Steve Gilbert
Level: Steve Basham
(189 Apps, 51 Gls)
- Messages
- 5,841
- Reaction Score
- 13,545
I go to a few random games throughout the season, ticking off grounds to complete the 92.
Last night I went to watch Birmingham vs Burnley at St Andrew’s.
It made me think of how far the club have to go on and off the pitch to be at that standard.
Forget the on field issues for now, off it we are a million miles away.
Before the game it was easy to park and walk to the ground. Outside the ground there were plenty of stewards around to help ask any questions, when walking up to a ground we even got a ‘Hi, welcome to St Andrew’s’ from one of them (bearing in mind we had no colours on so they didn’t know which team we followed).
There were activities for kids, a DJ playing music outside one beer tent, another bar that was busy but still easy to get served, plenty of seating, tv’s showing past Birmingham moments on some and the team news and past encounters with Burnley on others.
The shop was easy to find as you walk past it on the way to the bar and there was also a pop up shop by another stand.
Inside the ground, again easy to get food and beer, even at half time everything flowed easily.
It made me think that this is where we as a club want to be and for me we couldn’t be further from it. Obviously some of these things will change due to having a new stadium hopefully but other things like putting more things on for fans outside the ground on a match day?
It has been said before but our marketing is a shambles and needs a whole overhaul. We used to have a pop up shop in the quad where fans could buy shirts/scarfs/hats, do they still do this?
So while we underperform on the pitch and we are all desperate to see an up turn in results and a change in manager (some more vocal than others), I think a major job for the new board is getting the off field things sorted out.
Last night I went to watch Birmingham vs Burnley at St Andrew’s.
It made me think of how far the club have to go on and off the pitch to be at that standard.
Forget the on field issues for now, off it we are a million miles away.
Before the game it was easy to park and walk to the ground. Outside the ground there were plenty of stewards around to help ask any questions, when walking up to a ground we even got a ‘Hi, welcome to St Andrew’s’ from one of them (bearing in mind we had no colours on so they didn’t know which team we followed).
There were activities for kids, a DJ playing music outside one beer tent, another bar that was busy but still easy to get served, plenty of seating, tv’s showing past Birmingham moments on some and the team news and past encounters with Burnley on others.
The shop was easy to find as you walk past it on the way to the bar and there was also a pop up shop by another stand.
Inside the ground, again easy to get food and beer, even at half time everything flowed easily.
It made me think that this is where we as a club want to be and for me we couldn’t be further from it. Obviously some of these things will change due to having a new stadium hopefully but other things like putting more things on for fans outside the ground on a match day?
It has been said before but our marketing is a shambles and needs a whole overhaul. We used to have a pop up shop in the quad where fans could buy shirts/scarfs/hats, do they still do this?
So while we underperform on the pitch and we are all desperate to see an up turn in results and a change in manager (some more vocal than others), I think a major job for the new board is getting the off field things sorted out.