These Weddings

[BarmyBee210]

It's disgusting. If anything, move our home game to another venue like Boreham Wood. The happy couple will cherish that happy day forever, we'll hardly cherish a National League home game with Ebbsfleet will we? Fool.

[Masuka]

The way this season is heading, we're going to end up with four weddings and a funeral.

[DerekRocholl]

Imagine if you had the away bar booked for your wedding for the Leyton Orient game (can't think of many that would bring more than 100) - it could and would impact it.

Ebbsfleet fans should have had end of West Stand and the old away bar for everyone's benefit.

Just think there are better times and places to hold it. There are what - 24 / 52 Saturdays used up for football. Surely on those days there could be a game time wedding embargo?

Are Sikh/Hindu weddings restricted to Saturdays? I know how big and profitable Hindu weddings can be, but all it takes is one bad incident (pissed abusive away fans etc) and no-one will want to get married at The Hive.

Let's just have 4 hours 23 times a year where football is the priority. It's not a big ask.

That does 328 days to rinse the facility for any money making purposes.

How many people do you think wait until the football fixture list comes out before booking a venue for a wedding with over 200 guests ? In reality there are probably about 40 Saturday with a 50/50 risk of football being played at the time people are booking a wedding venue, and of course Saturday is the prime day wen you have that many people to invite.

Given that our attendances this season are likely to leave about 3/4's of the ground empty for most games I can't see what the issue is either.

[MCB]

There's a slight contradiction there. according to your post the wedding would have been booked when we were in the football league, and had every chance of still being in the football league. The away stand was booked when there was a chance your wedding could have been shared with Grimsby, Stevenage, Lincoln, Northampton fans or anyone else that could have been a large, rowdy crowd annoyed they were provided with "bottles of warm Sol for £4 or some Theakstons thing for £4.50"

I'm fairly sure that those people booking a wedding would not have been happy with sharing their venue with a load of football fans. Why the stand wasn't closed and the fans moved to the West, thus making it a sterile stand I have no idea - the clubs shown it's happy to shut down stands without blinking before.

We now seemingly have 2 x wedding venues within the Hive. The main one can host 600 guests, let's assume the smaller one half that. I can't see the Asian food prices (looks amazing though) but the traditional menu is £120 adults, and £57.50 - so assuming that's 700 adults and 200 children that's £95,500 taken in one days worth of weddings - only 1/2 glass of wine included - so i'd assume a large additional bar sum. Then there's room set up & hire, extras like photographers, and to host 2 simultaneous weddings you're not getting much change out of £150,000 (might sound crazy, but chatting to a friend who had a Hindu wedding who did it 'on the cheap' for 350 guests he didn't get much change out of £50,000).

Oh, and 500 car parking spaces are offered as well, try reconciling that with fans who turn up to park, but can't.

So yes, the economics are crazy. Go us. Go us the fans - who probably earn the club £20,000 in match day ticket income and another £5,000 in food and beer. Of course I see where the priority should be financially. All back of fag packet sums but it's obvious that weddings make a fortune for the Hive Holding Company LTD.

Can you see where this is going? The more the club drops down the list of priorities, the less importance that is placed on it. So yes, I do think that that weddings should not be booked in *the away stand* until the fixture list is published.

I don't think there is anything wrong with pushing for Barnet FC not to be relegated to being a mere sideshow in the entire proceedings. There might become a point when for it's better economically for the club to build a separate 10k stadium for the team somewhere else so they can have uninterrupted non-football related events 24/7 at The Hive.

This isn't what many of us envisaged, i'm sure it's not what Harrow Council envisaged either - a wedding venue with some 3G pitches attached. It's just part of the gradual erosion of the club, programmes, decent live radio coverage, supporters coaches and people that can kick a ball two that have already been 'enhanced away' to the detriment of the club in recent times.

[Norfolk & Chance]

Excellent post MCB.

[Agewills]

Don't have a problem with weddings happening there at all - don't see what the fuss is about?

I think there are more pressing issues surrounding the squad and results at the moment.

Given the (totally warranted) level of frustration and disappointment of increasingly apathetic fans I can understand why basically anything that the club does would be criticised right now, but this has gotta be way down the list surely?

We're not losing 3-0 at home to Ebbsfleet because of a wedding being held on the same day as the match. People can book their weddings for any time they want! It's really not an issue in my mind.

I've never experienced this level of anger from the fans in my near 20 years of supporting this club (I am including myself in this anger & frustration by the way - just not at weddings!)

[NoMagRyan]

We're not losing 3-0 at home to Ebbsfleet because of a wedding being held on the same day as the match. People can book their weddings for any time they want!

Anything convenient will be blamed, even if it makes zero sense. It was endless 'chicken restaurant' posts last year.

[BeesKnees]

The Happy couple should be invited onto the pitch at half time so we can congratulate them.

[Norfolk & Chance]

Zero sense?
Please read MCBs post again.
Can you not see that Barnet FC is becoming less and less important to the Hive empire?
Just look where we are in the footballing pyramid.
Weddings aren't the sole issue, they are one element of increasing evidence that our club is in some sort of trouble.
Whether fans accept this or not is pretty irrelevant of course, this is just a midweek thread to keep things mildly interesting until matchday

[MCB]

I feel I should clarify I am 100% in favour of weddings, bar mitvahs, funeral, children's parties and everything and anything that can increase revenue for the group, and exposure for the club.

