Why every last person on here must make a consious effort .......

[Uncle Buck]

The reason Withdean is not always selling out is that after 6 years, people are basically sick and tired of paying top whack for SHIT facilities. The Albion need a modern, 21st Century arena to play in. At this level, we can comfrotably and realistically expect regular crowds of 15,000+, and even more than that for the big games.

Current attendences are a complete irrelevence to the Falmer inquiry. End of.

Agreed, but on another note, the fact that games are not selling out is in part down to the fact that the club are often slow on letting people know that there are spare tickets available. Now often this is not their fault as tickets are sent back on the Thursday and it gives them at best 2 days to punt them. But for a game like the Rotherham one, we should be pestering them from now on, as to whether they are likely to send them back and if they are, some offer should be put in place to try and sell them.

 

[ditchy]

But is is still simple mathamatics here we are insisting we require a 22000 plus seater stadium but we cannot fill less than 7000 at Withdean it is ridiculous to suggest 15000 fans don't go to Withdean cos the foods too expensive or it might rain in my opinion that plays into the hands of the Nimbys as it looks like the Albion don't have enough cast iron support ideally every game without exception should be a sell out why does it matter
where it is played every one who claims to be a fan should want to see Brighton and Hove Albion play whether it be at a fantastic state of the art stadium or a cold wet and windy athletics track so come on lets make it SOLD OUT Withdean every week lets have Argus headlines saying thousands disappionted as Withdean sold out again, that sort of statment = new Staduim, anything else could = MK Dons.

Fact is if we get falmer realistic crowds of 12/15k will be there and if we have a good run even more .. Withdean is poor people stay away ..common fact...Hence even more reason why we need to get falmer so as to grow

Im sure Withdean would be fine for a conference team but not one that aspires to playing in the championship week in week out

 

[Bwian]

Oh for christs sake.
Whether Withdean is sold out or not doesn't make a JOT of difference to the planning application for Falmer. Any NIMBY argument taking this line will be utterly DESTROYED at the Public Inquiry. There is NO scope for expanding Withdean, and even if there were, there is no infrastructure for getting fans to and from the ground. We can't even get a Park & Ride to accomodate an extra 2,000 seats. Withdean is totally unsuitable in the size of the site AND the location. Remember - the Inquiry is re-opening specifically with the mandate for these sites to be looked at again to see if they are SUPERIOR to Falmer. Withdean, as we all surely know, is simply a non-starter.

The reason Withdean is not always selling out is that after 6 years, people are basically sick and tired of paying top whack for SHIT facilities. The Albion need a modern, 21st Century arena to play in. At this level, we can comfrotably and realistically expect regular crowds of 15,000+, and even more than that for the big games.

Current attendences are a complete irrelevence to the Falmer inquiry. End of.

What he said

Add to that: Better facilities=better attendances=more money on team=better results=better attendances etc. etc.

The NIMBYs won't use the attendances argument too loudly in case Cardiff numbers are used to counter their argument.

 

[Saint Lennard]

Your sarcasm is very wearing. Please come up with some sense or shut up!

So offering Crewe, Burnley and Rotherham for a reduced price or throwing Stoke in for half price isn't a sensible idea. How do you suggest we sell these tickets then oh great one.

 

[Easy 10]

Agreed, but on another note, the fact that games are not selling out is in part down to the fact that the club are often slow on letting people know that there are spare tickets available. Now often this is not their fault as tickets are sent back on the Thursday and it gives them at best 2 days to punt them. But for a game like the Rotherham one, we should be pestering them from now on, as to whether they are likely to send them back and if they are, some offer should be put in place to try and sell them.

You're probably right, but as a season ticket holder, I don't have to arse about trying to get late tickets, so I'm not fully aware at how pro-active the club are at getting rid of them.

The main point remains though - Withdean attendences ARE a complete irrelevence to the Falmer inquiry. They were irrelevent when the Inquiry opened, and they are even more irrelevent for the issues it has been re-opened for. Even if we were only getting 3,000 a week through the gates, we would still justifiably be going full steam for Falmer. It is a very ignorant argument to say "there are x hundred seats empty on a Saturday, so why do they need a 22,000 seater stadium ?" If that turns out to be the strength of the NIMBYS case for staying at Withdean, then bring it on.

