Inside former stadium of Premier League high-flyers that’s surrounded by forest and now home to club in the NINTH tier
JUST 12 years ago Brighton were playing in a stadium previously used for athletics and even a ZOO… now they’re on their way to Europe.
It’s been a whirlwind decade for the Seagulls who not only broke into the Premier League for the first time in their history in 2017, but have now reached the Europa League after a stellar 2022-23 season.
It’s hard to believe that as recently as 2011, the south coast giants were in League One playing in front of just 1,350 fans.
After all, next season they’ll join European powerhouses like Liverpool, Ajax and Juventus in the second tier of continental football.
And their stadium for that? Well, the Amex is a modern, 30,666-seater ground. So it’s up to the task.
The same, of course, can’t be said of the Withdean Stadium.
But let’s start from the beginning…
Up until 1997, Brighton had been playing at the Goldstone Ground – before the club sold it for development.
The Seagulls kickstarted plans for their new stadium but would need a temporary home.
For two seasons, the club played 70 MILES away in Gillingham, sharing their Priestfield Stadium – with their only other option to ground-share with Sussex County Cricket Club just up the road in Hove.
BETTING SPECIAL – BEST NO DEPOSIT CASINO OFFERS
But Brighton did find a more local temporary solution in 1999, moving to the Withdean Stadium – rich in local history.
The site was first opened as a lawn tennis club in 1936 and even hosted Great Britain’s Davis Cup clash with New Zealand in 1939.
Later, the area was used by Brighton Zoo before playing home to a miniature railway.
In 1955, it become the site of Brighton Sports Arena, primarily an athletics arena, despite hosting other sporting and non-sporting events.
Over the decades, the ground was given plenty of TLC, including new floodlights, squash courts and a resurfaced running track in 1997 – just two years before the Seagulls’ arrival.
By 1999, the stadium had just ONE permanent stand, with the remaining three made up from repurposed scaffolding – some of which had been used at The Open Championship golf tournament.
Back on the pitch, Brighton were yo-yo-ing between the second and third tier of English football and desperate to take that next step.
But, despite knowing a new state-of-the-art stadium was on the horizon, their home facilities were woefully lacking.
In fact, in 2004, The Observer ranked the Withdean Stadium, enveloped by dense forest, as the fourth WORST in the UK.
Local residents lashed out at the move, with Brighton banned from playing amplified music and parking restrictions put in place within a one-mile radius.
That forced Brighton to include free bus or rail travel in every match-day ticket for fans.
By 2004, the club were £9.5million in debt, largely thanks to the public enquiry launched to obtain planning permission from the Amex.
However, their ground-sharing bill at Priestfield and low ticket income thanks to their tiny 1,350-seater temporary home certainly didn’t help.
The Seagulls’ owners paid off a huge £7m chunk, but were forced to raise money for the final £2.5m.
Brighton players posed for nude Christmas cards and the club even released a single, Tom Hark, which reached No17 in the UK charts.
In a further desperate attempt to rake in some much needed moolah, the club’s match at home to Sheffield United in October 2004 played host to a Fatboy Slim album launch party thanks to their shirt sponsor, Skint Records.
The afternoon went down in history as “Palookaville” – with Brighton stars even bearing those words on their kit for the day.
In November 2005, there was even enough cash to add some extra temporary seating to the East and West Ends of the ground.
Come 2011, their final season at the ground, there were 8,416 fans packed into the Withdean Stadium for a 3-2 loss at the hands of Huddersfield.
Brighton were promoted from League One as champions despite the result on the back of a stellar season from Glenn Murray.
The Seagulls moved on to the Amex and have since soared into the Premier League – making their debut in the top-flight in 2017-18 – and have now even reached Europe.
Brighton finished sixth in 2022-23 after pushing for Champions League football right up until the final few weeks.
But it means the Amex will be in for some tremendous Thursday night action against some of Europe’s top sides in the next year.
As for the Withdean Stadium, it’s still in use… with football still at the heart of it.
The stadium is owned by the local council, but operated by nationwide gym chain Freedom Leisure.
While it goes back to its roots in featuring tennis and squash courts, there is also a gym and rock-climbing wall.
The ground is also currently being used by AFC Old Vardeanians, who finished 17th in the 20-team Southern Combination Premier League – the ninth tier of English football.