SOL expansion

[oddbod]

I dont see it happening myself, purely down to the owner.

If we're ever at the point where we're selling out then i think hes much more likely to just increase ticket prices.

I dont see KLD putting in/or sanctioning the club to spend 20/30/40 million on an expansion when he will see very little of that back when he sells up.

Imagine a fully expanded SOL in a Champions League semi final though...one can only dream!


As a youngun i always dreamt of the stadium being fully expanded.

The older i get the more id be happy if we just focused on the concourses like you say. Would help in many ways but for me, id love to see more space for some independant, street food style places. Outside smoking area, better bars etc. And would make leaving the the stadium much faster.

Never going to happen mate ,any upgrade will be for the high end corporate and music events .. there is not enough money to be made with selling a few beers and pies to the oiks 2-3 times a month..how on earth would you attract an independent for 2-3 times a month? Overpriced shyte for the oiks is the only way they will attract anybody!Anybody that cannot go 2 hours without a fag needs to look to give up!

Didnt the club send out a survey recently asking fans if they use hospitality and how much they would pay ?I know i filled one in around six months ago!...... its clearly in their mind to improve the hospitality offerings ,especially for concerts and corporate so something is going to happen! We all know KLD likes to do stuff on the cheap so i personally hope they dont make a carbuncle of our beautiful stadium by hoying boxes up on the cheap .....Personally i hope the development follows the aesthetics of the premier concourse but i do doubt that will happen.

edit

 

[big bill]

Been reading this thread with interest about the need to expand the corporate side of things at the SOL. Wouldn’t the easiest and cheapest thing to do is reopen the various suites that seem to have disappeared since we got relegated from the Premier league, such as the James Herriot suite, which was always advertised as the best one in the ground with its outdoor balcony.
For what it’s worth I think the capacity is about the right size for us but would love to see the concourse on the south and east stand massively expanded backwards as I can could never understand why the roof sloped inwards rather then outwards in the first place, making the concourse to narrow, it’s only a brick skin where the turnstiles are so I wouldn’t have thought it’s a massive job to remove it and build a new wall with turnstiles a good 15 meters back.
Better still but much more expensive would be build a new two story structure all the way round both stands which could hold corporate in the upper tier in the future if demand was needed or either stand got extended.

 

[GiantHogweed]

Sounds like it's still very much the plan. We'll be playing in front of 60k plus watching prem and champs league football within the next ten years under this lot.

Will deffo need the monorail then.

 

[Bacon]

The space is already there to put boxes in at the back of the east stand, they’ll just do that I would imagine if anything, turn the old club shop into a bar/lounge sorted saved 20 - 40 million quid on a new roof and thousands of seats nobody’s going to sit in probably drop the capacity to 45000 which will be about right for us

 

[Big Duke Six]

The space is already there to put boxes in at the back of the east stand, they’ll just do that I would imagine if anything, turn the old club shop into a bar/lounge sorted saved 20 - 40 million quid on a new roof and thousands of seats nobody’s going to sit in probably drop the capacity to 45000 which will be about right for us

What about the infrastructure and space required to service those boxes?

 

[DiscopantsSoL]

Been reading this thread with interest about the need to expand the corporate side of things at the SOL. Wouldn’t the easiest and cheapest thing to do is reopen the various suites that seem to have disappeared since we got relegated from the Premier league, such as the James Herriot suite, which was always advertised as the best one in the ground with its outdoor balcony.
For what it’s worth I think the capacity is about the right size for us but would love to see the concourse on the south and east stand massively expanded backwards as I can could never understand why the roof sloped inwards rather then outwards in the first place, making the concourse to narrow, it’s only a brick skin where the turnstiles are so I wouldn’t have thought it’s a massive job to remove it and build a new wall with turnstiles a good 15 meters back.
Better still but much more expensive would be build a new two story structure all the way round both stands which could hold corporate in the upper tier in the future if demand was needed or either stand got extended.

Not including the 52 executive boxes that hold around 650ish seats this is just taken out of the Stadium of Lights advert for venue hire, they are not using the James Heriot Suite, Carling Lounge and Charley Hurley Suite any more which I'm presuming are the empty blocks of seats either side of the directors box on a matchday.

Montgomery Suite
650 Capacity

Charley Hurley Suite
50 Capacity

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Riverview
200 Capacity

Business Lounge
200 Capacity

Quinn's Sports Bar
450 Capacity

Black Cats Bar
900 Capacity

Carling Lounge
60 Capacity

James Herriot

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100 Capacity

 

[JPS]

Been reading this thread with interest about the need to expand the corporate side of things at the SOL. Wouldn’t the easiest and cheapest thing to do is reopen the various suites that seem to have disappeared since we got relegated from the Premier league, such as the James Herriot suite, which was always advertised as the best one in the ground with its outdoor balcony.
For what it’s worth I think the capacity is about the right size for us but would love to see the concourse on the south and east stand massively expanded backwards as I can could never understand why the roof sloped inwards rather then outwards in the first place, making the concourse to narrow, it’s only a brick skin where the turnstiles are so I wouldn’t have thought it’s a massive job to remove it and build a new wall with turnstiles a good 15 meters back.
Better still but much more expensive would be build a new two story structure all the way round both stands which could hold corporate in the upper tier in the future if demand was needed or either stand got extended.

I’m sure the riverside and Darlo arena have roof sloping outwards creating bigger concourses. Surely it wouldn’t cost much

Hopefully if they develop BCB they’ll continue the concrete perimeter wall so back few rows can stand

Rail seating / standing would be even better

I’d move my season card back to north stand, if the back sections are rowdy again

 

[Paul3845]

The people that sit there aren't going to want to go and sit in the front of the north stand or the north West upper.