We are trying to deliver a product for consumers. At the moment, that product is of sub-standard quality (and I'm talking about OFF the pitch here, not on it !). Its completely understandable that people do not feel it value for money to pay £24 for an uncovered seat miles away from the pitch, to watch football at an athletics track. However, you offer them a seat in a modern, covered, bona-fide football STADIUM, and they will be far more likely to take it up.

 

[CHAPPERS]

To be honest I would rather spend my money on something else than for a freezinf cold afternoon most likely spent in the rain at Withdean. It's a bid hypocritical of me but it's just the way I am.

Maybe I'm giving up? It's been a long time since I could get excited about going to a home game.

 

[Stinky Kat]

Can't afford to go to every game. Plain and simple.

Ditto nor can my boy and I. I have to pick and choose to avoid the bank writing about overdrafts

 

[Easy 10]

To be honest I would rather spend my money on something else than for a freezinf cold afternoon most likely spent in the rain at Withdean. It's a bid hypocritical of me but it's just the way I am.

Maybe I'm giving up? It's been a long time since I could get excited about going to a home game.

I don't blame you Chappers...it IS hard to maintain the enthusiasm sometimes. If I didn't go and meet up with 6 or 7 mates each home match (we all sit together) then the prospect of a match at Withdean would be even less appealing. There are thousands like you who just don't get anything out of "The Withdean Experience" any more, and just give it a miss instead now.

But I bet you'll be clammering for a ticket to Falmer though.

 

[Spiros]

For the remaining portion of the public enquiry, it is completely irrelevant whether Withdean is sold out or a quarter full as they are now supposed to concentrate only on possible alternative sites to Falmer - the need for 22,000 is already established.

As said before, on a day like Saturday Withdean itself is going to put people of. As I left the pub it started sleeting - for a brief moment I toyed with the idea of going back in an getting plastered in the warm and dry. I wouldn't have blamed anyone else for staying away

 

[Saint Lennard]

I don't blame you Chappers...
But I bet you'll be clammering for a ticket to Falmer though.

Or a big home tie in the cup. Still at least if you're a fair weather supporter you don't end up with Pneumonia like Bad weather supporters.

 

[Easy 10]

Or a big home tie in the cup. Still at least if you're a fair weather supporter you don't end up with Pneumonia like Bad weather supporters.

I wouldn't list Chappers as a fairweather fan at all - just one of the thousands who is justifiably sick to death of Withdean.

The Albion will attract these fans back when we finally get the facilities we deserve. We've so far missed out on a generation of football fans who have taken one look at Withdean and thought "bollocks to that". But give them an impressive modern stadium, and they'll come back. I firmly believe that.

We'll NEED those fairweather supporters when we get Falmer. If we build it, they will come.

 

[Ernest]

At the end of the day if you are a TRUE Albion supporter it doesn't matter if we play at Withdean, Falmer , Wembley or in Hove Park you would go and watch them anywhere.
It wasn't fun on Saturday getting soaking wet, freezing cold and seeing us lose but at least I was there supporting my team and that will be the case all the time there is a breath in my body.

 

[Saint Lennard]

I wouldn't list Chappers as a fairweather fan at all - just one of the thousands who is justifiably sick to death of Withdean.

The Albion will attract these fans back when we finally get the facilities we deserve. We've so far missed out on a generation of football fans who have taken one look at Withdean and thought "bollocks to that". But give them an impressive modern stadium, and they'll come back. I firmly believe that.

We'll NEED those fairweather supporters when we get Falmer. If we build it, they will come.

Many of the people on this thread have mentioned costs. It will be dearer at Falmer so where is all their wealth coming from. Labour tax breaks for footy supporters?

We cannot go on dreaming we are a big club. It is cheaper to go and watch premiership football up the road. If fans werre Albion through and through we wouldn't have any trouble selling out each game. AND as you rightly say there is a generation of potential fans we have missed out on. Has the club ever offered cheap tickets for kids? Will it at Falmer? I think the answer is the same as will we have cheaper tickets at Falmer?

 

[Deleted User X18H]

I wouldn't list Chappers as a fairweather fan at all - just one of the thousands who is justifiably sick to death of Withdean.

The Albion will attract these fans back when we finally get the facilities we deserve. We've so far missed out on a generation of football fans who have taken one look at Withdean and thought "bollocks to that". But give them an impressive modern stadium, and they'll come back. I firmly believe that.

We'll NEED those fairweather supporters when we get Falmer. If we build it, they will come.

