[Albion] Why do so many of our fans think we are still a 'small club'?

[GT49er]

There must be areas of Sussex well away from Brighton that not that many kids are Albion fans.

Crawley??

 

[afters]

I was once reliably informed by one of his advisers that TB was worth between 2 and 3 billion. We are not a small club, but it suits us to act that way

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Like almost every sequel, Mustafa II is pretty SHITEHOUSE, no?

 

[Triggaaar]

The whole big club, little club etc thing is utterly meaningless.

Indeed. If we wanted to support a big club, we'd be like all the other plastic united fans.

The whole point of football for me, is to support your local team. In Scotland people generally support Rangers or Celtic, meaning the rest of their clubs have very little support, and their whole game suffers as a result. The reason football in England is better than anywhere else in the world, is because people like us support our local team. Teams in the Championship get great crowds, and as a result they get good money to get decent players and watch a good standard of football. I pity glory hunters.

 

[BadFish]

I don’t think this is true at all. Leeds and other similar clubs have loads of fans today who were glory-hunters in the 70’s. We have picked up so many middle-aged fans who have young kids and started watching us to watch some decent live football, either as its local and to see some big clubs in the flesh, or because they weren’t prepared to spend hundreds of pounds every time to take them to their historical clubs of Chelsea / Spurs / Arsenal / whoever. Those kids are now proper Albion fans, and a large percentage of their parents have fallen in love as well. I’m sure some would desert us if we went down, as with any team, but I’d be amazed if a huge amount of them did.

I have a good mate who is from Chesterfield and grew up with a season ticket at Anfield, alternating each week with Chesterfield with his Dad, and who has been to hundreds of Liverpool games (including Hillsborough). He moved down here and started taking his kid to watch Brighton to watch some live football a couple of seasons ago. He is now all-in and is planning on going to Anfield in March for the Albion game… in the away end.

Yes fair point and perhaps I was a little over the top. Just not sure the big/small club thing stands up. What eve measure you use if flawed.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Crawley??

Yes I would definitely say Crawley.

 

[BadFish]

For most of my life we have been a small club. It was a rarity to come across another Albion fan, even in Brighton. We were absolutely a small club and the whole footballing world would agree - those that would have heard of us anyway.

Categorising us as a small club because of lack trophies is ridiculous - under that logic, Old Etonians FC is a bigger club than us - and they would continue to be even if we finished 2nd in the Premier League consecutively over the next few seasons.

Similarly, deciding that a random Saudi team is a big club all of a sudden because it has a billion pound wage budget, despite 2,000 attendees to its games, is ridiculous.

A football club IS its fans - and our fan base is no longer a small one.

To me can base is not a great measure either as the size of fan bases changes with success.

I agree with your points and see them as further evidence that the big/small club thing is a nonsense. Football is about on field success and should be measured so.

 

[Dibdab]

Back to the main and actual question posed on the thread title. We are not a small club and it took a while for a lot of our fanbase with understandable PTSD from the dark years to get comfortable allowing themselves to think we can compete with the leagues very best sides.

On the other hand we are a long way from being a big club. Load of teams filling the championship and some league one places have all had a good dose of time in the Premier League sun and had relative cycles of success over the last 20-30 years then find themselves eventually sucked back down. Southampton had an owner similar to Bloom at one stage and comparable success for a couple of years and that shows just how fragile our reliance on TB could prove to be if heaven forbid anything bad happened.

 

[birthofanorange]

Indeed. If we wanted to support a big club, we'd be like all the other plastic united fans.

The whole point of football for me, is to support your local team. In Scotland people generally support Rangers or Celtic, meaning the rest of their clubs have very little support, and their whole game suffers as a result. The reason football in England is better than anywhere else in the world, is because people like us support our local team. Teams in the Championship get great crowds, and as a result they get good money to get decent players and watch a good standard of football. I pity glory hunters.

