Talking about the Brighton crowd as a whole the fact is, despite the cost, there will be more people willing to come on matchdays if the team are successful, in the PL or the Championship we will have a full stadium, after a couple of years in the lower leagues we will see the place half full...
If we do not invest in getting to the Prem is there not a chance we will fall out of the Championship. I would imagine that the loss of STH's if we go up would be tiny compared to loss after 2 or 3 seasons in the lower leagues.