[Football] ***Brighton and Hove Albion v Birmingham City, WSL, Amex, 14.00 KO***

[Sorrel]

I went and enjoyed the game.

I think the club did everything right, re marketing the game. My advice would be to keep plugging away with the Amex games, the fan base will build. It will take time

It was quite a different audience than the football one I'm used to: a lot of very young children there. It felt a bit like "junior football" at times, but I'd be very surprised if today out people off. Not sure it would have enthused them a huge amount either, but it definitely felt like something building.

 

[Sheebo]

Great result - well done ladies

 

[Invicta]

Good result, decent crowd for this time of year. What's not too like.

 

[blue-shifted]

They obviously were the better team. But they would lose comfortably to the priestfield team on that showing. Liverpool are bottom on 1 point so likely the whipping girls this season

Impossible to use that phrase without sounding like a bit of a pervert

In terms of the comparison, I'd say it's better not to try to compare a decent womens team to a poor mens one. The impact of the difference in size and strength is too much. A mens team would blatantly win, but there was plenty of good skill and plenty of good approach play to enjoy yesterday.

Having said that, Le Garrec's goal was as good as any the men have scored. It might be our only goal from outside the box this season. (oh yes Gross v Everton) Nice to see us hit the target from that sort of range.

 

[Simster]

Firstly, very well done to the Albion Women for a great performance - their best of the season so far. They were worthy winners and rightly deserve praise.

As regards the 4,130 attendance, when compared with the 5,265 back in April for the last Albion Women's game at the AMEX, that's more than 21% lower.

That's terrible when considering the thousands of free tickets available along with vastly increased media coverage following the WWC.

I think you're probably missing the point that in April, it was the last game of the season and Arsenal needed a win to win the league. This by contrast was just a run-of-the-mill league game.

Let's hope there's a excellent response. With free tickets, there wouldn't be any credible excuse for anything less than that.[/B]

It will be interesting to hear the excuses for this poor attendance.

It can't be blamed purely on a marketing fail.

I'd say it was entirely a marketing "fail" if you can call it that, but lessons will be learnt. Top level men's football is probably unique in this country in that it is a product where demand for seats always outstrips supply. In fact, that is the case quite a way down the football pyramid. Other sports (and for the purposes of selling tickets, women's football falls into this category) have to be more creative about how they promote their games - creating one-off "events" is one way to go, and often the people marketing such events don't do a good job of it the first couple of times. Premiership rugby is a good example of this - there are a number of games played at bigger venues like Twickenham (Quins), Wembley/Spurs/WestHam (Sarries), City of Manchester stadium (Sale) and St James Park (Falcons) where those fixtures are marketed as stand-alone events. I'm fairly sure theses events have evolved over time, and that in the first editions over a decade ago, the bigger venues weren't even close to selling out.

 

[BensGrandad]

Slightly OT but watching TV last night they showed the crowd at Tottenham v Arsenal and said it was 38,000.

 

[blue-shifted]

As has been said 4000 attendance compares well with some lower league men’s teams, it just looks bad because of the size of the Amex (and because it was less than one previous fixture)

Also remember, mens football (or approx. 30 clubs in mens football) is one of the only sports which isn’t struggling to get attendance. You’d struggle to get 4k for an athletics meet etc etc

No idea if we are doing this already, but if we’re trying to shift tickets for free or nearly free, then the players and coaches going into schools, running a PE session and then giving the school 50 tickets each to distribute around would probably work wonders. The key to increasing attendances is to talk to the people who were not talking to already. Ie if you weren’t a Brighton fan how would you know the match is on?

Oh and going back to Crawley will see attendances nose dive again. Nothing wrong with one game a season there, treating it an an outground in cricket, and one at Woodside Road, the Dripping Pan etc. But if we’re ever going to grow it, Brighton, should mainly be playing in Brighton

 

[BensGrandad]

The logical answer is a mini stadium (8k capacity) at Lancing or even go to Withdean.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

The logical answer is a mini stadium (8k capacity) at Lancing or even go to Withdean.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I was there today, and enjoyed it.

