That'll do nicely?

So it's the American Express Community Stadium, then. That may be what it's going to be named, but debate has already started about what it'll actually be called. Married friends of mine got used to calling the growing bump which advertised the wife's pregnancy 'George', so by the time the little'un turned up, that was his name by default. Fortunately George was a unisex name - they'd have had to think quickly if they'd called the bump 'Derek' and it turned out to be a girl. Anyway, I digress.

Some argue on North Stand Chat that the name 'Falmer', which will no doubt stick for some in the same way George did for my friends, is too redolent of the past. It carries the faint whiff of the NIMBYs we fought for planning permission, of years of homelessness, groping around in the darkness of the bottom of League Two with the worst team we'd ever had, tryers though they all were, bless 'em. They want to look forwards, not backwards, and urge the adoption of the name, pointing out that American Express has a long-standing presence in Brighton, and that we need to cast off our old campaign clothing and put on our finest in our new home.

I'm happy to accept this argument, and am all for looking forward to a better future for the club, but would say that we shouldn't be too quick to forget where we've come from, or how long it's taken to get there, once we move in. ONLY looking forward, forgetting the dark days and how close we came to losing the club, can only lead to inflated expectations, complacency and a blind trust in those in charge. I'm not saying that Tony Bloom is anything other than a genuine fan with the club's best interests at heart and everything he's done so far indicates that's exactly what he is, particularly stumping up the wedge for the ground. I'm just saying that, for example, when it was convenient, the club cheerfully cast aside the Article of Association preventing it being owned entirely by one individual, an Article drawn up and implemented to prevent a repeat of the mendacity of previous owners being possible. I have absolutely no doubt that Tony Bloom is nothing like the men we fought so hard to be rid of, I'm just saying that, with the Goldstone long gone, the recent past and the struggle for the club's survival is part of our heritage, and should not be forgotten quite so readily.

You can, of course, call it what you want - it'll still be miles better than we've put up with since 1997, but I suspect I'll still be calling it Falmer, out of habit as much as for what I've said above.

We've gotta get outta this place

I wrote the piece below mid 2008/9 season, when we were struggling hugely under Russell Slade and looked doomed to the drop to League Two. Since then, things have improved dramatically and we now know the theoretical final ever opponents at Withdean, play-offs and construction delays notwithstanding. So while the mood of Brighton fans may be considerably more optimistic than it was when I wrote it, the sentiment remains - with Falmer now the most exciting building site I've ever seen, we can't wait to get out of Withdean.

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There was a time, during the back-to-back championships of Leagues Two and One, when Brighton fans almost came to love Withdean. ‘The’ Withdean as it’s mistakenly been called by so many, became a fortress during seasons 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. Just 3 league games were lost in that heady two year period in the Albion’s temporary home, as they charged from the nadir of consecutive near relegations to the Conference, to the nosebleed heights of the Championship.

Conventional wisdom had it that opposing teams did not like the cramped, austere Portakabin changing rooms, the open nature of the ground with no stands behind either goal, and the weird continental style running track around the pitch. Whatever it was, 112 points out of a possible 138 at home over those two seasons meant most fans, at least temporarily, were happy to be there. It wasn’t the Goldstone of course, but it would do, as long as the protracted planning process for the new stadium at Falmer at least crawled forwards.

A different story now though. The progressing construction work on the new stadium is finally a reality, though now the enormous hole in the ground where the stadium will sit seems almost to mock the faithful, the impressive CGIs a tantalising vision of what’s in store in the future, providing of course their faith can survive the stringent test that the team, and Withdean, seem intent on putting them through.

Just four home wins so far this season have seen the team slip seemingly inexorably into the relegation mire, the prospect of League Two football, and its dreaded trapdoor out of the league, a reality again. The team simply can’t win home games, no matter how hard the players try, no matter what combinations of loanees, different formations, new signings, new managers even, have a go at turning a disastrous season round.

And how sick the fans are of the stadium now. This season’s home wins tally is by no means unique. Two seasons ago, the club would have been relegated but for their excellent away record, nine away wins compensating for a paltry five wins at Withdean. Dean Wilkins seemed to have cured the home sickness with an improved return the following season,
12 home wins leaving the team just short of the play-offs. Whatever Wilkins did to improve things at home, his unexpected departure and the Messianic return of Mickey Adams quickly brought a return to form; bad form. Adams departed quickly, and his successor Russell Slade has so far seen his charges win only one of the home games he’s presided over.

Fans’ patience has all but expired with this strange, lopsided, largely uncovered and acoustically poor mish-mash of temporary seating, temporary buildings and temporary ambience. The fans don’t want to be there, the local residents don’t want them there, the members of the sports club which occupied the stadium long before the football club did, don’t want them there.

Albion are due to move into the Community Stadium at Falmer in 2011. Even though many fans will still only believe it when they see the team run out for the curtain-raiser, and the fact that increasingly there’s a chance they may do so as a League Two team, those glorious days of expecting the team to win at Withdean as they stormed to those two titles seems a very, very long way away. Falmer can’t come soon enough.