Falmer, or Goldstone?

[jordanseagull]

Been thinking about this lately.

What happened in the late 90's was of course a terrible thing, thanks to Archer and Bellotti. This saw the end of our great home.

However, if the Goldstone, which we must admit was run down, was not sold off, we would not have ended up getting our fantastic new Falmer stadium. We would, however, still probably be in Hove.

The question is, would you have rather stayed at the beloved Goldstone, where we may not have been able to progress as a club, or gone to Falmer, where the future of our football club, and of course the security of it, is much firmer?

 

[BensGrandad]

Given time could they have not redeveloped either the Goldstone or The dog track the biggest problem was the time scale we were put under. Each side of The Goldstone could have been developed 1 side per year thus within 5 years we would have had a virtually new stadium. The crowds we were getting would have allowed us to operate with 3 sides.

 

[jordanseagull]

Given time could they have not redeveloped either the Goldstone or The dog track the biggest problem was the time scale we were put under. Each side of The Goldstone could have been developed 1 side per year thus within 5 years we would have had a virtually new stadium. The crowds we were getting would have allowed us to operate with 3 sides.

I agree. But would this been have been able to happen, funds wise? And would the club had gone from bad to worse with them two in charge?

IMO, with the right owners, there's nothing like a new stadium to get the club progressing.

 

[Billy the Fish]

When we sold off the Goldstone it was well undervalued. Had those slags not been looking to make a quick buck for themselves they would've kept a hand in the redevelopment. Remember that Chartwell bought it from us for £8mill (f*** knows where that went) and sold it for £24mill, that would've funded a new ground at the time. Would we have got planning permission for anywhere else though? Who knows, but I don't think redeveloping was an option as we weren't allowed to build up the East stand.

Given the events that had to happen to get this far, had you told me about it in '96 and given the choice between gillingham and withdean to get to this stage or chance it at the Goldstone - I choose Goldstone every time.

 

[BensGrandad]

Mike Bamber wanted to buy all the houses overlooking the East Terrace and let them out as club houses to players/ employees etc thus stopping any possible objections to building up higher.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Given time could they have not redeveloped either the Goldstone or The dog track the biggest problem was the time scale we were put under. Each side of The Goldstone could have been developed 1 side per year thus within 5 years we would have had a virtually new stadium. The crowds we were getting would have allowed us to operate with 3 sides.

I think part of the problem was that Hove Council had a barmy rule that no stand could be higher than 50 feet (presumably the West Stand was 50 feet high). That would have made it very hard to get the necessary capacity. I thought there was some scheme at one time to turn the pitch round, buy up the industrial estate in Newtown Road, and redevelop that way. As for my preference, North Stand with its roof, or Withdean getting soaking wet, with jobsworth stewards (I am not affected by them, but the constant battle sure spoils my enjoyment), give me the Goldstone every time, even if Withdean does have better catering and bogs (the North Stand ones were legendary for their awfulness).

 

[BensGrandad]

Anything is possible if you have the will and A B S didnt have this. Had DK taken us over with the ground included in the deal I think that it would have been a different story but then again with The Goldstone included other people would have been interested so its all a case of ifs and buts.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

I always thought the goldstone could have been developed, look at what more cramped grounds like at gillingham & notts county have done.

Having said that, new grounds are the way forward and falmer looks like being something special. If we can just give it that special touch which makes it uniquely ours then it will be a ground to be proud of.

I wish we could have gone from the old to the new without all those years of trouble & strife but maybe it's that factor which means we will all really love moving into our new ground, the one we have all invested so much effort in bringing abaout.

I think some of the other clubs don't have that affinity when moving to their grounds because of the sudden move from old to new.

 

[BensGrandad]

My heart goes out to the many friends and relatives who supported the club for many years and have passed on before seeing their dream and I feel that during the celebrations of opening the game for the first match a minutes silence should be held in respect of those people.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Anything is possible if you have the will and A B S didnt have this. Had DK taken us over with the ground included in the deal I think that it would have been a different story but then again with The Goldstone included other people would have been interested so its all a case of ifs and buts.

Indeed, who's to say that DK wouldn't have steadied the ship which would've saved all the time and effort in getting us back to Brighton in the first place. Remember that we had to campaign just to get to bloody Withdean, I remember delivering leaflets around Brighton for it. Like you say, ifs and buts, it never happened like that so probably best not to think about it.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Double post

 

[Jamie]

Been thinking about this lately.

What happened in the late 90's was of course a terrible thing, thanks to Archer and Bellotti. This saw the end of our great home.

However, if the Goldstone, which we must admit was run down, was not sold off, we would not have ended up getting our fantastic new Falmer stadium. We would, however, still probably be in Hove.

