Losing the love for the Albion

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People seem to spend too much time worrying about how they watch the game rather than what it is they're actually watching.

I go to watch the Albion, be it in a state of the art stadium or some ramshackle terrace ankle deep in piss. What's being produced on the pitch is what get's my interest not whether I sit, stand, eat a £1 or £5 burger.

Post of the decade?
 






I know exactly how you feel. Back in the 70's I went to every home and away game. The promotions, relegations and near misses, I lived them all. Dreaming of the day that BHA may just reach the heights of the top league. In my early 20's following BHA was my life. Then it happened, the dream became reality, and top league football arrived at the Goldstone. And I lost interest. My season ticket saw me at all the home games but never went away at all. Now I'm back and looking to the big time again, but that failure this year, still not sure if I'm disappointed or happy to still be in the second tier.

This! Only didn't go to a game till feb that season,HAD FOLLOWED HOME AND AWAY FOR PREVIOUS 5 SEASONS???
 


house your seagull

Train à Grande Vitesse
Jul 7, 2004
2,693
Manchester
Brave post, and it mimics the thoughts of lots of Albion fans that I have spoken to.

I bet there's a few who have these feelings but don't know who to tell because they love the Albion so, so dearly.

Every one is entitled to an opinion, but I'm dissappointed by fellow fans telling another to F-off or whatever because he dare voice a view that doesn't follow the club line.

That sort of shit tuns me off football more than the Barberisms.
 






Going up to Darlington with a couple of hundred Albion fans, I once thought I was losing the love for the Albion. Watching them play in this beautiful stadium being disappointed at 22000 fans..........I think maybe for anyone who feels down was really never in love in the first place. What is happening now at our club is the bloody glory years for me...I love it!!
 


teaboy

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
1,840
My house
The club you (and many others, including myself) fell in love with essentially no longer exists. EVERYTHING is different, and some people love it, others find it difficult to adapt. I can't get my head around the fact that last season Brighton had players with international caps, European experience and actual footballing ability. The club I fell in love with (at a similar time to you) had Peter Smith as an exciting wing-back. Not long afterwards we had our hopes pinned on Damian Hilton's goal-scoring talents. There was also a 'cause' for us to be involved with - we helped to save 'our' club and I dreamed of the day we'd be 'normal' football fans. Now, there's no 'cause' and we are normal football fans. And it's a whole lot less emotional!

Moving to the Amex has allowed me to emotionally move away (I moved away physically after about season 3 of Withdean as life changed as I grew up) - the Albion will ALWAYS be there now, so I don't need to 'keep an eye' on things quite so much. Bad fan, maybe. Bad customer, definitely, but it no longer matters to me as much as it used to.
 


Oct 25, 2003
23,964
barring a financial collapse in football, the game at this level will never go back to the days where you could rock up on the day, spend a fiver and stand with your mates. The late 90's/early 00's were full of us fighting for the survival of the club...there is no fighting any more as the battle is won.

like i said in my earlier post, there are plenty of places where you can enjoy the experience that was described in the first post....unfortunately (for some), the albion is unlikely to be one of them. With 25-30,000 fans coming through the doors each game, it's unlikely that the club will be able to please them all!
 




gumbo43

gumbo
Jun 9, 2011
79
hove
Maybe you should have taken that fella from Portsmouths number, you can meet up with him, start supporting them and go to some shit grounds, your either having a wind up, or having a seagulls breakdown , there quite common, I've had a few over the years but never stopped supporting, always waiting for the good times, which are, bar gus, here now, I'm a supporter for life, through the good and bad, I stood at the goldstone east chicken run as a kid, and got a turnstile in the garden that I still pay homage too

In bloom we trust, give the fella a chance, teething problems from with dean to Amex are all around but hats off and fair play so far, go and find another club and leave us true blues alone.
 


PWA

European Tour 2023/24
Jul 23, 2011
1,489
West Sussex
Agree with OP - but rather than "losing the love for the Albion" it should read losing the love for football in general.

Money is absolutely destroying the game and it seems rather than the FFP fixing it - it's going to mean football clubs are going to squeeze even MORE money from the fans, turning this experience into even MORE of a plastic ,commercial one - losing touch of what's really important & enjoyable about football even more

People hate hearing this, but we should really aspire to be like Germany - Cheap tickets, terracing in modern stadia, great atmospheres, great football, plenty of home grown players -etc

Correct. Many people falling out of love with the game, not the Albion. AMF
 






Dancing Sock

New member
Dec 8, 2012
253
Brighton
I just cannot believe some people prefer those freezing cold rainy nights at Withdean where someone shit like Colchester would turn up and beat us comfortably 1-3. Those days were shit, utter shit.. I only ever went to Withdean about 15 times, because I just hated the place, there was something about it which made it a very unattractive place to watch football.

