Just How Big is our Support

[sir albion]

Ha ha ha ha ha. Even in our first season ever in the top division, with capacity of 33,500 at the Goldstone, we NEVER even made it to 30k, and that was when it cost £1.30 to watch in the North Stand.

Strange really as we hit 30k plenty of times and wasn't even in the top division

Our biggest average is 25k and im sure if we was in the prem in a bigger stadium we could certainly crack it.Thats your opinion

 

[El Presidente]

Thats way out
Problem is we have many youngsters on here who only remember the dire days etc.We will sell out every game in the championship or most,league 1 will be around 14-16k and so on.

Get to the prem and 10,000+ will not get tickets

If you honestly think we will sell out for home matches against Middlesboro, Barnsley, Doncaster et al you need your head examined. We couldn't even sell out against Palace at home at Withdean in the Championship, so why on earth would another 14,000 pay £24 once a fortnight to watch a side to which they clearly don't have a great deal of affiliation?

We couldn't even sell our full allocation for the play-off final.

 

[El Presidente]

Strange really as we hit 30k plenty of times and wasn't even in the top division

No we didn't.

 

[sir albion]

If you honestly think we will sell out for home matches against Middlesboro, Barnsley, Doncaster et al you need your head examined. We couldn't even sell out against Palace at home at Withdean in the Championship, so why on earth would another 14,000 pay £24 once a fortnight to watch a side to which they clearly don't have a great deal of affiliation?

We couldn't even sell our full allocation for the play-off final.

You're just like many on here NEGATIVE

Don't give a shite about shitty withdean as you can't base things around that,lets leave it at that and see who is right in good time

 

[Chicken Runner61]

No we didn't.

Is the right answer.

Promotion Runs

Full every week whatever division

If we are winning - average season

Next Season - Full Every week
Division 1 - 18k ave
Championship - 20k ave
Prem - 25k ave

Playing ok but losing some
Next Season - Full Every week
Division 1 - 16k ave
Championship - 18k ave
Prem - 20k av

Poor Season
Next Season - 18k
Division 1 - 14k ave
Championship - 15k ave
Prem - 17k av

 

[pasty]

According to THIS our average gate for our first season in the top flight was 24,745

 

[Chicken Runner61]

According to THIS our average gate for our first season in the top flight was 24,745

Yeah but I reckon the cost of tickets is going to bring down attendances much more when we have an average or poor season.

When we win - no problems.

Look how our attendance drops away when we have poor runs now and thats including go every week whatever fans.

 

[brightonbc]

The thing is im not saying there are 40,000 die hard brighton fans, but ask yourself this question, how many mates have you got that are football fans that have been to withdean maybe once a season tops. I have lost count of the amount of people telling me that once falmer is here they will go to every game, and yes this is coming from people who dont support brighton, they are liverpool, arsenal, chelsea however because they are not die hards they will not sit at withdean....this is where i am stating we would get 40,000, the premiership is huge now, if we took 27,000 to cardiff for the play off final, can we not at least match this or better it when its on our doorstep for the likes of seeing lampard, drogba, rooney, gerrard, torres. I believe there are 20,000 + football fans in sussex that do not go to the albion because of the league level and facilities, however offer them a ticket to travel 15-20 miles for 40-45 quid to watch the top 4 im sure they would go

 

[Eastbourne Stripes]

Ha ha ha ha ha. Even in our first season ever in the top division, with capacity of 33,500 at the Goldstone, we NEVER even made it to 30k, and that was when it cost £1.30 to watch in the North Stand.

i was at this game and if you look in the club history, thousands were locked out of this game due to a computer error counting the number of people that had entered the ground,the crowd would have been in excess of 30000

 

[sir albion]

The thing is im not saying there are 40,000 die hard brighton fans, but ask yourself this question, how many mates have you got that are football fans that have been to withdean maybe once a season tops. I have lost count of the amount of people telling me that once falmer is here they will go to every game, and yes this is coming from people who dont support brighton, they are liverpool, arsenal, chelsea however because they are not die hards they will not sit at withdean....this is where i am stating we would get 40,000, the premiership is huge now, if we took 27,000 to cardiff for the play off final, can we not at least match this or better it when its on our doorstep for the likes of seeing lampard, drogba, rooney, gerrard, torres. I believe there are 20,000 + football fans in sussex that do not go to the albion because of the league level and facilities, however offer them a ticket to travel 15-20 miles for 40-45 quid to watch the top 4 im sure they would go

Cardiff was a 300 mile+ trip so thats not to bad,we did take 40k+ in 1991 to wembley but finals count for nothing

We could get 40k no worrys although not likely to average 40k

 

[brightonbc]

perhaps im being mis understood i know we wouldnt get 40,000 avarage, but against chelsea,arsenal,etc i think we would, however in my i still believe if we got premiership football , falmer is to small(not knocking it)

 

[Gordon the Gopher]

If you look at teams outside the Premier League who attract crowds in or around the 30,000 mark, they tend to be 'Football' towns.

