[Albion] Leaving before the full time whistle

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

They = me.

I need further details on late home winners correlating to no one leaving early.

I mostly enjoy trips to the Amex, I celebrate goals, but it’s not the be all to me, 4 hours out is my limit. Standing in a queue for an hour is a tedious hell imho.

Standing in a queue for an hour is what you do to get into a country, not to get away from a football match. IMHO, like

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

They = me.

I need further details on late home winners correlating to no one leaving early.

I mostly enjoy trips to the Amex, I celebrate goals, but it’s not the be all to me, 4 hours out is my limit. Standing in a queue for an hour is a tedious hell imho.

No judgements from me, but it remains beyond my comprehension. You must have missed out on some incredible moments

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

It is funny when, on paper we just need bigger trains more often. That's it.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Standing in a queue for an hour is what you do to get into a country, not to get away from a football match. IMHO, like

It's about 3 hours to get into this country these days

 

[RandyWanger]

Absolutely tinpot

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It is funny when, on paper we just need bigger trains more often. That's it.

More often is tough.

Bigger trains? Totally do-able with a bit of planning and will from both sides

 

[Greavsey]

I also believe that fans leaving early en masse is one of the negative fan reactions which can affect on field performance of players on both sides. It's subtle and some players will be affected more than others. But I think the opposition is galvanised by the impression that the fans have given up. Conversely, I think the opposite is true. If everyone stays to the end and is roaring the home team pushing for a winner on, I reckon they get a proper boost and it's likely to make the opposition feel even more under pressure and who knows likely to make a tired brain frazzled decision or two

I know the transport situation is appalling, but I find the idea of leaving early unfathomable, especially for an afternoon game. Have they not noticed this concept of late goals?

I agree. I think it surely must make a marginal difference even if only subconsciously. But having played (to a sh1t level) in front of crowds before though when you're in the game you hardly notice anyone watching whether it's 200 or 32000. You are so focused on the game, especially one like yesterday where it is intensely contested.

Personally I hate leaving early as always like to clap the players off, but on a day like yesterday I did leave early with my 9 and 7 year old kids, because it was pissing down. The got drenched before the game and it was unbelievably cold in the East Upper, so didn't want them to be standing around in the rain again. So yes ultimately it does come down to transport issues on a day like yesterday. As others have said, some sort of cover for the train queue would be beneficial at the same time as they build the fanzone!

 

[Deleted member 37369]

They = me.

I need further details on late home winners correlating to no one leaving early.

I mostly enjoy trips to the Amex, I celebrate goals, but it’s not the be all to me, 4 hours out is my limit. Standing in a queue for an hour is a tedious hell imho.

Yep ... I'm pretty sure the same people that leave early (for whatever reason) every game also left for this one. In fact as I type, I've just remembered that there was an issue on the trains that people became aware of in the second half. Power turned off along the Brighton/Worthing line - no trains running for a period of time.

But look what happened with all those empty seats ...

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

My son left a few minutes early yesterday as he had to start work at 4.30. Im now wondering whether he should've told his boss to F*** off and be late as the dying minutes of a football game are obviously a LOT more important than anything else according to some people

 

[AK74]

TBF, even our players have left early in the past. The 0-5 defeat to Bournemouth in 2019 being one such occasion.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yep ... I'm pretty sure the same people that leave early (for whatever reason) every game also left for this one. In fact as I type, I've just remembered that there was an issue on the trains that people became aware of in the second half. Power turned off along the Brighton/Worthing line - no trains running for a period of time.

But look what happened with all those empty seats ...

View attachment 168904

I'm sure that must have been the only occasion when the east stand actually stayed to the bitter end to cheer on the team.
Must have been, otherwise how would that have been possible.....


Also worth mentioning that the train situation back to London was an absolute clusterfuck yesterday too.
Bus service to Three bridges or along the coast and up the Arun valley line, which must have increased the volume of people on trains along the coast.

 

[hart's shirt]

TBF, even our players have left early in the past. The 0-5 defeat to Bournemouth in 2019 being one such occasion.

In fairness, some of them never bothered to turn up that day, let alone leave early.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Given up with the park and ride now as if you don’t leave early to get in the queue for Mill Hill busses, it’s a long wait to catch them coming back From the first drop off. If there is a problem on the a27 or Mill Hill itself that can be an hour!

try really hard to get uni car parking and if not, I will get a lift to the bottom of coldean lane and walk to the ground

as wonderful the stadium is, transport issues ( and it’s not the fault of the club I know) are becoming an issue to a lot of people.

trying to keep people in the ground by building a superdouper fan zone is all very well but a lot of us just want to watch a games and then go home! If leaving early is the only way that some people find works, then all power to their elbows!

