premiere football at the amex!

[Triggaaar]

What the biggest capacity we would need on a regular basis if we were to reach and stay in the prem?

That's a bizarre question. Teams like Sunderland have had plenty of support and not been able to stay in the premiership. To practically guarantee premiership survival you need the revenue that comes with massive crowds - we need not apply. However 30k is enough to give us a decent chance of staying up long term, we could have averages higher than teams like Bolton.

Not sure we can expand beyond 30k without quite a lot of hassle.

While those roofs aren't moving, you could easily bunch the seats up a bit for an extra couple of thousand - they're all fixed to runners, so easy to move.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

The Amex's maximum capacity, after expansion, is around 30,500. That's it. It cannot be increased anymore after that.

 

[Paddy B]

Bizarre comments in this thread and it's typical of some of our (I am guessing) younger fans who think we are going to be a force in the Prem in no time and playing in Europe!? Get real lads! Sure things are good at the moment but look at the top 10 attendances in the Prem in the earlier post. It's no coincidence that they are the Top 10 clubs in the country and we will NEVER be anywhere near as big as them. I believe we can aspire (in a few years) to be as big as Stoke or Bolton who have done incredibly well but 40,000 capacity!?!

 

[Triggaaar]

The Amex's maximum capacity, after expansion, is around 30,500. That's it. It cannot be increased anymore after that.

Says who? That's what we are planning to extend to, but seats could be moved if you wanted more.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Says who? That's what we are planning to extend to, but seats could be moved if you wanted more.

The club. The plans are to put seats in the corners and to add the tier to the east but after that the stadium's capacity cannot be increased.

 

[Return of the Rev]

The club. The plans are to put seats in the corners and to add the tier to the east but after that the stadium's capacity cannot be increased.

 

[MrShaun15]

Says who? That's what we are planning to extend to, but seats could be moved if you wanted more.

this is true, the club have said so

 

[Return of the Rev]

Bizarre comments in this thread and it's typical of some of our (I am guessing) younger fans who think we are going to be a force in the Prem in no time and playing in Europe!? Get real lads! Sure things are good at the moment but look at the top 10 attendances in the Prem in the earlier post. It's no coincidence that they are the Top 10 clubs in the country and we will NEVER be anywhere near as big as them. I believe we can aspire (in a few years) to be as big as Stoke or Bolton who have done incredibly well but 40,000 capacity!?!

We have a huge catchment area in the south east and with other premiere clubs over pricing the tickets we would be in a great position to pull in top crowds!
Away fans would rather take a trip to brighton than bolton or stoke! Having stood at the goldstone with over 34,000 for a tuesday night game v rochdale(handful of away fans) and several thousand locked out! In the third tier of the football league i'm sure we could pull in between 30k and 40k

 

[The Large One]

We've never had 40,000 at home ever. We took 28,000 to Cardiff - that's the marker.

What on earth makes anyone think we can rustle up an extra 20,000 fans from.... somewhere?

 

[Return of the Rev]

We've never had 40,000 at home ever. We took 28,000 to Cardiff - that's the marker.

What on earth makes anyone think we can rustle up an extra 20,000 fans from.... somewhere?

We had 35k to 36k turn up for a promo game in the third tier in 3rd rate stadium(no away fans) i think a game against chelsea could provide up to 10k away fans! Think big sir!

 

[Guy Fawkes]

We have a huge catchment area in the south east and with other premiere clubs over pricing the tickets we would be in a great position to pull in top crowds!
Away fans would rather take a trip to brighton than bolton or stoke! Having stood at the goldstone with over 34,000 for a tuesday night game v rochdale(handful of away fans) and several thousand locked out! In the third tier of the football league i'm sure we could pull in between 30k and 40k

So far the away teams in the Championship that have visited the Amex have brought about 1400 fans.

Go up a level and i don't see clubs like Bolton, Wigan, Stoke etc bringing that many more as fans have to be selective on which games they go to. Other clubs in the PL don't necessarily turn away several thousand away fans due to lack of capacity. There are only potentially a couple of games where you could attract large numbers of away fans but their fans may prefer to go to games against say the top 4 or local derbies than travelling a long distance to watch a single game. You could end up with a large but fairly empty away section

 

[Guy Fawkes]

We've never had 40,000 at home ever. We took 28,000 to Cardiff - that's the marker.

What on earth makes anyone think we can rustle up an extra 20,000 fans from.... somewhere?

not only that but to get them to go consistantly to make the added seats worthwhile

 

[Guy Fawkes]

The club. The plans are to put seats in the corners and to add the tier to the east but after that the stadium's capacity cannot be increased.

So you don't think that was a ploy by the club during the planning process to help us to get planning permission. The thought of having a ground with a capacity of 35k could well have put off the planning authorities from granting permission and added to the anti Falmer brigade

We were only given permission for a stadium with a capacity of 23,500 so the club couldn't come out and say well the stadium has been designed for 35k fans could they, they were reluctant to even confirm that the stadium could be expanded to 30k if permissions are aquired.