Does TB really want another stadium? If built from scratch, that would be a huge expense. Surely it would be better to just open small sections of the Amex, like today?

First of all, the result was a great result yesterday and I really enjoyed the match and taking my daughter, who loves watching the women's and men's team.

I think it is essential for us to have another maybe 5k small stadium within Brighton and Hove if you wish the women's team to flourish.
It is a long way to travel too Crawley for home games, I think the team & support would benefit immensely, crowds would definitely increase.
I would imagine the youth teams could also play at the stadium, maybe we could team up with Whitehawk or something similar this would in turn benefit the local area further.

It is great to see the women's team progress, and although it seems slow progress at times, they are progressing similar to the men's team in the Championship, building slowly and recent results are showing that.

 

[blue-shifted]

First of all, the result was a great result yesterday and I really enjoyed the match and taking my daughter, who loves watching the women's and men's team.

I think it is essential for us to have another maybe 5k small stadium within Brighton and Hove if you wish the women's team to flourish.
It is a long way to travel too Crawley for home games, I think the team & support would benefit immensely, crowds would definitely increase.
I would imagine the youth teams could also play at the stadium, maybe we could team up with Whitehawk or something similar this would in turn benefit the local area further.

It is great to see the women's team progress, and although it seems slow progress at times, they are progressing similar to the men's team in the Championship, building slowly and recent results are showing that.

Is it really essential for us to have another stadium? How many other WSL clubs have built a stadium especially for their women's team? Do you remember the hassle cost and difficulty of finding a suitable location for the stadium we have? The Amex is bigger yes, but even the footprint of a 5k stadium is going to take a load of space, which as far as I can tell doesn't exist anywhere in Brighton.

One of the main reasons we don't often have women's games at the Amex is that it costs too much money to open the stadium. True, but that is going to be dwarfed by the cost of buying the amount of land you'd need to build another stadium in, that won't get used much as the women's team don't play as many games as the men.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Is it really essential for us to have another stadium? How many other WSL clubs have built a stadium especially for their women's team? Do you remember the hassle cost and difficulty of finding a suitable location for the stadium we have? The Amex is bigger yes, but even the footprint of a 5k stadium is going to take a load of space, which as far as I can tell doesn't exist anywhere in Brighton.

One of the main reasons we don't often have women's games at the Amex is that it costs too much money to open the stadium. True, but that is going to be dwarfed by the cost of buying the amount of land you'd need to build another stadium in, that won't get used much as the women's team don't play as many games as the men.

Several teams do, obviously Manchester City are one, and I think this is utilised with the youth teams. Getting planning permission for a 5k stadium would be a lot easier than when we applied for the Amex, we could as I said upgrade an existing stadium, be it in Brighton or just outside like Culver Road, or even at the Training ground.

 

[Postman Pat]

Is it really essential for us to have another stadium? How many other WSL clubs have built a stadium especially for their women's team? Do you remember the hassle cost and difficulty of finding a suitable location for the stadium we have? The Amex is bigger yes, but even the footprint of a 5k stadium is going to take a load of space, which as far as I can tell doesn't exist anywhere in Brighton.

One of the main reasons we don't often have women's games at the Amex is that it costs too much money to open the stadium. True, but that is going to be dwarfed by the cost of buying the amount of land you'd need to build another stadium in, that won't get used much as the women's team don't play as many games as the men.

I did hear a rumour a while ago that were considering the other side of Village way for a smaller stadium.A single level stadium around 7,500 capacity for U23 and Women to use. Can use all of the infrastructure already in place at the stadium and as both will never be at home at the same time they wouldn't need to worry about clashes.

I have no idea if there is any truth in this or if it is even possible.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I will repeat what I have said before. Bloom is totally committed to advancing all of the Brighton and Hove Albion's teams, including the Women's team who under his stewardship have gained a double promotion and play in the top league, the women's super league. They play against Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea, all containing the worlds best, highly paid footballers.

Like the U21 and U23's boys teams, who have made similar jumps to the top leagues they are holding their own and all have been given the best coaches and facilities needed to suceed..

