Official Site: BEHIND THE GOALS UPDATE

[WhileTheChief..]

Who decided to have a damn 'health hub' in our stadium?

Were the fans reps consulted? Was anyone consulted?

Were supposed to be an elite, professional football club. Looks like we're turning into a community centre that hosts Hibs games now and again.

Next up mother and baby coffee mornings where you can breast feed till your hearts content?

Jumble sales and cake bakes?

Cubs and Brownie meetings in the evenings?

[bingo70]

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Who decided to have a damn 'health hub' in our stadium?

Were the fans reps consulted? Was anyone consulted?

Were supposed to be an elite, professional football club. Looks like we're turning into a community centre that hosts Hibs games now and again.

Next up mother and baby coffee mornings where you can breast feed till your hearts content?

Jumble sales and cake bakes?

Cubs and Brownie meetings in the evenings?

What kind of cakes you talking about? You've got my attention.

[Real Emerald]

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I'm not so sure next the logical step to be taken after maximising the revenue we can get from our facilities in order to put the best football team on the park that we can is shutting the club down.

It was a sarcastic remark.

The point being that making money from a facility shouldn't be the only concern. BTG may not make money (might if run better) but supporters that rely on it being there may choose to not go back. There are many reasons people need a closeby place to go/meet up pre match. Given that most of the nearer pubs have closed since BTG opened there aren't many places left to go (for 800 people).Whether this be for old timers, parents with kids, out of towners needing to park or just folk wanting a pint close to the stadium pre match. It's now part of a lot of supporters matchday experience that IMO needs to be replaced ASAP.

[WhileTheChief..]

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What kind of cakes you talking about? You've got my attention.

Are cup cakes not the done thing these days?

We could always ask our neighbours, they baked plenty to save their club

[marinello59]

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It was a sarcastic remark.

The point being that making money from a facility shouldn't be the only concern. BTG may not make money (might if run better) but supporters that rely on it being there may choose to not go back. There are many reasons people need a closeby place to go/meet up pre match. Given that most of the nearer pubs have closed since BTG opened there aren't many places left to go (for 800 people).Whether this be for old timers, parents with kids, out of towners needing to park or just folk wanting a pint close to the stadium pre match. It's now part of a lot of supporters matchday experience that IMO needs to be replaced ASAP.

I've gone in there myself before every game for the past few years. I'm just not that bothered if it keeps going or not, I'll find somewhere else to go
I'm also a dinosaur who switches off as soon as the words 'matchday experience' are used.

[silverhibee]

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I agree, you can't satisfy everyone but it would be a great shame if the facility was lost.

I have several family members who are a lot older than me and that's where they meet up before games, in early to get a table and have a few beers and a chatter and in to the FF for the game, come next season that will more than likely come to a halt, they will probably just go straight to the games now, nowhere else for them to go where they will get a table to sit round and chat away, Hibs club is always busy as well and the last time i tried to get in i got a KB, and the pubs that are left open nowadays are full on match day, and most are not where you can take the kids along with you either.

[Real Emerald]

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I've gone in there myself before every game for the past few years. I'm just not that bothered if it keeps going or not, I'll find somewhere else to go
I'm also a dinosaur who switches off as soon as the words 'matchday experience' are used.

Spurs are putting in a facility at their new stadium that will allow them to serve 10,000 pints a minute to facilitate their fans. Meanwhile we're closing down a bar facility to accommodate an NHS drop in centre. Granted we could probably only manage one pint of slop a minute but this just seems a backward move.

Improve it, don't close it!

[macca70]

Hopefully this means they make the Hibs Club members only on match days, it's been absolutely rammed the last few match days, this will make it even worse.

[Brooster]

BTG couldve been something really special but bad management hit that on the head. I only ever went because it was Hibs, had it been anywhere else I wouldnt have returned. I stopped going recently when people (fans....the lifeblood of the club) couldnt get in despite the place being half empty at 215.

[silverhibee]

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Am I the only one who can see the irony in this whole thing?

From the beginning this was mooted as Hibs making underused parts of the stadium available to the local community as part of a strategy to forge closer links to it .... that seems to have grown arms and legs to become a financial venture which will be at the expense of the one community which should be most important to the club .... the Hibs support.

