Brighton & Hove Albion – Amex Stadium
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After playing the game of football nomads for many years now, Brighton are a club on the up and the stunning American Express Community Stadium is the perfect venue for manager Gus Poyet and his promising side. Having progressed from the Goldstone Ground, through to the Withdean, this ground is far more worthy of this popular south coast side.
The stadium, which is more commonly known as the Amex or in some cases the Falmer Stadium, is a brand new construction that is scheduled for opening in July 2011, just in time for the start of the new 2011-12 season. It is an all seater stadium with an initial capacity of 22,374 which has the ability to be expanded to 35,000 if necessary. It therefore can grow to accommodate any rise in fortunes for this Brighton side.
How to get to the American Express Community Stadium
By Road
The Amex stadium is clearly visible from the A27 Brighton bypass which means that it is close to both the A23 and M23 motorways. These will in turn take you into London.
If you’re travelling by car, the postcode for your SatNav is BN1 9BL.
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By Rail
Trains into Brighton Station are plentiful and run on a regular basis from London Victoria. From there, it is possible to walk to the ground or you can hire a taxi but these will naturally be at a premium on match days. Click here to check the current train timetables
By Air
Brighton is served by an airport at Shoreham which is located a few miles outside of the town. From here it is possible to arrange a taxi or car hire to the ground or a shuttle service into Brighton itself. Click here to check the current flight times
While the airport here is very small, if you cannot find a direct flight, there are many air shuttle services between here and all of the major terminals at nearby Gatwick.
Taxis
There are several taxi companies in Brighton that can take you to and from the Amex Stadium. You can always prebook a private hire taxi, or hail a black cab on any highway.
Calling all Brighton Taxi Companies – Why not advertise your company here?.
Where to Park
While there is parking available at the stadium, this is restricted to club officials and disabled drivers. There are over 150 spaces but unless you have a disabled badge, there is very little chance of finding a space on match days. There are however over 200 cycle spaces at the ground itself and cycling to the Amex could be an ideal alternative option.
Parking close by is limited but private parking schemes and local schools may open their doors as the ground itself gets ready for action.
As the stadium ‘beds in’, local parking schemes will become more widespread but in the early stages it would be useful to check in advance. One thing that is already known is that the stadium will be served by a ‘park and ride’ facility and this is likely to be the most popular form of arrival.
Away Friendly Pubs near the American Express Community Stadium
While the pubs in Falmer await the rush of football supporters to the new Amex stadium, few of these hostelries have any sort of reputation when it comes to being ‘away’ friendly.
Of the pubs in the area, The Swan Inn in Middle Street is the closest to the ground itself and it should be large enough to cope with the away support, however it was used as a base for residents campaigning against the building of the stadium, so football fans may not be welcome there, and you may well wish to take your business elsewhere anyway given their previous stance..
You could always enjoy a drink in Brighton itself at pubs with more of a history of catering for away fans and these could include Bar 14 or the Basketmakers Arms both of which are close to the town centre.
Hotels near the American Express Community Stadium
While the Brighton district of Falmer may not be densely populated with hotels, there is an abundance to choose from in Brighton itself.
The Hilton Brighton Metropole is one of the most popular destinations in the town and it is ideally located right by the seafront.
The Holiday Inn Brighton is also favoured by visitors to the area and like the Hilton and the Best Western, it too has a seafront location which makes it popular with football fans and tourists of all kinds.
Click here to see ALL hotels near the Amex stadium
Fan’s comments
First sightings of the Amex stadium show it to be an intriguing prospect and it certainly looks to be among the most impressive grounds anywhere in England.
Innovation plays a major part too at the Amex with Smart Cards available that can allow the user to pay for their tickets as well as food and drink within the stadium. Whereas this may be of more interest to the home supporters, this system should achieve its intended purpose of making queues in and outside of the ground much shorter. Additionally, waiting time for entry and indeed to be served inside the stadium should be significantly reduced.
Overall, The Amex is an exciting prospect and worthy of Brighton’s march up the league.
I am a home fan – having read your review you might want to change your suggestion that away fans can get a drink at The swann Inn in Falmer Village as this is the pub that the NIMBY’s held their meetings in when protesting against our plans to build a stadium in Falmer. Football supporters are unlikely to be made welcome at The Swann.
There will be plenty of bars at the new stadium, with the away end selling local Sussex real ales; Harveys and Dark Star, as well as a local brew from the away teams home city/town. Home fans reports on the home made pies at the Open Day last weekend are complimentary. There are plenty of good pubs in Lewes too if fans do not want to go into the city of Brighton before arriving at the stadium.
