Brighton Station was the perfect site for ..................

[ecf1]

our new ground, and i can't stop thinking the club cocked up massively by not applying to build on it. Does anyone know why we did'nt apply for this site?

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I was told by the City Planner a while ago that they asked some uni students on a relevant course (don't ask me what) to see if it was possible.

With the land that was available at the time, although you could have got a small football ground onto the footprint (15,000 I think), there was insufficient space for small car parking and setting up proper access to meet health & safety.

Also, the cost of land in the middle of the City is extremely expensive and I doubt we would have been able to afford to buy the land anyway.

 

[sullyupthewing]

And Sainsburys wanted it they have got more cash than we have.

 

[webbyson]

ALSO TO MANY TRAINS RUNNING OVER THE PITCH!

 

[Virgo's Haircut]

ALSO TO MANY TRAINS RUNNING OVER THE PITCH!

I can see it now...

Ref: Hold on lads, a Seaford train is just coming out, get your orange vests on

 

[ManxSeagull]

I can see it now...

Ref: Hold on lads, a Seaford train is just coming out, get your orange vests on

Surely with all the engineering strikes at weekends, only the mid-week games would be affected.

 

[Bwian]

And Sainsburys wanted it they have got more cash than we have.

Big Issue sellers have more money than we have FFS!

 

[Gwylan]

And Sainsburys wanted it they have got more cash than we have.

Who actually owned the site? If it had been Railtrack, then, as a private company, it would have been obliged to seek the best possible price for the land. It might not be a legal responsibility but the shareholders would be pretty upset if an asset had been given away.

If it was council-owned, I think the council does have a legal responsibility to get the best price - although I'm sure someone well-versed in council matters would know that better than I.

 

[beorhthelm]

cost was one big issue, but its simply a bad location for a stadium. Think of the size of the NIMBY brigade that it would have generated. How do you cope with the additional traffic - yes you could have park and ride, but then youve got to develop a hugh site to accomadate (ironically i think Falmer was one idea for that).

Fundementally, city centre locations arnt suitable for a sports stadium. very few have every been built in the centre of towns/cities, they've always been build on the edge of town - although the surrounding areas usually get swallowed up by development. 30 years down the line, the ground would be worth more to a developer than to the club and we'd be selling to move to outskirts anyway.

 

[Gwylan]

Fundementally, city centre locations arnt suitable for a sports stadium. very few have every been built in the centre of towns/cities, they've always been build on the edge of town - although the surrounding areas usually get swallowed up by development...

I think the 30,000 who went to Cardiff might disagree with that statement.

 

[Easy 10]

Brighton Station would be madness.
Plonking a 22,000 seater stadium in the middle of an already congested city centre would be a nightmare. Park & Ride and the trains will get you so far, but you do still have to cater for an element of additional traffic - its inevitable. On an average Saturday afternoon I avoid the A259 like the plague, as it often stacks back towards Palmeira Square. Can you imagine what even a small increase in traffic volumes in the vicinity of the city centre would do on a Saturday ?

Totally unworkable, and thankfully irrelelent now anyway as Sainsburys have already bought the site and started building.

 

[beorhthelm]

I think the 30,000 who went to Cardiff might disagree with that statement.

was waiting for that, thought of Cardiff about 2 seconds after hitting submit.

But then again it is a bit of a special case, being a "national" stadium it has somthing going on nearly every weekend so bring genuine economic value to the city centre, They'ev also got large nearby areas to use for park and ride etc. A Brighton station stadium would have been a awful waste of scarce city centre land. I know there are exceptions thats why i qualified the statment with "few".

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

i was told by someone who was actually on the anti-falmer side in the public enquiry(shes from some environmental crap) who said that building the stadium in central brighton would leave the club with monumental policing costs(can you imagine a couple of thousand cardiff/millwall/leeds fans running rampant in central brighton after watching us stuff them?)

 

[Cian]

the 4 even halfway decent stadiums in Dublin are all relatively central - Croker most of all, then Tolka, Dalymount and Lansdowne getting further and further out

A site miles outside a city has its own problems, like Abbotstown (the never ending saga) here....

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The Station site always had to be developed as a whole. It's a huge amount of land and it would have been incredibly expensive to acquire for just a stadium. The City Council would no doubt have been very choosy about any associated activity that shared the site. Hotels? Commercial? Offices? Shops?

Getting the right mix is what held back any successful planning application for forty years. I'm not sure that the Albion would have been the right sort of organisation to resolve the issues.

I think the site was owned by the British Railways Property Board, a curious body that remains in the public sector and inherited all of the non-railway land that used to belong to British Rail.

 

[Oval Gull]

The Station site always had to be developed as a whole. It's a huge amount of land and it would have been incredibly expensive to acquire for just a stadium. The City Council would no doubt have been very choosy about any associated activity that shared the site. Hotels? Commercial? Offices? Shops?

Getting the right mix is what held back any successful planning application for forty years. I'm not sure that the Albion would have been the right sort of organisation to resolve the issues.

I think the site was owned by the British Railways Property Board, a curious body that remains in the public sector and inherited all of the non-railway land that used to belong to British Rail.

Hang on, I'm confused here. One post says that there was not enough space, and then we hear from Lord B. that there was too much space.

Who's got it right and why didn't the club try to go for it? Or did they try but couldn't afford it?

If they can deal with it in Cardiff, then why not Brighton? Yes, not so much space for park and ride, but surely would still be possible with a bit of sensible planning...

 

[Nobby Nomates]

Who cares? Sainsburys are building there - it's not a viable option for us now (if it ever was).

It's just another one of the listed sites to be marked as 'unsuitable', leaving Falmer as the only viable alternative.

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

i thought supermarkets were meant to build out of town now.i cant think people will drive into the centre of brighton for their weekly shop.

 

[Gwylan]

i thought supermarkets were meant to build out of town now.i cant think people will drive into the centre of brighton for their weekly shop.

The reverse. Out-of-town retail developments are now being frowned upon. They're being told to develop on brownfield sites.

Don't assume everyone drives, only about 65 to 70% of the population has access to a car. That's the main reason that out-of-town developments are being discouraged.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

It would have been the perfect location, that's for sure