Brighton's hardcore support.

[oapdodge]

You cannot start to catagorise fans:

We all support the club some more than others, it is a choice no matter which club you support.

Of course you can't after all we had 30000 at Cardiff they are still all struggling to get to see us play at Withdean they just can't get tickets.After all every home game has been a sell out since..
Even if you only choose one match every now and then 30000 at Cardiff we should sell out every home game.All fans of BHA just that some bother to turn up and watch them,put money into the club to try and help financially.Obvously some fans who attended Cardiff live abroad or miles away.But the best way to back the club is turn up at Withdean and support them.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I just find it amazing that there's hundreds of season ticket holders who are apparently so well off that they stay away from a game they've already paid for, without attempting to even sell the ticket on or give it away. Don't recall seeing many 'Free ticket for Bristol Rovers match - contact me' type posts on the NSC Ticket forum before the match. I mean, isn't not using your ticket at all a bit like ripping up a twenty quid note?

 

[Lindfield by the sea]

I remember that. Wasn't it 3-0, though? Crowd was 1,025 if mt memory serves. Man United were playing Barcelona on the telly, it was freezing cold and ex-Orient bastard Christie scored in front of us.

The best part of the night was the fireworks going off behind the away end.

Anyone listen to "606" on the way back? Remember Richard Littlejohn asking:-
"If you were one of the 64,000 at Old Trafford tonight - give us a call, tell us about the game. If you were one of the 1000 at the Brighton game - give us a call and tell us why!"

Nearly crashed the car in anger. Cheeky muppet. Although did spend the rest of the trip home trying to think of reasons. He may have had a point.

 

[smudge]

Just thought I'd point out that this thread doesn't ask wether you're "hardcore" or not.

I just think that there is a hardcore support of around 4000.

Hopefully we'll get a least this for the march.

 

[Former D Blocker]

I have a season ticket, haven't been yet

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

I have a season ticket, haven't been yet

You havent missed a great deal

 

[timseagull]

Not sure what is meant by hardcore.

I went last night coz a mate at work gave me a season ticket. I don't go week in week out coz I can't afford it. Does that make me less of a fan?

The Withdean factor has worn off for many. It is a terrible place to watch football in relation to atmosphere.It is expensive and at the moment the football isn't what we want it to be.

I do fear the attendence will be low on Sat, as it is only Preston, its bank hol weekend, and the forecast isn't great.

But at the end of the day we love this side, and whether we're at the ground or not our thoughts are always with the team on match day!

 

[Strike]

And what about me, I can't get to games, mainly because I am hunting for a job, and have to be tight on cash, when I do get a job I will start going regularly. I am not sure what is mean't by hardcore as well.

 

[Cian]

I'd consider myself somewhat "hardcore". But I've only been in attendence at one professional game of the club. To see which I spent 30 hours either travelling or sitting/standing around waiting, and nearly 500 quid in total to see.

I put up with the slaggings when we were in Division 3, and not looking like we'd get out of it. I've put up with ignorant twats towards the northern part of the country assuming I'm wearing a Rangers shirt (the blue, even the old one, is not even *close*). I've worn shiny plasticy shirts with insane sizing

I was at the Battle of Longford though. That probably adds to the "battle scars"

 

[finbar]

MYOB - the battle of longford - what a game, probably the funniest match ive ever been too. Is there an Irish version of Question of Sport? If so the what happened next would be a classic!! Much better than sligo/galway/westport and one other i cant remember. Is one of westlife from sligo? Wherever it was, we stood outside the changing room window at half time listening to Micky Adams losing it as we were 1 down, "You, you and YOU - i want your shirt, you're never wearing it again" Think it were mayo, jones and Aiden Newhouse as they were all subbed.

 

[smudge]

OK, hardcore. I didn't mean you as an individual. I meant that the clubs hardcore support is about 4000.

A clubs support is judged by its home support.

For example, Man City. Their support stayed around 25-30,000 even in the darkest of days.

Sunderlands fans don't seem to be doing the same.

I'd love to think that if we get Falmer, then our true support will show. I hate Withdean as much as anyone & understand why it puts people off.

Don't take it so personally!

 

[Rougvie]

I've considered myself 'Hardcore' for the last 4 or 5 years and those who know me I am sure would agree as its the same faces you bump into year in year out, I can pretty much count on one hand the games I have missed in 3-4 years.

This season however its come to an end for me I am still enthusiastic, but a winter of getting soaked through at Withdean just no longer appeals, coupled with the fact I am buying a new house and I can imagine that my appearances at Albion games will be about 3 or 4 choice away days a season.

Yeah, its showboating, but its the way forward.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Anyone else at the Auto Windscreens game against Millwall when we got tonked 5-1? Moralee put us ahead but it was downhill from there. Someone started singing 'you're gonna win the Windscreen but you'll smash it anyway' which amused me.

Nice atmosphere at a shit time. I was there on my own but got chatting to someone. That's the nice thing about the Priest filed tims, they made us what we are now and whenever I think how shit Withdean is I remember that night.

Can't have been more than 300/400 Albion. Possibly outnmubered by Millwall.

 

[Cian]

MYOB - the battle of longford - what a game, probably the funniest match ive ever been too. Is there an Irish version of Question of Sport? If so the what happened next would be a classic!! Much better than sligo/galway/westport and one other i cant remember. Is one of westlife from sligo?

Yes, one of them is. I think it was meant to be Sligo-Longford-Athlone that year

There is now a question of sport alike on RTÉ, but there wasn't at the time, unfortunately.

