The Falmer Stadium, known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium and also referred to as the Amex, is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
stadium in the village of
Falmer, in the City of
Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. With a capacity of 31,800, it is the second largest stadium in all of
South East England, and the
31st largest stadium in the United Kingdom.
It serves as the home of
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
club
Brighton & Hove Albion, and was handed over from the developers to the club on 31 May 2011. The first competitive game played at the stadium was the 2010–11 season final of the
Sussex Senior Cup
The Sussex Senior Cup is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for men's football clubs in the English county of Sussex and is the county senior cup of the Sussex FA. Its official name is the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup. ...
between Brighton and
Eastbourne Borough on 16 July 2011. The first league game was against
Doncaster Rovers, who were also the opponents in the last game played at Brighton's former stadium, the
Goldstone Ground, 14 years earlier.
Falmer Stadium hosted
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
football for the first time in August 2017, following Albion's promotion at the end of the
2016–17 season.
The stadium was designed to allow hosting for other sports and events. It hosted some matches from the
2015 Rugby World Cup
The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...
and the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022.
History
Plans
The plans were initiated by
Brighton & Hove Albion after the club's previous home, the
Goldstone Ground, was sold by the club's former board (consisting of Greg Stanley,
Bill Archer and
David Bellotti
David Frank Bellotti (13 August 1943 – 10 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Eastbourne constituency from 1990 to 1992.
He was the first Liberal Democrat politician to win a parliam ...
) to developers in 1995 with no new home arranged.
When the club was evicted at the end of the
1996–1997 season, it
groundshare
A groundshare, also known as a shared stadium or shared arena, is the principle of sharing a stadium between two local sports teams. This is usually done for the purpose of reducing the costs of either construction of two separate facilities and r ...
d for two seasons at
Gillingham's
Priestfield Stadium
Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has ...
, 50 miles away in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
Two years later, the club returned to
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
as tenants of
Withdean Stadium, which was upgraded to Football League capacity requirements and later expanded when Brighton reached
Division One
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
(now the
EFL Championship
The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...
) in 2002 following two successive
promotions.
The site at
Falmer was identified during the 1998–99 season and it was hoped that the stadium would be ready in the early to mid-2000s. However, subsequent delays in gaining planning permission meant that the club would have to wait until August 2011 before being able to play their home games there – more than a decade after the stadium was first proposed.
Planning permission
Planning permission was given by the
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
of
Brighton and Hove City Council
Brighton and Hove City Council is the local authority of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government services ...
in June 2002, with the intention of the stadium being ready for the
2005–06 season. The plans for the stadium were opposed by neighbouring
Lewes District Council and local residents. While the stadium lies completely within
Brighton and Hove, part of the north-east of the site is in Lewes. Bennet's Field, as it is known, is now used for parking.
Further complications were due to both vacant fields, and the campus of the adjacent
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
, being included in the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, although outside the
National Park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
. This led to the designation of the stadium plans being the subject of a separate planning inquiry by the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duti ...
.
John Prescott, then
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
, approved the plans on 28 October 2005. However, Lewes District Council immediately mounted a new legal challenge to the stadium plan. In April 2006, Prescott admitted that he had given his approval based on the misconception that only a small part of the stadium site lay on the Lewes side, and withdrew it.
Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State responsible for planning, re-affirmed the approval on 25 July 2007. Her decision went against the advice of planning inspectors. Lewes District Council, Falmer Parish Council and the South Downs Joint Committee (the three main opponents) announced shortly afterwards that they would not mount a High Court challenge. On 4 September 2007, the deadline for appealing the new grant of permission expired and the club received full permission to proceed.
Construction
![Amexstadjuly10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Amexstadjuly10.jpg)
On 27 November 2008, the Buckingham Group signed the construction contract for the new stadium and began preparation work on the site on 17 December. The stadium is set three storeys down into the ground. 138,000 cubic metres of chalk was excavated during its construction, which was put on the field on the south side of Village Way. This has been estimated to prevent 22,000 lorry trips taking the chalk to off-site landfill.
