Average home gates next year.

[Seasidesage]

All that is happening is that we are returning to our natural level of support when on the up. The Albion are a classic bandwagon club and always have been. When we are good, our support can rival almost anyone bar the truly big clubs, certainly half of the premiership for example. When we are poor, our bottom end plummets traditionally to around 7-8k

There are close to 1.5m people in Sussex, we have one of the biggest catchment areas in the country. We have just been traditionally awful at exploiting it...

 

[The_Viper]

Time to exploit the f*** out of it then. Get in the Champ next year and the first few games WILL be sell outs. Start off well, and the next few games WILL be sell outs. Keep a cracking run up, lets face it one team every year from lge1 to the champ does this, make it us, and we WILL sell out often. Tuesday nights will be our problem nights as always with every club, but I believe that we will rock the club all the way up to the lofty EPL this time next year if everything goes our way. Imagine the money we'll get from selling out so often, and then again the next season, bandwagon we may be, but getting to the prem will keep people here. Yes it's very farfetched, but pessimists acheive nothing!

 

[Moshe Gariani]

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

that is an impressively random 28th post

Having been spurred into checking, I find that the word "inconceivable" can mean precisely what I wanted it to in my sentence - have I missed something...?

ps I agree with The Viper - our time is coming like never before.

 

[Waynflete]

that is an impressively random 28th post

Having been spurred into checking, I find that the word "inconceivable" can mean precisely what I wanted it to in my sentence - have I missed something...?

ps I agree with The Viper - our time is coming like never before.

I think C Man is quoting the great Andre the Giant from classic film 'The Princess Bride', but it's no less random a post for that!

 

[kevo]

I was told a few years ago that in the 79-80 season we were the 12th best supported club in the land, never seen this claim backed up with any stats but impressive if true.

We were the 12th best supported team in the league in two seasons - 77-78 (when we just missed out on promotion to the top flight) AND 79-80 (first in the old Division One).

Rothman's Football Yearbook used to give average home attendances for each club, so that's how you could work it out (I'm pretty sure that's how I worked it out anyway!). I remember we had a higher average attendance than teams like Everton and Sunderland.

 

[The Grockle]

All that is happening is that we are returning to our natural level of support when on the up. The Albion are a classic bandwagon club and always have been. When we are good, our support can rival almost anyone bar the truly big clubs, certainly half of the premiership for example. When we are poor, our bottom end plummets traditionally to around 7-8k

There are close to 1.5m people in Sussex, we have one of the biggest catchment areas in the country. We have just been traditionally awful at exploiting it...

Difficult to argue with this, good post.

 

[Uter]

There are close to 1.5m people in Sussex, we have one of the biggest catchment areas in the country. We have just been traditionally awful at exploiting it...

And that's about 250,000 more than the glory days of the late 1970s when we got our best crowds. The potential is even greater now.

 

[dannyboy]

And that's about 250,000 more than the glory days of the late 1970s when we got our best crowds. The potential is even greater now.

and football is a more attractive proposition for a lot of people now . better stadia , no more trouble etc

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Remind me what happened that year?

We might be doing a re-enactment for the home game v Huddersfield

 

[ManOnTheRun]

All that is happening is that we are returning to our natural level of support when on the up. The Albion are a classic bandwagon club and always have been. When we are good, our support can rival almost anyone bar the truly big clubs, certainly half of the premiership for example. When we are poor, our bottom end plummets traditionally to around 7-8k

There are close to 1.5m people in Sussex, we have one of the biggest catchment areas in the country. We have just been traditionally awful at exploiting it...

I think this sums things up perfectly ... The hard work is not necessarily this season but in the seasons to come when the excitement levels have dropped.

 

[Brovion]

All that is happening is that we are returning to our natural level of support when on the up. The Albion are a classic bandwagon club and always have been. When we are good, our support can rival almost anyone bar the truly big clubs, certainly half of the premiership for example. When we are poor, our bottom end plummets traditionally to around 7-8k

There are close to 1.5m people in Sussex, we have one of the biggest catchment areas in the country. We have just been traditionally awful at exploiting it...

