[Albion] Stadium Observations

[Thunder Bolt]

Couldn't deliver Earle Jr and Grand Jr back to Seaford easily in the car as the road to Newhaven closed AGAIN for 'improvements'. Why must they do it on a match night?

That’s why, as Newhaven residents, we’ve given up on the train, and drive to the Racecourse P&R when it’s a night game.

 

[KNC]

I believe those 8 cars towards Eastbourne run as 8 as booked, as the trains are heading to the depot in Eastbourne as 8 carriages. Don't think thats why the Seaford train has 8 carriages, but its mainly to do with splitting and attaching location and the location where the extra stock becomes available. On Seaford services the only place to attach is at Brighton, so where the 8 car appears heading towards Seaford, is likely because the extra stock comes off its booked service at around 9:30 lets say, so that will have to attach at Brighton, and in order for that to come through Falmer towards Brighton at the peak kick out time it needs to run down to Seaford on a circuit and come back, pushing back the time in which the attachment needs to take place at about 1 hour before FT. Likely that stock won't be available at 8:30 as its coming off peak services. The problem with extending the Eastbourne service is similar, however a train that departs Brighton in peak arrival time at the amex will be back at Falmer after going to Ore, just before kick out time. Meaning it won't be very useful. I hope someone can make sense of that . It's much easier to demonstrate with a brio train.

Agree with all this. If I might add my own thoughts. The ‘security’ staff carrying out the barrier control at the station have no idea about train formations etc. they are not railway staff. Maybe a crossover Brighton side of Falmer might help. So you could either run an empty stock from Brighton to Falmer platform 1. Or, run stock as a Falmer terminator. This would work pre match. But you know, nothing is simple. Putting a crossover in and associated signalling, would probably cost billions!!!!. Then you have to consider (see above) stock availability and those lazy push button drivers getting involved.(I’m joking, I’m a retired driver)

 

[jackalbion]

Agree with all this. If I might add my own thoughts. The ‘security’ staff carrying out the barrier control at the station have no idea about train formations etc. they are not railway staff. Maybe a crossover Brighton side of Falmer might help. So you could either run an empty stock from Brighton to Falmer platform 1. Or, run stock as a Falmer terminator. This would work pre match. But you know, nothing is simple. Putting a crossover in and associated signalling, would probably cost billions!!!!. Then you have to consider (see above) stock availability and those lazy push button drivers getting involved.(I’m joking, I’m a retired driver)

Agree, although I think making Lewes platform 5 would solve all the problems personally.

 

[KNC]

Agree, although I think making Lewes platform 5 would solve all the problems personally.

Do you mean, make P5 Lewes, 8 car?. Is there room?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

As always, much heated debate on here re trains - apart from as always the club who have washed their hands of all responsibility for the the club's major transport 'partner' judging by their always-deafening silence

And CUE the Chailey batphone ringing off its hook and providing a link to a single paragraph in PBOBE's copious programme notes onetime sometime in the past that few had either the time and/or inclination to read

 

[MJsGhost]

View attachment 173512
2mm is impossible. If you fill to the brim up north it would be chucked at you! Use of oversized glasses as a norm is bad for landlords as it has been proved that in practice the glass is overfilled and costs the landlord. Guinness proved many years ago that their stout should be served with 8mm of head. The head in this regard and that of sparkler dispense is known as a dry head (in fact this is the opposite to which many believe it to be). It is dense therefore it actually contains 80% fluid. A wet head, large bubbles, is 80% gas.

Weight and Measures actually do not state what is an allowable head but the industry considers for most beers it should be 95% liquid. This equates to around 5mm of head with a standard ale glass.

It was about 30 years ago now, but my next door neighbour at the time used to have a little gadget that measured how short his pint was, so he could work out the value of beer he was missing... He would then 'jokingly' ask whoever served him for a refund of that amount. How the bar staff laughed............
It was the size of a credit card and, thinking about it now, would only have been accurate for a certain shape of glass (which were probably a bit more standardised in those days anyway). With the price of fancy craft beers these days (THESE DAYS), he might be talking pounds instead of pence for his refund now (if he's still a dullard and still has his gadget).

 

[WATFORD zero]

It was about 30 years ago now, but my next door neighbour at the time used to have a little gadget that measured how short his pint was, so he could work out the value of beer he was missing... He would then 'jokingly' ask whoever served him for a refund of that amount. How the bar staff laughed............
It was the size of a credit card and, thinking about it now, would only have been accurate for a certain shape of glass (which were probably a bit more standardised in those days anyway). With the price of fancy craft beers these days (THESE DAYS), he might be talking pounds instead of pence for his refund now (if he's still a dullard and still has his gadget).

And he hasn't had it inserted irretrievably into an orifice by short tempered bar staff

 

[dazzer6666]

A lot of other grounds people happily park a 30 minute, or more, walk away however there's not a lot of options for doing that with the Amex. Pretty much whole of Brighton has parking zones and the rest of the surrounding area is countryside. Thought an enterprising farmer might have opened a nearby field up for parking on match days but seems the subsidies they get means they don't need to.

Good luck getting 100s of cars off downland fields over the winter

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

A lot of other grounds people happily park a 30 minute, or more, walk away however there's not a lot of options for doing that with the Amex. Pretty much whole of Brighton has parking zones and the rest of the surrounding area is countryside. Thought an enterprising farmer might have opened a nearby field up for parking on match days but seems the subsidies they get means they don't need to.

