Albion have revealed the soaring cost of playing at Withdean while their bid for a new stadium at Falmer drags on.

Operating losses at their temporary home rose to a staggering £2,229,000 in the year ending June 2006, when they were relegated from the Championship.

The figure leapt from £976,000 the previous year.

The nett loss dropped dramatically from more than £1 million to £253,000 but that was only because the sales of star players like Adam Virgo to Celtic and Dan Harding to Leeds raked in more than £2 million.

Chief executive Martin Perry said: "These figures show yet again the stress the club is under while it remains at Withdean.

"In the year to June 2006 the losses were the largest we have seen at Withdean and it was only the sales of Adam Virgo and Dan Harding that reduced the overall loss."

Albion's latest accounts also reveal another £245,000 blow arising from the Falmer delay.

That is the size of a capital gains tax bill, including interest, which the Seagulls have finally been forced to pay following the sale of the Goldstone in 1996.

The bill had been deferred by the taxman in the expectation that work on the new stadium would start by 1999.

Chairman Dick Knight said: "Ten years on, the legacy of Bill Archer and the sale of the Goldstone lives on.

"Our cash flow for 2006 was impacted by the payment of the capital gains tax. To add insult to injury, this liability was only triggered because the Lewes opponents have delayed the Stadium.

"In damaging the club as a result, the stark reality in these figures of what they are trying to do to the Albion is there for all to see."

A further £129,000 was spent on the Falmer project, increasing the total over eight years to June 2006 to £3,087,000.

The costs of the final phase of the Withdean expansion, raising the capacity to just under 9,000, are being written off over the rest of Albion's tenancy.