poor attendances ! will this be falmer in years to come ?

[chips and gravy]

Getting to Falmer from west of Brighton will be a nightmare too! Actually getting there will be ok - but getting back will take forever as the trains won't be able to cope with so many people trying to get away all at the same time. Unlike Withdean there won't be any on-street parking within walking distance. On Saturday I used the train and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it took to get home to Worthing. This won't be the case when trying to get back from Falmer! Maybe I should think about moving to Eastbourne?

 

[Scoffers]

I guess we won't know for sure until it happens. I just wish I had more confidence in Public Transport.

 

[perseus]

From the west, Preston Park is usually as good as Hove station was, but then the Hove trains going west weren't much cop.

The trains go straight to Falmer from the west stopping at all the darn stations.

With Preston Park, the train driver has been known to forget to stop! With the shortcut it is OK from Preston Park to Withdean, a nice walk if it is not too muddy. This is a great advantage and is recommended. The train is fast and doesn't stop at all the halts.

 

[chips and gravy]

Actually there aren't any trains from west of Brighton going straight to Falmer any more (except perhaps a couple at peak times). These were stopped last year as the train movements across Brighton station tied up the tracks for an unacceptable length of time reducing the overall capacity of the station.

I'll get my anorak

 

[Scoffers]

Yes, i read this very statement from one of the Nimby sites. They made a very big play on the fact that in order to cope with the proposed number of fans, they would need to run x number of trains per hour, but because of the slowness of the line and the problems with the westcoastway line, the max number that they could run would be nowhere near what is required.

 

[perseus]

The train problem never occurred at Hove station. It was a hell of a crush sometimes and the trains were inadequate.

I think it was one NIMBY with a stash of figures.

The main point here is if the train service is good, this may be one way to get more cars off the road and avoid snarl ups.

Whether a privately owned rail service will actually bother putting on a decent service is another matter altogether.

I tend to think people will use trains if they live near a railway station. Lots of people don't.

 

[fatbadger]

Hull City look like they're finally going to get out of the basement now they are playing in that magnificent new stadium, and they've had a few 20,000+ crowds in DIVISION THREE, which is almost unheard of. Think they'd achieve that at that ramshackle old shed called Boothferry Park ?

(a) Hull have a very sensible pricing policy - it's cheap to take a family, and students and the unemployed are included as concessions.

(b) Hull, historically, have had much higher attendances than we have.

 

[perseus]

Once upon a time (when I first started watching the Albion) when gates were higher than today, Hull City were playing in the bees knees of a Boothberry stadium with its own railway station and trains (probably steam trains) and they attempted to buy their way out of the old Division Three buy the unheard of before purchase of three £40K players (equivalent to £4 million each today) and romped home the Division and I remember they won 2-1 at the Goldstone with their reserve keeper *** Swan who made a fantastic save. (I was jumping up in the air shouting goal and keeper tipped it around the post at the south end. Mind you I was quite small then I could not see so good.)

Gates wise that season for Hull would be comparable to the Peter Ward season when Albion were promoted out of Division 3 as well. I do not know what the comparative average league attendances were as I have lost my Albion books (lost in a fire) and my Rothmans's Year Books, but if you wanted to compare the potential of the two clubs, this would be an almost identical comparison, the figues favouring Hull a bit (possibly 10%) because the gates were all around lower in the late seventies than the late sixties (even this could be measured).

I doubt if there is much in it. I think the Hull City experience could be repeated by the Albion and we could pick up some tips from what they do, It is important to get the fans back with incentives.

 

[perseus]

Albion 20,183 (1976-77)

http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/bha.htm

Hull City 1965-6 Average attendance = unknown, probably about 20,000.

http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/hulc.htm

Even under the Archer/Belotti regime with boycotts and disconcent and in a lower League position than Hull, our crowds were larger. If was not for the conditions agreed with Brighton Council over purchasing tickets for Falmer, I would be optimistic that the crowds would return given the right conditions.

 

[Scoffers]

Interesting facts and figures perseus.

Lets just hope that we can break the 20,000 barrier again - that won't happen inside the next 10 years without Falmer though - if ever.

 

[fatbadger]

I take your point that perhaps the clubs were closer than I thought, but the highest average attendance for a season we have achieved since 1945 is 25,265 (43rd in the English table in this respect), whereas Hull's has been 37,319 (making them 18th overall).

Still, I really want to push the point about (a) the cost of taking a family must be kept low, and (b) by making sure that concessions include the unemployed and students, attendances will be boosted. Brighton has two universities, with football fans coming from all over the country - let's nab 'em from their home-town teams, if possible.

 

[perseus]

I agree with you about the concessions, but I believe it will be the ease of obtaining tickets that will be the important factor.

This does not seem likely at the moment. Unless we can work out a way to buy tickets on the day and make sure that a group arriving together can sit (or preferably stand, seats that flip up) together.

Buying tickets at railway stations would be OK, but I do not believe for one minute this will actually happen. Not unless the Albion get a club shop on the Brighton station?

(Anything before 1966 is before my time, which is about how long Hull enjoyed good times, so they are a bit overdue even by Albion standards.)

 

[mona]

(b) Hull, historically, have had much higher attendances than we have.

This is not true. Over the last 60 years Brighton have usually had bigger crowds than Hull. Hull did well from 1965-1967ish when a lot of money was pumped into the club and they had good players like Ken Wagstaff. Traditionally Hull is one of Yorkshire's rugby strongholds.

 

[perseus]

Didn't you the know the world started in 1966.

 

[perseus]

The Goldstone was not big enough, but I would estimate that the crowd for the home Chelsea match in 1965 or thereabouts would have been 57,000+. If you count the the attendance for the reserve match against Notts County that is what we paid to get in. (35,000 + 22,000) The Chelsea replay attracted 56,000+ with the gates closed before kick-off.

The FA Cup replay against Aldershot attracted 29,000+ fans. This was the old Division 3. The away Albion crowd at the Recreation Ground at Aldershot was 10,000 in a 14,000 crowd. (Aldershot had beaten Reading in the previous round before a crowd at the Recreation Ground of 18,000.)

This was greater than the whole League attendances for a season nowadays.