What realistically is now our catchment area?

[Infernal Optimist]

The whole of Sussex. We'll that should be the aim. Chichester/Bognor will probably always be Pompey, as Crawley will always gravitate towards London teams. Brighton itself is always a problem and any given Saturday you will see trains full of Chelsea/Spurs/Arsenal leaving.

I can remember a time though when lots of people came over from Eastbourne, some from Hastings and even places like Tonbridge, with Littlehampton and Horsham in the West, so I don't see why that shouldn't be the target.

What we need to do as a club is market ourselves as the team of Sussex rather than just Brighton and Hove, because that is what we are. For example why do you have to travel to Brighton to buy an Albion shirt, surely we could find some outlets in the various towns of Sussex to sell them?

We also need to find outlets to sell tickets in these areas and work on getting them back into the fold. When you go to places like Norwich and Ipswich, they bus in supporters from all over even to home games, we need to do the same.

I genuinely believe that we are capable of getting 40,000 for certain games, if the infrstructure was in place. Before you laugh, I've been in the Goldstone with 35,000 in there, at a low of post war crowds, so it is possible....unlikely, but possible

 

[Curious Orange]

Well, I know for a FACT that the Albion catchment area reaches at least as far north as Guildford.

 

[Gazwag]

probably, ( if we're lucky)

Haywards Heath in the North, Worthing in the West to eastbourne in the East.

Although Eastbourne might be stretching it.

Bollocks, I would guess there are as many fans in Bexhill & Hastings as there are in Eastbourne

 

[BensGrandad]

You have to go back many years for crowds of over 35,000 at The Goldstone and even then you could count them on 1 hand.

When we were in the 1st Division,(now called Premiership) we did not have 1 gate of over 30,000 not even the very first against Arsenal.

 

[Pigsy]

Well, I know for a FACT that the Albion catchment area reaches at least as far north as Guildford.

and Nottinghamshire

 

[Giant Seagull]

I can confirm that i saw at LEAST 2 cars with albion stickers on in the car park of the Eastbourne DGH the other day

 

[DIFFBROOK]

I think Gillingham and Withdean have in the short to medium term severely harmed us. You will always have those that will buy season tickets or make a real effort to go to games. They are called our hardcore support, but its the "day of the game" attendees that we are missing. I suspect people from outside Brighton will simply not go to Brighton on the off chance for a ticket for fear of the game being sold out. Real or not real people (including myself until quite recently) thought there was no chance of getting a ticket on a Saturday. Those numbers could be quite large.

So in a nutshell we need to get Falmer built, and importantly a way of selling tickets that makes it easy and flexible to attend games. Also its important that once Falmer is built, you make it attractive to attend. i.e a winning side in the Championship.

If this is happens, then any damage will be quickly rectified.

 

[shingle]

Bollocks, I would guess there are as many fans in Bexhill & Hastings as there are in Eastbourne

oh alright then

 

[Infernal Optimist]

You have to go back many years for crowds of over 35,000 at The Goldstone and even then you could count them on 1 hand.

When we were in the 1st Division,(now called Premiership) we did not have 1 gate of over 30,000 not even the very first against Arsenal.

This was due to a number of factors including changes in segregation of away fans.

The albion are a bandwagon club always have been. When we are doing well the top end crowds are large. When we struggle they drop away quickly. Away support numbers have also dramatically increased too. I'm not advocating building for 40k just stating that in certain circumstances it is possible.

Picture the scene 5 points clear in April at the top of the PL Chelsea/Man Utd visit needing to win to stay in the hunt, still think we couldn't get 40 thousand?

Thats the 2008/2009 season in case you were wondering?

 

[Napper]

we have loads of fans in Littlehampton so I would say that is as far as it goes in the west , In bognor there is a sprinkling but mostly pompey scum , chichester is mostly pompey scum but again a sprinkling of Brighton. I don't know about North and east.

 

[Tommy Cook reporting]

I know loads of old Albion fans in Tunny Wells, a lot don't go anymore, but they equally don't support anyone else.

As a Portslade boy originally I have to say I think the Palace supporting Portslade born chav should be hung by his goolies from the swings in Easthill Park. C*nt.

 

[Jamesy]

Similar to you Tommy, I live in Crowborough and there are loads of Brighton fans, lots of whom used to go to the Goldstone but don't go now. The support is still there and I believe will be resurrected by Falmer. Witness to this fact is a crew of about 15 of them who used to stand strategically (!!) on the East who went to Watford recently.

 

[Vicar!]

I seem to remember many years ago, on return from Albion away games, there was a policy of forced re education of persons heading back to Brighton wearing other clubs colours on a Saturday night.

Always considered Littlehampton as the border town on this side of Sussex.

I have said for sometime that Eastbourne Borough could make it big. Hopefully we could form a relationship along the lines of Ipswich and Colchester. Two clubs next door to each other who have never been rivals and help each other out.

 

[Gully]

I can only speak of experience of the part of West Sussex where I grew up. I lived in Storrington and went to school in Steyning, I would say that they are both firmly Brighton. As you head west the picture changes, I have met a few Albion from Pulborough but if you go much further than that it becomes Pompey territory, In Midhurst they sell the Pompey Evening News so I doubt if we have ever had much support from that area.

I reckon our territory spreads further east than west as there are no rivals at all, in league terms, heading in that direction. Heading north I would class Horsham as Brighton territory more than Crawley as there is more chance that people who live there are Sussex through and through, rather than having moved south from London to work at the airport.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Horsham is still very much a Brighton town.You ve a few Palarse who have escaped the mess that is Croydon.

Spurs, West Ham and Chelski as well of course these days but probably only 1 in 100 has ever been to Stamford Expensive.

When I started watching the Albion in the early 70s there was a double decker bus that ran from Horshan railway station (2 on the 'Bigger' games) It used to cost me 35p as a junior!

When we get Falmer built then the club MUST do some serious marketing to get these fans back. There are there - once Albion you simply have no choice! The club will hve to get into the schools etc and really push itself.

It's alright us (and Palarse in Surrey) moaning about Charlton, but we must do the same throughout Sussex to get the fans back who have drifted off through the Gillingham and Withdean years.


Vitally important that we are either in the Championship or pushing for it when we move into Falmer

 

[Gully]

In fact the bus idea isn't such a stupid idea at all, when at Falmer the pressure on the park and rides will increase, if you could get buses bringing people in from the four corners of the county and able to drop off at the ground it would make things far easier for a lot of people. Far better to have one bus from a certain village/town travelling to the ground rather than say 20 cars. This is something that could start as a bit of a publicity stunt but could snowball into something far larger, let's hope the marketing department catch on to the idea, there are whole generations of fans out there who need educating that following the local team is better than being a plastic and watching MOTD.