Seagulls poised to smash a club ticket record

Brighton and Hove Albion look on track to break a new club record for the biggest number of tickets sold for a friendly match at the Amex Stadium.

The newly-promoted Premier League side have reported that some 14,000 tickets have already been snapped up for Albion’s pre-season friendly against Spanish giants Atletico Madrid on August 6.

And earlier this week, the seaside club revealed that they were prepared to open up more blocks of the stadium to satisfy the demand from eager fans.

Chief executive Paul Barber said: “People seem to love this game and can’t wait to see [Antoine] Griezmann and people like that.

“We have got to know the people from Atletico very well over the last month and they are really good people – a really good football club – and we have every confidence the side they put out will be the strongest they possibly can.

“They have got that quality about the way they do things.”

(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The news indicates the growing excitement ahead of the new season, which will see the Seagulls return to the top flight of English football for only the second time in their history and just 20 years after narrowly avoiding relegation from the Football League altogether.

And with the season-ticket waiting list having surpassed the 6,000 mark, fans are being urged to join the club’s membership scheme to boost their chances of getting tickets, a move being encouraged by Barber.

The Brighton chief executive said: “Season ticket numbers are going to be around 23,000. Away fans would be around 3,000 for every game.

“We will have between 3,000 and 4,000 match tickets to sell at each game – it’s going to be very difficult to get a ticket for our matches here.”