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Amex Stadium
Brighton & Hove Albion's Long Road Home
Andy Greeves
The front cover of Brighton & Hove Albion's programme for their friendly against Tottenham Hotspur, which marked the official opening of the new American Express Community Stadium (or Amex Stadium), carried a rather poignant song line from one of the club's most famous supporters. 'We've come a long, long way together', read the publication's strap line, taken of course 'Praise You' by Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook.
'Through the hard times and the good' is how the lyrics to that particular song continue and my word, have Brighton & Hove Albion known some hard times over the past few decades. It was way back on April 26, 1997 when Brighton played their last game at their last permanent home - the Goldstone Ground. The stadium was sold at the end of the season to try and clear the club's mounting debts but was done so without consulting the fans. The Goldstone was demolished by property developers and has since been turned into a retail park.
Since then the club had essentially been homeless. The subsequent years saw the Albion ground share with Gillingham at their Priestfield Stadium, over 70 miles from Brighton, for two seasons. Thereafter, they spent 12 years in a 'temporary' home in the Preston Park area of the city, called the Withdean Stadium. The fans campaigned for a new stadium but such was the delay, some never thought the day would come that Brighton & Hove Albion would finally build a permanent home in the city.
"It's been a difficult time, almost the point where a lot of people had given up hope," says Liz Costa of the Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters Association. "It has also been one of the most incredible bonding exercises any club has ever been through though. What we achieved, which few clubs in a difficult situation like us have managed, is to galvanise our support. Ever club has at least three or four very disparate groups within it and we've managed to unite them. From an early stage, the kind of supporters who would usually cross the road to avoid one another become friends as we all wanted the same thing."
The DJ and record producer Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, agrees that the supporter solidarity and determination to get a permanent home in the city was crucial to finally getting the facility the Albion have today.
"We only got through this ordeal by everyone maintaining the belief that we'd one day get our new stadium," said Cook, speaking exclusively to Soccerphile. "In 1997, we were a football club without a home and were only a goal away from going out of the Football League. Now we have been promoted to the Championship, we have a phenomenal new home and a bright, young manager."
The future looks bright for Brighton. And the new stadium? Well, that is something else.
Located in the Falmer area of Brighton, next to Sussex University and the University of Brighton campuses, the arena is a triumph not only for the club, but football and architecture too. This is not one of those 'replica kit' arenas that are all too common across the UK. This is a stadium with a real identity.
"I've been visiting the Falmer site from the day we first put a shovel into the group to now," smiles Cook. "I've never followed the progress of a building being constructed before and it's almost a bit like watching a baby grow. This thing you are attached to keeps getting bigger and more impressive. Now it's one of the finest arenas in English football and for all the people who didn't want this stadium to be built, I don't hear them anymore. Everyone I have spoken too just says 'wow'. That's really the only way you can sum up this incredible place. It's like Wembley but smaller."
"Every single seat in the ground is padded, even those for the visiting supporters," adds Liz Costa. "They are the same seats being used in the VIP section only at the Olympic Stadium. That gives you an idea of how hi-spec this stadium is. Martin Perry, Chief Executive and Project Manager for the new stadium consulted closely with our Supporters Association at every stage of the design process and it means we have got a lot of features we really wanted."
A section of the South Downs, an area of outstanding natural beauty, was excavated in order for the stadium's impact on the local scenery to be minimised. Those who walk to the stadium across the rural area of Woodingdean can see just how well this arena is incorporated into its surroundings. The stadium itself is dominated by the three-tier West Stand and the other stands have roofs at different levels, which all link up to give a sweeping and unusual looking design. From the air, the arena has oval appearance, which is surely the only stadium of that shape in English football.
The current stadium capacity is 22,500, but all being well the club will be able to increase this to 30,000. The ground has been designed so a second tier can easily be installed on the West Stand and corners of the arena, currently empty, can also be filled in to raise capacity.
"Key to raising the current capacity will be the transport arrangements currently in place for arena with 22,500 people," says Liz Costa. "If they all work smoothly, then the design of the stadium is such that the additional seats can be added easily. Access to the stadium for regular supporters is by train, park & ride, bus or coach only. This ensures there won't be the congestion many expected around the local roads and it's also an environmentally friendly way of getting there.
"The very fact we are even talking about raising capacity after only just moving into our new stadium shows that the club is looking positively to the future and we are not looking back to failure, we are looking ahead to success."
The entertaining 'opening match' with Tottenham Hotspur ended in a 3-2 defeat for Albion. Ashley Barnes scored the opener for the Seagulls making him the first official goalscorer in the new stadium (although it must be pointed out that former Brighton hero Gary Hart scored the very first goal in the stadium during the 2-0 Sussex Senior Cup Final win over Eastbourne Borough a few days earlier). Younes Kaboul, Vedran Corluka and Jake Livermore got Spurs' goals, while Kazenga Lua Lua, on loan from Newcastle United, also netted for the Seagulls.
The result was irrelevant though - the only thing that mattered was the fact that Brighton & Hove Albion had arrived home for good in a stadium which should be their future foundation for success.
"With all the optimism coursing around the Albion at the moment, there are many who think we can achieve back-to-back promotion and go straight into the Premier League," says Cook. "My thoughts are we are hopefully a Premiership club in the making rather than being bound for instant promotion. The most important thing for Brighton & Hove Albion is to have some stability, which we've been crying out for years. The stadium has brought us that stability.
"Every time we have had a manager who has shown promise or a really talented player, inevitably we have lost them. Managers in the past have eventually become disillusioned at the lack of facilities or stadium. But with a new training ground and new stadium, so long as everything is heading in the right direction there shouldn't be any reason that our bright, young manager Gus Poyet would want to leave. We've finally got the foundations to build for the future."
Fittingly, Brighton's first home league game is against Doncaster Rovers - the side who of course provided the last opposition for them at the Goldstone Ground. "Methinks someone at the Football League might have had a say in that fixture," grins Cook.
And the final word goes to Fatboy Slim, as his beloved Brighton & Hove Albion and their supporters have finally completed their long, long way together to the Amex Stadium.
"It's been an emotional and protracted path to where we are today," he says. "It is only looking back now that we've achieved our goal of the new stadium that you realise how long it took to get what we wanted. It was so painfully slow and we really went through everything a football club possibly could to make it disappear. There are other clubs that would have folded if they had been through what we did, I have no doubt about that.
"The opening of this new ground was the day I'd dreamt of for over a decade. Besides the birth of my children I don't think I've ever looked forward to something so much. I recently went to a play called 'Albion 'Till I Die', which told the story of our emotional roller coaster from losing the Goldstone Ground to moving into the Amex Stadium. There were people in the audience crying and that says it all. As we all know, and as is eluded to in the play, the only constant in football is the fans. The players, managers, directors etc all come and go but we stay for life. There's nobody who this means more to as the Seagulls' fans."
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