Falmer Stadium

Falmer Stadium

The Amex
The Stadium at night
Full name	American Express Community Stadium
Location	Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex, England
Owner	The Community Stadium Limited
Operator	Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Capacity	30,750
Record attendance	30,292 (vs Derby County, 2 May 2016)
Field size	105 m × 69 m (344 ft × 226 ft)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Built	December 2008
Opened	July 2011
Construction cost	£93 million
Architect	KSS Design Group
General contractor	Buckingham Group
Tenants
Brighton & Hove Albion (2011–)
Website
http://www.amexstadium.co.uk/

Falmer Stadium, currently known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium, or simply The Amex, is a football stadium near the village of Falmer in Brighton and Hove that serves as the home of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.. The stadium was handed over from the developers to the club on 31 May 2011. The first competitive game to be played at the stadium was the 2010–11 season final of the Sussex Senior Cup between Brighton and Eastbourne Borough on 16 July 2011. The first ever league game was against Doncaster Rovers, who were also the opponents in the last ever game played at Brighton's former stadium, the Goldstone Ground, 14 years earlier.

The plans were initiated by Brighton & Hove Albion after the club's previous home, the Goldstone Ground, was sold by the club's former board (consisting of Greg Stanley, Bill Archer and David Bellotti) to developers in 1995 with no new home arranged.

When the club was evicted at the end of the 1996–1997 season, it ground-shared for two seasons at Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, 75 miles away in Kent.

Two years later, the club returned to Brighton as tenants of Withdean Stadium, which was upgraded to Football League capacity requirements and later expanded when Brighton reached Division One (now the Football League Championship) in 2002 following two successive promotions.