New Stadium + Poor Crowds + Poor Form = Administration

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It's all relative though, isn't it Tom?

Leicester and Southampton have 32.500 capacity stadia (same design I think, just different seats) and both had immediate Premiership ambitions.

We are looking at a 22,000 seater stadium with the 5-8 year goal being becoming a solid Division One club before making the push for the Premiership.

Like I say, it is going to be all about making the stadium accesible for everyone in the community with the football taking over on matchdays.

Also, I don't think Southampton or Leicester have exactly had monet pumped into them, the Foxes had to cheat their way out of administration while I can't remember the last time Southampton shelled out big money on a transfer fee. They do however, have two of the most astute managers in the game.

My plan - get money coming into the stadium every day of the week, from boot sales to tours to concerts to bhusiness meetings. Promote the stadium well and keep people involved. Keep ticket proces reasonable and make a decent profit off BEER and food sales at the ground at last. Stop paying Ecovert rent. Make this club great again.

f*** this, give me a job at the Albion now. Stadium manager would do.

Rob - Stadium manager job's yours mate. When can you start?

It's a bit weird with stadium events tho. Used to go to Stanmer Park Festival Dance Days which were absolutely superb. Saw The Chemical Bros, Prodigy, Underworld, loads of other quality sets. Was a three day festival that also featured an Indie Day and a Dub day. All superb line-ups, all of them got about 20K punters in as I recall.

On the other hand I went to the Madstad this Summer and watched a full-strength line-up Australia v Jamaica friendly internatinal (Viduka/Kewell/Ricketts/Gardner etc.) and tho it was a cracking atmosphere - I think it was a euro qualifier weekend or something and it was on a Sunday - there was a turnout of around five thousand. Like I say, cracking atmosphere- but the ground was WAY empty.

 

[Safeway]

Believe me, Falmer will be an overnight success. Guaranteed. It's true that people are getting sick of Withdean, but the new ground will be like a shot in the arm.

Like I said earlier, it won't matter where we are in the league either. Sussex will come in force to truly welcome The Albion home.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Of course it will be a success,but a lot can happen in 3 more years at that scummy shite hole such as losing shite loads and much more.

 

[fosters headband]

Something that has always bugged me that some financial expert maybe able to answer.
Is the money we pay Ecovert far in excess to owning your own ground, when you consider all the Rates, Insurance, Water, Electricity, Staff and maintenance that would have to be paid.
I would love to see some comparison between Withdean costs and the proposed running costs of Falmer.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It's a balancing act. It's all very well the likes of FG and THPP saying "Dick Tight must invest in the team" (or variations on that theme) but where is the money going to come from? There are only two ways - either the club goes into debt or we invite in another Archer figure.

I'm even going to go a stage further and for the sake of arguement ask 'Why does the team have to be improved?' We're fifth - Darlington are 2nd from bottom. We've got a good home record and as has been mentioned a far bigger catchment area. Also even if we were bottom initially matches at Falmer will 'sell themselves' as there will be the novelty of watching Brighton in a proper stadium which will appeal to lapsed fans, neutrals and groundhoppers.

So, no, don't invest in the team if it means going into debt or bringing in another Archer. The club's finances are still a bit rocky so I think we should actually spend LESS on the team. Concentrate on bringing the youngsters on and get rid of the expensive wage-earners. A few seasons of consolidation in Div 2 will do us no harm at all. I admit we don't want to get much worse but this ain't 1997 any more.

Enough of 'the likes of FG and THPP' if you please Brovian, else the tone of this debate will go downhill pronto, tonto. I'm a deep admirer of Dick Knight, of his respect for the Albion pensioners and the fact that his grandkids wear the stripes. Top bloke in every respect. Whatever. The club's got a charter in place to ensure that they can't be raped by the likes of Archer ever again. Nothing wrong with attracting further ETHICAL investers like I said earlier. Nothing wrong with offering the Albion faithful a stake in the future either.

