BLOOMING GOOD WAY TO THE TOP
TONY BLOOM has enjoyed a punt ever since he spent his summer holidays playing the slot machines in arcades on the seafront. But when the penny drops at 5.30pm, and Brighton kick-off their first game in the top flight for 34 years, the man who has pumped £250million into his beloved club will feel like he’s hit the jackpot. Bloom used to play World Series poker in Las Vegas against the planet’s most inscrutable gamblers, his stable of racehorses includes Cheltenham Festival winner Penhill and his property empire is spread worldwide. But the Albion chairman’s biggest passion is football – and when the Seagulls face Manchester City, their last opponents at home in the penthouse when both clubs were relegated in 1983, he will feel like every fruit machine has emptied its change at his feet. Bloom, 47, made his fortune from the gambling industry, but his investment in Brighton has gone way beyond boyhood duels with one-armed bandits in the city’s West Street fruit machine emporiums. Albion were still playing at the Withdean athletics stadium, after they were made homeless in 1997, when he mounted his charger eight years ago. “As we all know, it was a complete disgrace the old owners sold the Goldstone – Brighton’s former home – with nowhere else to go,” said Bloom, whose grandfather, Harry, was once vicechairman and took him to games in the boardroom.
“It’s superb for everyone connected with the club here we are, on the brink of our first-ever Premier League game with a full house, a great atmosphere and we’re playing one of the title favourites.
“I guess my best single punt was when I made the commitment – a long time before I took over the club – of investing in Brighton and Hove Albion.
“All the money I was putting in, prior to getting planning permission to build the new stadium at Falmer, was pretty much worthless if we didn’t get the go-ahead.
“And then when you’ve got planning permission, even then I knew I would have to put in the majority of the money required to build the Amex.
“I also knew we needed a new training ground and, until we got to the Premier League, there would be substantial losses every year with no guarantees we would ever make it. But we didn’t build the stadium and the training ground not to give ourselves a chance.”
Bloom has given manager Chris Hughton (below) a decent war chest, and he has used it to smash Brighton’s transfer record twice in a week, bringing in Dutch midfielder Davy Propper and Colombian winger Jose Izquierdo from Club Brugge for a combined £24m. As a qualified lift engineer, Hughton will understand the first rule of the escalator: What goes up often comes down again.
And Bloom has declined to offer his manager any cast-iron guarantees he will be fireproof in the event of Albion struggling. He merely added: “Chris has done a magnificent job
here.”