Just out of interest how sick would you have been of Gillingham by now granted still being there would have strengthended the Falmer debate in our favour but the club would have probably ceased long ago I hate Withdean it is cold and wet..................but it is in Brighton and there fore in my harsh opinion if you cannot be bothered to go to Withdean you cannot be bothered with Brighton and Hove Albion.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

And you have to remember that much as we loved the old place, the Goldstone was not always full. I can remember in the 1990-91 play off season, when the team was pushing for promotion, not fighting relegation that we got 5500 against Hull and 4400 against Grimsby and this was a team containing the likes of Byrne and Small. Mind you, the facilities at the Goldstone left a lot to be desired, especially in the later years, when the board before Archer and Bellotti were hoping to build a stadium at Waterhall at the same time as the club had a £3 million debt. To get over 6000 on a day like Saturday was not too bad in my opinion. If I didn't have a season ticket, knowing the weather forecast for Saturday and the number of colds I have had recently, I would definitely not have gone.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Just out of interest how sick would you have been of Gillingham by now granted still being there would have strengthended the Falmer debate in our favour but the club would have probably ceased long ago I hate Withdean it is cold and wet..................but it is in Brighton and there fore in my harsh opinion if you cannot be bothered to go to Withdean you cannot be bothered with Brighton and Hove Albion.

Not really, people's circumstances differ. Just because you may have expendible income to spunk on the likes of Saturday's shite does not mean everyone does.

 

[Saint Lennard]

Not really, people's circumstances differ. Just because you may have expendible income to spunk on the likes of Saturday's shite does not mean everyone does.

So with that point of view how big should Falmer be?

 

[Gazwag]

Many of the people on this thread have mentioned costs. It will be dearer at Falmer so where is all their wealth coming from. Labour tax breaks for footy supporters?

We cannot go on dreaming we are a big club. It is cheaper to go and watch premiership football up the road. If fans werre Albion through and through we wouldn't have any trouble selling out each game. AND as you rightly say there is a generation of potential fans we have missed out on. Has the club ever offered cheap tickets for kids? Will it at Falmer? I think the answer is the same as will we have cheaper tickets at Falmer?

I mentioned the cost of going to Withdean, but in respect to value for money. I'm not talking about the match but the facilities. I resent paying good money to get a crap view, especially for my 10 year old daughter.

The family section is almost the worst part of the ground if the ball goes near to the west goal then everybody stands up along the south stand and unless you quickly do likewise you miss the goal/chance. The only time you are guaranteed to see a goal at the far end is either a penalty or the opposition.

I want to take my family to a football stadium that at least enables us all to enjoy the game!

WHEN we get Falmer I will get a season ticket for the three of us so it is nothing really to do with financies for me

 

[Easy 10]

Many of the people on this thread have mentioned costs. It will be dearer at Falmer so where is all their wealth coming from. Labour tax breaks for footy supporters?

We cannot go on dreaming we are a big club. It is cheaper to go and watch premiership football up the road. If fans werre Albion through and through we wouldn't have any trouble selling out each game. AND as you rightly say there is a generation of potential fans we have missed out on. Has the club ever offered cheap tickets for kids? Will it at Falmer? I think the answer is the same as will we have cheaper tickets at Falmer?

Hang on, who's said it will be dearer at Falmer ?
There will undoubtedly be scope for more expensive tickets in certain areas of the ground, but thats not to say that attending matches at Falmer will be any more expensive than Withdean. The standard ticket prices will probably fall in line with most all-seater stadium prices at this level. Why wouldn't they ? Whats the point of building a 22,000 seater stadium, and then pricing ourselves out of the market ?

The argument about the prices of Withdean tickets has been absolutely done to death on here. We all know why they are expensive, and I can't be arsed to go through it all again, maybe someone else will. It seems that you are determined to put a downer on everything though and focus on the negatives wherever possible. Thats your right, but for my money:

(A) We DO need Falmer (regardless of Withdean attendences).
(B) We will NOT be ripped off for ticket prices when we get there.

Your opinion is the exact opposite. I think you're wrong. Lets hope we'll know in a couple of years.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Just out of interest how sick would you have been of Gillingham by now granted still being there would have strengthended the Falmer debate in our favour but the club would have probably ceased long ago I hate Withdean it is cold and wet..................but it is in Brighton and there fore in my harsh opinion if you cannot be bothered to go to Withdean you cannot be bothered with Brighton and Hove Albion.

If that's how you feel then fair enough but it's absolute SHITE.