Construction at the site started on 17 December 2008 and finished in May 2011. The stadium was designed with scope for expansion, and plans were put in place to increase the capacity.
The stadium was designed by London-based architects, KSS. The stadium capacity has been expanded, with an extra seating tier being installed above the East Stand (Family stand), which increases the capacity to about 30,000 seats. The deal with
American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
Europe, Brighton and Hove's biggest private-sector employer, confirming the stadium's naming rights was announced on 22 June 2010.
Opening
![Falmer Stadium - League debut 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Falmer_Stadium_-_League_debut_2.jpg)
The stadium officially opened on 30 July 2011, hosting a
friendly
Friendly may refer to:
Places
* Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England
* Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States
* ...
match against then-Brighton manager
Gus Poyet's old club
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, the home-side narrowly losing 3–2. The first competitive match was held on 6 August 2011, when Brighton beat
Doncaster Rovers 2–1, after being 1–0 down.
The stadium set its first record attendance with 21,897 against
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. They were also the first away team to win a competitive match at the stadium, beating Brighton 2–1 in a
League Cup tie in September 2011.
The stadium witnessed its first league defeat in its history when
rival side
Crystal Palace came from behind to win 3-1.
In use
The stadium uses hawks to scare away seagulls and pigeons. This stops pigeons nesting in the stadium.
On 2 January 2012, Brighton & Hove Albion submitted an application to Brighton and Hove City council to increase the stadium capacity by a further 8,000 seats as well as to add additional corporate boxes, new television facilities and a luxury suite.
This was granted unanimously by Brighton & Hove City Council's planning committee on 25 April 2012. The stadium was expanded to 27,250 by the start of the 2012–13 season, 27,750 by December 2012 and stood at 30,750 by the end of the 2012–13 season.
A new record attendance was set on 15 December 2012 when 26,684 saw Brighton draw 0–0 with
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
. This record attendance was broken on 26 January 2013, when 27,113 attended a 3-2 defeat against
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
in the fourth round of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
Less than two months later and the record was broken again; this time 28,499 people watched Brighton beat Crystal Palace 3–0 on 17 March 2013. This record was broken once again on 4 May 2013, on the last league game of the season against
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
, 30,003 attended the game. This figure was beaten on 25 January 2015, when Arsenal visited in the FA Cup fourth round to once again win 3–2, in front of an attendance of 30,278. Another new attendance record of 30,292 came on 2 May 2016, when
Derby County visited in the last home game of the
2015–16 season. A few weeks later this record was broken again when Brighton and Hove Albion played
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
in the second leg of the
play-offs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
. The record was broken once again on 24 September 2017 when 30,468 attended Brighton's 1–0 win over
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...
.
The current record of 31,637 was set at a Premier League match against Manchester United on 7 May 2022.
[Big defeat ends United’s Champions League hopes.](_blank)
BBC, 07 May 2022
On 25 March 2013, the stadium hosted
England's under-21s international friendly against
Austria's under-21s.
In December 2018, it was announced that the stadium would be one of the venues for the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022 tournament. On 1 June 2019, the stadium hosted the
England women
The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Association ...
's international friendly against
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
UEFA Women's Euro 2022
The stadium was one of the ten venues used to host matches at the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022. It was used to host
Group A matches, which had the hosts
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, and a quarter-final, which also involved England.
Rugby Union
![Amex Community Stadium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Amex_Community_Stadium.jpg)
The stadium hosted two
Pool B matches in the
2015 Rugby World Cup
The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...
, labelled as the Brighton Community Stadium. The first match was between
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
on 19 September 2015 where with 29,290 in attendance, Japan caused one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history by beating twice winners South Africa 34–32. The other match was between
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...
and
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
with Samoa winning 25–16 with 29,178 in attendance. Before them, as a trial run pre-World Cup, the stadium hosted the
England U20s vs
France U20s match in the final round of the
2015 Six Nations Under 20s Championship
The 2015 Six Nations Under 20s Championship was a rugby union competition held between February and March 2015. England won the championship. However, no team won either a Grand Slam or the Triple Crown.
Final table
Results Round 1
Round 2
...
.
