Hibs Supporters’ Panel

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Zab said:
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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Thanks Zab
 
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Any mention of potentially naming a stand after Sir Tom ?
Thanks for the write-up...good to hear some of the things coming up.
Great that HTC is getting some solid investment.
 
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Zab said:
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.
Click to expand...

“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.”

This point is really interesting and some good forward thinking from the club too. I reckon that’s Malkys influence given the role he previously held with the SFA.
 
Zab said:
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.
Click to expand...
Thanks for a comprehensive report Zab.
 
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Greenmachine said:
Any mention of potentially naming a stand after Sir Tom ?
Thanks for the write-up...good to hear some of the things coming up.
Great that HTC is getting some solid investment.
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There wasn’t any discussion around that, only mention what that the club had met with Rod Petrie about the funeral arrangements for Sir Tom Farmer.
 
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,

That’s actually comical

I hope somebody pointed out that’s because of the large maternity hospital previously at Belshill now at Wishaw.

There’s been plenty of articles about it in the past
 
Purple & Green said:
I hope somebody pointed out that’s because of the large maternity hospital previously at Belshill now at Wishaw.
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My DIL is a midwife and lives half a mile from her work in Simpsons. She had twins almost 13 years ago and they were born… in Wishaw. Nae room at the inn when they decided tae make an appearance.
 
Purple & Green said:
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,

That’s actually comical

I hope somebody pointed out that’s because of the large maternity hospital previously at Belshill now at Wishaw.

There’s been plenty of articles about it in the past
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Most of the Ayrshire players used to be born in in Irvine until they transferred the maternity unit to Crosshouse hospital.
 
Zab said:
Not specifically, but more generally around what the club does with misbehaving away fans in terms of reporting stuff to their clubs.
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Reporting stuff/complaining to the rangers is pointless and a waste of time though 🤷‍♂️ That club is as bad as their fans 🤮
 
joethehibby said:
Reporting stuff/complaining to the rangers is pointless and a waste of time though 🤷‍♂️ That club is as bad as their fans 🤮
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Stephen covered it at the meeting, the long and short is that’s all Hibs can really do as the club doesn’t sell tickets directly to away fans.
If you have a suggestion of something else the club could do, I’ll put it forward at the next meeting.
 
hibbybilly said:
My DIL is a midwife and lives half a mile from her work in Simpsons. She had twins almost 13 years ago and they were born… in Wishaw. Nae room at the inn when they decided tae make an appearance.
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Westside Green said:
Most of the Ayrshire players used to be born in in Irvine until they transferred the maternity unit to Crosshouse hospital.
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Similarly…Midlothian has a population of 80,000 but very few people have been born there in the last 50 years because they are virtually all born in Edinburgh. Or Livingston. Or Melrose. Or even Dundee!

Same down here in Inverclyde, 80,000 population but they moved the maternity unit to Renfrewshire which will skew the figures where people are born going forward. I’m guessing the west base will be somewhere around Paisley.
 
Zab said:
Stephen covered it at the meeting, the long and short is that’s all Hibs can really do as the club doesn’t sell tickets directly to away fans.
If you have a suggestion of something else the club could do, I’ll put it forward at the next meeting.
Click to expand...
The only way to stop them is to stop giving them tkts but I can’t suggest that as my attendances are limited now ( that could change ) The club does seem to be intimating that they would be happy to ban them if Hibs fans bought all the seats, so unfortunately I have no suggestions . It’s only one, possibly two games a season against them so the size of the financial hit is debateable (Jack k would know if he was still on the forum 🤷‍♂️ )
We seem to be able to at least cut their allocation now . The form of the team will be instrumental going forward though and at least the new owners / board are looking at the issue, something Leanne seemed averse to do 😩
Is it possible that by banning them , it would encourage more fans to rally round and the attendences at games not against THEM would increase .
e.g. ban them at a cost of say £60/70grand , but every other games attendance increases to compensate 🤷‍♂️
The overall season attendance figures would be the marker and banning them totally would be great for the majority of supporters and it would also let THEM see their behaviour is unacceptable .
 
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Purple & Green said:
Similarly…Midlothian has a population of 80,000 but very few people have been born there in the last 50 years because they are virtually all born in Edinburgh. Or Livingston. Or Melrose. Or even Dundee!

Same down here in Inverclyde, 80,000 population but they moved the maternity unit to Renfrewshire which will skew the figures where people are born going forward. I’m guessing the west base will be somewhere around Paisley.
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I suppose if the Academy is amongst these maternity hospitals then the travel needed to get to them is minimised. Certainly less than EM!
 
Zab said:
Stephen covered it at the meeting, the long and short is that’s all Hibs can really do as the club doesn’t sell tickets directly to away fans.
If you have a suggestion of something else the club could do, I’ll put it forward at the next meeting.
Click to expand...
I made a suggestion about reducing or stopping them getting tickets and if hibs fans don’t attend have crowd funding to cover loss of income. Based on we didn’t sell our tickets in the dumbar end and the large segregation space , it’s a big drop in income
 
dmn1989 said:
“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.”

