Tony Bloom will resist the temptation to make lavish changes to Brighton’s playing staff following the club’s return to the top flight and will instead use the rush of revenue to encourage further evolution.

Brighton’s long march ends in Chris Hughton’s completion of a job well done Read more

The Brighton owner, a fan of 40 years, has invested £250m in the club since 2009, building the Amex Stadium and the new training facility at Lancing as well as improving the squad to take the club from the third tier into the Premier League. Promotion could be worth up to £200m given increased media and commercial revenues, catapulting Brighton to a new level virtually overnight. Yet Bloom aims to maintain gradual progress as they prepare for a first season in the elite in 34 years.

The club’s wage structure will shift, with Brighton now able to offer more competitive salaries but they are likely to follow the models implemented by Bournemouth and Burnley rather than offer huge contracts to new recruits.

“The amounts of money in the Premier League does equalise things a bit,” said Bloom, who has already discussed targets for the summer with his manager, Chris Hughton. “We have to strengthen, that goes without saying, but we’re not looking to spend huge amounts. We’ll do things on a gradual basis as we have done. We have good players already and we want to strengthen from that position.”

Promotion is a reward for Bloom’s reluctance to sell key players last summer after Brighton had secured 89 points in the Championship and still missed out on automatic promotion on goal difference. Offers totalling around £20m were submitted for Lewis Dunk, Dale Stephens and Anthony Knockaert – the latter had attracted interest from Newcastle who are currently traipsing in behind Brighton in the Championship – but all were resisted, despite losses of £26m recorded for the 2015-16 financial year.

“It was really important we kept together those main players who had gone so close last season,” Bloom said. “You can’t guarantee anything but we did as much as we could. We kept all our main players, we strengthened, helped all the players believe this was going to be our season, and so it has proved. It is 11 months since I went into the changing room at the end of the play-off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday and the players were on the floor. I was on the floor but I looked around and said: ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and we will come back from this and do it next season’. They’ve done it. It’s just an amazing performance.

“What will Brighton bring to the Premier League? A great city, a great fan base, an amazing stadium which will be sold out every game, and hopefully we will do the city and our supporters proud.”

The leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Warren Morgan, has already suggested Bloom and Hughton should be granted freedom of the city. The achievement comes 20 years after the club fought off the threat of relegation into non-league football and liquidation, and were rendered homeless by the sale of the Goldstone Ground to property developers.

“What would the future have held if we were in the Conference without a ground?” Bloom said. “Words can’t describe what Chris and all the players have done this season. The teamwork, the camaraderie … it really is fantastic.”