[Albion] New fan zone - "The Terrace" [Opening 29/03/25 currently]

[Hamilton]

I'm not sure why anyone think they'd travel to Falmer to The Terrace for a gig when there's a shedload of venues in town.

There's even the Attenborough Centre which is probably better suited for student gigs etc.

If The Terrace has been built with the idea that it will be able to pay its way by offering itself up as an independent venue then it must have been designed by the same people who bought us the i360!

In my view, it'll come into its own when the stadium itself does more events. This summer the thing should be hosting a bunch of artists that only play stadiums, or it should host international friendlies between teams with a big UK diaspora.

 

[Hamilton]

It was a strange vibe. We arrived at Falmer station at 18.00 and were concerned it might have been cancelled as the place was completely deserted. With doors having opened at 18.00 we were the first people to arrive at The Terrace.

Friendly greeting from two door staff but an unpromising welcome to the venue with the ground floor in darkness and shutters closed.

Upstairs it just felt that the venue was cavernous for the number of people likely to attend.

As people trickled in, the vibe became one of those nice "we're in this together and will enjoy it regardless of whether it is objectively brilliant". Very few people looked like they were Albion fans and I think my radar on that is reasonably sound - one mixed group of students, one group of young women, a group of gay blokes, one or two European type single women, etc... all very nice and fun vibe ("atmosphere" would overstate things...). I had to ask for the Cup Final post-match coverage to be turned off the big screens!

Eurovision Bingo was a good icebreaker and encouraged inter-group chatting as the songs were hard to identify. Fortunately the group next to us were experts and helped us out. "Cherry Bomb" hosted enthusiastically and with good humour. Winning the Bingo - and a £46 bottle of Prosecco was a nice result for us.

The Big Screens are brilliant and it would be great to watch a game assuming a decent view of the screens and other needs being met.

One must assume that the club's experts have made a valid business plan for years ahead, but the immediate future for scheduled events doesn't look particularly rosy.

Sounds like they made a £46 loss at least on this one event then.

 

[Hometownglory]

Sorry, surely nobody is going to be in the Terrace until 2am. Have they gone mad

Praps they are thinking that because it's student land, there may be some folk up for it. If those student flats were build on Bennetts field, they may get a few regulars (although a student discount would need to be inteoduced )

 

[amexer]

Whos going to silent discos Quiz and Fathers day event

 

[Chicken Run]

Whos going to silent discos

Say again

 

[jackalbion]

Great piece in this months Dogma refers to the terrace as a ‘retina burning adult play pen‘

I wonder who came up with that phrase...

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Whos going to Fathers day event

Fathers? Just a shot in the dark.

 

[Justice]

Whos going to silent discos Quiz and Fathers day event

Wouldn’t that be a surprise for the fathers

 

[Doc Lynam]

No one’s answered as of yet but does building the Terrace increase our on book assets as a club thus increasing our PSR limit?

 

[Motogull]

Hurrah, volume turned down a bit.

 

[London Irish]

Completely forgotten about it - just a load of crowds for the sake of it

 

[Hamilton]

Praps they are thinking that because it's student land, there may be some folk up for it. If those student flats were build on Bennetts field, they may get a few regulars (although a student discount would need to be inteoduced )

There’s a student union bar. Unless the beer is significantly cheaper then I doubt they’ll go there.

I can’t believe they’ve built it for any other reason than to maximize event day revenue.

If they are relying on non-event day revenue then they’re in for a shock. It’s Charlie Chalks on Acid.

 

[BNthree]

Nothing against The Terrace at all (I get a drink there most matches so far) but was pleased to see both The Swan and the fish and chip stall doing good business yesterday. Hopefully there's still room for these independent businesses along side the Terrace too.

 

[Bozza]

It feels to me as though they are struggling on non-matchdays, home and away, but I say that fully appreciative that they are very much in an experimental phase as they seek to find out what works, and what doesn't.

It's inevitable that some things won't work, and that's completely fine - it's all part of the process.

