Albion bosses are facing an awkward balancing act during the next phase of the club's development.


  Simultaneously maintaining progress on and off the pitch will not be easy.


  Owner Tony Bloom continues to invest heavily in the infrastructure.


  The £30 million training ground at Lancing is well on the way to completion.


  Albion have also unveiled plans for £55 million worth of job-creating improvements at The £120 million Amex, including hotel, fans' car park and student accomodation, to boost revenue and aid the club's determination to comply with Financial Fair Play rules.


  These are mindboggling sums of money poured into projects which will help the Seagulls produce their own players and ensure they are on a sound financial footing for generations to come.
  Here's the difficult bit, the awkward balancing act.


  The average fan is not too bothered about long-term gain via hotels and training grounds. Their main concern is to see their team winning and, ideally, playing an attractive brand of football in the process.


  Championship rivals like Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest appear to be taking an almighty risk by more or less ignoring Financial Fair Play in search of Premier League riches.


  Albion are taking a different and much less dangerous risk, but a risk all the same, in relying on the patience and understanding of supporters.


  Head coach Oscar Garcia and the recruitment team headed by David Burke have to operate in a different transfer market to QPR, Forest and others. They cannot compete with them in terms of players' wages.


  Albion have, in a short space of time, become the best supported team in the Championship. Crowds in excess of 26,000 are now commonplace at The Amex.


  There is still plenty of room for more on a match-to-match basis and there is still a waiting list for season tickets.


  Demand currently remains high but the majority of spectators filling the stadium are relatively new, with a limited appreciation of where the club was and where it is now and the remarkable progress that has been made.


  Those that braved journeys to Gillingham for home games and the rain at Withdean to watch Albion in the lower divisions will be level-headed about a rare season of mid-table mediocrity but they are a small percentage of attendees at The Amex.


  The in-house buzz phrase of chief executive Paul Barber is PLR - Premier League Ready.


  Albion are doing everything they can off the pitch to be ready for the top flight but there can be no guarantees about when, or even if, they get there.


  The Championship is enormously competitive and difficult to get out of. Having a team, with a mid-table budget, that is also Premier League Ready represents quite a challenge.