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SOL expansion


Lo Ursem said:
And yet ... West Ham with traditionally much less support than us can fill a 60,000 stadium.
The Quinn era was ancient history with regard to comparing football attendances then and now. Depending on capacity, at least ten clubs now are capable of drawing 60,000.
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It helps if you've won a European cup and play in the prem constantly.
 
Smiter said:
For me the biggest example and show of what our potential would be in the Pl is how quickly the play off semi final tickets sold out.

When in PL I could nearly always get friends and family tickets even for big games, but I can’t remember a time like last Pl semi final when they sold out in about 30 mins after going on General sale.

I just think like you say it’s more popular and when we do go up, the big games especially will sell out very quickly and I could see the season ticket total going upto 40k.
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Yeah, that was mental. I nearly missed out because I underestimated demand. That would have been 50k plus easily.
 
Father Larry Duff said:
When we eventually make it back to the Prem there won’t be enough room for hospitality. It’s the same for the gigs. We need to expand and we need to have boxes all the way round
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Yea get a few more hospitality boxes built, might even attract the odd PM.

Seriously though, would the capital investment in any future expansion be worth it? Income from ticket sales is going to be peanuts compared to the tv money that continues to roll in, especially in the Pl and Champions League.
 
I think the important thing is to concentrate on building and maintaining a successful team. ~it would be nice to play in front of 75k, but would the local infrastructure support such crowds? Bournemouth manage ok with a ground capacity of just over 10k
 
Father Larry Duff said:
It’s simple. We are getting 40k in the championship. It’ll be up towards 45k as the season goes on if we continue our promotion push. We’ll sell out when we get to the prem, we also don’t have enough boxes and hospitality facilities available for the prem. We also need these things for gigs so we don’t miss out on the bigger events. Extending it to about 55,000 and adding more hospitality makes perfect sense.
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We didnt regularly sell out when we were in the prem though?
 
maghater said:
Yea get a few more hospitality boxes built, might even attract the odd PM.

Seriously though, would the capital investment in any future expansion be worth it? Income from ticket sales is going to be peanuts compared to the tv money that continues to roll in, especially in the Pl and Champions League.
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You assess the payback on something like a 25 year period. Even non-football events would probably bring in enough to cover the costs.
 
Useful_Idiot said:
Could do with filling the one we have first like. Only expansion I can see is more corporate stuff/boxes.
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Once we start selling it out regularly it's too late to expand.

We've already missed out on the euros and possibly other events.

No idea on where you'd start to work out if it would be beneficial to spend all the money up front and then let it trickle in over 20-30 years it probably wouldn't be for an owner like KLD.
 
Lo Ursem said:
And yet ... West Ham with traditionally much less support than us can fill a 60,000 stadium.
The Quinn era was ancient history with regard to comparing football attendances then and now. Depending on capacity, at least ten clubs now are capable of drawing 60,000.
Click to expand...

West Ham United do not traditionally have much less support than Sunderland as you suggest, both clubs all time averages are basically the same at 25,800 with Sunderland currently just in front, Sunderland have had a bigger capacity stadium since the SOL was opened which helped them surpass West Hams all time average attendance, and now that West Ham have a bigger capacity stadium from 2016 onwards they will go above Sunderland again within the next year or two.

I am not having a dig at Sunderland, Simply pointing out the facts as they are.
 
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Father Larry Duff said:
It’s simple. We are getting 40k in the championship. It’ll be up towards 45k as the season goes on if we continue our promotion push. We’ll sell out when we get to the prem, we also don’t have enough boxes and hospitality facilities available for the prem. We also need these things for gigs so we don’t miss out on the bigger events. Extending it to about 55,000 and adding more hospitality makes perfect sense.
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I think this is what kyril said from the start. He was attracted to the club because we owned the ground unlike Marseille, so we could expand it to suit needs. Get promoted with these young lads and I think we will need it. Do the police stop you from giving away 5,000 away seats nowadays?
Billy Fish said:
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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That would be excellent
Useful_Idiot said:
It helps if you've won a European cup and play in the prem constantly.
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They were shite on Saturday by all accounts, might struggle this year
 
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EssexYid said:
West Ham United do not traditionally have much less support than Sunderland as you suggest, both clubs all time averages are basically the same at 25,800 with Sunderland currently just in front, Sunderland have had a bigger capacity stadium since the SOL was opened which helped them surpass West Hams all time average attendance, and now that West Ham have a bigger capacity stadium from 2016 onwards they will go above Sunderland again within the next year or two.

I am not having a dig at Sunderland, Simply pointing out the facts as they are.
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If you are counting all time averages, yes, without looking at the facts you may be correct. West Ham did not enter the league until around 1920. Before that, during football's formative years attendances throughout the game were a lot smaller. Sunderland in the Victorian era were known as the 'The Team of all the Talents' but in the three years that were champions never averaged more than 8,325. Up to the formation of the PL in 1992, West Ham's all time average attendance at Upton Park was just above 30,000. From 1945 to 1965 Sunderland had averaged over 40,000 on eight occasions with a further two seasons at 39,000 plus.
Cannot argue with modern day trends. West Ham's current crowds are excellent - I was one in a small minority who predicted they would draw big crowds at their new stadium - but averaging over 60K - no-one, including me, expected that.
If you want to to delve into attendances I recommend an excellent book- Football Through The Turnstiles Again by Brian Tabner published in 2002.
 
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