Away Fans in the Home Areas at Withdean...

[Robot Chicken]

When supporters purchase tickets the address is noted and is placed on our database. For clubs like Sunderland an address that is clearly from the north would be viewed with suspician especially if the prospective purchaser has a "geordie" accent! They would then normally be questioned by the ticket office including a question about the club which a true supporter would know but an away supporter wouldn't. Anyone who cannot answer correctly or is plainly an away supporter is told to contact his/her own club for tickets.

However for clubs like Millwall identity is much more difficult. The ticket office does what it can but we have a lot of supporters who live in London and it is very difficult to establish whether or not they are true Seagulls supporters.

However we have a record of everyone who buys a ticket and that normally puts most people off unless they genuinely want to sit in the Brighton stands and support us.

My question is...what question is asked to decide whether the person is a Brighton fan or not? Are there a number of questions? Is it a random choice? Is this question plucked out of thin air at the time? Has someone actually put down a list of questions to be asked? If they can answer the first question but the ticket office STILL isn't sure, do they get asked another question? Suppose it's a REAL Brighton fan on the phone but they STILL get the question wrong? If you answer all the questions correctly, do you get a cash prize? Etc.

These things intrigue me. Can we be told one of the questions that have been used previously, maybe not any more (obviously for security reasons...)

 

[Gully]

Don't they think people are resourceful enough to use different sources for information, like the internet maybe!!!

 

[Robot Chicken]

What's to stop them Asking The Club on NSC...

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Whilst on the phone?

 

[Robot Chicken]

So they say "Oops I've forgotten"....call up later on, pretend to be someone else and in the meantime you've looked up the answer on NSC...

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

People who want to get tickets will get tickets.

 

[clapham_gull]

People who want to get tickets will get tickets.

Except when we're playing Spurs in the cup

 

[Yorkie]

When a certain set of Seagulls bought tickets for the Swindon end when Brighton won the 2nd div championship, they were asked who the assistant manager of Swindon was.

 

[oapdodge]

Perhaps we should ask who the assistant manager of Swindon is ? that would confuse them.

 

[portslade seagull]

So brighton fans don't do this then

 

[jevs]

Ok guys, here's my scenario.

I live in Lewes and i've followed Brighton home and away from 1976. I was also a season ticket holder in the 90's at the Goldstone.

But, i'm a west ham supporter and i have two tickets in the Brighton end at Withdean for the game in April.

As you're probably aware, WHU could probably fill Withdean on their own with away support, being so close for a jolly to the seaside. So any ticket out of the 700 that will be available to us is like rocking horse shit.

But i was kindly sold two tickets which were from season tickets. I want to go and watch my team and i will behave accordingly and not cheer or jeer.

There was plenty of Brighton in the west ham end at the Boleyn and my m8, who is Chelsea, often comes with me to West Ham.

Is there really a crime being committed. I will cause no hastle at all and just want to go and watch my team.

If the stewards/OB find out somehow that i'm an opposition fan, what could happen ? moved, thrown out, arrested ??

It'll be interesting to see what peoples sensible opinions are

 

[Beach Hut]

You can be ejected by law, it will say so on the ticket.

However as you are opting to behave and not jeer / large it you will be OK.

 

[Hiney]

When a certain set of Seagulls bought tickets for the Swindon end when Brighton won the 2nd div championship, they were asked who the assistant manager of Swindon was.

When I bought my tickets for that game from a Swindon fan, all he asked me was "can you bring the cash"

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I have often sat.stood in the home end at Albion away games, I have always observed the etiquette which means, basically, that I don't bring attention to myself. I would have no problem with away fans at Withdean doing the same. The ground rules, about away supporters being ejected, should be seen as giving stewards a reason to remove people whose behaviour is likely to cause a disturbance, not to sniff out people who are keeping a low profile. Ideally I would like to see the ground full of Albion fans but some away presence in the home end always happen with a restricted away allocation.

I am old enough to remember the days, pre-segregation, when it was pretty common to share a terrace with supporters of opposing teams and most people co-existed quite peacefully. we didn't throw a hissy fit because we were adjacent to opposing fans. In the mid-late 70s trouble increased to a degree that made segregation inevitable. There is no way that it would be practical to have integrated areas of seating, but football must be the only area of life in which segregation is seen as a progessive measure.

 

[ManxSeagull]

I have sat in the main stand at Oldham twice in recent years.

On a couple of occasions I couldn't help myself shout something. People just looked around to see who it was, I just kept quiet.

Although the time when we lost 3-1 and Bobby was sent off, it was obvious I was an away supporters as I remained seated when they scored.

 

[London Irish]

There was plenty of Brighton in the west ham end at the Boleyn and my m8, who is Chelsea, often comes with me to West Ham.

Is there really a crime being committed.

Of course not - if you wear no colours and do not cheer at inappropriate moments, no steward would, or should, ever go near you.

I can only hope your WH lot behave better than we did at the Boleyn - couldn't believe the Albion chants from the home corner where all the fun and games started!

 

[Robot Chicken]

I sat in the home stand at Wycombe a few years ago, it was a mistake by the ticket office, they sold me a ticket in the home end by mistake. I was in Albion costume with the scarf, hat and shirt and it was pretty obvious I wasn't Wycombe...

We won and I didn't sit quietly when we scored, I jumped up. Only one in the whole stand to do so.

Looking back, probably lucky I wasn't moved or ejected.

 

[Brighton Brat]

Reminds me of the time some Man City fans went to the Stoke City ticket office to buy tickets for the last day of the season relagation clash.When asked which match they wanted tickets for they said"the Stoke game".

 

[e77]

This could be the solution to oversubscribing at away matches. Send a quiz out !

 

[Storer68]

I sat in the home stand when we went to Colchester a couple of years ago and had no problems, although sitting on my hands as we went 4-1 up was a bit tricky. I think i drew more attention to myself by not joining the general derision that was being heaped upon Steve Wigley