Alright, a bit of a leading title but hear me out. I was talking to a few mates the other day about the club and how much potential there is for growth here, what with the fan base that is (or could be) accessible within the city alone. That's without even going into the rest of Sussex and parts of Surrey but the thing that seemed to keep coming up was that despite the number of football fans within the city, a lot of people don't care for Brighton & Hove Albion as much as they do other clubs.
Thinking back to my school days, which weren't as long ago as some of yours may have been, Albion were probably the 6th or 7th best supported club - I'm not talking about match goers because they probably would've been 1st or 2nd in that respect - but who people considered themselves fans of, which in my book is pretty bad in any one club city/county.
Even now, when I do work in schools, I'll ask the kids (and teachers) who they support it's still Man United or Chelsea and so on, or you'll get lucky and they'll say something like Tottenham "and" Brighton. I know there will always be glory hunters and kids are probably the clearest example of that but they're the ones that need to be targeted by the club for long term growth and at the moment, there seems to be little wavering from them being Premier League fans.
Obviously the clubs been in the shit for a while now, even in the better recent years of winning back-to-back titles and being in the Championship, the club's not really made the city its' own in say, the sense that Newcastle United have, being pretty much the only supported club up there.
Now things are looking up, with the team playing well and winning, the ground being nearly complete and the club making it fairly affordable for fans to go next season, some people may be converted but do you still think there will be the feeling that Brighton might be a second club in it's own city?
I'm not trying to incite anyone with this, just genuinely asking.
Thinking back to my school days, which weren't as long ago as some of yours may have been, Albion were probably the 6th or 7th best supported club - I'm not talking about match goers because they probably would've been 1st or 2nd in that respect - but who people considered themselves fans of, which in my book is pretty bad in any one club city/county.
Even now, when I do work in schools, I'll ask the kids (and teachers) who they support it's still Man United or Chelsea and so on, or you'll get lucky and they'll say something like Tottenham "and" Brighton. I know there will always be glory hunters and kids are probably the clearest example of that but they're the ones that need to be targeted by the club for long term growth and at the moment, there seems to be little wavering from them being Premier League fans.
Obviously the clubs been in the shit for a while now, even in the better recent years of winning back-to-back titles and being in the Championship, the club's not really made the city its' own in say, the sense that Newcastle United have, being pretty much the only supported club up there.
Now things are looking up, with the team playing well and winning, the ground being nearly complete and the club making it fairly affordable for fans to go next season, some people may be converted but do you still think there will be the feeling that Brighton might be a second club in it's own city?
I'm not trying to incite anyone with this, just genuinely asking.
