Serious Question....

[CheeseRolls]

So many ifs and buts. What is clear is that Archer and Stanley drained a lot of cash from the club, pushed it to the brink of extinction and left it with no realisable assets. Opportunities at the Goldstone Ground would have been limited for sure, but you could argue that we could have matched the current facilities at London Road for example.

It does not then take a huge leap of imagination to move from a dilapidated Goldstone to Falmer, missing out the financial underpinning provided by the Knight board and the huge input of the loyal troops, who made this happen through Gillingham and the Withdean years.

 

[W.C.]

It's hard to remember just how shit those times were.

For me, being abroad it was relatively easy, but there were times, when we'd had another setback, that I genuinely believed we would never see the Amex.

 

[Chris001]

Good question,

Interesting question. Part of me thinks that Bloom is such an astute guy that he would have tapped into the huge and at the time unrealised Albion fan base regardless i.e. had the Goldstone not been sold when it was he would have still stepped in and dragged us up to our current position but via a different route and set of circumstances. That said I am proud of what we achieved and an quite happy we have the histroy we have; it makes us different and makes us a proper club using the term club in the broadest sense. A few months back I was listening to the birthday celebrations of Radio 6 and Jarvis Cocker said that, whilst it is cheesy, Radio 6 are truly owe everything to their listeners. He added many stations say they only exist because of their audience but Radio 6's listeners actually campaigned to save the station from the axe. Same with us; we only exist because of us and that includes Bloom.

Couldn't have said anything better than this.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The Colchester model, suggested by Hamilton, could have been our fate - at best.

 

[Brovion]

Interesting question. Part of me thinks that Bloom is such an astute guy that he would have tapped into the huge and at the time unrealised Albion fan base regardless i.e. had the Goldstone not been sold when it was he would have still stepped in and dragged us up to our current position but via a different route and set of circumstances. That said I am proud of what we achieved and an quite happy we have the histroy we have; it makes us different and makes us a proper club using the term club in the broadest sense. A few months back I was listening to the birthday celebrations of Radio 6 and Jarvis Cocker said that, whilst it is cheesy, Radio 6 are truly owe everything to their listeners. He added many stations say they only exist because of their audience but Radio 6's listeners actually campaigned to save the station from the axe. Same with us; we only exist because of us and that includes Bloom.

Possibly, but the reasons here were pretty nefarious, and not part of some great beneficial masterplan.

All I would say is, while echoing the sentiments of many on this thread, if we had remained at The Goldstone, I believe we would have had virtually zero chance of getting the stadium as Falmer.

I think these two posts sum it up for me. We would never have got so many people/organisations onside for Falmer if we were still at the Goldstone, indeed a large part of our own fanbase would have opposed the move and would have wanted us to stay at our ancestral home. However it's obviously not a question of 'thanking' Archer et al for the role they played in our history, rather like it's not a case of 'thanking' the IRA for the role they played in helping to re-develop the Arndale Centre in Manchester or the Grand Hotel in Brighton. A number of factors have combined to get us where we are today, and not all of those factors were positive.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

The OP, as most on here agree, has posed a very good question.

Perverse as it may seem, the underhand way in which the ground was sold from under the supporters' feet helped us all in the long run. The circumstances of our eviction galvanised the fanbase who went on to create the template for supporters' protest. We have been blessed to have so many dedicated and talented people to drive the project along. However, it was ultimately underpinned by the thousands who gave voice to it and hence a national profile, which was badly needed to defeat the NIMBY impulse. Without that so much of what has followed would have been impossible.

And odd as it may seem, I suspect that thousands of us enjoyed the protests, the whistles, walkouts and marches. How many of us only really discovered how much we loved the club during the wilderness years? I know I did.

Could not have put it better.

 

[East Preston Gull]

Great question!

I have looked back and thought the same. It was the making of the club and it united the fans in a way that no other club will ever understand!

The scummy trio of spivs will not get any thanks from me but we are in a better place now than we would of been if we had stayed at the goldstone!

I remember from 1996 to 2008.Mr Stanley could still not leave his car unattended for very long in East Preston, his gopher driver was often seen removing paint from the bonnet! One day someone had sprayed "56 pound and 25p rip off mug" down the side!

We won in the end.