As soon as I heard that Brighton were going to have an interactive light show at the Amex Stadium before kick off against Bournemouth, I gleefully waited for the inevitable Albion fan online meltdown.
It did not disappoint. Tinpot was the most commonly used word in some of the milder posts. From the resentment expressed in some of the stronger ones, you could have been forgiven for thinking the club had announced parading special guests Bill Archer, Greg Stanley and David Bellotti around the pitch at half time as a thank you for their services to the Albion. And two of them are dead.
For those currently operating in blissful ignorance over what will take place at the Amex prior to Brighton and the Cherries striding onto the pitch, prepare yourselves.
The following was posted on both the Official Albion website and emailed out to season ticket holders:
We’ll be lighting up the Amex for the Premier League game v Bournemouth with a breath-taking interactive light show which you can join by using your phone’s torch, working together with your fellow Albion fans to create an immersive in-bowl experience to electrify the atmosphere before kick-off.
As long as you have downloaded or updated the official Albion app before you arrive at the stadium, no mobile connectivity is required to join.
Just simply scan the QR code that will be shown on screens around the stadium, the big screens in-bowl, on posters and in the programme and be ready to sync when prompted!
Here’s how to get involved:
1. Update your Albion app: Make sure you have the latest version of the official Albion App downloaded to your iOS 4.3.0 or 1.3.7 on Android versions of the App before arriving at the stadium.
2. Access the lightshow: Follow the in-app homepage banner to find the light show page, OR scan one of the QR codes around the stadium and on the big screens.
3. Give permission: Follow the prompts within the app to allow access to your camera and microphone.
4. Get ready in the stadium: Take your seat in the bowl by 19:45 to take part – the light show will begin shortly after.
5. Activate the light show: When prompted, open the light show page via the app homepage or QR code and hold your phone up toward the pitch – your phone’s torch will automatically sync with the show.
To get you in the light show mood we will also be presenting an interactive laser DJ set in the Terrace pre-match.
So, bring your energy, update your app, and get ready to shine as we give a Monday night under the lights in January that extra buzz.
The fact it reads like somebody swallowed an American corporate sports speak phrasebook and spewed up the remains is grating, I will grant you that. In-bowl is a shudder-inducing term.
But the concept itself? Pretty harmless. Especially if you can accept it is designed primarily for younger people. Or more accurately, those younger people whose parents are happy to have them out late on a school night.
They will be the ones in their seats early, with the app primed and ready to be wowed by a light show. Whilst most adults will still be on the concourse drinking a beer (or non-alcoholic alternative, what with this being Dry January).
Right now, that blank space in the 15 minutes between the players completing their warmups and returning to the pitch is filled with just the tired format of Fan Zone whilst those who are in their seats sit around waiting for the teams to come out. Why not use it to get kids involved?
It would obviously be different if Brighton fan culture was akin to European Ultras. If there were a group who took their seats an hour before kick off, sung relentlessly and prepared world class tifos. There would be no room nor need for a light show then.
That culture does not exist though. Probably never will. English football fans are a different breed to our continental cousins with their marches to matches, flags and non-stop singing.
And when an English club tries to copy it, they just end up looking like a silly bunch of schoolchildren dressed in black Primark hoodies. You know who I mean.
One of the more reasonable comments posted about the light show summed things up nicely: “I don’t like it and I won’t take part in it – but I’m not the person it is aimed at.”
I suspect plenty of people at the club expected the online reaction the Amex light show has garnered. Fair play to them for going ahead with it anyway, regardless of the inevitable piss taking because it is a way to create a memorable experience for younger fans which might make them want to come back.
Brighton could end up losing 5-0 against Bournemouth (it has happened before, remember). But a kid with only a passing interest currently in the Albion who had a great time partaking in the light show will ask their parent to return regardless of how crap the football was.
Keep them coming back and you end up converting a new generation of fans. A generation who, we were told this week, now find the Baller League and its blend of street football, content creators, live entertainment and hyper-digitalisation – including light shows – more popular than the Premier League.
Times change. Football changes with it. Light shows are now everywhere. Unless I hallucinated the whole thing (quite possible given this was Amsterdam), Ajax had one before the Albion’s Europa League win at the Johan Cruyff Arena. How many people called that tinpot?
I daresay back in the early 1990s, a majority of Brighton fans were aghast when the original Gully mascot made his debut. And not just because his head was terrifying enough to look like it came straight from an Alfred Hitchcock film.
Fast forward 30 years and mascots are an accepted part of English football For the kids. Like the Amex light show is aimed at.
The question is, will the interactive light show follow in the footsteps of Gully and be rooted in the Amex matchday experience in three decades time?
Bournemouth is an interesting game to debut it. General admissions tickets are yet to sell out, meaning there are guaranteed to be empty seats across the stadium.
That is before taking into account season ticket holders who stay away because of the 8pm kick off and the palaver which is getting to and from the Amex for a midweek game (official attendance 51,789… thank you for your fantastic support).
A stadium barely half full at 7:45pm and lacking kids because of the Monday evening scheduling will mean the light show looking rubbish, lessening the chances of it taking place again. Which will seemingly please a lot of people.
Fair play to the club though for trying. And whether the light show ends up being a roaring success or a damp squib, it certainly seems a better way to entice young people into supporting the Albion than the efforts made with my generation – laying on free buses to Gillingham for kids across Sussex to watch Brighton lose 4-0 to Darlington.
Those were the days…