American Express Community Stadium

How we approved plans for the new stadium for Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club.

Starting work

Work on the Stadium started in April 2009 following works to widen Village Way and was completed in May 2011, in time for the 2011/12 football season.  The contractor was Buckingham Group working for the Community Stadium Ltd.

The development scheme

The site for the stadium is on the northern edge of the city adjacent to Brighton University, close to the A27 and Falmer railway station. The centrepiece of the scheme is a multi-purpose all seater stadium, with a capacity of 22,374 seats. The stadium also incorporates:

  • A banqueting and conference facility
  • 2000 sq metres of teaching space

As well as football matches, the stadium is also designed for other sports such as rugby and hockey, and music concerts, conferences and exhibitions. The proposed building of curved lines clad in glazing and aluminium panelling, would be sunk into the land through the use of ‘cut and fill’ techniques, thus reducing its visual impact.

During construction up to 138,000 m3 of chalk was spread on a field south of Village Way, thus avoiding 22,000 lorry movements to and from the site.

Other impacts of the scheme

  • a transport interchange/coach park to the east of the stadium linked to the concourse around the stadium – this provides facilities for Park and Ride buses operating from Brighton Racecourse, Mill Road and Mithras House, as well as scheduled services and home and away fans’ coaches
  • some 1200 spaces at Sussex University to be used by spectators on match days
  • alterations to the A27/A270 road junction – including a new flyover – and and a new link road through the southern part of Stanmer Park to the car parks at Sussex University
  • a combined footpath/cycleway along the northern boundary of the Falmer School/Brighton University campus to the stadium
  • a new footbridge over the railway at Falmer Station
  • 220 cycle spaces.

Expansion

An application for 8,250 additional seats at the stadium was considered at the Planning Committee on 25 April 2012.  The Committee was minded to grant planning permission subject to completion of the s106 Planning Obligation and deeds of variation and the conditions and informatives all as set out in the report.

Transport review

In order to ensure that full consideration was given to the transport and travel implications of the expansion and proposals to provide car parking on land next to the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) campus, councillors and the football club agreed that an independent study was required. You can view the study report here.

Further information 

Further information about Brighton and Hove Albion FC is at www.seagulls.co.uk

Details of the scheme can also be found on the Planning Register. Please enter the application number BH2008/02732 to take you to details of the planning application which was approved in February 2009.

Contact us

You can phone 01273 292 552 or send an email to mpt@brighton-hove.gov.uk for more information.