BTG shouldn't only be viewed from a financial point of view, perhaps if it was actually losing substantial sums of money but that doesn't appear to be the case ..... it seems it has been binned in order to make more money than it does. But IMO there was a value to be placed on it which rises above just money .... it was a facility that brought the club and the fans closer together in that there was a social side to going to Easter Road as well as just being folk who turn up to pay at the turnstiles or browse the club shop. It was a place where ordinary fans could see the Chairman or CEO and chat with them if they wanted to. It was a place where Hibs fans with young kids could go knowing their kids could be kept amused and be safe while they had a pre match pint. It was a place where out of town fans who sometimes have to arrive early to get parked could go to while away the time before the match.

For all its faults BTG was a facility that Hibs could be proud of and now it seems like there's a real danger it wont be replaced .... I for one am never confident when I see phrases like "being reviewed" in a statement, it never leads to the outcome you want in my experience.

I have to say that if BTG isn't replaced by a facility at least as good, hopefully better, then for the first time since she joined the club I will feel that we ( the support ) have been let down by Leeann Dempster.

Well said NN.

As you say a meeting point for Hibs fans before games, the wee bit in bold, i Thought BTG would be the ideal place to meet up with the fans reps as well, how will fans get to meet up with them next season, they will have to now step up with more communication on social media as unless they are going to do a tour of the local pubs on matchdays.

[silverhibee]

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I can't remember the last time I read a post praising BTG but now it's closing folk are doing their nut

Maybe, but as you will know it is always a good meeting point for Hibs fans.

[Bighoose]

Few of us would go to BTG after games, especially the times when the barriers were up after the Cat A games.

Stopped going mainly as service was so slow and after you had queued 30 minutes for your crap pint they would tell you to drink up as they were closing.

Seems a shame tho to have nothing on offer especially when as suggested simple things like a bottle bar etc would have improved the experience.

[silverhibee]

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If Hibs are getting good money for it, it's a great move.

How much are Hibs getting for it.

Lets just knock the place down and sell it to Cala homes and we can move out to somewhere close to the bypass.

[Golden Bear]

The notion that it wasn't a popular place was a strange one to me given the number of fans who used it for their pre match pint.

[3pm]

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How much are Hibs getting for it.

Lets just knock the place down and sell it to Cala homes and we can move out to somewhere close to the bypass.

Dunno.

i'd still keep the stadium where it is.... :o)

[Hibeesforever]

Disgraceful decision to move away from providing BTG to something related to the NHS. We are a football club for fans, not a health centre! My kids met the Chairman at BTG and it is an excellent facility for fans.

[staunchhibby]

Once again the fans are not given any thought regarding closure of BTG.

[Golden Bear]

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Once again the fans are not given any thought regarding closure of BTG.

That's what i'm trying to find out. With the various fans working groups on the go, surely the BTG project would have been raised somewhere, and if so, what was their viewpoint?

[Onceinawhile]

We're a football club first and foremost.
The club are putting revenue first so that they can provide a better football team.

That's literally what everyone on this board has been complaining about for the past 5 years being addressed. But now it's a problem as roughly 5% of the total attendees need to walk 500 yards extra from the pub?

[Real Emerald]

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We're a football club first and foremost.
The club are putting revenue first so that they can provide a better football team.

That's literally what everyone on this board has been complaining about for the past 5 years being addressed. But now it's a problem as roughly 5% of the total attendees need to walk 500 yards extra from the pub?

That's just a ridiculous statement. It's a football ground with fans facilities that are being removed. Most of the fans that go to BTG bar have been the ones propping up our club when we were getting 7k attendances. I've been taking my son there since he was a wee boy, he's now 25. What do the other dads do with their kids now it's shutting down. Some may not bother or leave the kids at home, hardly nurturing support!

[Jonnyboy]

Bloody hell!!! "Disgrace" - "where will folk meet" - "no replacement" - "we're a football club, not a health centre" etc etc etc.

