Author:
UK Skins Fan
Subject:
My team's new stadium
Message:
I'm not just a Washington Redskins fan. My first sporting love is Brighton & Hove Albion, my local football team. This season, starting this very Saturday, they will be playing in The Championship. One league down from the much vaunted English Premier League, one good season could see them mixing it with the big boys like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and all the rest.
But the reason that this season is going to be special (and why I am counting down the hours until 3pm this Saturday afternoon) is that for the first time in 14 years, we will have a home. Imagine if the owners of your local team sold the club's stadium, with no plan to build a new one, but simply to pay off some creditors and pocket the surplus funds for themselves. That is what happened to my beloved Albion. As a result, the last 12 years have been spent playing in a rented athletics "stadium", which you can see here:
[url]http://www.runtrackdir.com/uk/pics/brighton/brighton-wi-c640.jpg[/url]
I never saw my team play at this venue - the last game I saw them play was on 26th April 1997, and I vowed that I would not go to another game until the club had a real home. And now, finally, with new owners in place who are true fans of the club, and after a long campaign by the club and it's fans, we have a new home. And it looks like this:
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/brighton/9544703.stm[/url]
And like this:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Falmerstadium-may2011.JPG[/url]
So, please excuse me if I'm not thinking of the Redskins at 3pm on Saturday 6th August. My head will be in the clouds, there'll be a tear in my eye, and I'll be roaring on the boys in blue and white. The anticipation is too much to bear, so I just had to share, lol.
Thank you for listening.