Paul Barber's New Job

Casper · Post edited by Blue_and_White_Army at 2013-01-07 10:21:52

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/page/Latest/0,,10433~2790697,00.html

Kinda surprised he went for a lower level team...

The_Real_Deal

Aspirations for them to become a top 25 world club?

Neeskens1974

Casper said: http://www.seagulls.co.uk/page/Latest/0,,10433~2790697,00.html

Kinda surprised he went for a lower level team...

I don't think Barber has much say in the matter. I don't think he's much in demand as a GM. Even at Spurs he would have nothing to really say under Daniel Levy.

They have serious ambitions and likely higher budgets under Tony Bloom than what he had to work with here.

Blue_and_White_Army

Gutted for Albion supporters. :(

GoF

Yup. Poor bastards. I like Albion too.

Markus

Can he hire Tom Soehn?

Javy81

Oh I don't think we will have to worry about old Tommy Boy much longer

Fynnsky

Spill the beans! Do you have the inside scoop?

Lefty

Sea-Side Rendezvous, so adorable.

dochawk

barber is a bum oh sorry that is tom soehn

OldFan

He will probably do better than he did here because he knows the league and market better. Just keep him away from player decisions and it might work.

Seathanaich

He probably WON'T do better than he did here, because here his job consisted of selling something novel and unique to potential advertisers/sponsors. It will be much harder to find new advertising partners in Brighton, Sussex than in Vancouver, British Columbia due to the much smaller size of that city, and the massive number of soccer teams he will be competing with for corporate support.

Canadianspur

Maybe we will be seeing the "Bell Pitch at American Express Community Stadium"

CapsownMLS

hmmm does anyone else see their stadium as a look alike to the rejected Gastown stadium? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Falmer_Stadium_-_League_debut.jpg

Seathanaich · Post edited by Seathanaich at 2012-06-02 12:10:01

Am I the only person who thinks that a 20K seater, while the norm in MLS, is too small for the Whitecaps? Understanding that the Gastown Stadium views were of a stadium meant to be expandable, I'd be disappointed if Whitecaps built their own stadium with anything less than 30K seats in it. You want to create demand, etc, but surely you build something big enough to accommodate your larger crowds, not your smaller ones, and then tarp off / close some sections as needed. Obviously 60K is bigger than you want, but surely 20K is way too small.

OldFan · Post edited by OldFan at 2012-06-02 14:50:19

Yes, 20k is way too small for MLS Whitecaps. We get that much for a team that had a dreadful season and hasn't won any cups yet. Potential for 30k is very realistic once there is some silverware and excitement in the city.

In hindsight, maybe getting rejected wasn't so bad in the sense that the Caps were thinking too small at the time. Next time around they will be able to plan a bigger stadium.

PLus you always have BC Place in your back pocket if you want to bring in a big club for a friendly and put in temp grass for the game.

I just don't see the province being to eager to help the caps get a stadium in few years; they need this major tenant for their building.

Seathanaich

They don't need the province - the ownership have already said they'll pay for it. We got 27K last year for LA. I think that 30K has to be the minimum. Put in grass and you'll host national team soccer and rugby games.

Brettness37

Hahaha national team soccer. I like it when you tell jokes, my attention span is too short for your wiki entries though.

Seathanaich

We would get national team soccer games. The women played here just year before crowds in the 15-20K range in case you missed it, but with natural grass we'd get mens games too. The CSA could no longer use the "artifical pitch" excuse once the new CSA president asks for different options because the "games only in Toronto" experiment hasn't been a roaring success.

The national rugby training centre is in Victoria - if Canada had finished one place higher in their pool at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, not only would we have received millions of dollars from the IRB, we would have been mandated several games against countries like Australia, New Zealand, England, France, etc over the next four year period. You need stadiums that hold more people than Fletcher's Field north of Toronto does for rugby matches against those countries. Rugby Canada is based in Victoria, so games there (Centennial Stadium? Royal Athletic Park?) and in Vancouver are probable.

Call them "wikipedia" articles all you want, but my opinions are backed up with evidence and actual factual information, which is part of what some people don't like about them.

Jay_Duke

The biggest reason the cmnt plays in TO is because of time zone difference and flight times.

