My Soccer Story: Paul Dorsey

Dorsey is the founder of Stateside Seagulls

Paul Dorsey isn’t exactly sure how he became a Brighton & Hove Albion fan. He figures FIFA likely had a lot to do with it: probably played with them in career mode, saw the seagull in their crest and thought it was cool.

Dorsey started casually following the team during the 2012-13 season when they finished fourth in the EFL Championship, England’s second tier. They faced bitter rivals Crystal Palace in the promotion playoff semifinals. Though the second leg was not easily accessible in the U.S., Dorsey found a way to listen to it.

“When they lost, I felt something,” he said. “And I wasn’t expecting to feel something that strongly. That’s kind of the moment when I knew, yeah, this sucks, and I’m in pain, and I don’t know why, but I’m going to follow that. This is definitely my team now.”  

Dorsey stuck with Brighton as they nearly got relegated to League One two seasons later and were promoted to the Premier League for the first time two seasons after that. Around the time of the promotion, he founded a U.S.-based supporters’ group called Stateside Seagulls.

The goal was to help connect Brighton supporters across the country and make sure they knew when games were.

“When I started, it was basically just, I’m just talking to people and not actually being in a leadership position, not really doing anything important,” Dorsey said. “It’s just, I’m talking to people on Twitter.”

Seven straight seasons in the Premier League and qualifying for the Europa League this past season thanks to a sixth-place finish in 2022-23 has led to dramatic growth in Brighton’s international fanbase. Now, Stateside Seagulls has groups of fans in major cities that will watch games together. Dorsey’s primary focus in his role as president is creating a more defined structure and supporting the members who gather for games.

As one of the leaders of Brighton supporters in the U.S., Dorsey works hard to make sure the club’s history is appreciated. He wants to keep growing Brighton’s following while also understanding the fan experience is significantly different living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“It’s really important to know where the team has come from and to know where those supporters have been, especially in the case of Brighton where there’s supporters who marched and protested on the streets in Brighton to keep the team from going out of business,” he said.

Even though Brighton has gone from a team living in the lower divisions to one of the most respected in Europe, Dorsey still feels the same sense of connection.

“They feel like my community, they feel like my family,” he said. “That hasn’t changed since 2012.”

Dorsey, who is from Baltimore, compares his relationship with Brighton to the one he has with the Orioles. He wants other Brighton fans in the U.S. to have the same experience.

“It feels like I’m kind of going back home or I’m talking about my hometown team,” he said. “That hasn’t changed in the 12 years that I’ve been a Brighton fan. Starting Stateside Seagulls and being able to kind of establish that for other fans here in the States has been really gratifying for me.”