Without its supporters, Brighton & Hove Albion would not still exist. That bond is the result of an extraordinary three-decade journey, one which makes the bad news a little easier to weather.
In some areas of The Amex, under-10s will now have to pay the cost of an U18 ticket. Season-ticket holders will also not be automatically allowed to renew if they miss more than five games of the league campaign.
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Read More“No-one’s ever happy with a price increase but it’s very understandable,” says Paul Samrah, vice-chair of the Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club.
“If you’re not seeing what you’re getting on the pitch, be it result wise, be it infrastructure, player purchases, then of course you’re bound to say, ‘well come on’. But we tick all those boxes. You can’t deny it’s got to be paid for and that’s the way the world is and inflation and cost of energy and the like, you have to be realistic in this world.”
The dynamics of all fanbases change over time – at Brighton, the average age of a season-ticket holder is increasing, largely because nearly all of them renew every year. And to fully understand why they do, you have to look back a little further.
The end of the Goldstone (Photo: Getty)
Archer had rocked up with £56 to buy his stake in the club but arrived uttering hollow promises of investment. It transpired that the £800,000 given to avoid a winding-up order was in fact a loan which used the stadium as collateral. The board had even amended the club’s Articles of Association to remove a clause preventing shareholders from profiting if the ground were sold.
Attendances were so low and Brighton were so close to the foot of the pyramid that nobody had picked up on the financial irregularities mounting behind the scenes. They were nevertheless so stark that the club was required to submit fresh accounts. Every interview from the owners was picked apart for discrepancies – almost like a “crime case”.
“We were under no illusions we needed serious money, there’s no good going round with buckets at games. We needed wealthy people and luckily Dick Knight [chairman of 1997-2009] was a fan for many, many years since he was a child. He was able to say ‘I’ve got the finances, I’ve got a consortium together – now we need to get rid of the board’.
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Read MoreThe next campaign was BHA – “Bring Home the Albion”, to the athletics stadium at Withdean. It was only ever going to be a temporary measure, with an initial 6,000 capacity and 8,500 even after a new stand was built.
In the midst of a “torturous battle” over planning permission for the new ground, they found an unlikely saviour in John Prescott, then Tony Blair’s deputy prime minister. Prescott was the one man with the power to overrule the local planning committee who had blocked the stadium being built.
“To this day, God rest his soul, he had this giant card in his kitchen, he absolutely loved it,” Samrah says.
Yankuba Minteh celebrates against Manchester United (Photo: Getty)
In the build-up to the 2004 Division Two play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, postcards were sent to Prescott’s desk with a view of the plot that would become The Amex, reading “Wish we were here”. Once the game kicked off, fans wore paper masks bearing his face and held up the banner: “John Prescott fan club [provisional]”.
It is easier to see where Brighton are going once you see where they have been. On Christmas Eve, it was confirmed that owner Tony Bloom will pour another £40m into upgrading the stadium, including the development of a new fanzone for 2,000 supporters which will aim to replicate the atmosphere of Wembley’s BoxPark.
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Read MoreAll that helps to sugarcoat the pill. Whatever the outcome of Fabian Hurzeler’s debut season in the Premier League, Brighton fans have essentially achieved everything they wanted – in Knight and Bloom they have twice secured new owners with the interests of the club at heart.
“For the modern fan it’s more about ‘gosh, this small club is battling against the odds and everyone’s in it together and we’re punching above our weight, in the top 10 and we’ve played in Europe’. That’s more the story – disappointingly, because I think people should remember their history.”
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