 

[itszamora]

Something that has always bugged me that some financial expert maybe able to answer.
Is the money we pay Ecovert far in excess to owning your own ground, when you consider all the Rates, Insurance, Water, Electricity, Staff and maintenance that would have to be paid.
I would love to see some comparison between Withdean costs and the proposed running costs of Falmer.

I read somewhere that our 'matchday expenses' (ie. the money we give to Ecovert) are about 50% of the money the club gets from the match, as opposed to about 20% if a club owns their ground, apparently. So we're being shafted, basically

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

On personal dealings with Ecovert, we got a big giant tree outside our house. We sent off for three quotes to get it pruned back a bit. Ecovert were most expensive at £800, about three hundred quid more expensive than either of the other two quotes. Safe to assume that the Ecovert don't make a lot of money out of tree-pruning. Probably safe to assume also that the Albion are being thoroughly shafted by Ecovert at Withdean - and are probably subsidising Ecovert's tree-pruning business, amongst others.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Questions?
1, do you rent the seats for roughly7 years at the withdean.
2,knowing you will be at the club so long do you attempt to buy such stands to save a fortune.

How much do you reckon these stands cost to make or buy mmm interesting.

 

[NMH]

There's a strong smell of pessimism in this thread.

Nothing new here then.

I know, let's be positive and have BHA stay in the doldrums of Withdean, the West Pier will crumble nicely, Brighton will be a has-been hamlet that no-one will want to visit, and we'll certainly have nothing to do with future events such as World and European Cup, and Olympic events. The Germans can have our Olympics, that's ok we don't want that sort of thing happening in Sussex and England.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Forget staying at the shitdean i was just wondering if the club would have been better off buying these stands.

 

[Albion Rob]

I asked that before and I have a feeling the seats come included in the price we pay for the ground, not 100 per cent sure though.

I take it Falmer is literally just the stadium, a bit like Stoke rather than a whole complex with an adjoining retail park like Reading.

The relocation of Brighton and Hove Albion was a massive opportunity for Brighton and Hove council to build a f***ing amazing development that people would talk about and come to for years - something like West Quay in Southampton. But they passed it up and the football club has had to go through years of toil just to get to the point where we may or may not get a stadium on the strength of what John Prescott thinks.

 

[Safeway]

i was just wondering if the club would have been better off buying these stands.

And what would we do with them once Falmer arrives? It's bad enough being stuck with the likes of Oatway and Marney, let alone 5,500 f***ing green seats!

 

[berkshire seagull]

Sell them or rent them cheap to golf associations!

Its called making money my son

 

[Safeway]

Comparing us with Darlo isn't really on. They've never been a big club and they're struggling in Div 3. They haven't the history or catchment area that we have.

We have the crowd potential, which the public inquiry inspector clearly recognised by asking if there was any way of extending the stadium beyond 22,374. Expect 12,000 average in Div 2 at Falmer and 15,000-plus average in Div 1, with the ground full against the likes of Palace, Portsmouth and Spurs

It's taken 53 replies, but we got there.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Comparing us with Darlo isn't really on. They've never been a big club and they're struggling in Div 3. They haven't the history or catchment area that we have.

We have the crowd potential, which the public inquiry inspector clearly recognised by asking if there was any way of extending the stadium beyond 22,374. Expect 12,000 average in Div 2 at Falmer and 15,000-plus average in Div 1, with the ground full against the likes of Palace, Portsmouth and Spurs

My view is 10k nearly season tickets if a reasonable price,so reckon 14-15k average div 2 and 18k in div 1.

Its very hard to work out,but potential is greater than 12k im very sure.
While listening to the radio on the albion it was mentioned many of times that we had 20-30k applicants last season and 27k for the cov game on the tuesday night.

You can't judge as its stupid i no,so best wait and see

 

[FG aka Football Genius.]

"Taken from the Darlo In Administration' thread:
'The Quakers moved into their new £20m Reynolds Arena in August but poor crowds and form saw them go into administration last week.'THAT'S why the club needs to pump some money into the playing side as soon as Falmer gets the green light. This season. Not three years down the line."

