SOL expansion

[Sgt Pepper]

We’ve had 3 decent seasons in the top flight in my life time supporting Sunderland in 42 years. 3!

Its not hard to imagine if they get it right the sol isn’t needs improving and extending.

Nobody has disagreed with this though. We’re just pointing out talk of it at this stage seems ridiculously premature.

 

[douggie]

Might have been posts already but didn’t we lose a section of offocial
Seating when when benno barnes etc moved their desks to th gods

 

[AndrewP]

Aye no arguments, it is a strange one. We do seem to really overdo the segregation as like you said it's never been anywhere near the capacity.

Mind speaking of that, does anyone actually know what the capacity truely is? There's been lots of movement ie. media at the back etc if every seat was filled.

48,700. 48,353 is the record attendance for a football match with segregation.

 

[Blyth]

Nobody has disagreed with this though. We’re just pointing out talk of it at this stage seems ridiculously premature.

It’s not though is it. I’m not saying extend it tomorrow. It’s gonna take a while to finish the planning and start the work.

Look at Leeds. It won’t be finished until 2030, Birmingham similar, Villa 2028. Mags god knows when.

 

[ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK]

Let's be honest, the only time is makes sense from a business point of view is when the equilibrium on a basic supply and demand curve is above the capacity. Makes more sense to increase prices until then. Obviously the likes of Leeds etc which people keep bringing up have a massive waiting list so it will be above it.

This! Most clubs these days just increase prices if there's someone else willing to pay more than the next person in the queue. That's the main reason why Leeds get £30m revenue from 36k fans yet we get summit like £12m from 40k fans. One reason why our revenue is considerably lower is ticket prices and generous concessions. Another reason is that Leeds limit ST sales and force 1,000s of fans to pay match day prices instead. Leeds have the membership for the match day tickets and will make millions more than if they sold them as ST like SAFC do at the moment. The mags are using the same trick now also with the match day lottery for members.

If demand got anywhere near a constant sell out then all SAFC would do is increase prices, change the way concessions work and possibly not resell ST that have become free due to people not renewing. We've already seen the 1st stages of this happen last season with the dropping of the U16 to U14 along with higher prices in the East/West stands for concessions. It could be in time they drop the U14 from the E/W as they've already dropped it from the centre of the East stand last season. That's because they're premium seats and they know they can easily sell them at adult prices for a lot more money.

The new ST prices and if we stay in the Premier League then I'm sure they prices for renewal will go up. There's no way each and every ST holder will be able to renew at those prices so it will free up seats for those will to pay the higher price.

There's still ways the club can generate more match day revenue for a few seasons yet before having to expand the stadium. They've also focused on the corporate side and the downside of that is a few of those in the Black Cat Bar have been priced out by the prawn sandwich brigade.

If we got relegated even in 5 years it would be stupid having expanded when crowds drop back down to 40k and therefore matchday revenue dropping anarl. Those dreaming of an expansion in coming seasons are doing exactly that, dreaming as it's not as easy as playing Footy Manager

 

[fixxxer]

Nobody has disagreed with this though. We’re just pointing out talk of it at this stage seems ridiculously premature.

Almost as if it may take a few years to plan/build...

 

[ned2000]

Numerous, as in not very often? I guess you're right.

We didnt sell out roker park many times in the years before our move but it didnt stop the club from building a stadium with over double that capacity...point being the long term aim/ambition has to be competing both on and off the field in the premier league...one of the best ways of doing that would be to expand the stadium imo

 

[AndrewP]

We didnt sell out roker park many times in the years before our move but it didnt stop the club from building a stadium with over double that capacity...point being the long term aim/ambition has to be competing both on and off the field in the premier league...one of the best ways of doing that would be to expand the stadium imo

Best way of competing would be to get it right on the pitch imo.

 

[Zidane]

Not this shit again

 

[The Great MES]

Almost as if it may take a few years to plan/build...

That's the thing though. The Sol would be relatively straightforward and quick due to the design and planning permission etc already in place.

