Here's a sum for you. Ten times 10,000, expressed in pounds sterling. Stay with me for half a minute and I'll tell you why I ask.

Meanwhile...

Somewhere very soon, perhaps even today, not a millimetre as the crow flies from this very column, a first letter bitterly condemning the Withdean price hike will be published.

In a week when Virgin Trains have been castigated for raising their fares by 10 per cent - "enraging politicians and user groups" - the Albion's decision to go for twice as much is bound to get Outraged of Hove sharpening his pencil.

He'll have some hot figures at his disposal. King among these will be the fact that a very upmarket season ticket at Old Trafford, exclusive of prawn sandwich, costs about £450.

This compares to the cost of a comfy niche at Withdean, convenient for the lavs, of about £450.

As Man U's capacity is ten times ours they would presumably have to charge something north of £200 a game if they had our capacity.

Or, put the other way, if we had their plastic bunker then Dick Knight would need an artic to pay in the cash on Monday mornings and our club megamart would also be flogging tromp d'oeil portraits of past heroes at £50 a go.

And of course Bobby Zamora would be on the £10,000 a day we understand might soon be coming Becks's way.

Ah, was that the 10,000 mentioned in the sum above?

Actually, no. For the significance of that figure we must go back 29 years. It was in 1972 that we last did what we so nearly did again last Tuesday evening. Beat Rochdale away.

A few days after that great and historic occasion we met Rochdale again, in a Goldstone match we needed to win to gain promotion. I wasn't there, being asleep in my cot at the time, but nearly 35,000 others were. The Goldstone was nearly full.

Reading about this the other day made me think: Withdean has been nearly full for game after game this season and if the new, improved Albion had still been playing in the Old Shoreham road, the Goldstone would have been nearly full too.

The difference is that the Goldstone would have had a capacity of around 17,000. Precisely 10,000 more than Withdean. Assume a tenner a ticket and we arrive at my sum. Ten times 10,000: £100,000.

That's how much Mr Archer's calculated decision to turn the Goldstone into a shopping sprawl for people who like to eat a burger and buy a DVD at the same time is costing the Albion and its supporters. Not £100,000 a season, but £100,000 a game.

To recover that the present board would need to hoist Withdean prices by 120 per cent, not 20. Don't feel angry with them: direct your ire at the portly screw-salesman. He'll be the cause of Zamora going.

The very least Mr Archer should do is write off the £1.5m he still has in the club.

Better still, let him assign it to a supporters group. He has no interest in the Albion. It would be no skin off his back. And this one decent gesture might even persuade the odd fan to buy a discounted garden shed from Focus Do It All this summer. Not me, mind.