Albion's desperate need for a stadium at Falmer reached new heights today as the club announced a crippling loss.

The Seagulls suffered a deficit of £1,273,000 in the year to June 2004, when they were promoted to the Championship via the play-offs.

The leap from a loss of £891,000 the previous year was in spite of a net profit of just over £1 million from the sale of star striker Bobby Zamora to Spurs and £180,000 compensation for former manager Steve Coppell's move to Reading.

Overall turnover fell by £154,000 to £4.62 million. Football League income dropped by £676,000 after relegation the previous season, although £360,000 of the shortfall was recouped from the play-off final victory against Bristol City in Cardiff.

In addition to the trading loss, a further £178,000 was written off against the costs of developing Withdean and another £320,000 spent on the Falmer planning application and Public Inquiry. That raised the total spent on the new stadium project up to June 2004 to £2.5 million.

A further £500,000 has been spent on Falmer since then and chairman Dick Knight revealed today that he and other benefactors pumped in a total of £410,000 in December to shore up the club's finances.

Knight said: "If there is a no for Falmer the club would, at best, stumble along at Withdean for a few more years. It would be condemned to being a lower league club, what league I wouldn't like to say, because the losses we are having at the moment are not sustainable over time.

"The directors cannot keep putting their hands in their pockets. The club has no future if it is not allowed to go to a decent stadium.

"Falmer is the only site and we should be allowed to get on with the community stadium we have planned, for the club, the city and the whole of Sussex."

A final decision on Falmer is now expected from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the autumn.

Albion are hoping for a financial boost from Brighton and Hove Council this week in the form of a green light for long-standing plans to put in 2,000 extra seats at Withdean.

Chief executive Martin Perry said: "The application is going to committee on Wednesday. The extra seats would enable us to increase our income from gate revenue and hospitality."

The Alive and Kicking appeal, launched by Albion last September to help cover an accumulated cash deficit of £2 million, has so far raised around £330,000.

With season ticket renewals gathering pace after the Seagulls secured Championship survival, Knight is "optimistic" the club will get through the summer.