Brighton And Hove Albion Football Tour - August 2017

Our Second Day At The South Coast We Spent In Brighton.

Here I am at the Falmer Stadium, known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium or Amex for short.

This stadium opened in 2011.

Last season they won promotion to the Premier League.  So to celebrate the players are having a special training session on the pitch for fans to watch.

I have a bought a special pin to mark my visit to another of the 92 grounds.

The seats are all padded and you have lots of leg space.

Normally training is behind closed doors at a special facility in Lancing.

Time to take the official tour of the stadium.


Guess what?   There were more Coventry City supporters on our tour than Brighton supporters, great!

Hospitality areas first.

One of the banqueting areas.  The ceiling has a wave design to help you remember you are near the sea.

The 1901 club (the year the club was formed) and HB's restaurant named in tribute to Harry Bloom a former vice chairman of the club.

What a great view of the pitch.

One of the executive boxes.  This one is for American Express and it has a whole wall  picture made of credit cards.

Out to the pitch.

Great view!

Time to try some of the seats out at different heights and angles.

Right at the very back.

The club have had to spend a lot of money adding extra lighting, and upgrading TV studios and other extras to get them ready to play in the Premier league.

 Next to the Changing rooms.

Away first.  How plain and boring.

Very basic!

But just across the hall.

Past the tunnel and entrance to the pitch.

This is a bit more like it.

The home changing rooms.

The tactics area.

Ice baths.  I wouldn't like to go in one of these.

The treatment area.

The kitchen.

Drinks area.

After the match, the press are waiting!

Into the Media Conference centre.

Man of the Match.

My team were great today!

So many boring questions!

Thank you, no more questions!

Time to head out to the pitch.

Pretending to be the manager.

Rubbish!

Referee I am not impressed!

The half way line view.

A new TV studio suite that is just having the finishing touches added.

Let's take a corner.

It's a very nice stadium, capacity 30,750.

Finally the Museum.

There are all sorts of things to look at from trophies, shirts, to old programmes, and other memorabilia.

A Brighton fans bedroom, with everything you could possibly think of.

A replica model of the Goldstone Ground home to the club between 1902 and 1997.

A model of the Withdean Stadium,  home from 1999 to the club after moving from Goldstone to the Amex in 2011.

The actual headboard from the Seagulls Express train that took hundreds of fans to away game in the 1970's.

Time to head down the sea front.

Here's the harbour.

Can you see the sea gull photo bombing me?

Brighton Pier.

There are lots of slot machines and video games in here.

We walked all the way to the end of the pier.

Here's the view of  the sea front from the pier.

Here's the view the other side.

Time for a chill, in a famous British deck chair.

Lots of people are enjoying the beach today.

Finally a look at the Royal Pavilion.