Brighton set to debut ‘world-class’ fan zone

Brighton & Hove Albion will debut the biggest fan zone in the Premier League on Saturday as the club welcomes Nottingham Forest to the American Express Stadium for its FA Cup quarter-final.

Plans for the fan zone were announced in October 2023, and the space will mark the completion of the first phase of a £40m (€48m/$52m) investment project to improve the match-day experience at the Amex.

Dubbed The Terrace, the fan zone will have a capacity of up to 1,000 fans, which will be expanded to 3,000 during warmer months. On match days, it will be known as the Heineken Fan Zone at The Terrace and will offer an immersive digital sports bar experience.

On Saturday, the fan zone will be open from 11am to 11pm, with the game against Forest kicking off at 5:15pm. Fans will be treated to live bands, a DJ set and special guest interviews, with live sport to be shown on big screens.

“We want it to become the go-to place for our fans on match day, both before and after the game,” Russ Wood, Brighton’s head of commercial, tells TheStadiumBusiness.com. “The Terrace will create around 50 jobs to help the club drive revenue which can be reinvested in the team.

“We’ll be open for a host of non-match day activities, hopefully including live screenings of away games, and we would like to try and attract the local student population from both the Sussex and Brighton University campuses which are close to the Amex.”

Brighton consulted with its Fan Advisory Board throughout the design process, with supporters said to be “delighted” with the end result.

“We looked at similar fan zones, but our own in-house team came up with the final design and specifications for The Terrace,” says Wood. “Our aim was to build a world-class fan zone.”

The food menu will feature ‘Bites’ by Steven Edwards, which will include gourmet burgers and beef hotdogs from the BBC Masterchef: The Professionals winner. Other options will include Lost Boys Chicken, Asian food from Zen, toasties, shakes and specialty doughnuts.

The fan zone will also be available for private and corporate event hire, providing one of the largest event spaces in Brighton.

The second phase of Brighton’s stadium improvements will include a new-look and redeveloped club store, which is undergoing its first major overhaul since opening in 2011.

The new store will span across two levels and is on track to open before the start of the 2025-26 season.

Brighton has also announced plans to install safe standing in the North Stand at the Amex ahead of the 2025-26 season.

“There has been a positive reaction to the introduction of safe standing,” says Wood. “The fans want to play their part in making the Amex atmosphere even better.”

Phase three of the project will see an additional 1901 Club area added to the North Stand, boosting the stadium’s capacity to 32,500. This will open in time for the 2026-27 season and offer a more “pub-like” vibe for home fans.

The new 1901 Club space will be the only hospitality area to allow fans to wear replica shirts. Also in 2027, away fans will be relocated to the south-west corner of the ground, a move that has received backing from Brighton supporters.

“Again, we consulted with our supporter base through the Fan Advisory Board,” says Wood. “They are aware that we can only make limited improvements to the stadium bowl but are fully supportive of our short and long-term plans for the Amex.”

Brighton heads into Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final seventh in the Premier League, and it is not just the club’s men’s team that is excelling this season. Brighton is currently fifth in the Women’s Super League ahead of a home match against Manchester City on Sunday.

The women’s team currently plays its home matches at Broadfield Stadium, home of Crawley Town, which is around 20 miles from Brighton. In October 2023, Brighton & Hove City Council put forward a motion to develop a purpose-built stadium for the WSL team within the city’s boundaries.

The project is yet to break ground, but there is hope that the first-of-its-kind stadium could open as early as 2026.

“We are working hard with our partners, including Brighton & Hove City Council, on this project but there is no timescale yet for when the build will start, although it’s not totally out of the question that we could be in there by the start of the 2026-27 season,” says Wood.

“It will depend on how we construct the stadium and can move through the planning process. The stadium may have modular elements to it and it will reflect the specific needs of the fan base which attend women’s games, which tends to be more family-orientated, and offer the best facilities for female elite football athletes.”