Bloom and AMEX are investing in excess of £25 million building the women and girls teams their own facilities at Lancing, a center and 3 new pitches.

https://www.brightonandhoveindepend...-for-brighton-and-hove-albion-women-1-9140149

They currently train on pitches at the University the first team used under Micky Adam teams trained. So its obvious they want to build and have their own stadium. 1200 girls play football with Albion (AITC) academy's, and Bloom and the Albion want as many as possible players to progress into women's professional football and play international football. It is a booming sport and we are at the forefront of promoting and developing it. If Bloom had invested this amount of money into Micky Adams team we would be so excited and hoping to see improvement and a rise up the pyramid, just like we have seen in the womens and U23 teams.

AITC also run sides for the blind, autistic, deaf, cerebral palsy and people with mental heath issues.

Its all Bloody amazing and knocks my socks, it gives me goose bumps just thinking about all this investment and hard work involved. I try and make as many Brighton U23 games, Sussex senior cup games and womens games as I can on top of the first team games home and away. I am proud of anyone that puts on the club shirt and want to support them in their playing careers. So if 10 people, 500 people or 10,000 people attend any of these games well done to them for getting off the internet and supporting this club at all levels.

More than 75,000 people watched WSL games at the weekend, 38.5K at White Hart Lanes, Arsenal selling out a 3K away section. 23.5K at Anfield and Chelsea sold out Kingsmeadow over 4.5K. Our attendance sits just under these.

I have no problem if people are only bought into first teams Mens football but the Albion are a lot more than just that, I for one love it and at all levels the future looks good.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I will repeat what I have said before. Bloom is totally committed to advancing all of the Brighton and Hove Albion's teams, including the Women's team who under his stewardship have gained a double promotion and play in the top league, the women's super league. They play against Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea, all containing the worlds best, highly paid footballers.

Like the U21 and U23's boys teams, who have made similar jumps to the top leagues they are holding their own and all have been given the best coaches and facilities needed to suceed..

Bloom and AMEX are investing in excess of £25 million building the women and girls teams their own facilities at Lancing, a center and 3 new pitches.

https://www.brightonandhoveindepend...-for-brighton-and-hove-albion-women-1-9140149

They currently train on pitches at the University the first team used under Micky Adam teams trained. So its obvious they want to build and have their own stadium. 1200 girls play football with Albion (AITC) academy's, and Bloom and the Albion want as many as possible players to progress into women's professional football and play international football. It is a booming sport and we are at the forefront of promoting and developing it. If Bloom had invested this amount of money into Micky Adams team we would be so excited and hoping to see improvement and a rise up the pyramid, just like we have seen in the womens and U23 teams.

AITC also run sides for the blind, autistic, deaf, cerebral palsy and people with mental heath issues.

Its all Bloody amazing and knocks my socks, it gives me goose bumps just thinking about all this investment and hard work involved. I try and make as many Brighton U23 games, Sussex senior cup games and womens games as I can on top of the first team games home and away. I am proud of anyone that puts on the club shirt and want to support them in their playing careers. So if 10 people, 500 people or 10,000 people attend any of these games well done to them for getting off the internet and supporting this club at all levels.

More than 75,000 people watched WSL games at the weekend, 38.5K at White Hart Lanes, Arsenal selling out a 3K away section. 23.5K at Anfield and Chelsea sold out Kingsmeadow over 4.5K. Our attendance sits just under these.

I have no problem if people are only bought into first teams Mens football but the Albion are a lot more than just that, I for one love it and at all levels the future looks good.

Amen to the above.

 

[blue-shifted]

I will repeat what I have said before. Bloom is totally committed to advancing all of the Brighton and Hove Albion's teams, including the Women's team who under his stewardship have gained a double promotion and play in the top league, the women's super league. They play against Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea, all containing the worlds best, highly paid footballers.

Like the U21 and U23's boys teams, who have made similar jumps to the top leagues they are holding their own and all have been given the best coaches and facilities needed to suceed..

