Building the Amex: April 1st 2010
On Thursday April 1st 2010, Brighton and Hove Albion played out a 2-2 draw against Southampton in League One. Before heading to Withdean for the evening’s entertainment, the WeAreBrighton.com team decided to check in at Falmer to see how the building of the Amex Stadium was going.
It was our first visit since the middle of February and the progress made had been startling. The sheer size of the West Stand was becoming apparent as the steel structure of the three tiers neared completion – and that was before the lower tier had been dug into the ground to reach pitch level.
The first piece of the West Stand arch was now on site and roof girders were being added to the East Stand. Cladding was also being added to the back of the East Stand, giving the stadium a finished look when viewed from the A27.
At the south end of the stadium, the terracing of the South Stand had been completed with work continuing on the concourse out the back.
Most exciting of all though was that building of the North Stand was now underway, the final piece in the Amex Stadium jigsaw.
Although early days, you began to get a real sense of what the finished stadium would be like. So excited were we by the prospect that we managed to sneak onto a path by Falmer Station that allowed a close up view of the North Stand. Needless to say, it looked marvellous.
After nearly a year of building work, the Amex was starting to look like a football stadium. The draw with Southampton later in the day proved that Gus Poyet was making equally good progress on the pitch as he continued to lay the foundations for the following season’s promotion push.
