Brighton AwaydazeOur visit to Brighton and Hove Albion is on Saturday at 3pm, and if you‘re planning a trip to the South Coast, then read on.
You’ll find Withdean about two miles north of Brighton town centre. It's a long story how Brighton came to be playing in a council-owned athletics stadium. The Goldstone Ground had been Brighton's home since 1902, but by the 1990s it had fallen into a state of some disrepair and it would have taken a lot of work to bring it up to the standards demanded by the Taylor Report. Instead, the owner of Focus DIY had the bright idea of selling the ground for his own gain and bought his place on the board for just over £50! The Goldstone ground was sold for £7 million by the club and then re-sold again shortly afterwards for £22 million! So hard-up Brighton had to play their home games at Gillingham for two years, before returning to the only available site in the town in 1999, having to spend £2m to bring Withdean up to Football League standard.
Parking is extremely limited around the ground, with most streets being restricted to residents only, so the best bet if you're driving in on the A23 is to use the park & ride from the Mill Road, which is about a mile north of the ground. To find it, turn right at the first roundabout you come to on the outskirts of Brighton and go under a small railway bridge. Brighton’s official website says that this park and ride will be operating as normal, despite the road itself being closed. Your ticket will include a travel voucher which entitles you to free use of this service, as well as local public transport.
The nearest railway station to Withdean is Preston Park, which is on the main line from London Victoria and only 10 minutes walk from the ground. If you're getting the train from London you only need to buy a ticket to Haywards Heath, as the voucher on your ticket is valid for the rest of the journey. Just for once, Network Rail haven’t managed to schedule their engineering work for the day of our visit, so we will have the rare luxury of being able to go all the way by train, rather than having to put up with rail replacement buses.
The pubs near the ground get crowded on matchdays, but you could try the Sportsman behind the North Stand, the Preston Brewery Tap a mile south of the stadium on the A23, or the Black Lion opposite the park and ride site. Otherwise you could drink in the centre of Brighton and get the bus up to Preston Park. No alcohol will be sold within the ground, though there will be the luxury of a few fast food outlets.
The away fans section consists of 900 seats in the ‘temporary’ West Stand, which is uncovered and set back behind the running track. Since our first visit they have added some extra seats at this end, which have brought the total capacity up 8,850. Brighton’s official website is at pains to point out that they are complying with League regulations by giving the visitors 10% of the capacity, but they also give the usual dire warnings that any Leeds fans found in any of the home stands will be ejected. In any case, they are only selling home tickets to fans who are already on the club’s database, and none will be on sale on the day of the game. Ticket prices for away fans are adults £23.00, senior citizens £15.00 and under 16's £13.50.
The good news for the future is that after four years of wrangling and a legal challenge from Lewes council, the Club have finally been given permission by Central Government to build a new 22,000 capacity stadium at Falmer on the north-eastern outskirts of Brighton. The contractors have now taken possession of the site and they should begin construction in the next month, so the Club’s new home is ready for the start of the 2010/11 season. So if we’re still in a low enough division to play Brighton in a few years time, at least we can look forward to getting a decent allocation of tickets.
Some of the above came from
http://www.footballgroundguide.comtoellandback.org
