[Albion] The Ambition to being Top 10 club.

[Stat Brother]

We do NOT need a stadium bigger than our current one. Two reasons a) we will inevitably return to the Championship where it’s just not needed, few clubs traditionally much bigger than us fill theirs and our fickle fan base is no different b) the supporting infrastructure isn’t there, nor can I ever see it being built - Christ, have people forgotten how hard it was to get planning permission?!! You need to fund 2 public enquiries to drop a kerb in these parts, never mind the sort of change necessary to support e.g. another 10K spectators.

As said earlier 10k extra supporters now = extra £££'s for the Council.

It'll be galling but the club could now probably get a Vivienne Westwood designed stadium through planning these days.

 

[portlock seagull]

As said earlier 10k extra supporters now = extra £££'s for the Council.

It'll be galling but the club could now probably get a Vivienne Westwood designed stadium through planning these days.

We had the Councils backing throughout last time. That’s not the problem. Nor enough. We live in a country where 1 person objecting, be it Norman Baker, John Catt, Marina Baker, the eldest swan on a pond or a head baker at Forfars is enough to stop proceedings despite a million others being in favour. Half the people reading this thread won’t have heard of such rogues which is why new generations (and some old seemingly!) constantly need reminding of the Fight for Falmer, the footballing equivalent of what felt like the 100 years war at the time!

Anyway, it’s all bye the bye because it ain’t going to happen. No really it isn’t. Entertaining reading as this annual thread is.

 

[Nixonator]

We’re also a ‘brand’ no one outside of our fans gives a shit about. We could win the European Cup for the next 27.5 seasons straight and still no one will give a shit about us. I love your optimism, but am afraid it’s mere delusion, forget the season ticket waiting list soundbite, we rarely sell out our PL home games, and certainly not those against the lower half of the table teams. 30k is our absolute limit imho,

This is broadly where I am too, although I'd not say 30k is our absolute limit, but it's around that point right now.

Saturday's game is the first home league game of the Premier League season, we've just kicked-off the campaign with a crushing win and have a new manager and players to whet the appetite. There are still hundreds of tickets available and, I suspect, many hundreds that existing STHs would like to go to re-sale.

Yes, it's the summer holidays etc etc, but if we had a captive fanbase that made a 50k capacity a realistic proposition, this fixture would have long since sold out. As it happens, it may not sell out at all.

You can't have been paying attention much last season then, as the sales were always very similar to this in the week running up to the game. Right now there are c300 remaining mostly located in either E1H or the school shelf and I suspect these will be gone by Saturday. You can already list your ST for resale and have been able to for a while.

Our average last season was 30.426, higher than the previous season despite being utterly dismal on the pitch throughout. Nearly every game sold out with the exception of some disabled/limited view seats.

If we had, say an extra 2,000 seats for ST sales they would all sell. We would then be looking at the exact same situation as now with the last remnants of remaning tickets on sale in the week running up to the game. I would say we could comfortably be getting 34-35k each week as of now if we had another 4k ST for sale.

I don't think PB would be describing the situation as "incredibly frustrating" if this was not the case.

 

[DavePage]

Oh hell yes. I'm so lucky to be OLD.

I feel your pain andI have zero chance of seeing a live game.

does make you think that when we have an 8000 waiting list, why aren't the West Ham tickets not be taken? or is that not possible or are they 8000 potential plastics looking for an investment

 

[nickjhs]

Clearly TB is no fool, he is ruthless and driven and best of all he is a true BHA fan. Who knows how much money he has sunk into the club estimates put it at around 250m. He has taken the club from league one at Withdean to the Premier League and a brand spanking new stadium (albeit too small) in 8 years. He has shown guts and determination sacking a good manager who was not performing and had the foresight to bring in one who has had bugger all UK management experience but clearly has the aptitude for the job. If he tells me Brighton will be regarded as a permanent Premier League team I for one am not going to question his rationale, rather just shake his hand and say THANKYOU.

 

[Brovion]

We were getting around 1.5 million a year. Now about 8 million a year

Yeah, because we're a PL club now not a Championship one when the original deal was done.

 

[dazzer6666]

Quite right, god forbid we ever have those type of fans at The Amex, they will be holding up signs asking for the opposition's players shirts next.

Or cheering loudly in the concourse when Chelsea score on the telly......................

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Back in the day there were threads on the proposed design of the stadium and there were those who thought we'd regret not allowing for expansion.

The original design had 22,000 seats, and DID allow for expansion, though. We achieved that specced-in expansion (ESU) within a year, and then went on to expand further still by filling in all the corners, building the South stand exec boxes, the Southern extension of the WSU, and the NW 'shelf'.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Well it’s well within the top ten deals done in the Prem, so for a team that finished 17th last season it’s a massive deal.

If it were £8m per year for the shirt sponsorship alone, then it would rank around 9th (based on last year's published figures).

