Hibs Supporters’ Panel

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Dier - 1558 said:
Is this a revamped resurrection of the previous Working Together Group that came up with innovative, ideas and suggestions from the support, led by the HSA, but didn’t get past RP and David Forsyth.
Pity it was a good thought provoking and problem solving group.
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The HSA had little to do with the previous Working Together Group!
 
Before my health deteriorated Jack, I was the HSA’s rep, even although open to all Branch members to attend. I did a number of presentations taking suggestion back to the membership. In the WTG, I was involved with Groups that looked in the development of the East Stand, the memorial Garden proposal with the plans for suitable sculptures featuring the FF, the planning of upgrading Accessible seating and in the New East Stand. What got in the way of that was our relegation.
 
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Dier - 1558 said:
Is this a revamped resurrection of the previous Working Together Group that came up with innovative, ideas and suggestions from the support, led by the HSA, but didn’t get past RP and David Forsyth.
Pity it was a good thought provoking and problem solving group.
Click to expand...


Is Forsyth still involved at Hibs at all?
 
Who is the big guy that stoats aboot in a suit before the games?
 
Just checked the lad oot online. Has he got the joinery business in Gala?
 
Ah well. Nae point asking you for any joinery advice then eh? 😁
 
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Jack said:
I don't buy food or drink in the stadium.

I pass the queues on the way to my seat when I go in and a half time. I see the offering as it passes me by around my seat and I swear to god for the most part a think yuk! The perennial issues of long queues, poor quality and high costs means I probably never will buy food or drink in the sstadium. I'm sure I'm not alone.
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I think it would be a good idea to franchise the stadium grub to Greggs. I am not a regular user of Greggs, but at least they know how to run a fast food outlet.
 
I had a stk pie last saturday which appeared to be joined to the tinfoil via gorilla glue. Took me ten minutes to eat it , would normally take two minutes 😩🤷‍♂️
No I didny eat the gorilla glue @hibbybilly
 
Hattie said:
Apart from the fact their food is gash, slow as shit at serving and never enough staff to serve….
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It is also mental how you can go down at just as the half time whistle goes and they’re waiting on food being ready. They’ve had all half to get it ready for when it’s going to be at its busiest 😂
 
C4MMY said:
It is also mental how you can go down at just as the half time whistle goes and they’re waiting on food being ready. They’ve had all half to get it ready for when it’s going to be at its busiest 😂
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That post was directed at jimmy re Greggs 🤣
 
Here’s a summery of my notes from the meeting yesterday - there will be official minutes to follow, which I’ll share here, but for now I’ve tried to make my scribbles somewhat legible for you all!

The meeting was attended by four representatives from the club: Ian Gordon, Venue & Operations Director Stephen Hazlett, Communications Director Adam Tomlinson, and SLO Kieran Power.

The meeting started off with a presentation from Ian, which I believe is similar to the one shown at the AGM, outlining the ambitions moving forward. Some key takeaways:
  1. The club has broken the season ticket sales record already
  2. They want to generate at least £1m in player sales every year
  3. Football targets include winning a trophy and qualifying for group stages of Europe
  4. The financials need to improve
  5. Board are now happy with the behind scenes structure, there’s more accountability
  6. Relationship with Black Knight is very good, I got the impression Tim Bezbatchenko has been key in this
  7. A new CEO will be appointed soon
  8. The club wants to improve the community foundation
The meeting then moved into the main agenda points:

CEO process - hired search firm to identify candidates, interviews are led by Ian Gordon and Tim Bezbatchenko (Black Knight), which I thought was significant. The CEO role has been offered to preferred candidate, club hoping to update supporters by the end of this week.

HTC - adding indoor synthetic pitch, new first team building and 2 outdoor first team pitches, adding 7 a side pitches for community and youth teams. They have visited 30 different training grounds to understand what they need. Seeking funding from SFA (they have a pot for investing in academy and women’s facilities), plan is to start works 2026, still need planning permission approval. Football department involved in design process. Facility will allow club to host under 17 UEFA games.

Academy - setting up satellite academy’s, one in Hamilton and one in the west of Scotland. Ambition is to attract wider pool of talent for the academy, starting this summer. They mentioned that their analysis identified that a significant number of Scotland internationals come from the catchment area around Hamilton, where currently only the Old Firm and a local boys club (can’t remember the name) have facilities.

Europe - ER is a cat 3 stadium, needs to be cat 4 for group games. Upgrades required to tunnel and media areas. The pitch has been removed and a new pitch is being laid. Away teams get 5% of capacity, so rest of stadium will be open to home fans (provided there is an uptake).

Tickets - suggestion put forward by the group of a European season ticket for all the group games (provided Celtic win the cup!), which the club will consider. I brought up the loyalty points issue raised on here, and that it worked fine until the HSL involvement… not sure that went down will with the HSL reps but oh well! Anyway the club will review loyalty points and feasibility of it, but did say an issue may arise due to five clubs in the league selling directly to fans and not through Hibs.

Policing - another point raised here. Basically the answer was that the cost of policing a hold back of away fans (keeping them in the ground) would be significant and impact ticket prices. Edinburgh city council not in favour of holding supporters back in stadiums, the club is working with Police Scotland to reduce their risk assessment level on the games involving Rangers and Celtic (they’ll not budge on the derby), a lot of which comes down to fan behaviour. Ultimately the club said decisions are made for safety of Hibs fans around stadium.

Away fans - the goal is to half attendance for all teams except Hearts, “given them what they give us” as Ian put it, but this is driven by uptake from Hibs fans. The financial reason for this is not just the potential loss of ticket sales, but the additional policing costs of splitting the South.

Catering - they are aware standard of food and serve aren’t good enough, next season will see a simplified offering. Also fans in accessible seating are now able to order items to be delivered, rather than have to go to the concourse.

Fanatics - again club not happy with standard of offering and the lack of more “Hibs” items, the club have a meeting with them in 2 weeks time.

150th - the announcements so far are not everything that’s happening, they are taking a phased approach so much more to come. There will be special kits, and more community engagement projects.

My personal opinion was the representatives from the club were very transparent and open to suggestions, which is a good starting point. All were happy to discuss the points put to them, Stephen and KP done most of the talking on behalf of the club, probably as the agenda points were more in their areas, but Ian and Adam spoke well too.
 
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