They do have the option to move seats closer together to fit in extra seats should they feel its needed to expand capacity on top of filling the corners / adding to the East stand but the same problem exists which is due to the stadiums location, transport links are the issue (getting fans to and from the game in a timely fashion) rather than an inability to add capacity.

 

[Return of the Rev]

So you don't think that was a ploy by the club during the planning process to help us to get planning permission. The thought of having a ground with a capacity of 35k could well have put off the planning authorities from granting permission and added to the anti Falmer brigade

We were only given permission for a stadium with a capacity of 23,500 so the club couldn't come out and say well the stadium has been designed for 35k fans could they, they were reluctant to even confirm that the stadium could be expanded to 30k if permissions are aquired.

They do have the option to move seats closer together to fit in extra seats should they feel its needed to expand capacity on top of filling the corners / adding to the East stand but the same problem exists which is due to the stadiums location, transport links are the issue (getting fans to and from the game in a timely fashion) rather than an inability to add capacity.

Correct! Thats why supporting the newly formed supporters clubs is a way forward! The mid sussex gulls have sold out all coaches for league games and cup games so far! Looks like another 77 seater might be required next season as we already have a waiting list! Fantastic support from mid sussex albion fans! It looks like coach travel will play a vital part in the transport network! Well done to nwss and burwash who are also running coaches!

 

[ees complicated no?]

Last figure is average attendance With 30k we would be mid table.



1 Manchester United 150,946 75,473
2 Arsenal 60,090 60,090
3 Sunderland 47,751 47,751
4 Manchester City 46,802 46,802
5 Liverpool 89,743 44,871
6 Newcastle United 89,578 44,789
7 Chelsea 82,856 41,428
8 Tottenham Hotspur 36,150 36,150
9 Everton 35,008 35,008
10 Aston Villa 63,095 31,547
11 Stoke City 27,421 27,421
12 Norwich City 26,272 26,272
13 Fulham 25,700 25,700
14 Bolton Wanderers 24,273 24,273
15 West Bromwich Albion 48,269 24,134
16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 22,657 22,657
17 Blackburn Rovers 44,822 22,411
18 Swansea City 38,966 19,483
19 Wigan Athletic 34,679 17,339
20 Queens Park Rangers 15,195 15,195

Id 30k would look like a pos then more maybe in the future, as if you look at the teams on the list they are all near each other in one way or another distance wise i.e. the london clubs all close, manchester clubs and so on, so if we carry on growing with the fan bass and carry on with high season ticket sales then the 30k looks like a real pos as we have no real competators near by like other teams. Its just about coverting the plastics to go to home games instead of ' there team ' on sky, and new fans with families

 

[brightn'ove]

Easy.

If we need more seats after expansion I would assume that we would be doing well in the prem with maybe some Europe experience.

This would mean that we may have shitloads of money to spend!

1. Knock down the amex
2. Buy back goldstone retail park and surrounding houses/businesses.
3. Tell local government to stuff themselves
4. Build 100,000 seater super arena which looks identical to the amex scaled up.
5. Probably go bankrupt

Mm... I'm not sure it would be all that possible to raise the capacity, in reality 'raising the roof' wouldn't help that much, as you need to build backwards in order to accommodate the slant of the added tier and concourse.

I think 30k would be fine.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

You can make all the childish signs you like but that's what I've been told.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

So you don't think that was a ploy by the club during the planning process to help us to get planning permission. The thought of having a ground with a capacity of 35k could well have put off the planning authorities from granting permission and added to the anti Falmer brigade

We were only given permission for a stadium with a capacity of 23,500 so the club couldn't come out and say well the stadium has been designed for 35k fans could they, they were reluctant to even confirm that the stadium could be expanded to 30k if permissions are aquired.

They do have the option to move seats closer together to fit in extra seats should they feel its needed to expand capacity on top of filling the corners / adding to the East stand but the same problem exists which is due to the stadiums location, transport links are the issue (getting fans to and from the game in a timely fashion) rather than an inability to add capacity.

No, no ploy. As I've said, my firm understanding from a discussion with someone inside the club is the capacity can be increased to around 30500-31000 and that's it.

 

[Surf's Up]

The point about this debate is surely that the market has changed significantly since the days of the Goldstone. A combination of the Taylor Report and the commercial success of the Premier League now means that top flight football is now conducted in large well appointed stadia and is no longer the sole domain of the alpha male but is targeted more at the whole family. As a result the demand for seats that exists when a club is even moderately successful is now greater and different in nature. As far as I am aware the club's main strategy for expansion is to fill in the corners and put the extra tier on the East stand with a revised capacity of apx 31k. I also read somewhere that by putting the seats closer together they could increase it by a further 6-8k but that would be absolutely the limit within the constraints of the current building and the travel issue, particularly for evening kick-offs, would have to be resolved.

 

[grawhite]

I believe Brighton have planning permission for up to 35000