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SOL expansion

Rogue Badger said:
Once residential plots are occupied in the Sheepfolds you can kiss goodbye to future expansion. From that point of view it makes sense to do something quickly. From a footballing point of view there's no buisness case for expanding. It's at the point the ownership has to decide to stick or twist, probably on behalf of future ownership.
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Isn’t the plot for 600 homes on Sheepfolds already sold to a developer? That (and potential issues with light for example) will presumably have been the point when it becomes difficult, not when residents move in.
 

Don't make sense to expand unless we where picked to have world cup games I know NQ was going to do something with the ground if we had won the world cup bid but it got completely blown out of the window.

I think we should stick to where we are at concentrate on getting the crowds in and winning games.
 
Dredd said:
Could we even build it that way? I know the stadiums built in a way it's easy for them to build round like the north stand but could they actually change the design like that fairly easy?
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No
HoxtonMackem said:
People wanting the ground expanded must be either pissed or simply haven’t a clue.

We’ve sold out the ground entirely about once or twice in three years.

For there to be a business case for it, it would have to be getting regularly sold out on a game by game basis for at least a few seasons. Not happened in over twenty year. That in turn would realistically mean challenging at least in the middle of the prem on a consistent basis at the very least. Twaddling about at the bottom of the PL as we did for most of the short years only averaged no more than 40k.

Add onto all of that, current materials costs (particularly steel) are at an astronomical high, as are plant and labour costs. The north stand cost £7m to extend almost 25 years ago, factor in the above and general inflation ffs.

It’s never going to happen under this ownership, let’s be honest.
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This
 
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rey mysterio said:
May as well extend it like, we could always just, you know, close bits off that don’t get used. Never understood this “ground is too big” shite. Build it and they will come.

Plus the walk to the stadium from over the city centre, toward a massive south stand terrace would be pretty spectacular and really put us on the map.
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Tbf if done correctly by a decent Architect it could be the main feature of the Stadium. A full length upper tier of curtain walling (glazed facade) looking across to the river, the Sea and the City linked by the Bridge would be outstanding.. Would you also see the new film studios from there? Internally a proper wide concourse taking in the view would make it stand out as one of the best Stadiums in the Country.
 
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Father Larry Duff said:
What’s the story with it ? There were a few rumours last year regarding this. I’m assuming that with all the work going on with sheepfolds then it could be a case of now or never in the next year or two regarding expanding the South Stand.
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Before we consider this we should decide how to accommodate away fans in a way which does not require the loss of so many seats around them and in front of them as at present…. The current arrangement reduces the capacity by some margin. We have a 49000 seat stadium with a capacity of 45000.
 
Bit of an issue for them as I can see why they’d want extra hospitality options but can also see why extra seats/capacity wouldn’t have as strong a business case.
 
Pretty sure all the rumoured expansion was just around corporate provision in the east stand. Can actually see them reducing capacity to accommodate that.
 
Developing the ground isn't all about adding to the capacity. Much more about improving the experience, facilities, hospitality etc.

Looks at Lords for the cricket as an extreme example. Spend £000m's for a very small increase in capacity. Or other clubs, especially in Italy, who have moved to purpose built new stadiums with lower capacities than the previous one.

As a business case it's much more about increasing the revenues per head rather than increasing attendances.
 
3.142 said:
Developing the ground isn't all about adding to the capacity. Much more about improving the experience, facilities, hospitality etc.

Looks at Lords for the cricket as an extreme example. Spend £000m's for a very small increase in capacity. Or other clubs, especially in Italy, who have moved to purpose built new stadiums with lower capacities than the previous one.

As a business case it's much more about increasing the revenues per head rather than increasing attendances.
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I would agree with this. For arguments sake if you rebuilt the East Stand to accommodate top level hospitality and much better supporter experience, it would have a greater revenue generation potential than simply sticking another basic tier on top akin to the North Stand.
 
englishman abroad said:
The original plan was to extend the South stand increasing the capacity to 55,000, then when we make the champions league, extend the East stand taking capacity upto 63,000
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There's no way that adding a top tier to the east stand (including corners) only adds an extra 8k. The potential capacity will be larger than that.
 
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