Full Name: Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club City: Brighton & Hove Country: England League: Football League One Founded: 1901 Stadium: Withdean Athletics Stadium (8,850) Colors: Blue, White Nickname: The Seagulls Rivals: Crystal Palace
Brighton and Hove is a city in the south of England, formed by the merger of the two towns of Brighton and Hove. Albion is an archaic word for England. There is no precise record as to why the club took the suffix Albion. There are a few possibilities - one of the founders ran the Albion Hotel in Brighton or another founder was linked with Brighton's Albion Brewery. The club was founded in a room above the Seven Stars pub in The Lanes, the old quarter of Brighton. The team was originally named Brighton United but abandoned that before an official match was played. Brighton joined the Football League in 1920 after two decades in the Southern League. The Seagulls nickname is a reference to Brighton's seaside location.
Withdean Athletics Stadium:
Withdean is a suburb of Brighton. The stadium is a temporary location until the club is able to build a new stadium of its own. Planning permission for this new stadium was finally achieved in 2007 and construction should begin in 2008. The club shared Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium for two years, a distance of over 100 km from Brighton.
Sports map specialist Bill Turianski contributes an article to Albion Road roughly once a month, bringing us something from his collection of sports maps.
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