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SOL expansion

Barista said:
Article in The Times today says Arsenal are looking at ways to both expand capacity and/or increase corporate offerings. They feel they have fallen behind Tottenham, and also need to keep up with recent redevelopment at Liverpool, Man City (attendance increasing to nearly 60k by 2026), and Man U redevelopment/new ground. Fans at the Emirates are complaining about the state of the food offerings and how long it takes to get a pint at half time etc. where have we heard that one before🤔 ?
Tottenham rake in almost £1m in just food, drink and corporate revenue from every single home match. Their fans are still complaining about how long it takes to get a drink, even with the fancy bottom filling pints. I guess there is no way to quickly serve 10s of thousands of people all wanting it at the same time.
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Tottenham’s £1m food and beverage revenues per game refer to the concourses only and do not include corporate hospitality revenues.

If the above wasn't correct Spurs would have to average approximately £95 for a matchday ticket to reach £6m of revenue per game.
 

Julio Mackemo said:
I don’t think we’d ever regularly get 60k, Sunderland as a catchment area just isn’t big enough. We’d probably get to 55k though with a top 6 team in Europe.
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Not since the advent of dodgy feeds and mass live games on legal tv we won’t. I had a ST the first four seasons at the SOL despite living 270 miles away. Back then we had the largest % of fans who lived over 100 miles from their stadium of choice. No chance I’d have done that if games were on tv every weekend. Others will feel the same.
Lord Nigle said:
The catchment issue is a red herring.SAFC has supporters regularly attending home games from the North,Midlands and the South? We’ve got a huge fan base compared to a lot of clubs with huge potential if we become successful.
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More live games than there were back in the Reidy days. Exiles won’t be coming home as often when every games available to watch in their front rooms unfortunately.
 
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oddbod said:
May I ask if were expanding the corporate what exactly have you against hoying in a few seats to future proof the stadium as a a better attraction for concerts and one off games?this is on the proviso it makes financial sense to do so but only because your going to the expense of adding boxes in the first place and not as the main driver.what is your problem with empty seats?....it appears only to be a safc fan concern!
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Because there's a cost to have empty seats (maintenence etc), it looks terrible, makes the atmosphere worse and there won't be any need for these seats in the short/medium term, if ever.

It's not a problem for other clubs, because there's literally no club with 10% empty seats, planning to expand their stadium. To discuss it the other way fans at clubs like Wigan would much rather have a smaller stadium with a better atmosphere.

There's no financial sense behind it at all, I personally can't see when we would ever need a second tier on the East Stand, in particular, unless we are literally fighting at the top of the Premier League every season.

The only case, I could see for some expansion, is something in the NE or SW Corner with it designed properly for away fans, with proper segregation from the rest of the stadium so we can reopen the whole North Stand for home fans again, rather than what we have now when the bottom blocks are effectively abandoned.
 
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Where has the extension rumours come from? Not even an issue unless we consolidate competing consistently at top end prem and europe.
 
Zimba said:
Because there's a cost to have empty seats (maintenence etc), it looks terrible, makes the atmosphere worse and there won't be any need for these seats in the short/medium term, if ever.

It's not a problem for other clubs, because there's literally no club with 10% empty seats, planning to expand their stadium. To discuss it the other way fans at clubs like Wigan would much rather have a smaller stadium with a better atmosphere.

There's no financial sense behind it at all, I personally can't see when we would ever need a second tier on the East Stand, in particular, unless we are literally fighting at the top of the Premier League every season.

The only case, I could see for some expansion, is something in the NE or SW Corner with it designed properly for away fans, with proper segregation from the rest of the stadium so we can reopen the whole North Stand for home fans again, rather than what we have now when the bottom blocks are effectively abandoned.
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Not surprising your a bring the away fans back to the lower bowl fella and just like your analysis of the empty seats cause poor atmosphere its an argument built on sand!None of this will be done mate ..Build and create the best stadium you can afford and make the 20th century facilities join the 21century and make some money in the process is what i would like to see but it wont happen anytime soon!..so your 19th century mindset is safe for the foreseeable future so gan back and watch your episodes of dads army on the Betamax!
 
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riffraff said:
Not since the advent of dodgy feeds and mass live games on legal tv we won’t. I had a ST the first four seasons at the SOL despite living 270 miles away. Back then we had the largest % of fans who lived over 100 miles from their stadium of choice. No chance I’d have done that if games were on tv every weekend. Others will feel the same.