Bloom and AMEX are investing in excess of £25 million building the women and girls teams their own facilities at Lancing, a center and 3 new pitches.

https://www.brightonandhoveindepend...-for-brighton-and-hove-albion-women-1-9140149

They currently train on pitches at the University the first team used under Micky Adam teams trained. So its obvious they want to build and have their own stadium. 1200 girls play football with Albion (AITC) academy's, and Bloom and the Albion want as many as possible players to progress into women's professional football and play international football. It is a booming sport and we are at the forefront of promoting and developing it. If Bloom had invested this amount of money into Micky Adams team we would be so excited and hoping to see improvement and a rise up the pyramid, just like we have seen in the womens and U23 teams.

AITC also run sides for the blind, autistic, deaf, cerebral palsy and people with mental heath issues.

Its all Bloody amazing and knocks my socks, it gives me goose bumps just thinking about all this investment and hard work involved. I try and make as many Brighton U23 games, Sussex senior cup games and womens games as I can on top of the first team games home and away. I am proud of anyone that puts on the club shirt and want to support them in their playing careers. So if 10 people, 500 people or 10,000 people attend any of these games well done to them for getting off the internet and supporting this club at all levels.

More than 75,000 people watched WSL games at the weekend, 38.5K at White Hart Lanes, Arsenal selling out a 3K away section. 23.5K at Anfield and Chelsea sold out Kingsmeadow over 4.5K. Our attendance sits just under these.

I have no problem if people are only bought into first teams Mens football but the Albion are a lot more than just that, I for one love it and at all levels the future looks good.

Well said. I might even go further and say, if this is something which forms part of Bloom's vision, then given everything he's done for us, we have a duty to get out there and support it.

 

[Silverhatch]

I did hear a rumour a while ago that were considering the other side of Village way for a smaller stadium.A single level stadium around 7,500 capacity for U23 and Women to use. Can use all of the infrastructure already in place at the stadium and as both will never be at home at the same time they wouldn't need to worry about clashes.

I have no idea if there is any truth in this or if it is even possible.

I heard similar - but that the lower pitch at the Uni (right next to the Amex and) opposite the pedestrian gantry at Falmer Station was the preferred position for a stadium of 6-7000 capacity for all non-first team and University competitive games.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I did hear a rumour a while ago that were considering the other side of Village way for a smaller stadium.A single level stadium around 7,500 capacity for U23 and Women to use. Can use all of the infrastructure already in place at the stadium and as both will never be at home at the same time they wouldn't need to worry about clashes.

I have no idea if there is any truth in this or if it is even possible.

This is an unexpected and most welcome gem to find on this thread.

Is this Martin Perry's last project before retirement ?

 

[Beach Seagull]

Why bother building a 7500k stadium when despite literally giving tickets away just over 4k attended. Seems pointless. Prefer to see TB invest the money he wastes on the women's team to be spent on the men's. Despite what the right on liberal PC claim football is a low quality monority sport and yeah the BBC are wetting themselves with excitement over the record 'attendances' failing to mention many clubs gave tickets for free. Would be interested to see how many would have bothered to go if was priced at the same level as the men's game.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Why bother building a 7500k stadium when despite literally giving tickets away just over 4k attended. Seems pointless. Prefer to see TB invest the money he wastes on the women's team to be spent on the men's. Despite what the right on liberal PC claim football is a low quality monority sport and yeah the BBC are wetting themselves with excitement over the record 'attendances' failing to mention many clubs gave tickets for free. Would be interested to see how many would have bothered to go if was priced at the same level as the men's game.

Why would it be priced the same as the men's game, the standard is not, they don't get paid as much everything is relative, as are the differences throughout the leagues and non league. I think it is admirable we are at the forefront of this new beginning for the women's game and something to be very proud of. Why not, what is to lose, greater exposure for the club, city and women's football, it all has to start somewhere and we are lucky enough to have a chairman that wants to invest in every aspect of the game for this fine city, nothing is being taken away from the 1st team, get behind the club and city or just ignore it, but don't moan about it, it just sounds bitter and out dated.