Is the Amex big enough?

[Working class pride]

With historic crowds of over 30,000 for lower league football, the tenth largest season ticket sales in the country despite still playing only second tier football, the facts seem to point to The Amex being too small at 30,000.

However those who apparently are "in the know" seem to often say that the ground cannot be increased. If so then could The Amex long term hold the Albion back or can it be increased?

 

[slinky]

WCP - lets walk before we run...

 

[SeagullSongs]

WCP - lets walk before we run...

This.
I think it's great as long as there's high demand, because then it will be fuller for longer, rather than peaking at say 35,000 then being emptier the next season, etc.
I'm sure there's room for some extras, but not that many.

 

[Working class pride]

WCP - lets walk before we run...

Things are beyond that. It also seems strange to build a ground to always be smaller than attendances the club were getting when playing third division football if the aim was top flight football.

 

[brightonbaz]

and when the bad times come again 10,000 in a 50,000 all seater.....football fans can be a fickle lot

 

[StonehamPark]

I'm not one to speak negatively however I do not think we will fill 30,000 seats unless/until we reach the Prem. Even then, I think 30,000 will be just about enough.
We aren't a big club, we never have been and never will be.
We're the girl next door.

 

[Hyperion]

My understanding was that the east roof could be made higher for another tier. I am sure i read somewhere that 'Potentially' it could be around 40,000 but would mean some major structural work. However, we do not need any thing bigger yet. I may be wrong of course

 

[Deleted member 18477]

I thought someone said a while back that the pitch can be lowered to make space at the 'bottom' of the stadium.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

It's not as simple as that.

My heart says: 'great, go for a bigger stadium, we have 22k STHs and every chance of getting to the Premiership where we will probably need more seats and all the income we can get to be competitive etc etc' but my head says: 'hold on, to make the Amex significantly bigger will cost another fortune and do we actually need to? Plus there is a balance between investing in the Stadium and the playing squad. Without a decent squad we won't be fighting for the Premiership so won't need a stadium larger than 30k. Plus there is the question of the transport infrastructure at Falmer. Realistically 30k will really test things and anything bigger than that would need major investment on issues that we have less control over. Finally unless we manage to consolidate in the Premiership for many years a 40k stadium is more likely to be a liability than an asset. Too many clubs have got the balance wrong with their spending and charge their fans a fortune to cover costs, which is a difficult call during a recession. So IMHO lets see how we get on with the enlarged 30k Amex this season.

Maybe Tony Bloom has a longer term strategy that envisages an enlarged Amex but surely this would need him to inject another shed load of cash when all along he wants The Amex to be self financing.

 

[Working class pride]

If / when the Albion go up then a fixture list of Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Newcastle, Liverpool and the like then 30,000, whilst enough for the second tier, will not in my view be enough. After all, I remember Arsenal bringing 10,000 to the Goldstone and then there is the casual Albion fan and rest of Sussex who would fancy a big game. So for me 30,000 is not enough for the top flight. Will have to agree to differ tho' as I'm in the minority of 1 so far!

 

[Geriatric Seagull]

The club have yet to explain how the extra supporters are going to get to the stadium this year. Not everyone lives within walking distance.

 

[Rugrat]

If / when the Albion go up then a fixture list of Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Newcastle, Liverpool and the like then 30,000, whilst enough for the second tier, will not in my view be enough. After all, I remember Arsenal bringing 10,000 to the Goldstone and then there is the casual Albion fan and rest of Sussex who would fancy a big game. So for me 30,000 is not enough for the top flight. Will have to agree to differ tho' as I'm in the minority of 1 so far!

We aren't in the top flight. It's a nice thought but ask the likes of Leeds, Leicester, Ipswich, Forest, Wednesday, Cardiff, Derby etc etc just how tough it is. Then, in the against odds event we can get there, we need to stay there.

30,000 is a very good number

 

[sir albion]

For championship football 31k is spot on,for prem football to small for us,but 31k is a great capacity to have anyway.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

WCP - lets walk before we run...

F*ck walking it's boring, let's runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[Bladders]

The guy on my tour said it cant be developed further as it would mean major structural work which they won't get planning for.

 

[Drumstick]

What about when we play the Wigans and the Stokes of the Prem? IF we managed a ten year stint in the Prem and consistantly sold it out then yes look into expansion but there is nothing to say we will get 30k regularly and your claims that we did in what is now league 1 is unusable as an example. Football has changed and become far more expensive, you cannot just POTG, its not in the centre of town you actually need to plan to go there and we would need to look at transport if we went above 30k.

 

[sir albion]

The guy on my tour said it cant be developed further as it would mean major structural work which they won't get planning for.

Money talks pal and if we wanted it we would get it im sure

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

It will be interesting to see how a certain South Coast Club gets on in the Prem this season. Lots of talk of them enlarging St Marys to 40k plus. However they have their billionaire owners and the huge Prem financial windfall to oil the wheels and maybe not hit their fans with a huge hike in ST prices to fund more seating. I think if they can sustain say average crowds of 35k in a 40k stadium for a couple of seasons then maybe we could too.

 

[KJP]

We could maybe bunch the seats closer and make the north and south steeper to fit in more, would have to sort out the train station though

 

[sir albion]

What about when we play the Wigans and the Stokes of the Prem? IF we managed a ten year stint in the Prem and consistantly sold it out then yes look into expansion but there is nothing to say we will get 30k regularly and your claims that we did in what is now league 1 is unusable as an example. Football has changed and become far more expensive, you cannot just POTG, its not in the centre of town you actually need to plan to go there and we would need to look at transport if we went above 30k.

we would sell out every home game in the prem with ease.