That is an excellent summing-up. One of the ways we can exploit our potential is of course to keep winning. Crowd-wise it doesn't matter in the slightest what division we are in, people just want to see a winning team. End of story. The novelty of getting into the top division in 1979 had worn off before Christmas and the crowds had dipped as we were no longer pissing over teams the way we had done. The same would be true in the Premier league now, granted the 'Big Five' would be an attraction in themselves no matter how badly we were doing (although that might be diluted if they played their reserves), but people are going to baulk at watching us struggle against Sunderland, Bolton, Wigan, WBA, Blackburn, etc (or their similarly low-calibre replacements such as Norwich, Cardiff or Swansea). Well they certainly have in the past. Will the new breed of Brighton fans prove to be more resilient?

 

[Simster]

That is an excellent summing-up. One of the ways we can exploit our potential is of course to keep winning. Crowd-wise it doesn't matter in the slightest what division we are in, people just want to see a winning team. End of story. The novelty of getting into the top division in 1979 had worn off before Christmas and the crowds had dipped as we were no longer pissing over teams the way we had done. The same would be true in the Premier league now, granted the 'Big Five' would be an attraction in themselves no matter how badly we were doing (although that might be diluted if they played their reserves), but people are going to baulk at watching us struggle against Sunderland, Bolton, Wigan, WBA, Blackburn, etc (or their similarly low-calibre replacements such as Norwich, Cardiff or Swansea). Well they certainly have in the past. Will the new breed of Brighton fans prove to be more resilient?

I think they will, because for the first time ever we are going to have a fairly sizable season ticket base. I can't see direct debits being cancelled en mass just because Bolton and Wigan make a decent game of it at the Amex.

 

[Uter]

I think they will, because for the first time ever we are going to have a fairly sizable season ticket base. I can't see direct debits being cancelled en mass just because Bolton and Wigan make a decent game of it at the Amex.

I think since the advent of all seater stadiums and higher proportions of season ticket holders, crowds are much more resilient.

After a few seasons of sitting in the same seat you tend to come to regard it as your own and often form friendships with those around you. I think our season ticket base has remained fairly stable at Withdean despite all our ups and downs.

Come renewal time I think people consider factors such as these when making a decision to renew, whereas in the past with terracing this decision would have been mostly results driven.

Another big factor could be the DD option. Will season tickets automatically renew unless you specifically tell the club otherwise?

 

[Marshy]

Its going to be sold out every week, just been to a presentation

 

[C Man Staines]

that is an impressively random 28th post

Having been spurred into checking, I find that the word "inconceivable" can mean precisely what I wanted it to in my sentence - have I missed something...?

Apologies for the random post then running. It is indeed a quote from the brilliant The Princess Bride. I suggest everyone watches it!

I'm fairly sure I have had some more random posts, if not then I will try harder in the future

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Apologies for the random post then running. It is indeed a quote from the brilliant The Princess Bride. I suggest everyone watches it!

aah.. I've seen that film and liked it - will try and watch it again sometime...

(I'll also look out for your random postings... )

 

[sir albion]

Yep as soon as fans see ambition they flock big time and i mean big time,but to be fair even in the lower leagues we have had fantastic averages

 

[Horses Arse]

The season we were nearly promoted to the premier for the first time in our history...... It may be the case that our support base has grown over the past few years but why didn't those with that knowledge make our Amex ground capable of 30000+ for next season?

I was told at the presentation that the extra 7,500 seats would be going in after our first season at the Amex unless something disastrous happens or if we don't get promoted.

I had concerns over buying in the family stand and not being able to transfer if season tickets were as good as rumoured - this news put my mind at rest and reminded me of what a great future lies ahead of us.

 

[The Grockle]

I was told at the presentation that the extra 7,500 seats would be going in after our first season at the Amex unless something disastrous happens or if we don't get promoted.

Bullshit!

So you were told at the presentation but not one person has mentioned it on here?

 

[Horses Arse]

As you wish pal - it was a one to one discussion concerning my decision to buy for all of my kids in the family stand or fewer in the west stand upper A.

Time will tell I guess but it's 100% true that I was told this by an Albion staff member - the guy that showed you the ground from the viewing platform.