Gills have a League Cup game at Brighton on 9 August. We need a more definitive answer than ‘local parking schemes will become more widespread but in the early stages it would be useful to check in advance’. Is it advisable to use Mill Road, Mithras House, Brighton Racecourse car parks? Do you have to pre-book these sites? What is the cost and does it include park and Ride to the ground?
Walk to Falmer from Brighton station?? No chance!
Nowt wrong with foot power to get up to the amex. On a lovely day there’s beautiful views of the south downs and think of the environmental benefits. There’s also a couple of dogging locations en route so you might get another beautiful view if your luck is in….
Very impressive stadium inside and out, the seats are padded and leg room is good as is the atmosphere it holds the noise in really well. Friendly and helpful stewards and they even have people outside the ground with heated bags on trolleys selling pies and hot dogs and inside as well as the bars they have more trolley men walking round selling bottled beer. A pie and a pint will set you back about £6. Went via train, get to Victoria from there to Brighton and on to Falmer,( don’t even think about walking from Brighton) trains for both are about every 15 mins, the ground is right next to the station. Only one negative was leaving the ground for the train the queues to a very small station were massive, if your at the back your in for a long wait and both sets of fans are mixed in together. The only place in Falmer to get a beer is in the ground.
My first visit to the Amex.
Congrats B&H Albion great ground cant fault bar, food and toilets large area to drink etc in the ground.
nice and noisy.good seating
Only fault for away fans,if your using rail
away fans are in the south end furthest from rail station big problems getting on trains after.
needs better transport out from Brighton.
Found good pub outside London road rail station (one stop from Brighton on the way to Falmer)
“Open House pub” good food and away fans friendly. Street parking if early.
two stops by train to stadium 5 mins
Nice ground will look a lot better when its finished had a drink in brighton before the game.Had to wait a long while to get on the train to get back into Brighton.
As a home fan please ignore the comments above about The Swan – it has been taken over by new management and is football friendly. They even sell the club’s football programmes in the bar. It is a nice pub with a beer garden that sells real ales and is about a 15 minute walk from the ground. They have stewards on duty there on match days and it is perfectly safe to drink. The only other nearby pub is The Hiker’s Rest which is one to avoid if you are an away fan as it is home to the rougher and more vociferous element of Brighton’s fanbase.
Other than that the best place to drink is in Brighton with plenty of pubs within the vicinity of the station – The Queen’s Head is just across the road from the station and just across to the right is The Railway Bell. Head over to The Railway Bell then follow that road down (Surrey Street) and further down on the left is The Evening Star which is away fan friendly and a good pub for real ale fans (Dark Star brewery). Head past The Queen’s Head and continue down the road toward the seafront (10min walk) for a Wetherspoons (The Bright Helm) on the right which is popular with away fans.
Leave plenty of time to get to the ground as most games are sell-outs and the trains get very congested – alternatively get a bus or a taxi.
Had a great afternoon in Brighton last month watching the redmen in the cup.
Not a fan of park & rides as we like to get away quickly after the game usually, so we decided to park in the centre of town and train it in later on. I know someone turned up at the P&R at about 3 but couldn’t get in till about 5. The weather was kind to us so we had a great pub crawl down to the seafront and back.
Got to the station just before 7 and was very busy with long queues for both buses and trains. Got chatting to a few locals who knew of a regular bus service about 5 mins back down the road which runs to the university just by the ground. We were able to jump straight on this for free (with a match ticket) and got to the ground about for about half 7. I know of a few people who missed the first 10 mins due to the queues at the station.
Very impressed with the ground both inside and out, nice to see a club / architect make a bit of an effort creating a new ground that’s a bit different.
Buses were waiting after the game to go back in town so managed to jump on the first double decker to leave and were able to stop right next to where we’d parked the car.
Best awayday for a long time, really hope they come up so we can do it again.
Enjoyed my visit to the new stadium. Hopefully somebody from B&HA reads these comments though.
1. The away fans are at the wrong end….I hope it doesn’t happen, but at some point in the future, Sussex constabulary are going to have some big problems with the away support/home support all intermingled around the ground. I hope not.
2. Transport links are really not good are they? ancient coaches from Town and queues of hundreds in the rain. what a laugh..The queue for the trains was interesting as well as long! Some people, especially on a week night cannot afford to hang around in the ground for a beer, although very well done for offering that facility.
3. signage. You may want to put up a few large signs showing away supporters where to go (nicely of course).
4. Why are you searching the away supporters? You didn’t search the home support from what we saw. Only away supporters cause problems is that it? Think not chaps.
However, Ground itself is great, beer and food is superb and well Done on these things. Lovely seats..shame we never used them!