Absolutely this.
I was born here ( as was my dad) and it would have been unthinkable to him (and subsequently to me), to support anyone other than your local team, despite the trappings of the 'big clubs'.
Sadly, having lost him earlier this year, he never got to see us finishing 6th, nor (somehow) finishing top of our group in Europe.
I know he'd be so happy to have seen that, and I hope he also knows how happy I am for what the club has achieved.
UTA

 

[BadFish]

Back to the main and actual question posed on the thread title. We are not a small club and it took a while for a lot of our fanbase with understandable PTSD from the dark years to get comfortable allowing themselves to think we can compete with the leagues very best sides.

On the other hand we are a long way from being a big club. Load of teams filling the championship and some league one places have all had a good dose of time in the Premier League sun and had relative cycles of success over the last 20-30 years then find themselves eventually sucked back down. Southampton had an owner similar to Bloom at one stage and comparable success for a couple of years and that shows just how fragile our reliance on TB could prove to be if heaven forbid anything bad happened.

Agreed, it is a change in ownership rather than manager that we should be worries about in terms of a change in our fortunes. Swansea is the precedent for this.

 

[herecomesaregular]

We're not anymore... and we probably never will be again.

Not reading past the op tbf because this is not something I ever think about, personally, or have ever had a conversation with someone about.... I mean really who would honestly care about this?!!

 

[Silverhatch]

Being a big club is about success. Simple as that.

Newcastle?

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Newcastle?

Brown Ale ?

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I can't speak for everyone but I've been watching the Albion for about 35 years, and probably two thirds of that has been spent watching crap football in the lower half of the Football League, in front of 2,000 at Gillingham, or 6,000 at Withdean, or 5,000 in the darker days of the Goldstone's history.

You might consider it backward looking to remember that so clearly. Personally I think it ensures some of us will never, ever take our current position for granted.

While I agree with your general point I just want to point out that we've spent 19 of the last 35 years in the top two divisions. So some of the crap football was at a higher level than you remember!

That actually extends to 29 of the last 50 years so anyone under 60 would struggle to put us in a particular division. This is our longest single spell in one division since 65-72(div 3). Next year will be our longest spell since we first changed divisions in 58.

Its a bit off topic but I find it interesting and maybe goes a little way to explaining the varying takes on where we stand in the footballing firmament.

 

[Brok]

While I agree with your general point I just want to point out that we've spent 19 of the last 35 years in the top two divisions. So some of the crap football was at a higher level than you remember!

That actually extends to 29 of the last 50 years so anyone under 60 would struggle to put us in a particular division. This is our longest single spell in one division since 65-72(div 3). Next year will be our longest spell since we first changed divisions in 58.

Its a bit off topic but I find it interesting and maybe goes a little way to explaining the varying takes on where we stand in the footballing firmament.

Fun fact... Since 1958 our average position is 46th.
Blimey, it's been a bit of a journey.

 

[Brovion]

We're not anymore... and we probably never will be again.

We are a small club because we have a small ground.

We are bigger than we were though.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Fun fact... Since 1958 our average position is 46th.
Blimey, it's been a bit of a journey.

So a few more years in the premier league could see us promoted to the all time championship? Big time here we come!

 

[Hamilton]

Indeed. If we wanted to support a big club, we'd be like all the other plastic united fans.

The whole point of football for me, is to support your local team. In Scotland people generally support Rangers or Celtic, meaning the rest of their clubs have very little support, and their whole game suffers as a result. The reason football in England is better than anywhere else in the world, is because people like us support our local team. Teams in the Championship get great crowds, and as a result they get good money to get decent players and watch a good standard of football. I pity glory hunters.

You could say that every club is a big club to the committed fan that supports them.

 

[Hamilton]

Fun fact... Since 1958 our average position is 46th.
Blimey, it's been a bit of a journey.

So at present we are Derby County.

 

[Brok]

So at present we are Derby County.

Bolton?