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| Ben Robinson interview | Page One - Page Two |
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| Whatever
happens to the club he presides over in the coming years, Ben Robinson will
always be remembered as the chairman who brought Nigel Clough to Eton Park,
and who was at the helm when the club finally achieved it's long sought-after
promotion to the Conference. But Robinson's involvement with the Brewers stretches over four decades, and back to an era a world away from the current success and prosperity the club enjoys. |
| Invited onto
the board as a mere 29-year old in January 1975, Robinson soon progressed
to the position of chairman, negotiating the then Southern League club through
near bankruptcy, the switch to the Northern Premier League and the appointments
of Ian Storey-Moore and Neil Warnock, before leaving the club to concentrate
on starting his own Insurance business. Nowadays, it's from the offices of Ben Robinson Insurance in High Street that Burton Albion Football Club is effectively run, Robinson having returned in the mid 90's to a club which, while it had thankfully, and with a bit of help from millionaire property developer Stan Clarke, seen off the latest of a series of financial crises which has periodically threatened the club's existence over the years, was in something of a rut both on and off the pitch. Having reached Wembley in 1987 (an event which occured during Robinson's 10-year exile from the club), the tumultuous comings and goings of the Sam Brassington era had given way to stagnation and inertia both on and off the pitch. A whole string of managers had failed to assemble a side capable of challenging for promotion, which would in any event have been denied the club, as Eton Park wasn't up to Conference standard. Recent converts to the cause weaned on a diet of success, optimism and excitement may find it hard to imagine crowds of 400 and less, a time when the season was effectively ended before Christmas with another FA Cup or Trophy exit at the hands of Ashton United et al, but this was what life at Eton Park was like in the early 90's, and there were few signs that things would get any better any time soon. The foundations for the current success were laid by Ben Robinson and his board. Robinson, on his return to Eton Park, used his business contacts to secure an injection of capital which enabled a series of ground improvements to bring Eton Park up to Conference standard, and money was made available to then manager John Barton to strengthen his team. While Barton's tenure failed to bring the success the fans craved, the final piece in the jigsaw arrived with the appointment of Nigel Clough as manager in October 1998. The club has never looked back, and four years after that appointment, is preparing to take it's place in the Nationwide Conference for the first time in it's history. It's here we join Ben Robinson, who spoke to brewersnet from the offices of his Insurance empire... |
| How
are the preparations going for the new season, and is there more to do than
in the past, with the club's promotion to the Conference? "The preparations are going very well. We've had a few slight hiccups with the season tickets... but it hasn't affected the original plan for the release date. Regarding arrangements.. not really. We had to extend the dugouts to include eleven bodies, and apart from that, I don't think so, no. How much of your time does football club business take up, and do you expect this to increase with promotion to the Conference? |
|
| "It varies, because
on matchday I spend a lot of time working in the office and overseeing the
operations, which I enjoy doing. I catch glimpses of the game through the
window and watch the video either when I get home or the next day. Since
my daughter Fleur became the commercial manager - we actually run the football
club from my offices in High Street - and 99 percent of Fleur's time is spent
on Burton Albion. "So the time that I would have spent during the day, Fleur spends, and we cross reference. The time that I spend is primarily dealing with the major sponsors, and liaising with Fleur. My company sponsor Fleur's salary." Do you forsee a time when the club will have to go full time? "I think to a large extent that would be dictated by the manager. Nigel's always stated that he feels that it's a big step - it's certainly a big financial step because if you consider a player can earn a reasonable wage playing part time football, and also a salary with a job.. to match those two together would be a big jump up financially. "You've got to look at clubs like Telford and Boston who went full-time and increased their wages bill, and have found that financing that has been difficult. But if the manager feels that that's the way to go then I'd support him." The Conference are introducing play-offs this season for the first time. Are plans in place for the ground improvements that would be necessary for the club to compete in the play-offs if they finished in the top five? "As soon as we were promoted back in April, we were in discussions, and we have been exploring since then how best to increase the number of seats to 1,000 and to increase the capacity to 6,000. Very soon we should have the answers to those two requirements, and also what the cost will be, with a view to making a decision over the next few months. "We've got to have the work done within three years [to stay in the Conference], but obviously it would be disappointing to miss out on promotion because our ground wasn't up to standard. We're mindful of that and... any decision that we make, hopefully we could achieve the progress that we'd need by the deadline date - 1st April." Do you think Eton Park is big enough to accomodate the kind of expansion that you might need to undertake in the future, or will the club have to move to a new site? "If you could start on a greenfield site, and say 'Right, let's build a stadium which would be a great asset not just for Burton Albion but for the town as well', that would be ideal. Having travelled to Yeovil last season, of all the non-league grounds we've been to, that was the most impressive. So that's always got to be a possibility. "The club in recent years has looked to move to other sites, none of which were suitable, but the main reason for wanting to move was financial - to.. clear some of the debt... If we could move to a new ground, that would give us so many opportunities, so it's obviously something that we would look at before we took the decision to extend Eton Park's facilities." For some big matches last season there were problems with season ticket holders not being able to claim their seats in the stand. Do you think the club needs to improve it's organisation in this area? "The criticism last season was well and truly justified. The problem was when the company came to install the orange seats in the main stand extension [replacing the previous temporary red seats]... they didn't re-number them, which they were instructed to do. I wasn't aware of the problem until the season ticket holders came to us. Once I was made aware of that, the problem was solved, and all the seats are now numbered.... "We've got plans this season to take on more staff to prepare for bigger games. I don't think anyone could accuse Burton Albion of being unprofessional, but certainly like we saw for the Yeovil game... it was a learning curve for us in terms of trying to despatch 4,000 tickets. The economics of it, and the organisation - it's quite an operation. We don't have a ticket office, which in a new ground we'd create - but we're mindful of that situation and we'll try and look at dealing with it slightly differently next time, to improve the situation." What's the situation with segregation going to be this season? "We're very much in the hands of the local police, with whom we've formed a very good relationship, and who've given us a lot of help and advice. What we would do in the Conference is the same that has happened in previous leagues we've been in... The police normally say to us 'You're playing so and so, we would recommend to you that this match is segregated.' So basically the police will be advising us as to which matches they feel segregation should take place." A lot of supporters find it annoying that away fans are given the best section of the ground for view and atmosphere. Is there any way that visiting fans could be housed in another part of the ground? "I sympathise with fans, and we have looked at that. We've asked a company to install a moveable segregation fence behind the goal on the Gordon Bray Terrace, and the plan is that when the number of visiting supporters is such that they don't need to take up the whole of the Gordon Bray, they'll be able to use half of it, and our fans can use the other half. "Our plan is for that to happen as often as possible, but take for example the Yeovil game - there were too many [away] supporters for that to happen. It was unfortunate, but there's nowhere else that the away fans can go due to the layout of the ground." Are there any immediate plans to improve the Car Park End or is that a long-term plan?
"It's a long term plan.
We've got to look first at the best way of achieving the seating requirements,
which is pretty obvious how to do that, and the Popular Side is probably
the best area to look at increasing the capacity initially. Click here for Part Two of the Ben Robinson interview... |
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