A Crystal Palace director played an unlikely role in exposing the crisis that eventually forced Brighton away from the Goldstone Ground, according to Ian Hart’s account of the episode.
Hart, then co-editor of the Brighton fanzine Gull’s Eye, received a phone call from Gordon Lucking in July 1995. Lucking had wanted to join Brighton’s board but was not welcomed there; Palace chairman Ron Noades, by contrast, had brought him into the Selhurst Park club.
Lucking’s information came through an employee who had attended a golf day where, during the evening, somebody revealed that Brighton had sold the Goldstone and planned to move to Portsmouth. Lucking regarded the news as another blow to Brighton’s prospects.
Hart initially found the claim difficult to believe, but he went to confront Brighton chief executive David Bellotti at his office. He later wrote that Bellotti’s reaction confirmed the seriousness of the situation, setting the stage for the supporters’ campaign against the owners.
That turbulent period is now being retold in Stand or Fall, a play following Brighton supporters from the final days at the Goldstone, through exile in Gillingham and the Withdean Stadium, before the club eventually moved into the Amex. The production runs at Brighton’s Theatre Royal from 23 September, while an accompanying exhibition is on display at Brighton Museum.
