Steve Brown - doing a good job?


Broon
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19 minutes ago, slf said:

stupid fuqing question,.have you ever heard of alex lamond ?

Hardly a stupid question.

Rather than responding like a t*** why not just answer the question?

What I'm guessing you're trying to say is things are better now than before Geoff. Of course they are. Steve Brown is obviously financially astute and runs the business side well. Clearly he can balance the books but is his style of leadership pushing us on as a Football club? Are we in an upward trajectory?

Football is a fans business. Does he care about fan engagement? Are we as a club doing enough to attract crowds and entertain? To promote the product?  Is the overall experience of going to McDiarmid good? 

Undoubtedly Saints focus a lot on our class leading hospitality and events at the stadium and it's a good earner. We clearly promote this in the business circles. Do we focus the same on the regular punters? 

How's the PR and marketing? 

These are all valid questions and just because things are better than the time 33 years ago when we were shiter than shite and about to go bust doesn't give them a free pass forever. If you stop pushing on the only direction you'll go is backwards.

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In many areas the answer is yes, we have had unrivaled success on the field with him as chairman and as a business our numbers are pretty impressive for a club with such a poor local interest.

Could Brown push harder to increase interest in the club? I think so 100%. Our PR and marketing could be much better and I really think we should look to bring in a quality operator in that department..... Would it bring out the Perth public in droves to come watch us? I doubt it- let's not forget our adult kid/deals are fantastic and it's had limited success as Perth locals only seem to come out the woodwork for the big days.

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I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of August things have fallen into place with the squad. Does that make everything alright though then becomes the question. For some, the answer will be yes but I guess it comes down to whether you care about how you get to the desired result.

I don't think anyone would doubt or question that Steve Brown tries his very best for Saints but there are areas where the club could improve and we need to try and break this cycle of every summer having a spell of negativity surrounding the squad building. The manager has a part to play in that as well. His comments about not believing what he said in the press yesterday morning was negative is naive. 

For years supporters have moaned about marketing etc... and not much has changed. That has long been an area where we can improve and on that front you'd say the club/chairman could do better. It's a bit like the end result conundrum above; just offering the kids/family prices isn't enough, you need to get the message about it out there. 

In regards to the question, he's still doing a decent job, on balance, for me. And it's undoubtedly a very hard and unrewarding job.

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I wonder if Brown and Wright have any idea that the comments they make in media about cuts, exceeding budgets, trimming the squad, cutting our cloth etc come across as negative and have an impact on fan morale? The fans know this and don't need to be told. 

A few simple "We have a few targets and we're working hard to improve the squad"comments would have been fine. But when you are walking into the 1st game of the season with a tiny squad and 13 fit players to come away with crap like the budgets spent and we need to sell is utterly mind blowing. 

Even when we do something great we don't really promote it well. 

Absolutely no doubting Brown runs the club well and agree it's a tough job. Would I want a change of owner? Absolutely not. Would I want him to improve a few things around communication/PR and fan engagement? 100% yes.  

Edited by Broon
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3 minutes ago, Broon said:

I wonder if Brown and Wright have any idea that the comments they make in media about cuts, exceeding budgets, trimming the squad, cutting our cloth etc come across as negative and have an impact on fan morale? The fans know this and don't need to be told. 

A few simple "We have a few targets and we're working hard to improve the squad"comments would have been fine. But when you are walking into the 1st game of the season with a tiny squad and 13 fit players to come away with crap like the budgets spent and we need to sell is utterly mind blowing. 

Even when we do something great we don't really promote it well. 

Absolutely no doubting Brown runs the club well and agree it's a tough job. Would I want a change of owner? Absolutely not. Would I want him to improve a few things around communication/PR and fan engagement? 100% yes.  

Not of only fans,probably players  & prospective signings.

Negativity also shows up on park. Reason crowds are falling away.

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I haven't voted as I don't think it can be boiled down to a simple yes or no. In general he's doing a good job as he's overseeing the most successful period in our history, keeping us on a sound financial footing, and keeping us (so far) comfortably in the top flight, while employing and maintaining a decent working relationship with our best ever manager. I don't think any of that can be argued with. But undoubtedly there are lots of frustrations for us as fans and there are lots of areas I feel he should be looking to improve, which he just doesn't seem to deem important (being more modern and proactive about getting fans in through the gate being the main one). And it seems to be becoming a regular thing that we mess up our transfer strategy during the transfer windows. The manager should not be in a position where he's reduced the squad, and been allowed to sign a couple of back-up players, but then told he can't sign any of the more important starting players we so desperately and obviously need.

