Can Brighton Realistically get promoted to the Premiere League this season?

[tubaman]

I'm not sure whether I want us to get promoted. The emotional links with premiere league teams for supporters seems a bit false. I want REAL connection and ownership.

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

man united have scored 98th minute winners many times over the years. getting the rub of the green has served them well. You make your own luck. We have a pretty sound defence, and an attack that in my opinion cannot be matched by another championship club. Another midfielder and we can do it

this.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

be unlikely to be competitive, if we were there NOW, we would have the third LOWEST capacity stadium


Team Pld Total Highest Average Capacity Pct
1 Liverpool (5) 45,362 99.2%
2 Manchester City (2) 48,000 97.5%
3 Fulham (12) 26,600 96.6%
4 Stoke City (14) 1 28,384 96.6%
5 West Bromwich Albion (18) 28,003 90.5%
6 Newcastle United (13) 52,387 89.5%
7 Queens Park Rangers (19) 19,148 79.3%
8 Blackburn Rovers (17)31,367 70.1%
9 Wigan Athletic (8) 25,138 69.4%
10 Arsenal (9) 60,432 0.0%
11 Aston Villa (10) 42,551 0.0%
12 Bolton Wanderers (1) 28,723 0.0%
13 Chelsea (11) 42,055 0.0%
14 Everton (15) 40,394 0.0%
15 Manchester United (3)75,769 0.0%
16 Norwich City (6)26,034 0.0%
17 Sunderland (7) 49,000 0.0%
18 Swansea City (20) 20,500 0.0%
19 Tottenham Hotspur (16) 36,310 0.0%
20 Wolverhampton Wndrs (4)28,525 0.0%

Misleading stat, our matchday income is higher than e.g Wigans & others already

 

[SICKASAGULL]

Pleased to note that Tubaman has not entered into Fantasy football mode because of our great start to the season, if we hold onto a mid-table position we will have done well.
Have those who talk of Premiership next season not thought of the cost of buying a squad that would even survive in the top league in Europe.

 

[Skaville]

I think everyone needs to calm down a little.

It's a getting a bit like a children's birthday party where all anyone has eaten is cake, iced gems and chocolate, washed down with lashings of coca cola. Judti bieber is on and everyone is red faced and totally wired but you can see it all ending in tears.

 

[Triggaaar]

Reminds me of the comments about whether we'd be better off starting our stay in the amex in league one because we'd be more likely to win and build a fan base.

Well I didn't make those comments, and most knew that getting to the championship was important for us. It's not difficult for a well supported team to stay in the championship. Sure, there's always a few teams that go down, but if run properly they're back up before long. That's not true of the premiership.

The sort of people that will fill out the 30,000 are the sort who are more interested in us being in the premier league than how we got there. They would be the sort that are excited to see man utd, arsenal, liverpool, chelsea, tottenham, man city, aston villa, regardless of how well we play or what sort of results we're getting.

If we got to the premiership before increasing capacity, we'd end up with the fans you talk of. If we were to do well in the championship, and then extend, we'd be able to get some more fans in, and if they saw us get promoted (and yes, I realise we're well ahead of ourselves here), they're more likely to stay when we are inevitably relegated back to the championship.

The squad we started league one with last year is not the same as the team we started this championship season with. Why would we start the premier league with the same squad?

Actually, while our players are still getting used to each others styles, our first 11 aren't any better than we were last year. I'll back that point up; back 5 is the same except dunk has come in for El Abd, midfield last year we already had Noone, Bridcutt, Dicker, KLL (injured but we had him), Sparrow, Navarro. Will has been great, and Vincelot has done well, but we've lost our best player Bennett. And up front, Barnes was there, we've got CMS for Murray, which although a great improvement long term, probably hasn't made much difference yet (as it takes time to get used to playing together).
But of course we'd change our squad if we went to the premiership, but the difference in standard between league one and the championship is nothing like the step up to the premiership. Take Norwich last year, or look at how SCC and us have started this year - that doesn't happen when clubs go up to the prem.

 

[Triggaaar]

Blackpool averaged just over 8,000 the season they got promoted to the top flight. They then averaged 16,000 in the Premiership and got relegated. However back in the Championship they have averaged 13,000 over the two games, so thanks to their season of exposure to the big boys they have managed to find an additional 5,000 fans since they were last in the Championship.

Good point. Hopefully we can attract mid 20s if we're playing good football in the championship.

 

[Triggaaar]

However I don't understand why it's better to wait a few years to get promoted.

I basically think that if your team gets everything you wish for, you end up with a slightly lower quality of fan. It's because of our tough ride that we've got such good fans. When I was in the pub with my SCC neighbour the other week, he was talking of the tough times they had endured. I laughed had said he had no idea what tough times were, which he agreed with. My personal preference is to get everyone on the Gus bus and travel to the promised land together.

If we just miss out over the next couple of years, Chelsea come in for Poyet, who are you planning on taking us up?

Losing Gus will be upsetting whether we've made it to the prem or not. It's not like I wouldn't go f'ing mental if we got promoted again, I'd just prefer it to be in another year or two.

If it happens it would be great, don't worry about it being too early.... and anyway isn't the world supposed to end in 2012?

The world has already ended 5 times, this is a dream within a dream within a dream...

 

[DumLum]

The world has already ended 5 times, this is a dream within a dream within a dream...

Oh great, I didn't really get that Inception film and now you're telling me I'm living it.

 

[Dominoid]

The thing is, if we carry on playing the way we are playing then it is a possiblity. If we can play well against Blackpool then I think we can play well against anybody in this league. When you consider there's a could more potential signings if Gus gets his way as well as El Abd and Elphick still to return, we have a very competitive squad and we could realistically do it. That's not to say it will be easy or that it would be the best thing for us, but that wasn't the question, the question was simply whether it was realistic, which given our performances so far, I believe it is. If the question was what is best for us then I'd agree a few seasons to get some money in the bank first would be best, but the lads are gonna be going out there to try and win every match and we wouldn't want anything less.

 

[public school boy]

Not good enough yet.