More live games than there were back in the Reidy days. Exiles won’t be coming home as often when every games available to watch in their front rooms unfortunately.
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As an exile myself, the sheer cost puts me off attending more regardless how well we do or how often we are on TV

Just can't afford a 500 mile round trip these days. Used to do about 9 or 10 home games a season, now it's 5 or 6.
 
riffraff said:
Not since the advent of dodgy feeds and mass live games on legal tv we won’t. I had a ST the first four seasons at the SOL despite living 270 miles away. Back then we had the largest % of fans who lived over 100 miles from their stadium of choice. No chance I’d have done that if games were on tv every weekend. Others will feel the same.

More live games than there were back in the Reidy days. Exiles won’t be coming home as often when every games available to watch in their front rooms unfortunately.
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And we’re all getting older too.
 
oddbod said:
Not surprising your a bring the away fans back to the lower bowl fella and just like your analysis of the empty seats cause poor atmosphere its an argument built on sand!None of this will be done mate ..Build and create the best stadium you can afford and make the 20th century facilities join the 21century and make some money in the process is what i would like to see but it wont happen anytime soon!..so your 19th century mindset is safe for the foreseeable future so gan back and watch your episodes of dads army on the Betamax!
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I'm probably one of the youngest on here and wasn't born when either of those were around. You can bring the facilities to the 21st century, adding another tier for the sake of it isn't doing that.

MK Dons, Wigan, Hull, Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Stoke. All these clubs with empty seats and a thriving atmosphere...

I never mentioned bringing the fans to the lower tier though, I was talking about building a second tier in one of the corners, and splitting the fans between both tiers so it releases the North Stand and uses the least space in the lower bowl. I'd say have them all in the new upper corner but you can't.
 
Zimba said:
I'm probably one of the youngest on here and wasn't born when either of those were around. You can bring the facilities to the 21st century, adding another tier for the sake of it isn't doing that.

MK Dons, Wigan, Hull, Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Stoke. All these clubs with empty seats and a thriving atmosphere...

I never mentioned bringing the fans to the lower tier though, I was talking about building a second tier in one of the corners, and splitting the fans between both tiers so it releases the North Stand and uses the least space in the lower bowl. I'd say have them all in the new upper corner but you can't.
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Because there's a cost to have empty seats (maintenence etc), it looks terrible, makes the atmosphere worse and there won't be any need for these seats in the short/medium term, if ever.
 
oddbod said:
Because there's a cost to have empty seats (maintenence etc), it looks terrible, makes the atmosphere worse and there won't be any need for these seats in the short/medium term, if ever.
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It does though? Go to any gig that's half empty and it's crap. The same gig in a smaller venue, with the same people is always better. It's the same at any live event.

I'm not suggesting downsizing, but the atmopshere would be better if we had a 30k stadium, sold out every week over what we have now, where there's empty seats all over the place bar a very few games. That's why places like Luton have the atmosphere if they do. If they moved to a 30k stadium, it would be crap, like Stoke and so on.
 
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Said it on here before. It’s an uncomfortable truth but the ground has almost always been too big for us. Since it got extended to current capacity how often have we sold out? Not often.
 
Houghtoner said:
Said it on here before. It’s an uncomfortable truth but the ground has almost always been too big for us. Since it got extended to current capacity how often have we sold out? Not often.
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Nope!42 thousand was to small for the prem !45 thousand would probably have kept the empty seat psychos happy but you aint going to build half a stand just to accommodate them!the biggest problem with the sol is the lack of corporate and the narrowness of the concourse and that's a major restructuring job and it would be idiotic to spend multi millions on restructuring that without adding seats as well to recoup some of the cost......i really don't know why it causes such a furore with some fans its never going to happen under our present owners...any changes will be cosmetic at best.oh and cheapo!
 
Unless something seismic happens I think what Brentford and Brighton are doing is probably our season. A decent PL team with little worry of the drop and the occasional stint in Europe to get excited about.

If that was sustained and the football was good to watch, I think we’d get 55k easily.

It would take us pushing for the title or CL football to ever justify more than 60k though I think.
 
oddbod said:
Nope!42 thousand was to small for the prem !45 thousand would probably have kept the empty seat psychos happy but you aint going to build half a stand just to accommodate them!the biggest problem with the sol is the lack of corporate and the narrowness of the concourse and that's a major restructuring job and it would be idiotic to spend multi millions on restructuring that without adding seats as well to recoup some of the cost......i really don't know why it causes such a furore with some fans its never going to happen under our present owners...any changes will be cosmetic at best.oh and cheapo!
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What cost would you be recouping when said seats would be sat empty :lol:
 
I suggested this years ago but could they add boxes up at the back of the concourse? They’ve already hoyed the press up there to attempt hiding its emptiness. A bit of internal alteration and a levelling out and hey presto.
 
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