This point is really interesting and some good forward thinking from the club too. I reckon that’s Malkys influence given the role he previously held with the SFA.
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Previously, we already had them in place and there is current staff members who were involved previously
 
joethehibby said:
The only way to stop them is to stop giving them tkts but I can’t suggest that as my attendances are limited now ( that could change ) The club does seem to be intimating that they would be happy to ban them if Hibs fans bought all the seats, so unfortunately I have no suggestions . It’s only one, possibly two games a season against them so the size of the financial hit is debateable (Jack k would know if he was still on the forum 🤷‍♂️ )
We seem to be able to at least cut their allocation now . The form of the team will be instrumental going forward though and at least the new owners / board are looking at the issue, something Leanne seemed averse to do 😩
Is it possible that by banning them , it would encourage more fans to rally round and the attendences at games not against THEM would increase .
e.g. ban them at a cost of say £60/70grand , but every other games attendance increases to compensate 🤷‍♂️
The overall season attendance figures would be the marker and banning them totally would be great for the majority of supporters and it would also let THEM see their behaviour is unacceptable .
Click to expand...
Banning them all would mean no Hibs fans at Ibrox though,that would be rubbish tbh
 
PILTONSTANY said:
Banning them all would mean no Hibs fans at Ibrox though,that would be rubbish tbh
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Fair point. Only match what they give us then and tell them that( only guarenteed non - bigots allowed ) would make it easier to police also, with ejection guarenteed . That’s ejection before @hibbybilly chips in 😩
 
Greenpower said:
I made a suggestion about reducing or stopping them getting tickets and if hibs fans don’t attend have crowd funding to cover loss of income. Based on we didn’t sell our tickets in the dumbar end and the large segregation space , it’s a big drop in income
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The proportion is dwindling year on year?

If we gave rangers and Celtic a half allocation we’d be down 4 x 2000 ticket sales say 8000 x £32, less what we sold ourselves.

Could be £100k over a season when our revenue is in excess of £15M or half a percentish of total revenue

The bigger picture is opening up the possibility of selling up to 18k season tickets, making us less reliant on the hun pound.
 
We still have to let some in regardless. Their contribution pays for the policing.

As much as I don't want them here, the club are telling us it's in us to shut them out.
 
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Doc Shrink said:
So you back a total ban then Joe.
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Actually my granddaughters boyfriend is a the rangers fan, lapsed supporter, and you wouldn’t find a nicer, non - bigoted lad. So they are out there , probably not many though 🤔
I’m sure the rangers could filter out the bigots, but they would be left with a lot fewer fans, so they wont 🤣
 
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Is the season ticket sales record for “at this time relating to previous sales for the same time”
Or have we already broken the record for total amount sold for the season
 
PILTONSTANY said:
www.hibernianfc.co.uk

Hibs Supporters’ Panel: May 2025 Meeting Notes

Details from the inaugural meeting of the Hibs Supporters’ Panel
www.hibernianfc.co.uk www.hibernianfc.co.uk
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My first oh! moment was how IG was described "Ian Gordon, Director and Principal Shareholder".

I wasn't aware IG had any shares! Byland Sports, or whatever, hold the Hibs shares and is 100% owned by Kit.

Of course there appears to have been a good number of changes recently. Maybe we just missed the memo?

With regards to the "200 VIP tickets also must be made available" to UEFA. My gunt friend tells me at tiny tiny these are full hospitality places were the club is basically chucked out the hospitality area. My friend tells me no-one was ever there. Just passing on what I was told 😆
 
Jack said:
My first oh! moment was how IG was described "Ian Gordon, Director and Principal Shareholder".

I wasn't aware IG had any shares! Byland Sports, or whatever, hold the Hibs shares and is 100% owned by Kit.

Of course there appears to have been a good number of changes recently. Maybe we just missed the memo?

With regards to the "200 VIP tickets also must be made available" to UEFA. My gunt friend tells me at tiny tiny these are full hospitality places were the club is basically chucked out the hospitality area. My friend tells me no-one was ever there. Just passing on what I was told 😆
Click to expand...

Kits stepping down and him and his brother Colin are assuming control of most of the family businesses. Guessing that extends to Bydand? We'll see Colin soon, he's joining the board.
 
The next meeting is on Wednesday 17th December, I’ll be going again on behalf of the Bounce.

I’m expecting the training ground upgrades and the departure of Black Knight group to be on the agenda, if there’s anything else you want me to raise as a discussion point let me know by Sunday.
 
The club is running at losses that are not sustainable. How do we get out of this trend? Reduced budgets? Player trading? Inward investment? For how long can and will the Gordon family cover and absorb these losses?

The reasons for seeking the Black Knights hasn't gone away. If anything there's more of a need and requirement for the vision Ronald Gordon envisaged (as the Gordon family articulated at the time of the Black Knights partnership announcement) of others getting involved with the club.
 
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