But the end-of-season awards event was cancelled as only a handful of tickets had sold, I think a number of Stand or Fall screenings were cancelled/consolidated, most of the tickets available for this Friday's Zamora & Butters event remain unsold, and I'm not sure a single ticket has sold yet for the sports quiz in June.

I'm not surprised about the apparent low demand for the latter - I think a lot of people will be in close season mode and wanting a break from most things Albion-y.

It might be the case that the out-of-town location, even though it's just a short train journey from central Brighton, works against it for non-matchday Albion events. I know sitting here in Worthing, it just feels a bit of a ballache to go there for a midweek evening event if I want to have a drink and use public transport.

To be clear, I'm not trying to be negative about The Terrace at all - it's a fantastic facility, and a great addition to the Amex, and it will be interesting to see what type of events work and have broad fan appeal.

The Butters and Bobby event has disappeared now. There were a lot of tickets still available, so I'm guessing it's also been cancelled now.

It doesn't look like there have been any ticket sales for Crooky's Sports Quiz, so it's difficult to see that not going the same way.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The Derby and/or Royal Ascot looks a potential starter event. Champagne, Pimms, Best Dressed Man/Women etc. If memory serves, the stadium wifi doesn't allow access to betting sites, tho I'm sure there's a solution to be found there. Maybe worth a crack?

 

[Gazwag]

The Derby and/or Royal Ascot looks a potential starter event. Champagne, Pimms, Best Dressed Man/Women etc. If memory serves, the stadium wifi doesn't allow access to betting sites, tho I'm sure there's a solution to be found there. Maybe worth a crack?

With only a few 100 people you could just use the 4/5G signal rather than the wifi

 

[HangletonGull]

I went “upstairs “ on Monday can I say how completely different it is , if I go there from now it will only be up there

 

[Weststander]

The Derby and/or Royal Ascot looks a potential starter event. Champagne, Pimms, Best Dressed Man/Women etc. If memory serves, the stadium wifi doesn't allow access to betting sites, tho I'm sure there's a solution to be found there. Maybe worth a crack?

Henley, Cowdray Park polo, the Braemar Games … plenty of dates to fill the venue for Platinum cardholders.

 

[Man of Harveys]

They’ve built the wrong kind of place haven’t they?

They’ve built somewhere whose layout and design appears to be based largely on those shots a few years back of people picturesquely luzzing their beer up in the air when England score. Fine, there’s totally a market for a vibe like that at times.

But for these nicer more intimate events with former players etc you need somewhere that’s actually a much nicer environment than Boxpark at East Croydon station, that you’d want to sit in and relax - more like a nice comfy plush sports bar, with proper tables and seats, some screens etc. not some big empty box with overcrowded serving hatches, vast dazzling screens and nothing much else.

As to what this says about how the average fan is seen by some of the decision makers, well I couldn’t possibly comment. But we are Brighton, not those Tottenham animals acting like chavs in Spain: truth is that many of us are rather used to a bit of class, frankly.

 

[Titanic]

They’ve built the wrong kind of place haven’t they?

They’ve built somewhere whose layout and design appears to be based largely on those shots a few years back of people picturesquely luzzing their beer up in the air when England score. Fine, there’s totally a market for a vibe like that at times.

But for these nicer more intimate events with former players etc you need somewhere that’s actually a much nicer environment than Boxpark at East Croydon station, that you’d want to sit in and relax - more like a nice comfy plush sports bar, with proper tables and seats, some screens etc. not some big empty box with overcrowded serving hatches, vast dazzling screens and nothing much else.

As to what this says about how the average fan is seen by some of the decision makers, well I couldn’t possibly comment. But we are Brighton, not those Tottenham animals acting like chavs in Spain: truth is that many of us are rather used to a bit of class, frankly.

They have already got loads of those around the stadium. I think it comes down to location for most events. I can't imaging what would have me travelling to Falmer for an 'event'... and it looks like they are still working out what might attract some interest, beyond the very successful matchdays and beambacks.