The Withdean Experience

[HH Brighton]

Think they’ve missed the boat somewhat with these extra seats. I attended my first home game of the season on Saturday and the whole experience reminded me of why I stopped going to home matches. I had my dads ticket in block F and from the moment I got to my seat I couldn’t wait to leave. Even when I used to attend games at Withdean I can’t remember the whole place lacking in atmosphere so much as it is now. Its not just the lack of singing but the total hush of the crowd during the game. What happened to the days when people used to shout have a bit of banter or perhaps even join in with the occasional ‘Seagullllls’.
The whole thing seems to start from when the team comes out. Surely everyone should be up on their feet clapping the team out and the management team to the dugout. Someone near me commented that Mcghee did not even acknowledge the applause they did get but with that pathetic effort would you? Most people around me seem to be more interested on where their flask and wagon wheels are.
There seems to be a depressing acceptance of the whole thing from everyone there as the season ticket holder I attended with said it was always like this and no one seems to care….
Now I know I’m going to be shoot down in flames as I don’t attend home games but I have been to six away games this season and have been going to watch brighton since 1979 and was a season ticket holder for 15 years. The away support is nearly always fantastic and I know there’s good reasons for this but its like attending games of two different teams. The Brighton at home experience is not what football should be about.
It doesn’t bare thinking about the consequences of not getting Falmer when we can all sit with like minded people and not the total idiots that seem to frequent F block at Withdean…

 

[DTES]

the total idiots that seem to frequent F block at Withdean…

That might please some people here.

 

[FG aka Football Genius.]

not everyone is an idiot in F block but i take your point it lacks atmosphere, i suggest a roof but of club cant even pay the tea lady cant see a roof appearing!

 

[mk_bha]

The Brighton at home experience is not what football should be about.

The best and truest post written on here in months!

 

[Easy 10]

I think people are growing very weary of Withdean now, and while the atmosphere has never been great, it's gone downhill even further this season. Its not surprising, but the atmosphere this season is noticably even more crap than in previous seasons there. Comparing each season:

First Season: Everyone was just delerious at being back in Brighton again after two years of hell at that dump in Kent. Everything was new, it was all a novelty, and we finished comfortably mid-table for a change after a couple of years finishing 91st. The astmosphere was upbeat at matches and we were all happy that the club, at last, seemed to be on the up.

Second Season: Went up as Champions, nuff said.

Third Season: Went up as Champions, nuff said

Fourth Season: Playing at a higher level than we had any right to be given our woeful facilities, it was exciting going to Withdean and see the "bigger" teams, and the feelgood factor was still at the club. The losing streak stretched everyones patience, but once Coppell arrived, we had genuine and realistic hopes of avoiding the drop and got behind the team, witnessing some great wins over the likes of Derby, Wolves, Forest, Watford etc.

This Season: Back in Division 2, its always a downer when we're playing the tinpot clubs again having tasted D1. The atmosphere is shite for two main reasons. 1 - we're just not playing very well at all, and 2 (and this is the main reason I think), we are, quite simply just sick and tired of Withdean Stadium. It is by far the worst stadium in the entire League, we're miles from the pitch, we nearly all have to sit there in the rain, and this is now our fifth year of having to put up with it. This is why the atmosphere has absolutely nosedived. I know I don't much feel like making a noise there any more. If it wasn't for the fact that for each game, I meet up and sit with half a dozen mates and have a good laugh with them, I'm not sure I'd even bother with it week in, week out, and thats a frightening admission from someone who's had a season ticket for the last 14 years.

It just serves to illustrate the point - this club is dead in the water if we don't get that decision. Simple as.

 

[Safeway]

i suggest a roof but of club cant even pay the tea lady cant see a roof appearing!

You f***ing clueless BASTARD. If you'd paid attention, oo, FOUR YEARS ago then you will know exactly why the club can't put a roof on the South Stand.

Not going to explain it again for you, you f***ing Johnny-come-lately, faceless ****.

