Lee Blease

This guy seems to have thrown his toys out of his pram with the club.  As I understand it, he used to take a lot of photos of Town games and let the club have use of them.  However, he has done it for free - though presumably he has got into games for free and been allowed pitch side to pursue his hobby.  In fact the club started paying his travel expenses too.  Seems like he then asked the club to pay him a wage and the club said they didn’t have budget for an extra photographer.  They also said his social media profile wasn’t suitable.  He’s now having a pop at the club and saying he won’t go to another game.

He’s a great photographer but basically he has asked the club to pay him so that he can pursue his hobby.  Why should the club pay him?  He’s creating a stir and in my view has no reason to be unhappy.

The bigger issue is Lee is citing being called "undesirable" due to his social media presence (he's a bit shouty n sweary that's all really) plus he retaliated at some supporters when he was verbally and physically abused.
In any role an employer will check your socials, even who I work for told me this, what you put online has consequences and Lee's finding out the consequences for himself

Hobby or not, the club have profited from his previously unpaid work either directly through selling programmes, calendars, kits etc. or indirectly through using his photos across their social media platforms for years. Out of order that he wasn’t getting paid for that in the first place - nobody should ever work for free.

Looks like there’ll be a different photographer and the reasons for that decision are for the club, but you can’t deny the club have benefited from the work of a talented photographer and not paid the going rate.

Saw this last night. Not sure what the full story is but it will be a real shame if he feels he can't even support the club anymore. He's a great photographer and I've always appreciated the moments that he's captured.

Quite a few on Twitter are saying that the new owners are pushing people away. I've always felt that the club needed to be dragged into a competitive shape on and off the field and I accepted there'd be casualties, but perhaps they've been too ruthless for some.

Whatever has happened in this instance, I hope Lee looks after himself and can return to BP in the future.

Always thought he comes across as a bit of a tool. That said, i dont blame him for one second for asking to be paid for his work

Quoted from Hagrid

Always thought he comes across as a bit of a tool. That said, i dont blame him for one second for asking to be paid for his work

I also don't blame the club for deciding to take their business elsewhere if that's what they want to do should they pay for it. Lee's photos are good but so are Jon Corken's. I also don't believe that they told him that he's "undesireable" personally.

Not sure what all the fuss is about to be honest. He’s asked to be paid for what he does and the club have said we can’t pay you. There’s already someone in a paid position and another volunteer photographer. Maybe the club could help to sell some of his prints out of goodwill but they’re not going to create a job that isn’t part of the business plan. As with all things these days the response is to take to social media to create a drama and have all your mates jump in to support you.

Seems he's asked to be paid, that's fair enough. The club have said no thanks and he's packed it in. Also fair enough. Disappointing for him and the fine work he has done but what's the issue beyond that?

Some loony tune replies on Twitter about the club having a "dangerous agenda" and being like a cult. WTF? The club needed change, anyone feeling threatened by the progress the club has made in the past 18 months needs to take a look at themselves.

Lee is a great lad. He’s in the armed services and travels to Town games from away to cover games with high quality photography.

There are three or four decent photographers at BP and at also at away games. Jon, Paul, Anne and Lee. And also another guy called Dave who lives in the East Mids, that also gets involved sometimes. Haven’t seen Paul around for a while though

I’m not entirely sure what the financial arrangements are for these people, and don’t know who is paid and who is voluntary. But it would appear that Lee has now reached the stage where he feels that should be remunerated for his services in addition to his travel expenses.

He’s also implied that he’s been told by someone at the club that he’s an undesirable character. And he’s been quite specific in the words that he’s chosen. But, I guess that the club should be allowed to clarify if they have actually used that term to describe him, or whether that’s the interpretation that he’s applied to their communication with him. But, he’s clearly upset about things in order to have taken to social network in his angst. Wouldn’t surprise me if the club provides some clarification on this from their point of view.

Lee and the other photographers were all very supportive of the womens team, during my spell there, and I know that they all gave up sone of their own time voluntarily at some stage. And I was very grateful for that.

A real shame he’s not going to be snapping any longer though, because the quality of his work was superb and I really enjoyed his work.

So he got to pursue his hobby on club expenses then decided he wanted a wage too, got told no and spat his dummy out. See ya later pal.

Plenty of good photographers in the area that would love to have had the opportunities that the club has given Lee.