These days are incredible, within the next three years I have firm belief we will be a PL team, Bloom will take us there even if my nan is in charge.

We have a fantastic stadium, a huge fan base and we're going places.

It's like working minimum wage at Macdonalds , then all of a sudden getting offered a promotion to store manager earning £30 an hour but turning it down because you like the banter in kitchen.

Sussex have had a similar experience. They were the shittiest, most naff team in the country for about 150 years. There were minor, only very minor great moments throughout that time, but year on year Sussex were one of the worst teams in the county and only after 1960 won the odd one day trophy. Before the 60s they never won a thing. (164 years without a championship title for example). Then, BOOM, all of a sudden Sussex became a top quality side, won their first championship in 2003 in over 160 years then followed up with 2 more a few years later. They won a few one day trophies and ended up with 10 trophies in a decade. Compared to the 7 or so they won in the 50 years previous.

I don't think anyone prefers those times when Sussex were shit because it was "banterous" and "funny" or whatever. Success is always the priority, and BHA are very, VERY successful at the moment compared to our recent history, and it's fantastic to see it.:albion2:
 


teaboy

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
1,840
My house
I just cannot believe some people prefer those freezing cold rainy nights at Withdean where someone shit like Colchester would turn up and beat us comfortably 1-3. Those days were shit, utter shit.. I only ever went to Withdean about 15 times, because I just hated the place, there was something about it which made it a very unattractive place to watch football.

These days are incredible, within the next three years I have firm belief we will be a PL team, Bloom will take us there even if my nan is in charge.

We have a fantastic stadium, a huge fan base and we're going places.

It's like working minimum wage at Macdonalds , then all of a sudden getting offered a promotion to store manager earning £30 an hour but turning it down because you like the banter in kitchen.

Sussex have had a similar experience. They were the shittiest, most naff team in the country for about 150 years. There were minor, only very minor great moments throughout that time, but year on year Sussex were one of the worst teams in the county and only after 1960 won the odd one day trophy. Before the 60s they never won a thing. (164 years without a championship title for example). Then, BOOM, all of a sudden Sussex became a top quality side, won their first championship in 2003 in over 160 years then followed up with 2 more a few years later. They won a few one day trophies and ended up with 10 trophies in a decade. Compared to the 7 or so they won in the 50 years previous.

I don't think anyone prefers those times when Sussex were shit because it was "banterous" and "funny" or whatever. Success is always the priority, and BHA are very, VERY successful at the moment compared to our recent history, and it's fantastic to see it.:albion2:

I think this is the crux - although people aren't 'turning down the promotion', just missing the job we used to love. Obviously things are better in a material way but it feels soulless to some, and we, as individuals, are no longer as 'needed' as we once were. "Going and supporting someone else" isn't an option - that isn't how it works, and everyone knows that. If people had a choice in which team they supported who would rationally choose the Brighton I fell in love with in 1996?!

Supporting the Albion has (for me at least) always been a roller-coaster so the safety we now have in the padded seats is unusual and unnerving. I don't really know how I'm supposed to support a football team like this; when so much effort was put into explaining why it was not 'just' football for so long it's hard to see it as just football.
 






a few things killing football at the moment.

1) all seater stadiums.
2) one can't just turn up with some mates and have a laugh - lots of ticket preperation required.
3) the business aspect takes cubs further away from the fans.

i dont really want to watch football with tons of leg room in an armchair, next to people who are there for a family day out and a flask of tea.

but, we keep getting told this is all necessary.

Short arse.
 




byf1

Active member
Mar 22, 2012
271
a few things killing football at the moment.

1) all seater stadiums.
2) one can't just turn up with some mates and have a laugh - lots of ticket preperation required.
3) the business aspect takes cubs further away from the fans.

i dont really want to watch football with tons of leg room in an armchair, next to people who are there for a family day out and a flask of tea.

but, we keep getting told this is all necessary.



Bang on the money!
 


To the OP - admit it you're just pissed off like everybody else that we missed out on the Prem. Get off your high horse watch a bit of cricket then come back in August and we go again.

It's either in the blood or it isn't.:bhasign:
 






dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,574
Henfield
Utter bollocks.

I think he was just loving the fact that he supported the albion. I have spent 50 years of loving the albion whatever the team , venue or result. It's called being a fan.
It's more to do with the difficulty some of us fans have with the way the game and its infrastructure have changed that is turning us off.
 


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