RTÉ miss out on a lot of stuff. They turned down a Have I Got News For You licence in the early 1990's, despite making a (hilariously funny) pilot with Dermot Morgan as anchor.

 

[sully]

This season however its come to an end for me I am still enthusiastic, but a winter of getting soaked through at Withdean just no longer appeals, coupled with the fact I am buying a new house and I can imagine that my appearances at Albion games will be about 3 or 4 choice away days a season.

Yeah, its showboating, but its the way forward.

It's funny how this sort of thing happens.

For me, it was when we got to the (old) div 1 that I ran out of steam. I was up at Newcastle, having missed very few games for several seasons, but only went to 8 in that first season at the top, and didn't do double figures in any season after that until we were playing at Withdean.

Now back to missing very few games if I can help it, but certainly not enjoying Withdean too much any more.

As for hardcore numbers, it's difficult to assess, but I think it's probably pretty low if we're honest! There's been a few LDV games that have had pretty low attendances, and they're the sort of game when you really find out who your friends are.

 

[saltash seagull]

Anyone else at the Auto Windscreens game against Millwall when we got tonked 5-1? Moralee put us ahead but it was downhill from there. Someone started singing 'you're gonna win the Windscreen but you'll smash it anyway' which amused me.

Nice atmosphere at a shit time. I was there on my own but got chatting to someone. That's the nice thing about the Priest filed tims, they made us what we are now and whenever I think how shit Withdean is I remember that night.

Can't have been more than 300/400 Albion. Possibly outnmubered by Millwall.

i was there paul shaw and neil harris scored the 5 between them

 

[Dandyman]

Unfortunately I am not old enough to have gone to the games in the 90s when all these exciting things happened. I am sure if we chased a coach back from Rochdale or went to Bellotti's for tea tomorrow, then I would attend.

What you are forgetting Piers, is that some of this so called Withdean generation (I think I would have to be part of the Gillingham generation), have done things such as stand outside Prescott's office all day in the cold campaigning for our ground, and handing out leaflets and getting petitions signed all day for a week in Brighton (also in the cold.)

PS, many of your songs are so old that no one without grey hair gets them!

Now,now, girls, kiss and make up this instant !

 

[bellsize seagull]

at the end of the day it's all down to how much you want to go and support the albion, not a great start to the season but it will get better and when wolves and leeds are in town everyone will want a ticket, but if thats people's choices then so be it....i need to see the albion i hate sometimes having to sit and watch the soccer special and see the score, expense is sometimes the reason, but i love the albion and always will and going to see my boys in a saturday or a midweek trip is always a pleasure !!!

 

[Wilts]

There's 3 ways in which I class clubs for their support:

(1) The clubs that always will be massive due to the size of their cities and their histories. Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Sheff Wed. All far bigger than any club outside the top flight.

(2) The clubs from small places like Macclesfield, Lincoln, Boston etc that have never been anywhere...

(3) Everyone else. A town or city with a population of people around it of any magnitude can always attract fans in the Premiership, but find it difficult outside the Prem. Ipswich for example has only around 120,000 people, but get crowds of around 25,000 now after their recent success in the Prem, ditto Nottingham Forest (80s and 90s Prem team), Leeds, etc still get good crowds in Div 1 because they have the nucleus of their support that joined them when they were good. Whereas Bristol City, Reading, Brighton, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull (to a lesser extent nowadays), etc are substantial sized places with hardly any top-tier success and have lower crowds accordingly.

We all know that we can attract 25,000 fans in the Premiership without any problem. But until we get there we have to persevere with a fanbase that only comes out for the biggest games. Unfortunately the fickle fans (our 40,000 that went to Cardiff for example!) are those that you will need to provide money for your club when you crave Premiership level success. And you'll need them if you get relegated too, whether its their support for the year where you went down, or their support if you've managed to capture them for life.

Don't fret now about your support... I've given up trying to analyse ours. We'll get 23,000 against QPR, Peterborough etc when about 3rd in Division 2, and then get around 13,000 at home to teams in Division 1 when we're about 6th. In the run-in to Premiership success the supporter base is too difficult to analyse... so just keep supporting your club and at least you know that you're doing your bit.

 

[Albion Rob]

I personally feel it is impossible to say what our 'bedrock' of support is. We haven't been a stable football club for about 12 years now. We lurched from windingup orders to Bellotti and Archer to Gillingham and then to Withdean with a lengthy battle for a ground of our own thrown in for good measure.

I have loads of mates who would love to go week-in week-out but think they can't get hold of tickets and so don't try in the first place. Instead they make a decision at the start of the season to play on Saturdays or work or go and watch Eastbourne Boro. And that is the extent of what the past 10 years has done to us. I know people who refused to go on principle when Bellotti and Archer were in charge. I didn't agree with them but they made their choice not to line those cancer cells' pockets.

If and when we actually get a stadium that can accommodate about 20,000 I think the proof will be in the pudding. Remember there are a generation of kids who can't go to the games because their dads can't get three tickets together at Withdean if they ring up on a Tuesday for a Saturday game.

To this end, I feel our 'hardcore' support sits anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000. If we get a stadium and build on the interest it generates then, yes, we could end up with a healthy bedrock because people are able to go every week and get 'addicted' to the buzz. However, if the club doesn't start off brightly and we price families out and fail to capitalise on a shiny new ground then we could end up a bit like Wigan on Saturday for some of the less glamourous games.

And if we don't get a new stadium we may as well pack it all in now.