[Albion] Yet another club to increase ground capacity….

[el punal]

During the pandemic we had a £4 million stadium extension plan put on hold. I believe some of the work has now been done including filling in some corners but the plan for more atmosphere sapping prawn sandwich seats in the North wasn't done. If they can add a 270 person hospitality suite in the North, they could add a lot more peasant seats.

EDIT:

Covered here with plans etc: https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/threads/amex-expansion.378368/

Mostly hospitality in the plans, but also discusses the fanzine

Why would you want to add peasant seats in the North, everyone stands shirley? By the way, what does an atmosphere sapping prawn sandwich seat look like - probably a bit more sophisticated than a meat and two veg I would imagine?

 

[Greg Bobkin]

the opposition were one of the 14 non top six .....

Exactly - not enough of a pull for some people.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Something that strangely doesn't apply at Villa Park, Mollineaux, the City Ground, Goodison, King Power, Selhurst, Craven Cottage, Portman Road etc. Maybe it's only in Sussex that kids play grassroots sports, matches are shown on TV, the weather can be shite etc.

I have no stats to back this up, but I'm pretty sure there would be gaps in those grounds for certain games, under certain conditions.

I don't really care either way - people can do what they like. But what did make me laugh was the people involved in the mass exodus at 40-ish minutes who missed both of the goals

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

At the.....
Peter Sutcliffe Stadium,


To soon?

aka The Yorkie Ripper ground.

 

[Motogull]

The one thing I would like to see purely from a design perspective is to add a box in the north east corner to match the south east. That empty corner looks unfinished, & adding something there would nicely balance things.

And at the same time, rip the silly plod box out.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Bums on seats no longer matter, which is why Bmuff and Brentford can survive in the Premier League. All the money comes from TV - it doesn't really matter that much if you are playing in front of 11,000 or 60,000.

I suspect footballers prefer playing in front of 60,000 rather than 11,000. The next generation of tv deals may well be done on an individual club basis with the bigger clubs, with bigger stadiums, and usually better atmospheres, being able to command greater revenues.
As for Albion, privately Bloom and Barber must wish they could expand the Amex, or add another tier on the north & south stands, to take the us up to 38,000 or so.

 

[ac gull]

When it comes to expanding an existing stadium, often means reducing capacity for a while, then clubs change their minds

See Wolves and Villa recent ambitions and plans

Forest to get to 40k will have to go to under 30k for a bit - be interesting to see if they do demolish their old stand

Liverpool re building up back of existing stands then removing old roof are only recent ones who have spent hard cash on expansions

 

[FatSuperman]

This all depends on your definition of 'long term'. For now the stadium capacity is perfect, but if we continue to succeed and perhaps even start winning things, then over the next few decades we will gain a massive number of new fans - those kids who aren't even born yet, and then their kids. The catchment is huge, assuming we could find a sensible way to get people to and from the stadium.

This definitely needs to become a huge problem of meeting demand before we rebuilt / relocated, and that requires consistent success and a few superstars staying at Brighton for a number of years.

It's probably all of our number 1 Brighton dream - well, second behind that dream where you come through the academy, score a hattrick on your debut at 15 years old, going on to get 50 goals in your first season (an invincible double season at that), and where you get the ballon d'or on your second season (a quadruple) and string along the super clubs for two transfer windows, before finally revealing you're never leaving in a live stream where you rip off your shirt to show you've had the BHAFC crest tattoo'd on your chest this whole time. That one is obviously the number 1 dream. But other than that.