What is 'quite unbelievable' is that a club who struggled to get 6,000 through the door just a few seasons ago are now pushing for a 30,000 gate and are the best supported club in the football league.
Commander, why are you so hard on this football club ? You will recall that despite being in the lowest league, Brighton sold out Withdean for what 3 or 4 seasons, despite all of the Archer nonsense and the serial decline of the club from 1984 onwards. What is incredible is the campaign the fans undertook and the thousands that travelled every week to Gillingham. To answer your direct point, its not incredible that a club who got 34000 at home to the likes of Rochdale in the third division, can get the crowds they do. As for Thursday, well nigh on 29000/30000 in this economic climate for a midweek play off game on telly isn't so shabby especially with the lack of car parks around the ground.[/QUOTE]
I'm not hard on us at all, I'm usually one of the most positive people on here. We've had 30,000+ crowds about 8 times in our 113 year history, and our average crowd has probably been under 10,000. You hark back to the Goldstone days as if we played every game in front of 25,000 in an electric atmosphere. We didn't. We used to struggle to get 15,000 in the top flight sometimes. It is unbelievable how the club has come on since the Amex was built, we are a far bigger club now than we were in the late 70's and early 80's. Getting close to 30,000 regularly now is an amazing turnaround, and one that no other club has ever achieved in this country.