 

[Blyth]

If we got relegated even in 5 years it would be stupid having expanded when crowds drop back down to 40k and therefore matchday revenue dropping anarl.

And there we have it

 

[Stubbs ftm]

Of course it doesn't. There is nothing worse than playing in that stadium with swathes of empty seats. If we got relegated and went back down to 35-40k it would look shite. And the additional money wed make from the expansion from concerts would be negligible.

This is a football stadium. That's it's principle purpose. If we as a club can consistently prove that the capacity isn't big enough we should consider it. That has never been the case in 28 years of playing there. And last season we were regularly playing with 10k empty seats.

Why does it matter how many empty seats there is?
You won't be on the pitch playing, the potential empty seats wouldn't impact the teams performance.

Things have moved on man, the stadium whilst primarily is used for football, it can't just only be used around 25 times a year.

 

[The Butcher]

Americans would literally build a stadium for 30 years then knock it down and move to a new one, so it’s more than reasonable after 30 years to have a major upgrade.

I do think you start with the south stand extension, easiest way to extend corporate across from West Stand, and they would just need to dig out old plans for that extension.

With a new housing estate behind the south stand? People think you can just plonk these extensions on anywhere!

 

[PTR]

Best way of competing would be to get it right on the pitch imo.

The elephant in the room here is that its more fun watching us challenging at the top of the championship than it is being battered week in, week out in the Prem.

Sadly, we all know that experience too well

 

[James]

With a new housing estate behind the south stand? People think you can just plonk these extensions on anywhere!

How large do you think an extension would be like?

 

[ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK]

And there we have it

Have what? The revenue dropping looking stupid rather than milking the fans now with it's current capacity and then thinking about expanding at a far later date when the milk is running low?

Did you not see the Leeds to SAFC revenue comparison where they get 2.5 times as much but from 4,000 less average fans? Do you know that the mighty title challenging Brentford generated near enough the same match day revenue as SAFC did in 2023/24 season books yet they only averaged 17,000 fans?

You need to go back to playing Footy Manager if you think we need to expand SOL as soon as possible

 

[DonaldDownTheWing]

With a new housing estate behind the south stand? People think you can just plonk these extensions on anywhere!

The planning permission for the south stand extension is already in place.

 

[Roker Scoreboard]

They’ll be pitch side for the start of 26/27, and I’ll eat my hat if it’s not the NEC.

Can’t see any other option tbh.

If they don't move them at the mags then we'll get the green light to keep them in the North upper.

 

[hudson88]

There’s 49000 seats, or thereabouts, in the stadium. Whilst they may not be made available for sale and therefore our capacity is reduced, they’re still there.

If we’re short of seats, just stop being so anal with wanting 3 nautical miles between home and away fans.

The capacity is still 49k though? We just chose to give up 2.5k since we never sold them anyway for segregation reasons. If you want the seats back, then sort out the segregation issues ie. move the away fans.

There used to be 49000 seats, but I’m almost certain that figure came down slightly years back when we moved the press box to the back of the Premier Concourse.

Regardless of how many seats we have, we do not release 49000 for sale, so it isn’t really accurate data to include these as ‘empty’ seats when they may as well not be there as nobody has the opportunity to purchase one. Away fans are restricted to 2200 for example due to not releasing the front section for safety reasons - I agree that this is the fault of the club for not sorting out the away fan issue by either moving them, or installing netting, but to say we’ve close to 10000 empty seats every week is slightly unfair, and if you went on unsold v total made available it is probably closer to 5000. Either way, our numbers currently do not justify an extension, unless it is for corporate.

 

[Smiter]

With a new housing estate behind the south stand? People think you can just plonk these extensions on anywhere!

The council were and are well aware that the stadium was built for expansion and will be without council kickback.

It’s part of the reason why directly behind the southstand isn’t actually housing.

You have to remember it’s an extra 5k coming into the city, using there car parks, using restaurants etc.