No. 68: AMEX Community Stadium [Brighton & Hove Albion]

Saturday, 20th September 2014.
Brighton & Hove Albion v. Blackpool [SkyBet Championship] 0-0

A lacklustre 0-0 draw against a team that hasn't threatened a league win yet this season may not sound like I visited a team “on the up” this weekend.

But despite current on-field fortunes, Brighton & Hove Albion are a club in control of their destiny, having grabbed hold of it from the brink over the last 15 years.

Brighton were one of the first “crisis clubs” of the post-Sky Sports world. In 1996-97 season, the debts were piling up and the then owners decided The Goldstone Ground would have to be sold to property developers, despite the wishes of the fans. On the field, things were just as bad and Brighton spent most of the season firmly at the bottom of the Football League - as much as 11 points adrift by December.

The Turning point was the Fans United Day in Feb 1997 - an idea that fans from around the country should turn up at The Goldstone and support their cause.

Fans United Day 1997.

Thousands did turn up, The Seagulls won 5-0 and didn't lose another home game for the rest of the season - avoiding relegation to the Conference with a draw at Hereford on the last day of the season. A result which instead saw the hosts relegated instead in amazing scenes at Edgar Street.

Nonetheless, the sale of the ground could not be avoided, and despite lifelong fan and local businessman Dick Knight wrestling control of the club, Brighton now had now home to play at.

Last Game at The Goldstone Ground, 1997.

I spent much of my last entry [Doncaster] bemoaning their soulless new stadium on the edge of town, but it's difficult to think similarly of Brighton's newly built stadium as anything other than a success story for a club exiled for 14 years from a rightful home.

For two seasons from 1997-1999 Albion fans had to trek 80 miles across the county border to Gillingham, Kent. A woeful time for the club which many fans choose to try and forget.

Withdean Athletics Stadium: Brighton's home 1999-2011.

It must have been bad to have considered the move to the Withdean in 1999 as an upgrade. As far away from a football ground as it's possible to be whilst still physically able to kick a pigskin around in it, The Withdean was an athletics track with a football pitch inside it as an afterthought. I'm happy to say I never had the pleasure of visiting myself, but having experienced similar viewing “pleasures” at other athletics stadiums, I don't think I missed much.

After those two grounds, Seagulls fans would have probably taken any soulless bowl to play in – as long as it was theirs, and as long as it was in Brighton. Well, the AMEX is a step up from the usual modern football ground, that is for sure, and you can understand why the man that secured the funding to finally get it approved and built - Chairman since 2009 Tony Bloom, can do little wrong in most fans' eyes.

AMEX Stadium viewed from Falmer Train Station.

The AMEX stadium is located in Falmer – technically a village just outside the city boundaries of Brighton, but still a convenient 10min train ride from the seaside resort, so it feels very much of the city.

The first thing to notice about the matchday experience at The AMEX is that they've done all they can to encourage arriving by public transport, in fact. I went with a friend & his son from their home of Littlehampton, about 30miles down the coast. The football club subsidise all travel for ticketholders within a 15 mile radius, so effectively, the train from Shoreham-by-Sea to Falmer was completely free for us.

The House that Bloom Built: Brighton's AMEX Stadium.

A winning start in the PR war. As the Football League club with such a large catchment area without any other rival professional clubs, especially along the coastal strip, it does seem wise to incentivise getting people to come from afar. I was told that Brighton had the largest catchment area in English professional football – but without checking I think that fact may have been from before poor neglected Crawley, just 22 miles away, were promoted into the FL a few years ago!

Changing at Brighton, we decided to go straight up to the Stadium and see what was there as pre-game entertainment. Well, in truth not very much. The ground is literally in the middle of nowhere, save for the train station itself and the adjacent University of Sussex campus. 

Nonetheless, there were food and beer stalls to partake of, as well as a music stage and a local indie band plying an enjoyable if not always advisable set-list to those gathered outside (A self-declared “nod” to the people of Scotland in this Referendum week by the vocalist with a turgid rendition of “Flower of Scotland” was greeting mostly with bemusement by the English football crowd).

The club mascots seemed to enjoy themselves though. Even if the pigeon one seemed to take exception when the singer asked him what the hell he was supposed to be. Feral.

Inside the ground, and well – it can't be denied this is an impressive new stadium, one of which most clubs would be rightly proud. 

The two side stands have the curved sweep to the top of the tiers that has been popular in recent new builds, with the smaller ends having steeper rows of seats topped off with scoreboards and executive boxes rather than banks of seats dropping backwards – which lends the ground a bit more opportunity to build an atmosphere, being that much closer to the pitch side. And best of all – padded seats throughout!

Looking to the West Stand from the North Stand: AMEX Stadium.

Hey – don't get me wrong, I'd still rather be stood up on a terrace. But if you have to sit down, wouldn't you rather have a padded back than a piece of cold plastic? No point in being a puritan about these things.

Disappointingly for a reasonable home crowd of 25,000 – the fans weren't able to create much of an atmosphere in the ground. We were in the main home end of the “North Stand” where I was told all the singing emanated from. But I have top be honest and say that other than a couple of brief, PA-led mumbled renditions of club anthem “Sussex-by-the-Sea” when the teams came out for each half, and half a dozen chants of “Albion, Albion, Albion” scattered through the 90mins – I heard bugger all but chitter-chatter & yawns from the ranks of blue & white stripes around me.

And I'm sad to say that I took advantage of three empty padded seats near me and laid across them for a half-time snooze having been put to sleep by the 1^st half.

Stand or Fall for Sussex By The Sea...

Which was a shame – as I was hoping from first impressions that this was going to be the ground where my opinion on new-build stadia might have changed; Where I accepted that some of them can actually make a transition from the rickety Edwardian terraces to the clean, brushed concrete & fibreglass frames of the 21^st Century without a concomitant loss of character and atmosphere.

Sadly not. I'll cut them some slack though – it was hardly inspiring fayre on the green stuff – nor did my imagined “Meeting of the Seaside Town giants of the North & the South” bear fruit. Other than they both produce rock, saucy postcards & keep Jim Davidson gainfully employed on the ends of their respective piers, what on earth do Brighton & Blackpool really have to talk about? Very little, judging by the poor sub-300 turn-out of away fans.

East Stand, AMEX Community Stadium

But I can't help feeling there would have been a few more songs, a bit more banter & excitement for a neutral if we were at The Goldstone. Probably not the Withdean or Preistfield, mind you. And I'm sure when Crystal Palace come down here, the packed ground and braying crowd would put the Colosseum of Rome to shame. And I have to say it again – it is a very nice ground.

Getting back into Brighton was a piece of cake too – crowds streamlined onto trains & within 20mins of the final whistle we were walking through those fabled cobbled lanes full of hipster beards & tie-dyed sarongs perusing the arty-farty shops for overpriced tat.

Brighton Beach: Lovely Stuff.

We didn't linger long in Brighton, it felt a place for much more with-it and youthful souls than I. But we did take time to wander along the glorious seafront & park ourselves on a beachfront bar for a quick beer watching the sun drop down over the skeleton of the East Pier.

Brighton's East Pier: Ghostly.

What a beautiful city Brighton really is.

And what a beautiful future this club has. 

I have no doubt from impressions I got that Brighton & Hove Albion have a bright and secure future as a very well run football club, very much a part of this part of the Sussex coast's community, and very much a club of tomorrow.

With thanks to Tim Jones (@TimJones15).

Next ground on the 92 Club Trail: 27^th September 2014: Luton Town's Kenilworth Road!

Can you help answer a few questions about your club? Please email me at fantasticmrox@mail.com