The Bridge Car Park would make a fantastic transport hub for Seagulls Travel, P&R buses, taxis etc. Kick the private cars out, provide minibus transport to/from that hub for less-abled folks, everybody else walks.

*edit* there's doubtless some stupid bridge-related reason why it couldn't be done. Nice idea in theory tho

 

[MJsGhost]

And he hasn't had it inserted irretrievably into an orifice by short tempered bar staff

He was a builder with hands like shovels, so I don't believe so, no!

 

[Ike and Tina Burner]

Very constructive, thanks.

You might sit in the North Stand, but you have absolutely no understanding of the make up of that stand.

There's the NSK group under the police box and another group on the other side that between them start pretty much all the chants. But they dislike each other and ignore whatever the other groups doing. What else is there to understand?

There is no organisation

Again, there is literally a self declared ultras group. There is definitely some level of organisation.

Sorry, but it's never going to be a cauldron of noise, no matter what kind of 'organisation' you might like applied to it.

I don't want a cauldron of noise. A reasonable atmosphere outside of big games is all I want. A teacup of noise if you will. And the only organisation I want is everyone singing the same song at the same time. No drum. No megaphone. No tifos. Just what every other club in the country manage to do.

Basically it has nothing whatsoever in common with the North Stand at The Goldstone, other than the name and its the cheap seats behind the goal. Modern football and the stadium design has put paid to that. Maybe the club should just sell the naming rights

The club allow standing and have made the seats cheaper than anywhere else. What more can they do to encourage an atmosphere? Frankly, blaming the acoustics or the club or modern football is a cop out.

 

[dazzer6666]

I don't want a cauldron of noise. A reasonable atmosphere outside of big games is all I want. A teacup of noise if you will. And the only organisation I want is everyone singing the same song at the same time. No drum. No megaphone. No tifos. Just what every other club in the country manage to do.

They really don’t

 

[studio150]

The Bridge Car Park would make a fantastic transport hub for Seagulls Travel, P&R buses, taxis etc. Kick the private cars out, provide minibus transport to/from that hub for less-abled folks, everybody else walks.

*edit* there's doubtless some stupid bridge-related reason why it couldn't be done. Nice idea in theory tho

Believe the clearance is 7' and coaches are usually higher than that, so a good idea but a non starter.

 

[jackalbion]

Do you mean, make P5 Lewes, 8 car?. Is there room?

Heated debate on the topic the other day, but we think an 8 car would not have clearance off the mainline, and wouldn’t have signal sighting. Could extend at the eastern end but would have to sever the Eastern Link, which is used quite a lot during engineering works.

 

[portlock seagull]

Very constructive, thanks.

I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just you are spouting bollocks about NSK and the North stand. That was all.

 

[Ike and Tina Burner]

I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just you are spouting bollocks about NSK and the North stand. That was all.

What bollocks specifically? I don't think there is anything you can actually pinpoint as being untrue about what I said. Please correct me.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'm in the North and I can tell you it doesn't sound the same as the North at The Goldstone, they were very different times. There are a couple of issues, IMHO. First of all, there are singing factions within the North which seem to compete with each other, this causes either confusion or apathy. We also have more people who choose not to sing so those that do are spread out, maybe we need to buy some black work overalls and put them altogether wherever they want to go in the North?

Second issue, I think, is social change, a lot of songs have swearing in and / or historic references and the younger element either don't get it or aren't interested in singing it, parents are only really going to encourage kids to sing the "right songs".

Don't shoot the messenger, just my opinion, this is modern football.

I spent time in the north back in the day, late 80s and very early 90s. There were cores of singers to the center of the stand but that was it. I sometimes stood on the south West terrace with my father, near the tunnel, and it didn’t sound that loud from there.

I haven’t stood in the AMEX north so can’t comment on how it sounds in the north stand but the sound from the west is similar.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I really don't think the issue is with the bulk of our fans. The North stand organisation is the problem. I never realised how bad it was until I started sitting in it. Having two singing sections is utterly bizzarre. Is there another club in world football that have that? What should happen is that the North should be a bank of uniform noise that draws in everyone else. You support the same f***ing team sing the same f***ing songs!

Marseille?

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Very constructive, thanks.

There's the NSK group under the police box and another group on the other side that between them start pretty much all the chants. But they dislike each other and ignore whatever the other groups doing. What else is there to understand?

Again, there is literally a self declared ultras group. There is definitely some level of organisation.

I don't want a cauldron of noise. A reasonable atmosphere outside of big games is all I want. A teacup of noise if you will. And the only organisation I want is everyone singing the same song at the same time. No drum. No megaphone. No tifos. Just what every other club in the country manage to do.

The club allow standing and have made the seats cheaper than anywhere else. What more can they do to encourage an atmosphere? Frankly, blaming the acoustics or the club or modern football is a cop out.

I’m not sure there’s an actual evidence that they dislike each other is there?

 

[Hotchilidog]

I’m not sure there’s an actual evidence that they dislike each other is there?

No there isn't. They just can't hear each other because of the acoustics. A much as some people would like to continually take a pop at our support the acoustics really do play an important part in whether you can hear what is going on. Of course this can be overcome when events on the field bring everyone together, it's why the Albion chant (the most simple one) can get really loud as it is easier to make that one travel round the stadium.

I sit in the WSU and the atmosphere compared to many away venues is pretty good. No we are not Marseilles but we are not a library either.