every 100 ST sold, the price came down 'x' amount so the more people purchased, the less you paid. 2000 season tickets at 275 is much better financially than 1000 at 360 2. Snack bars - you have almost 1000 people roughly on a matchday in the popside and maybe 7/800 or so behind the goal who each only have one kiosk with 3 people working to get them served! No wonder people don't buy food there when it'll take 45 minutes to get served and you either take the hit on several minutes of football being missed or you just eat beforehand thus bringing no revenue to the club. 3. The football is shocking. Why would people want to turn out and watch some of the most dire football we've seen for a while at home? For 3 years we've been fighting relegation deep into the season. It's getting boring now. No energy, no ambition It's "Her Game Too" today and what are the club doing about encouraging our female fans, maybe cheaper entrance, no chance. I've got two granddaughters with me today, I don't mind paying full price, they are under 17 anyway. Another possible chance of attracting more fans. Not today but have we had a kids for a quid at all this season, can't remember? They are happy to promote Cheltenham Festival and boozy bingo but getting people to support the team on a matchday and encourage youngsters to attend to try and make them lifelong fans? Nah All about the corporate £££
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Post by mikeyboy on Mar 10, 2024 7:24:07 GMT
The official report on the forum:
FANS POSE QUESTIONS TO CHAIRMAN AND MANAGER,
BURTON Albion supporters were able to pose questions to Chairman Ben Robinson and Manager Martin Paterson at a Fan Forum last night.
It was the first-time supporters were able to meet and exchange views with the new manager who shared his vision for the club.
The forum was hosted by BACT Interim Head of Community John Widdowson who gave a presentation on the latest independent impact report showing how much the club achieves in the community.
The Chairman will be celebrating 50 years since he first became involved with the club next season and says he still comes to work with a smile on his face every morning.
He was asked about the recent postponements due to wet weather and the current situation with the pitch.
He told fans that unprecedented rainfall on the day of each game had caused the matches to be called off and the continuous bad weather had delayed verti-drain work that was needed to stop the pitch becoming waterlogged but that this had now been done.
There was a discussion about the cost-of-living crisis and the Chairman said fans were always welcome to pay for Season Tickets in instalments on request and that the club had consistently kept admission prices as low as possible.
Fans asked what could be done about increasing attendances with BACT and the club working on initiatives to encourage new fans, especially families and the manager saying that his job was to get results that would encourage people to attend.
Fans raised concern about the behaviour of a small group of supporters in the Don Amott Stand with the Chairman promising that the club would take a further look at this with stewards and the safety officer.
The Manager answered question about performances and results and the balance of squad in terms of permanent signings and loans.
He said that he had short, medium and long-term goals and that he could assure fans that he had a hard working group of players who put in maximum effort every game to get results. Building on that was a work in progress.
He also said that he wanted to ensure there was a continuity in terms of staff and vision so that the club had a solid platform to build on going forward. He was excited by the challenge of being Burton Albion manager and the club’s long-term prospects.
John Widdowson said: I want to thank everyone for coming along and sharing their views. The forums are part of our EFL commitments but we as a club believe in fan engagement and would be listening and acting on supporters’ views regardless of that obligation.
It was great to listen to the Chairman and Manager and hear their honest and insightful views on all things Burton
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Post by bennyboy on Mar 10, 2024 9:21:38 GMT
"For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground"
I know we've had fixtures postponed lately but for March, out of 6 matches only 2 at home, yesterday was one of them. April, yes ones a rearrangement, 4 at home 2 away. The fixture planning needs a shake up, one month sparce income for the club another month a good deal better but will the fans attend all of the those matches close together? It used to be more or less home then away patterns, no longer any consistency with these fixtures and too many cup competitions.
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