But this sponsorship arrangement covers the shirt, the stadium naming rights, the training ground naming rights, and sponsorship of the AITC.

I'm not arguing that it isn't a lot of money, or that it isn't a great deal. Just not THAT good - especially if those are the agreed figures for TWELVE years. If the norms continue to rise as they have previously, then those figures could look tiny in comparison with our peers, in a decade's time.

 

[maltaseagull]

I feel your pain andI have zero chance of seeing a live game.

does make you think that when we have an 8000 waiting list, why aren't the West Ham tickets not be taken? or is that not possible or are they 8000 potential plastics looking for an investment

Is it possible that a number of potential buyers are on holiday with their families?

 

[Taybha]

If it were £8m per year for the shirt sponsorship alone, then it would rank around 9th (based on last year's published figures).

But this sponsorship arrangement covers the shirt, the stadium naming rights, the training ground naming rights, and sponsorship of the AITC.

I'm not arguing that it isn't a lot of money, or that it isn't a great deal. Just not THAT good - especially if those are the agreed figures for TWELVE years. If the norms continue to rise as they have previously, then those figures could look tiny in comparison with our peers, in a decade's time.

Not if it all goes horribly wrong and we end up in league 2, it's happened to lots of teams in the past.

TB is a gambler by heart the deal does seem in today's market somewhat light but things can go wrong and I see it as a excellent insurance bet.

 

[Bozza]

You can't have been paying attention much last season then, as the sales were always very similar to this in the week running up to the game.

I paid some attention, but I didn't take notes and I have the attention span of a goldfish.

However, games last season were certainly not ALWAYS like the sales of this game. Games against the big clubs sold out early. If we were playing, say, Liverpool on Saturday then there would not be any tickets remaining on sale. Other games had sold out by now, which the exchange fully functional whilst some others were similar to this game - but not ALL.

as the sales were always very similar to this in the week running up to the game. Right now there are c300 remaining mostly located in either E1H or the school shelf and I suspect these will be gone by Saturday.

There were 500 remaining when I wrote that yesterday, a number repeated by the club in an email today. I don't think they'll all sell by Saturday but, even if they do, barely selling out doesn't make a very good case for a 50,000 capacity IMO.

You can already list your ST for resale and have been able to for a while.

Just because the exchange is accepting ticket listings, does not mean those tickets will go on sale. Give it's holiday season, I would expect there to be a LOT of tickets waiting to be re-sold, but they are currently unlikely to hit the market. Even if they did, there's not going to be too many people sitting around waiting for them.

 

[ac gull]

They only sell out for August home games if is against a top six side like Man Utd last summer (sold mine ok on ticket exchange as was away)

This year the WH and Saints games won't sell out - too many people away

Best case they both get announced as "sold out" on day of match and ticket exchange never opens for either game

 

[kevo]

Haven't read all the thread but I've often thought one way they could expand would be to extend the upper tier of the East so the front of the tier is nearer the pitch. There is plenty of 'head height'. They'd need to make sure it was structurally sound of course and might only be able to add a few rows, so the expense would probably be prohibitive. Added to which - and this is a major problem of squeezing in any extra seats - how would the existing concourses cope with a few extra thousand fans every match queeing up for their half-time Harveys?

 

[BeHereNow]

We’re also a ‘brand’ no one outside of our fans gives a shit about. We could win the European Cup for the next 27.5 seasons straight and still no one will give a shit about us. I love your optimism, but am afraid it’s mere delusion, forget the season ticket waiting list soundbite, we rarely sell out our PL home games, and certainly not those against the lower half of the table teams. 30k is our absolute limit imho,

We’ve sold out something like all but 2 PL home games and one of those was a Monday night TV game where Stoke had one of the lowest allocations we’ve given.

 

[BeHereNow]

Talk of adding tens of thousands of seats is ridiculous and deflects from having serious conversations about adding maybe a couple of thousand, which I think would be a good idea.

Let’s just focus on making this a reality giving the North Stand an extra 800+ seats and giving it more of a presence inside the stadium.

 

[Easy 10]

Haven't read all the thread but I've often thought one way they could expand would be to extend the upper tier of the East so the front of the tier is nearer the pitch. There is plenty of 'head height'. They'd need to make sure it was structurally sound of course and might only be able to add a few rows, so the expense would probably be prohibitive. Added to which - and this is a major problem of squeezing in any extra seats - how would the existing concourses cope with a few extra thousand fans every match queeing up for their half-time Harveys?

With the result that the people at the back of the ESL end up with a view something akin to this ?

You'd be popular.

 

[Easy 10]

I feel your pain and I have zero chance of seeing a live game.

Out of interest, why ?

 

[DavePage]

Out of interest, why ?

location and costs of flights when you have prioritize your hard earned over self indulgence

 

[Easy 10]

location and costs of flights when you have prioritize your hard earned over self indulgence

Fair enough. I didn't clock your location there.