The club has a facility, the FF function rooms, that brings money in for around 40 days a year. They negotiate a deal to have that facility used 52 weeks of the year. Now I'm no financial whizkid but even I can guess the income from that facility will increase substantially. That's money coming into the club. I've been told that there will be a replacement facility at the stadium.

Maybe we should just stop the kind of speculation that implies the club doesn't care about the supporters?

Rant over

[macca70]

Is there not a load of space in the South stand where this health hub could be accommodated?

As has already been said where do you draw the line at giving up supporters facilities to accommodate local community projects.

[BoomtownHibees]

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Bloody hell!!! "Disgrace" - "where will folk meet" - "no replacement" - "we're a football club, not a health centre" etc etc etc.

The club has a facility, the FF function rooms, that brings money in for around 40 days a year. They negotiate a deal to have that facility used 52 weeks of the year. Now I'm no financial whizkid but even I can guess the income from that facility will increase substantially. That's money coming into the club. I've been told that there will be a replacement facility at the stadium.

Maybe we should just stop the kind of speculation that implies the club doesn't care about the supporters?

Rant over

Well said

[greenginger]

There's an area of land between the FF and the East on the corner. I had assumed that was going to be the site for the health centre.

It only seems to get used on match days to park a few cars. I'm sure something could be built there and still accommodate a seating deck in the future.

[Enough said]

BTG is only open on match days obviously roughly 100 hours per season. The reason LD wants the business from the NHS is the agreement is for the hole year witch in turn will be roughly 400/500 grand for the club. The reason the south isn't being used is the fact the police cells are there some offices which the club use, we as a club get just under 100 grand per annum from NHS for what they use in the south stand, hence the reason they need bigger facilities it's a no brainer
for the board. I don't agree as my mates go there and so do I although it's usually back of 2 and it's rammed.

[Real Emerald]

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BTG is only open on match days obviously roughly 100 hours per season. The reason LD wants the business from the NHS is the agreement is for the hole year witch in turn will be roughly 400/500 grand for the club. The reason the south isn't being used is the fact the police cells are there some offices which the club use, we as a club get just under 100 grand per annum from NHS for what they use in the south stand, hence the reason they need bigger facilities it's a no brainer
for the board. I don't agree as my mates go there and so do I although it's usually back of 2 and it's rammed.

Surely the NHS aren't paying Hibs 500 grand a year to rent a space. They could buy and own there own place for a few years rent if that was the case. It sounds excessive in the extreme?

[Mikey]

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Bloody hell!!! "Disgrace" - "where will folk meet" - "no replacement" - "we're a football club, not a health centre" etc etc etc.

The club has a facility, the FF function rooms, that brings money in for around 40 days a year. They negotiate a deal to have that facility used 52 weeks of the year. Now I'm no financial whizkid but even I can guess the income from that facility will increase substantially. That's money coming into the club. I've been told that there will be a replacement facility at the stadium.

Maybe we should just stop the kind of speculation that implies the club doesn't care about the supporters?

Rant over

Spot on. Especially the bit in bold.

[Enough said]

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Surely the NHS aren't paying Hibs 500 grand a year to rent a space. They could buy and own there own place for a few years rent if that was the case. It sounds excessive in the extreme?

LD isn't daft it's big money for us . Just unfortunately the timing isn't great with no where in place instead.

[marinello59]

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Bloody hell!!! "Disgrace" - "where will folk meet" - "no replacement" - "we're a football club, not a health centre" etc etc etc.

The club has a facility, the FF function rooms, that brings money in for around 40 days a year. They negotiate a deal to have that facility used 52 weeks of the year. Now I'm no financial whizkid but even I can guess the income from that facility will increase substantially. That's money coming into the club. I've been told that there will be a replacement facility at the stadium.

Maybe we should just stop the kind of speculation that implies the club doesn't care about the supporters?

Rant over

A decent rant.

[Bristolhibby]

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That's a great idea - stopped going BTG years ago as the draught beer was awful. Isn't easy to maintain beer lines that are so rarely used as well. Packaged beers would be much better - and, as you say, quicker.

Temperature would be an issue. Only thing worse than crap beer is warm beer.

J