Teams like, Derby, Leeds, West Brom and Nottingham Forest.

Last season, Derby's average home attendance was in the top 8 of England's overall league. The city lives for football, there is very little else on offer up here.

Brighton on the other hand is completely different. It is a city that has a lot more going on; football is not the central focus. The issues we appear to be having with Pride over next season's opening fixture is one example of this.

During the Withdean years, Brighton's hardcore fan-base has been around the 3-4K mark. I'm not sure about the figures for The Goldstone, but I think achieving numbers of 22k should Brighton be in the Championship after the first season at Falmer, is a tad generous.

Disagree a little. Just been round Sainsburys in Hove and because it is the first day of the premiership, sad to see so many young kids and older blokes wearing Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea tops. I would say we are quite a footballing town. It's just the towns you have mentioned tend to have more people who support their local teams through the good and bad times. As someone who grew up in London and kent supporting Arsenal and then began supporting the Albion due to a loyality to the place and community where I have lived for the last 25 years, this has always baffled and annoyed me!

 

[Braders]

In answer to are we bigger than some Prem Teams - f*** YES! We are a bigger and better club than your Wigans and Blackpools IMO...

what Sheebs said we smashed these sides down the recent years and it's only the money and stadium situation that has been holding us back from progressing further

I mean Hull ,Burnley and Reading - REALLY!??!?!

 

[Castello]

Disagree a little. Just been round Sainsburys in Hove and because it is the first day of the premiership, sad to see so many young kids and older blokes wearing Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea tops. I would say we are quite a footballing town. It's just the towns you have mentioned tend to have more people who support their local teams through the good and bad times. As someone who grew up in London and kent supporting Arsenal and then began supporting the Albion due to a loyality to the place and community where I have lived for the last 25 years, this has always baffled and annoyed me!

I live in Tottenham, and the majority of tops you see worn around here are Arsenal/Man Utd tops. I even saw a Man Utd tv (but no Tottenham tv) in the local branch of currys a few years ago . Tottenham fans tend to live in greater concentrations in Enfield and Hertfordshire.

The reason for this is for another thread.

Back when I was living in Brighton and we were in the top division, if I remember correctly we never once had a crowd over 30k in 4 years. Entry was much cheaper then, in relative terms. I was unemployed for the last two years and still managed to get to more or less every home game.

I do think sustained success would lift the potential top crowd, but that would be in the long term. In the mean time I thinks the size of falmer is about right. Why spend more than you need to now, if you dont expect to fill it for many years. Surely it makes more sense to have the ability to expand as you need to.

 

[Benelux Seagull]

I was a wee bit pissed on weds, when my passion started coming out for the albion. I was in the pub talking with my mates about the albion and falmer, as the only die hard there, i believe i know a great deal about the clubs potential. I honestly believe falmer is not big enough(but im not moaning), to which i was asked on weds why, my response is if we were to play a top 4 club we could get 40,000(including away fans remember).

What were you drinking?

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Although we never broke the 30,000 mark in the old 1st division we did several times against the likes of Bolton, Spurs, Southampton, Crystal Palace and Sheff Weds in the few seasons before if memory serves me correctly.

When we reached the top flight, it co-incided with the rise of hooliganism and the Goldstone also saw its fair share of this.

This put a hell of a lot of people off going to football not just at Brighton but throughout the country. It was glamorised by the media, some papers even printing league tables for hooliganism!

Photos of rows and rows of Doc Martin boots being taken off people outside the Goldstone against Arsenal in the first top flight game, running battles between fans being shown on TV etc all put people off. The media realised that attendances were dropping badly and in particular the TV cameras stopped showing it, and things started to improve.

CCTV cameras were introduced throughout football grounds, this stopped most of the trouble at grounds and slowly but surely people started returning to football.

The crowds that we see at football today are as a whole much bigger than they were when we were in the top flight and i am sure that if we get to the top flight again that we can get back into the 30,000s again regularly and yes if Falmer could hold it we may even be able to get 40,000 against the top 4

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Although we never broke the 30,000 mark in the old 1st division we did several times against the likes of Bolton, Spurs, Southampton, Crystal Palace and Sheff Weds in the few seasons before if memory serves me correctly.

When we reached the top flight, it co-incided with the rise of hooliganism and the Goldstone also saw its fair share of this.

This put a hell of a lot of people off going to football not just at Brighton but throughout the country. It was glamorised by the media, some papers even printing league tables for hooliganism!

Photos of rows and rows of Doc Martin boots being taken off people outside the Goldstone against Arsenal in the first top flight game, running battles between fans being shown on TV etc all put people off. The media realised that attendances were dropping badly and in particular the TV cameras stopped showing it, and things started to improve.

CCTV cameras were introduced throughout football grounds, this stopped most of the trouble at grounds and slowly but surely people started returning to football.

The crowds that we see at football today are as a whole much bigger than they were when we were in the top flight and i am sure that if we get to the top flight again that we can get back into the 30,000s again regularly and yes if Falmer could hold it we may even be able to get 40,000 against the top 4

This.