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SOL expansion

More corporate space and better facilities sadly is desperately needed as that is where the proper match day revenue comes from. The SoL is over 25 years old and the newer grounds have moved on so much since it was built it’s frightening.

In terms of an expansion of capacity, if we stay in the PL for a number of seasons and demonstrate a waiting list of tickets then yes maybe. The reality is that we’re most likely to come straight down with a very low points total and the buzz with us at the moment could be gone very much sooner than people realise. Losing at home week in week out won’t bring the crowds back, and the tickets are of course more expensive now as well putting off the casual buyer.

The away fans should be moved back down, sadly we’ve followed those up the road with this selfish move of hiding them in the gods and it’s not a winner overall for us.
 

Blyth said:
And I’m allowed to call them daft ideas. And I’ll continue do so. You just continue being confused kiddo. Why are you obsessed with the SOL hosting the NFL like. It’s never gonna happen.

They probably wouldn't even go there
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It works both ways. We are also allowed to say that it's not the time to build another tier and its a daft idea until we consolidate in the PL.

Yet we get slated as negative etc.
Mr B said:
If a stadium sells out and has to turn people away then it simply isn’t big enough. We’ll find out when the season kicks off if we need to expand the stadium.

Roker Park once held around 75,000 but I’ve been in there when 35,000 looked ok, and that was well before the Roker was cut in half.

Fortunately, the club probably employ better people than those who post on here to make important decisions regarding expansion. Personally, I’d expand the East Stand to cater for more corporate, increased concourse space and a few extra seats to keep prices cheap for kids, but that’s just me.
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It needs to be worth the investment. They aren't going to commit 60m to an extension if we get relegated in 11 months time and attendances drop by 8k....

It just isn't the time. Prove we need the seats and not just 1 season out of the last 20 years.
 
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Mowgli said:
It works both ways. We are also allowed to say that it's not the time to build another tier and its a daft idea until we consolidate in the PL.

Yet we get slated as negative etc.

It needs to be worth the investment. They aren't going to commit 60m to an extension if we get relegated in 11 months time and attendances drop by 8k....

It just isn't the time. Prove we need the seats and not just 1 season out of the last 20 years.
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Villa is a great example atm.

Consolidated their PL status (and More) and now looking to expand.

Forest too
 
Northumberland Rocks said:
Why not have both?
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We can when it’s proven we actually need it.
Binxy said:
Why are people obsessed with empty seats?
Who gives a fuck if there's empty seats, is 46k in a 47k stadium a better attendance than 50k in a 55k stadium.
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It’s about making the investment in the right direction. I’d rather concentrate on staying up for now.
 
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Fletch said:
But there aren’t IF we stay in premiership.
IF we can stay up and then another season then it would be time to increase to 55
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We have to be a solidly established top-flight side before even considering extending the stadium.

You also have to weigh up what sort of income the outlay would achieve. There is no point extending if you could only fill it with cheap/concession prices.
 
Fact Hunt said:
We have to be a solidly established top-flight side before even considering extending the stadium.

You also have to weigh up what sort of income the outlay would achieve. There is no point extending if you could only fill it with cheap/concession prices.
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Its also not a bad thing to have people missing out for a short while and create a 'must be there' attitude to the SOL. That would increase prices and make an extension a more viable option and more likely to be filled.

Would probably give a better atmosphere aswell when it's packed.
 
Fletch said:
But there aren’t IF we stay in premiership.
IF we can stay up and then another season then it would be time to increase to 55
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There were last time we were in the Premier League, our crowds were great considering how shit we were but the ground wasn’t full. Over to the stayaways/floaters/fans who attend when we’re in the PL to see if it’s needed longer term.
Binxy said:
Why are people obsessed with empty seats?
Who gives a fuck if there's empty seats, is 46k in a 47k stadium a better attendance than 50k in a 55k stadium.
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Nobody’s obsessed by them, they’re just questioning why we need to add more seats when the ones we currently have, have not been consistently filled. It feels ambitious to say we’d get 50k all of a sudden when in our last PL stint our highest averages were 43k, meaning there were a few thousand seats still available. Admittedly we were abysmal and haven’t had any ‘success’ to balance it so it was understandable, but there’s nothing to suggest if we struggled next season that the ones who are quick to stop going won’t be quick to stop going again.
 
Southern Monkey said:
More corporate space and better facilities sadly is desperately needed as that is where the proper match day revenue comes from. The SoL is over 25 years old and the newer grounds have moved on so much since it was built it’s frightening.

In terms of an expansion of capacity, if we stay in the PL for a number of seasons and demonstrate a waiting list of tickets then yes maybe. The reality is that we’re most likely to come straight down with a very low points total and the buzz with us at the moment could be gone very much sooner than people realise. Losing at home week in week out won’t bring the crowds back, and the tickets are of course more expensive now as well putting off the casual buyer.

The away fans should be moved back down, sadly we’ve followed those up the road with this selfish move of hiding them in the gods and it’s not a winner overall for us.
Click to expand...
We will only expand if it makes financial sense to do so and bugger the empty seats ..any moneys spent on the stadium will always have one eye on the financial return it provides and there will always be an element of future proofing for every pound spent!
 
Some people really don't understand the words negativity and ambitious in this thread mind. They just don't like what they're hearing and it's all they come up with.
 
Mowgli said:
It works both ways. We are also allowed to say that it's not the time to build another tier and its a daft idea until we consolidate in the PL.

Yet we get slated as negative etc.
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If people don’t want to build a tier that’s up to them. It’s shite half baked ideas that’s astonishing like.

They admitting we need more hospitality areas and boxes, but the try every daft way to build it than the most obvious, cost effective and sane suggest and literally what the stadium was designed to do.
 
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