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He's doing a grand job, but sadly the club's PR department is an absolute embarrassment.  What the chairman does, and what the chairman says to the public are rarely the same thing these days, however, our chairman/the club in general seems to say nothing until forced to do so, and then says what everyone hopes he won't.  TW seems to use interviews to make a point to the chairman, which seems petty and gives a suggestion all the time of poor relations.  The overall success of the last 10 years would indicate that the club are doing a damn fine job in increasingly unsupportive circumstances - but the message we hear as fans is always doom and gloom, while other clubs roll out the PR machine and tell good news stories left right and centre.

 

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2 minutes ago, Abernethy Saint said:

Football is about results. We haven’t gone bust, we haven’t been relegated, we won a cup. He is a God.

True, but if we continue to alienate fans (like it or not it's happening) and we continue to operate on a one in one out signing policy, then relegation is not at all unthinkable and with the support decreasing then finances are not going to be as stable as you hope.

We have to show some levels of foresight and planning, blind optimism based on recent achievements is naive and the problem is people with that sort of attitude are in high positions within the club. 

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I would say he does a good job when he stays silent. Overall his appearances in the press have been overly negative and his perception is probably not helped by Tommy moaning about budgets all the time.

The PR side of things continues to be poor even after appointing someone they assigned the guy the job of three different people and I am not sure he has mastered one of those.

At the moment in time I said no but that is just from feelings from this preseason having a heavier bearing.

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When I look at some other clubs' owners, I am absolutely delighted with ours. Under Steve Brown (and Geoff) the club has maintained its position in the top flight when plenty others have come and gone. For me, sustainability is the absolute priority and he has done this. Of course relegation is a distinct possibility which is why avoiding it is always the main target for the season and thereafter its about top 6 and a cup run.

As others have mentioned, there are plenty of things for the chairman to work on but overall I think he has the right approach.

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Agree with most on here. A very good job when you look long-term.

However, communication seems to be the big issue. 

TW says he knows what signings he needs, we have trialists, then we can't afford them apparently (so what was the point of having them?), then we need to ship players out before we get them in.....goes on and on. Either they don't communicate with one another, or there is a very complicated game being played.

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I voted yes but there is a lot of things could be improved.

I didn't like his interview last year when he stated it was his way or no way.

Communication with fans from the club is really poor.

I have no idea what the lad Gary they bought in to look after PR is doing but the social media side of things was better when it was done by volunteers, I suspect Garys main role is to fill the hospitality and commercial side of things and to that end he is probably doing a good job.

First home game is this sunday, against a fellow Premier league team, I ve seen no effort to talk this game up locally and attempt to get a decent crowd, its only £12 which is good value but how many people outwith the folks that go looking will know that.

Why only open one stand, makes the game feel unimportant before we start, its like the club cant be bothered with it and so then no surprise nobody turns up.  Where are BT going to film the game from ? If its the normal spot from the main stand then the game on TV is going to be a terrible advert for Saints as its going to appear to be in a completely empty stadium on TV, hopefully BT are going to set up and film from the East stand.

Maybe just me but I find it annoying that player/managers interviews are behind a paywall, like others I paid to go to Montrose last night, I m not paying further money to hear interviews, these should be free to everyone and used to talk up future games. I listen to an interview from players the the build up to a game and its more likely to make me want to go to the game, is that not logic ? If its only available to the few who pay then its not going to increase the crowd. I think Saints TV is a great idea for Saints fans that have moved away and no longer are in Perth but want to stay up to date with things and watch games but it is of little value to local fans.   

Only a little thing but it was advertised that Season tickets could be used to get into last nights Ladies international, myself and the season ticket holders I know haven't been sent our season tickets yet, I was in Montrose and couldn't have gone anyway so not a real problem.

Our programme last year was awful, every game I went to elsewhere had a better programme than we produce including 3 English non league teams I visited.

Overall though, while I think we need to improve the overall match day experience and communication with fans, under Steve Browns tenure we have established ourselves as a solid Top league team which is something over the last 40 years we ve never been able to do before for as long a period, we ve had some regular European trips, obviously our fist major trophy, Tommy Wright produces a brand of football which isn't always great to watch but you have to be careful what you wish for, he gets results, I would hope we keep the two of them together for a good few years yet.  

 

 

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18 minutes ago, MySpazz said:

* every year we are in the top division is a HUGE success. people have short memories.

Could be doing better though? Or would we be happy being Hamilton, toddling along finishing 10th/11th, because we've been in the second tier before so should automatically be happy with anything above that? 

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I think he’s doing a great job generally speaking too. There are a few flaws which I think generally stem back to communication but he’s managed to oversee a very successful period in our history, hired our most successful manager who he has allowed to build his squads and has backed him in most windows, particularly since 2014. He’s managed all this whilst keeping us out of debt and a seven figure bank balance even with dwindling crowds. I wish he wasn’t as risk averse as he is but I don’t think we can really underestimate how lucky we are to have someone like him at the wheel. 

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