News

Paul Barber's Everton programme notes

The chief executive and deputy chairman writes his latest update ahead of the visit of the Toffees.

By BHAFC • 27 August 2021

By Paul Hazlewood
Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber.

Paul Barber spoke about his delight at the full return of supporters in his Everton programme notes.

You can get your hands on a matchday programme by clicking here.

Paul Barber

Both our clubs enjoy close links with our respective communities and we enjoy an excellent relationship with Blues' chairman Bill Kenwright, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale, marketing director Richard Kenyon, and their board colleagues. It will be good to see them, together with Everton's players, staff and supporters, back on the south coast for another Premier League fixture between our clubs.

By Paul Hazlewood
Albion were backed by a near 30,000 strong crowd against Watford.

Talking of seeing fans back, we were thrilled to see supporters in every area of the Amex last weekend for the first time since February 2020. We knew that you would generate a great atmosphere and reception for the players, and we were all rewarded with a very good team performance and a second league win of the season as we beat newly promoted Watford 2-0. When we add our midweek Carabao Cup success at Cardiff City to the mix, it’s been an excellent start to the season.

We know, however that today’s visit from Everton will be a stiff test of our early pace. Under new head coach Rafa Benitez, our visitors have also made a good start to the season, with four points from their opening two Premier League fixtures – a 3-1 opening-day home win over Southampton and a 2-2 draw at Leeds United last weekend – and a midweek Carabao Cup victory over Huddersfield Town, with a late goal from former Crystal Palace forward Andros Townsend securing a 2-1 victory at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The scene is set for what we hope will be a good match between two good footballing sides and, once again, with a traditionally highly vocal travelling support to counter from the Amex’s south stand, we’re very sure that Albion fans can make a real difference to the team today. Thank you for the great support we have received, both home and away, in these opening weeks of the new season. It’s great to have you back and in fine voice.

Thanks also to everyone who co-operated with our staff to make last week’s opening home match an operational success. Digital tickets, COVID passes, lateral flow tests and photo ID checks were always going to be a challenge to our normal Amex matchday operations and potentially slow everyone’s entrance to our stadium but, thanks again to the patience and support of fans and the hard work of our matchday staff, we ensured that everyone got to their seats safely and in good time for kick-off, which was obviously a key objective of the day.

Inevitably, and as we have since explained, as queues built in different areas of the stadium, it wasn’t possible to check everyone’s COVID passes and photo ID – and it may not be possible today either – but we are preparing for what could be mandated by Government and the Premier League on 1 October 2021. We could have waited and done nothing until then but we chose to prepare as best we can (in the three home Premier League matches before this date) for what could be a very significant change to everyone’s normal matchday routine.

Looking ahead, we still do not know whether the Government will mandate COVID pass-related checks from 1 October 2021. Neither do we know if they do, whether there will be an option to provide a negative lateral flow test result. 

In the meantime, our aim remains the same: to prepare for every eventuality; to review and refine our planning; to be the best prepared we can be; and, very importantly, to keep our fans and staff as safe as we reasonably can.

It is essential we do this, because the advice we are getting from Government and other authorities is that if we are met with increases in transmission in the local area, these measures mean it is far more likely we will be able to keep the stadium open to our supporters and at full capacity. So please continue to work with the club on these new arrangements.

And there is another area we need your help, as these operational challenges, together with the introduction of digital ticketing, at a time when fans have been absent from our matches for 18 months, has inevitably led to huge call and email volumes to supporter services. 

We can only apologise for what have been longer than our usual very speedy response times, and we’re grateful for the patience the vast majority of our supporters have shown. The team will continue to work through queries in the order they receive them, but please help us to help those that most need it by minimising direct contact with the club.

Answers to so many of the queries we are receiving are in our season-ticket renewal packs, in frequently asked question articles we have done through the club’s social media channels, or just sitting on our website. We’d really appreciate it if you would check these information sources first before contacting the club as this will help make a huge difference to the volumes of calls and emails we are receiving, and consequently will cut down waiting times for those fans that have very specific queries. Thank you.

By Paul Hazlewood
Fans are reminded that the Amex is now a cashless venue and contactless payment is encouraged across all areas of the stadium.

A similar plea goes out to those of you buying food and drink on our concourses. Like every football club in the country, and many other businesses in the sports, leisure and entertainment industry, we are struggling to secure all the matchday staff we need to give you the best possible service. This means that, whilst we are doing our best to open every kiosk, we may not be able to staff the outlets to full capacity. Supplies of some food and drink may also be short, so, again, please be patient and respectful to our staff inside and outside the stadium.

Rest assured everyone at the club is doing their best to make your matchday experience at the Amex as good as it can be. A huge amount of time, effort and money is going in to keeping everyone as safe as possible, and that includes our staff, without whom we couldn’t host supporters. The vast majority of our supporters understand and appreciate the current challenges, but we will continue to have zero tolerance for those that don’t, and please be warned that we will take very strong action against anyone that abuses our staff in person, by phone or in writing.

Finally, we are thrilled to have secured a new club record for season-ticket holders and 1901 Club members in time for our tenth anniversary at the stadium! This new record is testament to the support we have built up for the club since moving to the Amex, for the loyalty of fans during the worst of times for so many people, and the great value for money of our season-tickets, enhanced this season by the option of being able to add friends and family to a designated season ticket transfer list, subject to them being MyAlbion+ members – a facility already used by thousands of fans.

Enjoy today’s match!