Rising Seagulls in full Bloom
PROMOTION: BRIGHTON BACK IN ENGLISH TOP FLIGHT
Club owner’s £200m investment pays off in spades.
London
Tony Bloom is a feared presence at any poker table, but on Monday the biggest wager of this renowned gambler, the £200 million investment in Brighton, paid off with their promotion to the English Premier League.
The Championship leaders ended their 34-year wait for a return to the top flight on Monday by beating Wigan Athletic 2-1.
The Seagulls have truly taken flight, rising to a level that 20 years ago would have been deemed fantastical as they found themselves in dire straits, without a home and penniless.
They only avoided relegation from the Football League on the last day of the 1996/97 season and were forced to play in Gillingham, 120km away from their home town, for the next two years after their old Goldstone Ground was sold to pay off debts.
However, having reached their nadir they wallowed in lower league mediocrity until Bloom came along in 2009, and with a wave of his cheque book he transformed the then League One club’s fortunes on and off the pitch.
Bloom, despite his reputation as a poker player, is also a keen businessman and bears strong ties to the club historically – his family were involved with Brighton dating back to the 1970s when his grandfather Harry was vice-chairman.
The property investor nicknamed the “Lizard” by a rival poker player used his money to engineer a state-of-the-art stadium just outside Brighton – roughly a 10-minute rail journey – and whose reputation is such that it hosted matches at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, including the epic Japanese win over the Springboks.
Monday’s joy was all the more welcome given that Bloom had experienced several near misses, none more so than last season when they lost out in heartbreaking fashion on the second and last automatic promotion place on goal difference and also failed in the promotion play-offs.
For club chief executive Paul Barber promotion is a deserved reward for Bloom’s massive outlay.
Barber, who came into football after a career in banking, admitted the odds of retaining their place will be difficult.
“It is really tough to stay up and looking at the numbers now it will be very tough to stay there,” he said. –