Brighton set new Amex Stadium attendance record in Leicester win
In news that seems to have mysteriously gone under the radar, Brighton & Hove Albion broke the Amex Stadium attendance record as a crowd of 31,078 were recorded as being present for the 2-1 win over Leicester City.
The figure exceeded the previous best of 30,682 when Liverpool won 1-0 in Sussex back in January 2019 through a Mo Salah penalty earned by one of the Egyptian forward’s excellent Tom Daley impressions.
What makes the Leicester game setting a new benchmark extraordinary is it came on a day when there was travel chaos across Sussex.
No trains were running between Littlehampton and Brighton. The London to Brighton bike ride made Ditchling Beacon and Lewes Road no-go areas.
There was a Race 4 Life event in Stanmer Park. Both Brighton and Sussex Universities had freshers moving into halls. And a little further afield, the A27 around Chichester was clogged by the Goodwood Revival.
Sunday afternoon kicks off are also particularly unfriendly for those who play football in the morning, either adults involved in Sunday League or kids teams who are in action. A mad dash to Falmer is often unfeasible.
Given that the club usually like to celebrate milestones and achievements like this, it seems strange that nobody has mentioned it. After all, it is not everyday that you set an attendance record.
The new 31,078 Amex Stadium attendance record still falls some way short of the Albion’s highest ever home crowd. That came on December 27th 1958 when 36,747 packed into the Goldstone Ground to witness a 3-0 win over Fulham. Tommy Dixon scored twice and Adrian Thorne once for a Brighton side managed by Billy Lane.
It seems unlikely that Brighton will ever exceed that 36,000 plus crowd unless serious modifications can be made to the Amex, which we have been constantly told at various Albion Fans’ Forums over the past decade is all but impossible.
Without adding the best part of 6,000 new seats, the only way to set a new home attendance record would be to give a figure that does not actually equate to physical bodies coming through the turnstiles. It would be a shame if such a pre-ttendance ended up sitting at the top of the pile.
In overall terms, a crowd of 31,078 makes Brighton 2-1 Leicester the 16th highest home attendance in Brighton history. All those above in the list were set between 1933 and 1978.
It just eclipses the 31,038 who watched Thorne score five times in a 6-0 demolition of Watford on Wednesday 30th April 1958. That result secured the Albion’s first ever promotion to the second tier of English football.
Those who were a part of the new Amex attendance record of 31,078 certainly got their moneys worth. A thoroughly entertaining game saw a contentious penalty from Neal Maupay and a Danny Welbeck header put Brighton 2-0 ahead inside of 50 minutes.
There was further controversy to come. Jamie Vardy pulled one back for the Foxes, after which the visitors had two goals disallowed for identical offside decisions against Harvey Barnes from corners.
Leicester clearly felt hard done by with Gary Lineker leading the protests on social media afterwards. Some of those decisions might have been harsh on the FA Cup holders, but you would not find many Brighton fans among the 31,078 at the Amex complaining.
After a luckless 2020-21 season involving an xG nightmare, it was nice for a record crowd to see the boot on the other foot this time.