 

[bhaexpress]

Take the rough with the smooth or else f*** off.

 

[bhafc99]

I had a season ticket for the first three seasons at Withdean, but work/family reasons etc meant having to give it up. However I did go on Saturday, for the first time this season, and like HH Brighton was shocked at being reminded what a bleak experience it is. The three away games I've made this season have all been more atmospheric.

I know we've covered all this before, and that Falmer is the answer to everything, but god, watching football at Withdean is woefully far from what supporting the Albion is meant to be like...

Drive from London to Park and ride in the drizzle, so no chance of a pint or meet-up beforehand. It's a case of being bused in and bused out on some kind of soulless McXperience.

Sit next to some unfortunate individual with an obsessive compulsive disorder who spends the whole game mumbling to himself and staring at the back of his programme - shouldn't criticize people who have social handicaps, but it made the game about as enjoyable as visiting an elderly aunt in a rest home.

Everyone around me spends the whole game in monastic silence, with getting up early for halftime snacks and leaving early in order to beat the P&R queues their top priority.

Shudder....

 

[DTES]

Drive from London to Park and ride in the drizzle, so no chance of a pint or meet-up beforehand.

Never use the park&ride myself so don't know, but don't they run an early enough bus to allow plenty of time for a beer or five in the Sportsman?

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The Withdean experience is indeed horrible especially since every single game, almost without exception it is cloudy with rain. There are no facilities, you get soaked. You have to walk a mile to the ground and back, queue for 15 minutes to get any food or to have a piss. There are no drinking facilities at all and this season the football has been bloody awful as well.

I have got 2 season tickets for the last 5 years, one for me and 1 spare for friends/family. The first 4 years people were fighting each other to come with me, this season , I have been finding it more and more difficult to get anyone at all to pay £ 20 to attend with me. It has got to the extent where I am having to consider selling the 2 tickets to get some of my money back rather than go on my own and waste a £ 20 ticket.

I have notice this , this season and posted as such a month ago under " have you got the Withdean Blues ".

 

[Bozza]

First home game for a while for me on Saturday.

In the Railway Bell nice and early for pre-match pints and banter. 6 pints later and we're off to Withdean.

I can't recall too much about the following 2 hours or so. Maybe it has been erased from my memory, but I don't think it was the 6 pints that did it. Woefully forgettable in every aspect.

 

[Rambo]

Sorry to be a gloom and doom merchant, but Iam afraid we will be there for a LEAST the WHOLE of next season.
Depressing isnt it!

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Easy 10 got it spot on. If we were not forced to renew in March for a lower cost when Zamora was still here and we still had a 50/50 chance of staying in div 1 I dread to think what the crowds would be. I would certainly have thought long and hard about going Saturday if I did not have a season ticket.

If we stay in Div 2 I am afraid our renewal next season will be 2000 - 2500.

We need Falmer because thids club although not on life support is close to going into intensive care.

I CANNOT DAY IT CLEARER WE ARE ALL FECKED OFF WITH WITHDEAN AND WANT, NEY DEMAND FALMER NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

[Hiney]

You f***ing clueless BASTARD. If you'd paid attention, oo, FOUR YEARS ago then you will know exactly why the club can't put a roof on the South Stand.

Not going to explain it again for you, you f***ing Johnny-come-lately, faceless ****.

Safeway - I love your posts. You say what we are all thinking and use the language that we are all thinking but don't use.

I can't get to many home games due to family commitments but those I have been to this season (QPR, Swindon, Chesterfield, Boston, Bristol City & Port Vale) have summed up what Withdean has become over the years.

The QPR game was brilliant because the crowd was so behind the team and we got a good result after playing well. There was a lot of hype about the Falmer adverts around the ground and the presence of the cameras gave everyone the incentive to 'Stand up if you want Falmer'

The Swindon and Chesterfield games showed that we are not the force we once were in this division and that we will have to show a bit of character to get out of the league.