I do not however think that something should take precedence over league games at the Hive to the detriment of the club or the fans. And this was to the detriment of Ebbsfleet fans who have commented far and wide on the inconvenience of not being able to access Bar 66, which IS the away fans bar. Also as a result there was a marked increase in security for their fans to ensure they didn't disrupt the wedding (I assume, rather than because Ebbsfleet fans have a bad reputation). There is a meeting room underneath the West Stand as well - is that the next additional wedding venue? If crowds keep dropping then there is more money to be made in using that and Legends Bar for events during the match, and restricting us to the old away bar. Is that the point where fans realise that actually their matchday experience is being disrupted?

There is no shortage of spare Saturdays, then the rest of the week, so lets focus on maximising income from them, and then making home Saturdays as enjoyable for Barnet FC fans as possible.

The chicken argument is irrelevant. No-one would would have an issue if the Pecking order was still operational - in fact it would be a positive - but the issue and the jokes about it was that it in effect destroyed the main home fans bar, which was simply down to bad planning. We've now seemingly reverted to how it was beforehand.

[BeesKnees]

Jubilee bar was good enough for away fans last time we were in the conference so no reason why it shouldn't be now.

Ebsfleet provide an uncovered terrace and a burger van .

[jerroll]

Jubilee bar was good enough for away fans last time we were in the conference so no reason why it shouldn't be now.

Ebsfleet provide an uncovered terrace and a burger van .

The segregation fence behind the west stand has disappeared so I guess they can't offer that as an option. Another point is what happened to the offer from last season offering 2 pints per game to members!

[BEEGONE]

[quote="Norfolk
Can you not see that Barnet FC is becoming less and less important to the Hive empire?[/quote]



Good posts Norfolk and MCB!

The club no longer feels important.

I have said for years that we are now a very small part of the Hive empire. Relegations and another relegation battle proves it.

No investment in the club, weddings taking importance over the footballing matters.

How anyone can justify that it means more money is going into the football side is beyond me. There is zero evidence of this.

[DerekRocholl]

There's a slight contradiction there. according to your post the wedding would have been booked when we were in the football league, and had every chance of still being in the football league. The away stand was booked when there was a chance your wedding could have been shared with Grimsby, Stevenage, Lincoln, Northampton fans or anyone else that could have been a large, rowdy crowd annoyed they were provided with "bottles of warm Sol for £4 or some Theakstons thing for £4.50"

I'm fairly sure that those people booking a wedding would not have been happy with sharing their venue with a load of football fans. Why the stand wasn't closed and the fans moved to the West, thus making it a sterile stand I have no idea - the clubs shown it's happy to shut down stands without blinking before.

We now seemingly have 2 x wedding venues within the Hive. The main one can host 600 guests, let's assume the smaller one half that. I can't see the Asian food prices (looks amazing though) but the traditional menu is £120 adults, and £57.50 - so assuming that's 700 adults and 200 children that's £95,500 taken in one days worth of weddings - only 1/2 glass of wine included - so i'd assume a large additional bar sum. Then there's room set up & hire, extras like photographers, and to host 2 simultaneous weddings you're not getting much change out of £150,000 (might sound crazy, but chatting to a friend who had a Hindu wedding who did it 'on the cheap' for 350 guests he didn't get much change out of £50,000).

Oh, and 500 car parking spaces are offered as well, try reconciling that with fans who turn up to park, but can't.

So yes, the economics are crazy. Go us. Go us the fans - who probably earn the club £20,000 in match day ticket income and another £5,000 in food and beer. Of course I see where the priority should be financially. All back of fag packet sums but it's obvious that weddings make a fortune for the Hive Holding Company LTD.

Can you see where this is going? The more the club drops down the list of priorities, the less importance that is placed on it. So yes, I do think that that weddings should not be booked in *the away stand* until the fixture list is published.

I don't think there is anything wrong with pushing for Barnet FC not to be relegated to being a mere sideshow in the entire proceedings. There might become a point when for it's better economically for the club to build a separate 10k stadium for the team somewhere else so they can have uninterrupted non-football related events 24/7 at The Hive.

This isn't what many of us envisaged, i'm sure it's not what Harrow Council envisaged either - a wedding venue with some 3G pitches attached. It's just part of the gradual erosion of the club, programmes, decent live radio coverage, supporters coaches and people that can kick a ball two that have already been 'enhanced away' to the detriment of the club in recent times.

TK has always been open about the fact that he could make more money from the Hive as a wedding venue than he could make from it being Barnet FC's home stadium on L2 of Conference crowds. In addition to the extra revenue I would imagine the costs are considerably lower too (he doesn't have to pay for stewards, a contribution to policing, box office staff etc etc.

It is amazing that anyone is surprised to find that Barnet FC aren't the business priority for the Hive. I suspect they are least 3rd on the list and may possibly have been overtaken by gym memberships which even four years ago generated more cash for TK than football club memberships.

[MCB]

Well, I would slightly disagree (with Beegone) in that I think the club is actually being well funded, but the money is used in the wrong way, but i'm not criticising the club for that as every clubs make poor judgement calls and hand out long contracts. Different issues.

But f*** it. This is my point.

I hope we draw Wealdstone in the FA Cup at the Hive and we have 2 weddings booked in for the same time.

That's exactly what we need to bring this to a head.