You are saying there's no need but removing the back 3/4 rows would create a need for it.

Extending all the way around will give them an opportunity to build a proper away end, 2 tiers so we aren't losing loads of seats. Building on the south West corner would be the best way to do it. And we even be able to give away fans some hospitality boxes. Would be off camera for all the people that care about what we look like on camera. I'd love to see the roker stand extended like the Tottenham hotspur south stand where it's all one and then boxes all the way round the east/north/west stands would mean concerts can be done without losing any hospitality boxes and a huge stand to boost atmosphere right next to the away fans.

And the south and east stand extension should be made so the current concourse can be massively extended.

An absolute pipe dream but would be a perfect stadium.

It's not a pipe dream, just simply what needs to be done - or similar - to keep our club developing to keep pace with others.

Imagine how far behind we would be now if Bob had accepted an all seater Roker Park because we couldn't fill it at the time ?

 

[Bacon]

What about the infrastructure and space required to service those

I’m sure they’d be able to find a solution that didn’t involve spending 20 - 40 million pounds building a new upper tier

 

[Paul3845]

The problem with our ground is since extending the North Stand, like at the mags, it doesn't look finished. And, never will look finished, until it's the same height all the way round. Symmetry

Bob should have extended the East (not the North) stand first, not only to ensure the symmetry we've lacked for the last 20 odd years, but also because boxes, bars, and upper level seats along the length of the pitch generate more cash than those behind the goal. More symmetry and more revenue ... perfect combination.

 

[AndrewP]

They still use the balcony one sometimes. I presumed it was in use on matchdays.

 

[TikaTakaTico]

Imagine the sound of 15,000 East Standers opening their bait boxes in unison.

The steam rising from their open Bovril thermoses

 

[Blyth]

Could see them potentially adding boxes at the back of the east stand, but that would be it would reduce capacity by a few thousand if anything

Mental suggestion to be fair

The space is already there to put boxes in at the back of the east stand, they’ll just do that I would imagine if anything, turn the old club shop into a bar/lounge sorted saved 20 - 40 million quid on a new roof and thousands of seats nobody’s going to sit in probably drop the capacity to 45000 which will be about right for us

Someone else suggested this a while back. It’s a ridiculous suggestion.

Toilets, infrastructure, access, lifts, stairs, emergency exits, food, drink that’s needed.

I can’t believe people think you can just put some boxes there at the back of the stand.

It makes no economic sense whatsoever.

 

[Spaceturtle]

We have added 20,00 to our support since 1996.

By encouraging kids through cheap tickets who then go n to buy adult tickets and the general growth of footy added to a return to the premier league no one can say we wouldn’t add a further 20,000 to our support in the next few years particularly if we ever had a decent team in the premier league.

SAFC is uniquely placed, out of all the top clubs, to increase capacity due to owning the land and ease of expanding the SOL. At the very least we should be looking at it and by all accounts we are.

As a club and fan base let’s not be defeatist. We should be bold, keep letting kids in cheaply and build the fan base and extend.

I think infrastructure doesn’t could negatively against ffp so I wouldn’t be surprised if kyril was thinking about going for it. He said it was one of the reasons for buying the club at the very start. The fact that it could be done so easily, room planning etc

 

[Randy Savage]

Bob should have extended the East (not the North) stand first, not only to ensure the symmetry we've lacked for the last 20 odd years, but also because boxes, bars, and upper level seats along the length of the pitch generate more cash than those behind the goal. More symmetry and more revenue ... perfect combination.

He needed to do the north stand first as there was talk of the pool adjacent.

 

[big bill]

Over the years I’ve been in every part of the ground apart from the corporate parts of the west stand so I don’t know to much about them apart from what is advertised on the club web site, but it does seem strange that in the north stand upper they are two levels of concourses ( three if you include the black cats bar) for a couple of thousand away fans. I used to have a season ticket up there and they are in my opinion the best concourses in the ground. But no longer available to Sunderland fans.

 

[oddbod]

What about the infrastructure and space required to service those boxes?

Exactly !adding extra seats to that sort of build would be a small % of the overall cost..they would be mad not to do both!

 

[TZMouk]

Mental suggestion to be fair

Someone else suggested this a while back. It’s a ridiculous suggestion.

Toilets, infrastructure, access, lifts, stairs, emergency exits, food, drink that’s needed.

I can’t believe people think you can just put some boxes there at the back of the stand.

It makes no economic sense whatsoever.

Came here to say this, I'm not sure there's enough room even with the metal rows at the back removed. Plus I don't want my season ticket seat changing... I'm no engineer/architect but I'd imagine you'd need to change the whole roof/concourse area outwards.

 

[PaddySAFC97]

With football as popular as ever and with reasonable pricing a half decent Sunderland side in the Premier League could easily average 55,000.

If it was to ever happen it would be class to have the South stand made into a huge single tier like at Dortmund.

 

[Blyth]

Came here to say this, I'm not sure there's enough room even with the metal rows at the back removed. Plus I don't want my season ticket seat changing... I'm no engineer/architect but I'd imagine you'd need to change the whole roof/concourse area outwards.

Of course you would have to. It would make zero sense and it’s a stupid suggestion.

With football as popular as ever and with reasonable pricing a half decent Sunderland side in the Premier League could easily average 55,000.

If it was to ever happen it would be class to have the South stand made into a huge single tier like at Dortmund.

This