In 2019, a film was produced telling the story of
the match between Japan and South Africa, called ''
The Brighton Miracle'',
The stadium was also nominated by Premiership Rugby as the potential home semi final location for Wasps in the 2014-15 European Champions Cup. Defeat in the quarter final vs Toulon however meant this did not happen.
Average attendances
Layout
The West Stand is a three-tiered stand, which holds 11,833 fans, including 14 luxury boxes. The East Stand (including the Family Stand and the premium fans' 1901 Club) holds 13,654 fans, with 10% reserved for away fans during cup games. The North Stand has 2,688 seats. The South Stand, is for visiting away supporters which contains 2,575 seats.
As well as football matches, the stadium is also designed for other sports such as rugby and hockey, and music concerts, conferences and exhibitions. The stadium's drinking outlets offer
real ales from two local breweries,
Harvey's
Harvey's is a fast food restaurant chain operating in Canada, with locations in every province except British Columbia. It serves hamburgers, poutine, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, and other traditional Canadian fast-food fare. The chain i ...
and
Dark Star, both of which supported the club's appeal for a new stadium at Falmer, along with special guest beers from breweries local to the away teams.
The stadium also incorporates a banqueting and conference facility, a nursery school/crèche, 720 square metres of teaching space for the University of Brighton, 1,200 square metres of office space for the University of Sussex, the club shop for tickets and merchandise and above it the 200 capacity bar/lounge named Dick's Bar after the club's life president, Dick Knight.
Transport
![Brighton Falmer railway station in September 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Brighton_Falmer_railway_station_in_September_2013.JPG)
The stadium is close to the
A27 Brighton by-pass,
linking it northbound to the
A23 and
M23 motorway towards London and southbound to the A270 and the city centre. There is pre-paid parking available for 2000 cars on the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
and the
Falmer Academy sites. The club runs several park and ride services to the stadium. One of these is at Mill Road situated at the A23/A27 intersection, which holds 500 cars. Another is at Brighton Racecourse, holding approximately 700 cars. The third site is at the
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...
's Mithras House on the Lewes Road, holding about 300 cars (this is currently closed). Match tickets include free travel to the stadium by train (from stations as far as Worthing, Haywards Heath, Seaford and Eastbourne), bus, and park and ride.
Falmer railway station
Falmer railway station is in East Sussex, south-east England, from on the East Coastway line. It is operated by Southern.
The station serves the village of Falmer as well as the University of Sussex campus and the University of Brighton Fa ...
is next to the stadium; it is a nine-minute journey from
Brighton railway station and seven minutes from
Lewes railway station
Lewes railway station serves the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. It has five platforms and is on the East Coastway Line, from via . Train services are provided by Southern.
The station has a café and there is a taxi office on the mai ...
, both of which are served by trains from London.
The site also includes: a new link road from the A270 skirting the southern edge of Stanmer Park to the Sussex campus; a new high capacity footbridge over the railway at Falmer station; a transport interchange/coach park to the south of the stadium across Village Way; a 1,000-space car park at
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) is a coeducational academy school in Brighton. It opened on 1 September 2010.
The school replaced Falmer High School and is part of the Aldridge Education multi-academy trust. Dylan Davies became Brigh ...
; alterations to the A27/A270 road junction, including a new flyover; a combined footpath/cycleway; a 150-space car park for club officials, players and disabled drivers; 220 cycle spaces.
Awards
In May 2012, the stadium won the New Venue Award at the
Stadium Business Awards
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
.
[Brighton Amex stadium wins best new venue award](_blank)
BBC News
See also
*
Development of stadiums in English football
A large number of English football clubs have ongoing schemes to redevelop existing grounds, or to move to newly constructed stadiums. A trend towards all-seater stadiums was initially prescribed by the Taylor Report, and was originally a conditi ...
*
Tom Hark (We Want Falmer!)
References
External links
Lewes District Council's High Court challengeFalmer Stadium
{{American Express
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Sports venues in Brighton and Hove
Football venues in England
Premier League venues
Sports venues completed in 2011
Rugby union stadiums in England
Rugby World Cup stadiums
UEFA Women's Euro 2022 stadiums