[Albion] Why do so many of our fans think we are still a 'small club'?

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Well you can get a saints shirt at Gatwick but not an Albion one

That's just wrong and pitifully tinpot

 

[huzzah]

Fitting that groß should be the biggest doll.

but weird that it's Welbz as the smallest rather than Little T.

 

[Monkey Man]

Never understood this need to be perceived as a "big club". It's an impossible thing to quantify.

Big in ground size? Average attendance? Global fanbase? Trophies won? Wage bill? Years in top flight? Number of replica shirts sold? TV viewing figures? Star names on the books?

Ultimately, if it was all about supporting the biggest club, we'd all be Real Madrid or Man U fans. To me Brighton are the biggest club in the world because that's the one I happen to support. I dare say there are people who feel the same way about Cheltenham, Barnet and Port Vale.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Never understood this need to be perceived as a "big club". It's an impossible thing to quantify.

Big in ground size? Average attendance? Global fanbase? Trophies won? Wage bill? Years in top flight? Number of replica shirts sold? TV viewing figures? Star names on the books?

Ultimately, if it was all about supporting the biggest club, we'd all be Real Madrid or Man U fans. To me Brighton are the biggest club in the world because that's the one I happen to support. I dare say there are people who feel the same way about Cheltenham, Barnet and Port Vale.

Dunno about all that, but your avatar is certainly world-class

 

[RandyWanger]

were medium

 

[Brian Fantana]

It tends to be fans of clubs stuck in the lower leagues, such as Leeds, Wednesday, Sunderland etc, who label clubs like us, Brentford, Fulham, Bournemouth etc as being small - presumably for having the gall of not being an absolute shambles on and off the pitch.

When someone labels us as being a small club, and comes from a fanbase such as those above, I tend to enjoy it because it shows that they've got nothing really of merit to say about their own clubs.

 

[NorthLainer]

Small, medium, big, who cares?

What matters is that we're striving to be the BEST club, and in my opinion (and lots of others) we're doing a pretty good job.

 

[Motogull]

To become a big club you need your CEO to announce that in 10-15 years you will be challenging for the EPL title and then about half way through that period to announce that you are on the way to the next level.

 

[The Hermit Kingdom]

The big clubs in England are Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle, Villa and Leeds, closely followed by Man City, Everton, Chelsea, Sunderland and Wednesday. And then on a sliding scale from there.

 

[ElectricNaz]

We are a small team.

IMO a team who sells to make profit on players from the bigger clubs is small. If using either small or big as a reference. As no one really knows what a medium club is - it's either grouped as the rich clubs (and theoretically also the historically big clubs living in a fantasy land still like Sheff Weds, Leeds and Forest - and in Newcastle and Tottenhams case, both) or everyone else is grouped into #teamslikeBrighton

Also, couldn't care less if we are a "small club" or not. We're class on and off the pitch. Rather be a class *club* than a big team

 

[BBassic]

To become a big club you need your CEO to announce that in 10-15 years you will be challenging for the EPL title and then about half way through that period to announce that you are on the way to the next level.

But before that you've got to promise an enormous new stand (modeled on your rivals stadium) and then never actually deliver on it.

 

[pasty]

My perception of how “big” we are changed on February 17th 2018

That was the day we played Coventry, then in League 2, in the FA Cup. I’ve always loved lower league clubs fans having a great day out at a top division club, and it suddenly dawned on me, that we were the “big” club Coventry were having a day out at. It was a weird feeling that day.

 

[GrossTurn]

Never understood this need to be perceived as a "big club". It's an impossible thing to quantify.

Big in ground size? Average attendance? Global fanbase? Trophies won? Wage bill? Years in top flight? Number of replica shirts sold? TV viewing figures? Star names on the books?

Ultimately, if it was all about supporting the biggest club, we'd all be Real Madrid or Man U fans. To me Brighton are the biggest club in the world because that's the one I happen to support. I dare say there are people who feel the same way about Cheltenham, Barnet and Port Vale.

It’s just something that dominates football rhetoric/discussion for those with nothing more interesting or insightful to say. Any pundit that views everything through that lens immediately invalidates anything they have to say (Talksport employs a few of these..)

 

[pocketseagull]

Wouldn't bet on us ever selling shirts through a third party as it means the already small amount of profit is split even further.

 

[tedebear]

I hate to bang on about it but when I found out we had a doughnut van at Withdean I knew we had made it to the big leagues...went downhill when I realised the Amex wouldn't have one...

 

[Hastings gull]

It seems that most people here think that any club outside The Premier League is a 'small club', and that relegation immediately relegates a club to 'small club' status.

No. Wasn't too long ago that all our fans were local and mustering 10,000 people to a big game would be impressive.

Now we have fans all over Sussex and beyond, from Bognor to Hastings, from Tokyo to Quito. We easily now have thousands, probably tens of thousands, of fans all around the globe. We now dominate the county of Sussex - not Man U or Liverpool, anymore.

We ain't going to lose them, even if we are relegated.

It's why the likes of Newcastle, Wolves and West Ham weren't doomed to become a 'small club' following relegation... and exactly why we won't either.

It's extremely hard for a 'small club' to acquire generations of new fans... but once new fans are required, it would take decades of lower league football to lose them.

I think you do have a point here. During the very dark days, crowds at Gillingham and withdean were poor, compared to today. But during the Withdean years, I recall the Albion saying that they had a database of 20,000 fans. The majority of those fans might not have gone regularly to Withdean, but clearly had not lost their passion for the Albion, as we witnessed as soon as the Amex opened.

 

[Pevenseagull]

In 2010 I don't think many Sussex cricket supporters looked back on the previous decade and thought we're now 'Big' club .... despite winning 3 county championships, 2 one day leagues, 1 one day cup and a 20/20 trophy.

And I don't think any gave two hoots.

 

[Baldrick]

Have we been invited to join the closed shop super league? We can’t be a big cub unless we have had an invite.

Much prefer us to be a club punching above our weight winning matches against so called big clubs.

 

[Wozza]

Stoke City fans’ verdict:

 

[Superphil]

All the while we sing taunting songs at away games we’ll not be a big club.

Your support is f***ing shit etc.