The question is, would you have rather stayed at the beloved Goldstone, where we may not have been able to progress as a club, or gone to Falmer, where the future of our football club, and of course the security of it, is much firmer?

Mate - you do know archer siold the goldstone to about £3Million to a company he controlled and then the next year for about£35 Million and pocketed the cash? So excuse me if I dont thank archer too much as that cash would have come in handy for a new ground! But to answer the question, the soldstone every day of the week. cannot stand plastic souless grounds on the edge of towns. But beggers cant be choosers

 

[jordanseagull]

Mate - you do know archer siold the goldstone to about £3Million to a company he controlled and then the next year for about£35 Million and pocketed the cash? So excuse me if I dont thank archer too much as that cash would have come in handy for a new ground! But to answer the question, the soldstone every day of the week. cannot stand plastic souless grounds on the edge of towns. But beggers cant be choosers

Yes of course, I loved the place as much as the next man. I just, sometimes, feel as though Falmer will be when we really do kick off.

 

[forumwayseagull]

I loved the Goldstone but I can't see how we could have progressed if we had of stayed...

All I can say is its beena mare over the last few years and I CANNOT WAIT to sit in my seat at FALMER and see the boys run out.....then it will feel finally that it has been worth the wait.. Until then have to put up with schitedean.....

 

[Albion Dan]

The Goldstone, as much as I loved her, was a complete and utter dump towards the end. It would have cost a fortune to redevelop and would have ended up like one of those cheapish looking upgrades of a stadium like Bournemouth, Fratton Park or heaven forbid Selhurst.

Falmer will be 100 times better than the Goldstone would ever have been, but I would have much rather waited there than spent these years of misery at Withdean.

 

[NMH]

Been thinking about this lately.

What happened in the late 90's was of course a terrible thing, thanks to Archer and Bellotti. This saw the end of our great home.

However, if the Goldstone, which we must admit was run down, was not sold off, we would not have ended up getting our fantastic new Falmer stadium. We would, however, still probably be in Hove.

The question is, would you have rather stayed at the beloved Goldstone, where we may not have been able to progress as a club, or gone to Falmer, where the future of our football club, and of course the security of it, is much firmer?

I'm going to put a wild imaginative guess into this, and suggest we would have only stayed at the Goldstone a few more years, and still would have made the application for Falmer.
We weren't granted the Falmer site because we were homeless and they felt sorry for us, and we wouldn't have been offered another site just because we'd had The Goldstone as a home.
The only difference may have been an option to do something to make The Goldstone more modern - but I doubt we'd have anything close to the wonderful and almost futuristic look and construction that Falmer is going to soon be.

We have managed a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and we can thank DK and AB - among others - for this.

 

[cannedheat]

Had we stayed at the Goldstone it would have been brought up to scratch for us, the old Hove council was going and a unified Labour controlled council would I am sure have been more helpfull to us, the big problem was the houses in Newtown Rd and there right to natural light, anyway Falmer is almost here so

And lets not forget pisshead Stanley guilty as the other two.

 

[dougdeep]

the big problem was the houses in Newtown Rd and there right to natural light.

There is no such thing as right to light and there were no houses in Newtown Road but apart from that you're spot on.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Freddie Goodwin has a point here. Many fans are in effect forcibly rehoused directly from an old, historic, much-loved ground to a new one that they may or may not have wanted because the Board of a club have decided that they need to move to make more money/protect the future. I'm sure few fans object in principal but equally it is hard for them to adjust to a new ground.

At the Albion however, we've had years of being nomads (or effectively living in the football equivalent of a mobile home at Withdean) so Falmer, with it's lack of history, out of town location etc etc will be welcomed with open arms. This difference in perspective should mean that Falmer is immediately taken to our hearts (it has been already, witness the slavering wankfest that is Jack Straw's Friday posting ).

What this means in terms of results, atmosphere I don't know, but FG is correct that we are approaching a new ground with quite a uniquely positive perspective.

 

[LowKarate]

For the money that we are spending on building Falmer £93m?
Plus the money we have already spent in the legal and planning stages to achieve it... £6-10m?
Plus the revenue we have lost over the last 12 years with smaller crowds £15-35m?

We could have bought the houses on Goldstone Lane (50ft height covenant could have been removed then) and we could have bought some of the industrial properties on New Town Road as well if we wanted. We could then have had ourselves a stadium much bigger than Falmer for similar money (and better connected too with Hove Station still close).

There is no doubt that investing in The Goldstone would have been better than Falmer.

Having said that, we are where we are and I'm just glad Falmer is finally coming!