EXACTLY WHAT THE GENIUS HAS BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS hopefully silent got some specs to see properly and not another pipe for smoking this xmas, all the best geniuses were at first thought mad but even stevie wonder could see the ****ing obvious you so rightly point out .

 

[Beach Hut]

"Taken from the Darlo In Administration' thread:
'The Quakers moved into their new £20m Reynolds Arena in August but poor crowds and form saw them go into administration last week.'THAT'S why the club needs to pump some money into the playing side as soon as Falmer gets the green light. This season. Not three years down the line."

EXACTLY WHAT THE GENIUS HAS BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS hopefully silent got some specs to see properly and not another pipe for smoking this xmas, all the best geniuses were at first thought mad but even stevie wonder could see the ****ing obvious you so rightly point out .

Just a little thought FG:

WHY DON'T YOU EAT SHIT AND DIE

 

[The Large One]

I am totally flabbergasted at THPP's myopia.

Falmer will not fail because the fans won't allow it to fail. Talk about 'talking up' a scenario. It doesn't help when the likes of FG go shooting their mouths off.

As for the reasons for not filling Withdean, you have to be pretty brainless to work out why - and it is not apathy.

 

[NMH]

Well it's good to see a few people who don't have that good-old English pessimism that makes our country so pathetic nowadays.
"you won't succeed, it's bound to fail, forget it and stay in the miserable bottom of the bucket with the rest of us" they cry and wail. Wimper your lives away you pathetic never-did-anything losers.

Look how happy the 'Swan & Nimby' fg has suddenly become - he's lapping this up, and collating as much of it as he can for the next anti-Albion meeting !

The Goldstone is a perfect example of why Falmer WILL succeed. The core support that used to swell the gates from the mid 1970s up to the 90s didn't just manifest out of a rent-a-crowd film set!
These were actual people - and they braved the crappy facilities that the meagre Goldstone Ground had to offer. They were not modern and up-to-date seats in the South Stand, those West Stand ones were no better . The bogs absolutely stank, and everything was cobbled together on the cheap. The rest of the place was terracing, much of it open to the elements, and awful barriers keeping people off the pitch (late 70's on). What about the catering ladies and gents - top notch eh? - Not.
Family encouragements....er.......what's that ? Luxury boxes (heated), enclosed press boxes, handicapped facilities, other events outside of football ....? Nope, none of that lot - the Goldstone (R.I.P.) had clandestine facilities and sad lack of creature comforts. British Bloody Rail offered better food and drinks than The Goldstone. It DID have atmosphere, and Withdean has none.
How about the accessibility then eh? Nice and close to the Old Shoreham Road ? Park where ya like mate - find a spot off Neville Road and walk a mile or two if you get there early. Busses, trains..... all went fairly close to the ground eh? Not bad for Hove, I suppose - but it wasn't a stadium in any use of the word!

Still people came, and at least double the away fans in their corner of the ground, as well. At Withdean, you can count em on two hands practically. There's one away fan for every member of their team !

I think we can do better. I know we can. I think we will.
I think there are people smart enough to realise it's potential, and can build a place worth going to, comfortable, accessible, family-friendly, University-useful, viable and profitable, an asset to the community and the county and the country. It will bring in loads of money to the local area, and raise our profile tremendously.

Oooh, but doesn't that set you back fg?
Sorry, but there are some who realise what a load of bollocks you talk, and can see the point in having Brighton get up-to-date and up-to-speed as a City .

Falmer for ALL (except the nimbys)

 

[Gwylan]

Spot on NMH. We romanticise the Goldstone but it really was a shitehole. As for covering, I remember getting absolutely soaked on the day that Wardy and Spider put seven past Walsall. But the point is, that even with such a crap ground, we got 14,000 for that filthy night in October - that's a hardcore following - the support is there.

Other people have posted about catchment area but it's worth reiterating how powerful an argument that is. We have no league club within 44 miles of us, compare that with Darlo who have three Premiership clubs within a 50 mile radius.

You could also point out that in the 70s, the population of B&H was about 75% of what it is now. This is a growing city and there's a new generation of Albion fans to capture. A decent stadium will provide the impetus to catch them.