Saturday date for Brighton’s FA Cup Semi Final

Brighton and Hove Albion’s FA Cup Semi Final with Manchester City will take place on Saturday 6th April with a 5.30pm kick off at Wembley Stadium.

The Albion have been allocated 33,466 tickets, which will mean that every single season ticket holder who wants to go will be able to do so.

Tickets will then be allocated based on loyalty points to Bronze Members and MyAlbion+ Members (no, we’ve no idea what that is either), with season ticket holders then being able to buy any remaining tickets for friends and family.

Despite this plainly being the fairest way to do it, we’re still looking forward to Dave from Peacehaven – who last went to the 2004 play off final – complaining about the unfairness of an actual Albion supporter who hasn’t missed an away game this season getting a ticket ahead of him.

The FA have allocated the West End of Wembley to Seagulls supporters, which is the opposite to where we were for last season’s game against Tottenham Hotspur at the national stadium.

Ticket prices are £120 for the prime Level 2 “Club Wembley” seats in the ground’s middle tier, £80 in the bottom tier at the side of the pitch, £65 in the bottom tier behind the goal, £45 at the front of the upper tier and the cheapest priced seats are £30 right at the back of the top level.

A maximum of 10 tickets can be bought in one transaction for those supporters who wish to sit together, with the first tickets going on sale at 9am on Thursday to those with 293 or more loyalty points. Further tickets will then be released to different loyalty brackets at 2pm and 9am over the next week or until sold out.

There will of course be further complications to come thanks to the fact that rail replacement buses run in place of trains between Brighton and Three Bridges that day.

Over 30,000 people trying to get from Sussex to London on alternative transport organised by Southern Rail has the potential for being a catastrophic cock up, but that is another blog for another time.