There are no "facts" to prove Vancouver would get any games if we had grass. Just theories.

ynwasouthside

Apparent London to Toronto is still at least a 7 hour flight. Though the time zone is definitely an issue.

piltdownman

London -> Toronto : 6 hours 23 minutes
London -> Vancouver: 8 hours 29 minutes
Frankfurt -> Toronto : 7 hours 3 minutes
Frankfurt -> Vancouver: 9 hours 2 minutes

slamo

If you leave London at noon you would arrive in Toronto at 13:23 you would arrive in Vancouver at 12:29, so essentially it's a shorter trip to Vancouver.

Jay_Duke

slamo said: If you leave London at noon you would arrive in Toronto at 13:23 you would arrive in Vancouver at 12:29, so essentially it's a shorter trip to Vancouver.

They say it takes a day for every hour of time zone shift for your body to get used to it. Also , even though the "time" shows a shorter trip, it doesn't feel like it for those extra 2 hours of flight time.

I still think its all bullshit, and that Vancouver should get a game, at least a friendly or two, I'm just saying that I don't think it'll happen just because we get grass.

slamo

Not until the west is producing the majority of players would be my guess. With most of the players hailing from SW Ontario - they'd prefer TO for sure. Makes sense.

JohnnieMonster

It's no longer a mystery as to why Toronto gets the games. The CSA's contract with the city of Toronto for use of BMO was leaked last year. It shows that the CSA made guarantees for a minimum number of high level games per year, a share of gate receipts and promises to compensate the city for any attendance shortfalls. #FTCSA

JohnnieMonster

The whole bit about flights, natural grass and hotel familiarity may indeed be on the radar, but those are smokescreen issues to distract from the shameful deal the CSA struck with the city of Toronto.

OldFan · Post edited by OldFan at 2012-06-03 11:19:10

seathanaich said: They don't need the province - the ownership have already said they'll pay for it. We got 27K last year for LA. I think that 30K has to be the minimum. Put in grass and you'll host national team soccer and rugby games.

I wasn't referring to needing provincial money. I think they do need the province in the sense of getting approvals to build it somewhere. As we learned, without all levels of government behind it it didn't get done. can they really do it without the provincial government on board? I don't think it would be very easy at all.

Brenton

Maybe in his new role Barber can sort out these CSA problems.

Neeskens1974

The biggest reason the cmnt plays in TO is because of time zone difference and flight times.

There are no "facts" to prove Vancouver would get any games if we had grass. Just theories.

Doesn't seem to stop the USMNT from playing on the West Coast or Mid-West. All long flights from Europe as well.

SAFC_Yank

Neeskens1974 said:

The biggest reason the cmnt plays in TO is because of time zone difference and flight times.

There are no "facts" to prove Vancouver would get any games if we had grass. Just theories.

Doesn't seem to stop the USMNT from playing on the West Coast or Mid-West. All long flights from Europe as well.

Actually, the US doesn't make players come to the West Coast on short turnarounds. The last time the US played a home match and made players come from Europe to the far west was a "friendly" with Mexico in Phoenix in February 2007. There have been some games in the midwest, but that's only one additional time zone. And some of those games are in Columbus, which is probably the best home venue for US soccer because it is small enough and, umm, isolated enough to get a pro-US crowd, even against Mexico and the Central American teams.

There's always a match in Carson in January, but players active in Europe aren't called in - its always MLS players and guys that play in Scandinavian leagues with summer schedules or very long winter breaks. They also sometimes play June games on the West Coast, but that doesn't require a quick flight from Europe and back.

Brenton

In his new position, Barber would have something to say about this.

DannyBoy

Brenton said: In his new position, Barber would have something to say about this.

Stop untracking this thread!

OldFan

DannyBoy said:

Brenton said: In his new position, Barber would have something to say about this.

Stop untracking this thread!

I hate derailed threads.

SAFC_Yank

OldFan said:

DannyBoy said:

Brenton said: In his new position, Barber would have something to say about this.

Stop untracking this thread!

I hate derailed threads.

Heh, heh. That's brilliant.