 

[Wozza]

Nobody going to mention travel distance?

We have the biggest catchment area in the Premier League. Fans come to the Amex from several different counties.

Fans also go from all over the country to visit, say, Old Trafford. But there (and most grounds), fans can disperse in multiple directions.

At the Amex, we have severe transport bottlenecks (which the club is doing nothing to fix).

If you live in/close to Brighton, are young-ish, don't take kids etc, then no, you probably aren't going to leave early - and you're probably mystified by those who do.

But if it takes you a couple of hours to get to a match, and the same to get home, then missing 5min of the match to save an extra hour, perhaps in the rain, perhaps with bored/upset/frustrated kids (who might not want to go again in the future), looks like a trade well worth making.

Ironically, the proposed fanzone is likely to appeal the former group, not the latter.

Fans will leave early until the transport bottlenecks are fixed. It's as simple as that.

 

[NottinghamGull]

I would love to be able to see it to the end and clap the team off. Often so much action with late goals or incidents. But I have a 200 mile / 4 hour each way trip. A 1-2 hour saving is huge in a midweek game especially when driving home at 1-3am can get quite dangerous. As others have pointed out, there can often be roadworks and diversions that make it even worse. For the Ajax game left home at 9am and met my son in Clapham and we left at 4:30pm. Due to traffic we made it to our seats with 2 minutes to spare. Left on 82 and got home at 1:30am. It’s a very long day. However, I still feel cheated of missing those early and last few minutes. Not sure what we’ll do for the home game vs Marseille. Will want to stay to the end, especially is we qualify to knock out. Might have to book us into a hotel and make an early start the next day. It all adds to the cost, but who knows when this might happen again? Just look at Leicester.

PS in USA it is much better. Very large car parks at the stadium and connect to freeways. Would be much better if big car parks at Amex with fast direct access to A27 for east or west entry/exit. Will fix many problems as much less P&R required and the chaos of Coldean Lane.

 

[Weststander]

No judgements from me, but it remains beyond my comprehension. You must have missed out on some incredible moments

Just two in 12 years. Balanced against 200+ hours saved standing in the zzzzz Mill Road bus queue. I do stay when I sense the players are up for it with cool heads and to applaud end of season.

Are you into boozing at the Amex? The people I know who stay love the craic of drinking from plastic beakers in breeze block concourses post match. I like a drink, but not in a dungeon.

 

[Black Rod]

Having taken the best part of two-and-a-half hours to get to the Amex yesterday (two buses, including an hour to get up Lewes Road) I was not going to go through that again and left early

I like watching Brighton but as others have said, it's not worth five hours travelling there and back. From Shoreham. If missing 10 minutes of football saves an hour at the end, then so be it. I don't really care if that makes me less of a fan than anyone else, either.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

So all the people whinging about fans leaving early, what’s your solution?

Start by having a proper conversation with the club and all transport providers.

Off the top of my head....

Covered area when queuing for both P&R and trains - certainly possible.
More park and ride busses - and a much quicker turnaround at both loading /unloading (sort issue at top of Mill Road for example and top of A27 slip road)
Open another P&R site (remember Mithras house has gone and not replaced)
Obviously longer trains - I know others will say it's not possible, but I don't believe that - anything is possible with a joined up conversation.
Better loading of trains.
Talk to Bennet about Bennets's field (bringing back 1901 there would release more Uni parking)
Reduce food / drink prices at the final whistle - obviously has to be in conjunction with a conversation with Sodexo.

 

[Wozza]

STOP PRESS: Transport issue solved!!!!!!!!1

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Start by having a proper conversation with the club and all transport providers.

Off the top of my head....

Covered area when queuing for both P&R and trains - certainly possible.
More park and ride busses - and a much quicker turnaround at both loading /unloading (sort issue at top of Mill Road for example and top of A27 slip road)
Open another P&R site (remember Mithras house has gone and not replaced)
Obviously longer trains - I know others will say it's not possible, but I don't believe that - anything is possible with a joined up conversation.
Better loading of trains.
Talk to Bennet about Bennets's field (bringing back 1901 there would release more Uni parking)
Reduce food / drink prices at the final whistle - obviously has to be in conjunction with a conversation with Sodexo.

I also see no justification for preventing people from parking in Coldean. That it was a condition of the stadium opening? Well, how long is the restriction going to be in place? 100 years?