The Boston game was Withdean at its worst - pissing with rain, an uncomfortable experience without the bonus of a good performance and goals to cheer - the goals eventually came but only when half the crowd was massed at the South East corner ready for the Park & Ride dash.

Bristol City was a shit game - enough said. I had hospitality for that game and saw at first hand the desperate quest for revenue that led to me, Mrs Hiney and Sophie eating our (admitedly very tasty) buffet standing up. We had tickets in the North Stand and I came out wanting to punch the clueless wankers around us who clearly neither knew or cared anything about the club.

Port Vale was another wet evening at Withdean and , apart from the first 15 minutes, a fairly poor game from an Albion perspective. Hats off to the guys in H/J block who do their best to start the singing but have to contend with everyone else trying to make sure they kept the rain off their trousers rather than jump up when anything exciting happens.

In 1999/2000 I loved Withdean, the quaint converted athletics stadium that was above all, our passport back home. The successes of the following years covered up the shortcomings and we always had Falmer to look forward to. As the delays with the Planning Application kept coming, the novelty began to wear off and we are now faced with the situation of people getting pissed off enough to stop going.

The club are acutely aware of the problems associated with Withdean and would dearly love to do something about it but, as Safeway so eloquently put it, there is not much they can do at this stage.

Falmer is SO important to this club, irrespective of where we are in the league. I believe that when we get the green light in the next few days, the euphoria of the early days at Withdean will return because there will now be some light at the end of the tunnel and we will be able to visualise a time without a 20 minute walk to the bog or a burger.

We have to have faith in the work that messrs Knight and Perry are doing to get Falmer - do you think they enjoy the walk along the back of the North Stand in the pissing rain to get to the Directors Suite / Creche?

Sorry to go on a bit!

 

[Pavilionaire]

I sit in F Block HH, and your last comment was out of order and spoiled an otherwise thought-provoking post.

Re. the points you raised, the atmosphere at Withdean is now almost totally flat. An acknowledgement from McGhee to the applause he receives whilst walking to the dugout would help in some small way, as it shows a bond between manager and fans. This does not exist at present.

I don't have any problem with the Albion fans in general, Withdean is a nightmare and it's just one of those things that you've got to get on with. We will get Falmer and things will change for the better. I'm just happy that we have a team who is contending, as things would be incredibly bleak if we were in the bottom half of the table.

Personally, I think people take the whole Withdean ground thing a bit seriously, for me the situation is so bad it's funny at times.

 

[Bozza]

I'm just happy that we have a team who is contending, as things would be incredibly bleak if we were in the bottom half of the table.

Look how tight the table is - it's not that unfeasible for us to be in the lower half in 2 or 3 weeks time.

 

[Hiney]

oops

 

[Titanic]

I agree with the general thrust of this... three more seasons, at least, at Withdean, is a slightly depressing prospect.

But when the match is good, the atmosphere is OK - when it's as poor on the pitch as Saturday - it's dismal.

The away fans were pathetic, the ref was too good (!) and the game seemed to lack passion in all departments.

The highlights were all goalkeeing saves - at both ends. Other than them, it's hard to remember any individual moments of skill or pace... or anything!

It might help a bit next season (if/when the new seats are put in) having the away fans up next to the so-called the singing sections, and certainly the knowledge that Falmer is 'being built' would lessen the current gloom at our current home.

 

[Spiros]

OK, we all know that Withdean is not a good place to watch a game, especially if it's raining. But would you rather the club was still in Gillingham (or worse still, out of business)? The club are severely limited in what they can do to improve the experience. As has already been said it just goes to emphasise how much our future is tied to Falmer. As Rambo says we have at least next season there as well, whatever the Falmer decision, so we need to just get on with it. I suspect the rain will seem less harsh once a 'yes' decision is given to a new ground

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

I wonder how many of the people who say " get on with it " actually go week in week out to Withdean or listen to the match in the comfort of their living rooms.