Canadianspur

Barber was back in town the past few days for his son's high school graduation. I had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes last night but didn't talk about his departure. What I did notice was that he seemed to avoid Kerfoot (his son was also graduating from the same school). Obviously there is some bad blood there.

PDJ

CapsownMLS said: hmmm does anyone else see their stadium as a look alike to the rejected Gastown stadium? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Falmer_Stadium_-_League_debut.jpg

Reminds me of the Reebok (29K)

Grandstander

Brighton is an up and coming team with there new stadium.

"Having worked for the FA, Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS, he has excellent knowledge and experience of the commercial, marketing and communications side of the game, here in the UK and overseas.

"Paul also has an extensive network of contacts across the football industry, which will be of great benefit to the club as we strive to progress."

He's there to bring in the money. He did it here, and excelled. Everything else he needs work on.

Boxing_Day_Massacre

And right off the bat he's off to a cracking start. Rearranged fixture against SWFC from a Saturday at 3 (when away fans can get to and from the game) to the Friday night when few if any away fans will be able to get to the game. And all because the Saturday clashes with Brighton Polytechnic freshers' piss-up. How many other clubs would do this ? Laughable.

http://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/175010-6-fixtures-changed/

saltybugR

PB was a disaster as head CEO and i think people give him way too much credit for the corporate and community support that was long-developed before he arrived on the scene-- since he'sbeen gone, can any1 truly say we miss him or his leadership???

Whitecats

Javy81 said: Oh I don't think we will have to worry about old Tommy Boy much longer

OK so what do you know about this? "shouldn't take much to turn our season around" exactly, just hire Rennie

Blue_and_White_Army

Oh dear: Barber is on the cover of FC Business magazine, with a (suitably?) ominous photo...

http://www.fcbusiness.co.uk/eversion/fcb62/index.html

OldFan

Over under on the time before he departs?

I say under 24 months.

Blue_and_White_Army

"A blog post about Brighton's shift to off-the-field commercialiasm and its new demon figure, Paul Barber."

Barbernomics: Price rises + fans = angry punters
Sweatshop Tacchinardi (on Twitter as @SwSpTacchinardi)
Monday 7 January 2013

"...[M]ost [Brighton] supporters realise [CEO Paul Barber] is very much behind the club's recent drive towards commercialism off the pitch.

"However, while some see it as a necessary evil to be suffered if the Albion are to push further up the footballing pyramid, others look upon Barber and his recent approach as the first step in stripping the club away from the very ideals which so successfully kept extinction at bay throughout the lean Goldstone, Gillingham and Withdean years."

. . .

"Barber, for someone with such an extensive background in marketing, has made some PR blunders..."

. . .

"Prices have gone up across the board. The cost of food and drink increased pre-season and the price of the programme, albeit an award-winning one, went up 50p despite appearing to be printed on cheaper paper. On their own, explainable by quoting the rising cost of players' wages and recruiting the best talent. In tandem with other Barberisms, perhaps not so easily swallowed."

. . .

"And the decision to demand popular website www.northstandchat.biz remove its well-used ticket exchange has proved an own goal..."

[READ MORE]

ynwasouthside

That's our boy!

Lord_Bob

An interesting read, but if the words "perceived value" had been in that blog post somewhere I would have crapped myself laughing.

Canadianspur

Very interesting article that has a lot of parallels to Barber's Whitecap experience. Trying to modernize a small time front office in the face of supporter opposition. Unfortunately our FO seems to regressed to even more small time with unpaid interns and staff cuts.

Seathanaich · Post edited by Seathanaich at 2013-01-07 11:52:45

Barber DID get rid of what sounds like Albion's female cheerleaders, so you have to give him kudos for that.

Subhedgehog

Seathanaich said: Barber DID get rid of what sounds like Albion's female cheerleaders, so you have to give him kudos for that.

No wonder the supporters are pissed.

Canadianspur · Post edited by Canadianspur at 2013-01-07 12:41:54

Subhedgehog said:

Seathanaich said: Barber DID get rid of what sounds like Albion's female cheerleaders, so you have to give him kudos for that.

No wonder the supporters are pissed.

"Gully's Girls"

OldFan

There is our man making us proud by torching another club!

I love the apologist saying "trying to modernize" :)

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