Brighton announce rise in season ticket prices for fourth successive season

Brighton and Hove Albion have announced the cost of an Amex Stadium season ticket for 2019-20 with prices increasing for the fourth successive season.

Rises from the 2017-18 cost of a season ticket range from 3.6% in the East Stand Family area to 4.3% in the prime, West Lower Central blocks. They will take effect regardless of what division the Albion are in.

That means supporters could be forking out up to £845 to see the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur or Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic or Luton Town. The Championship does of course have four extra league games.

The brilliant interest-free direct debit scheme remains in place for those who prefer to spread the cost of their season ticket over the course of the season and those who already pay in that way don’t need to do anything – their ticket will automatically renew. Those who pay in one lump sum have until March 5th to renew.

The full prices are as follows:

West Lower Central
£845 – £44.50 per game (+4.3% rise)
West Lower/East Lower Central/East Upper
£760 – £40 per game (+4.1%)
West Upper Central/West Lower Wings
£640 – £33 per game (+4%)
East Family
£570 – £30 per game (+3.6%)
North Stand/South West Corner/West Upper Wings
£535 – £28 per game (+3.9%)

The last time that season ticket prices were frozen was ahead of the 2015-16 campaign, with not even Paul Barber having the nerve to try and inflict a rise on supporters after the absolute shit shower that was served up under Sami Hyypia in 2014-15.

That is in fact the only season since the Amex opened that the cost of a season ticket has not gone up. In the first season at the stadium, the most expensive seat in the house was £545, meaning that the equivalent ticket has gone up by 55% in eight years. The cheapest seats were £395 back then with a rise of 35% to the 2019-20 price.

That first season of course did not include free travel, with the club rather foolishly thinking that supporters would buy books of travel vouchers to use to get the train to and from Falmer.

Of course, when everybody realised that the barriers at both Brighton and Falmer would be left open, nobody bothered and just travelled to and from games for free.

That resulted in £30 being added to the cost of a season ticket for 2012-13 to cover the cost of travel, although that still doesn’t really justify a hike of £300 for those in the West Lower Central.

Free travel to and from Falmer from the across the Sussex area is still included in the cost for 2019-20.

With a waiting list of 8,000, the Albion know that they can continue to whack prices up and even if 30% of the Amex’s current season ticket holders don’t renew, it doesn’t really matter as there are enough people waiting and willing to take their places.

The full details can be found on the Albion’s official website here where they don’t actually mention the fact that prices have gone up. Funny that.