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SOL expansion

Father Larry Duff said:
What’s the story with it ? There were a few rumours last year regarding this. I’m assuming that with all the work going on with sheepfolds then it could be a case of now or never in the next year or two regarding expanding the South Stand.
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The way the Stadium Of Light was built we can extend upwards, No need to buy other land
 

Julio Mackemo said:
Correct, Arsenal got this a few years back
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By the 2016–17 season, the reported average home league attendance was 59,957.
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The attendances that Arsenal reported to the Metropolitan Police for the 2015–16 season show an average home match attendance of 54,918, ranging from a high of 60,007 against Aston Villa to a low of 44,878 against West Bromwich Albion.
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Haha thats shows they had a bigger attendance v us than Tottenham, as if!
 
oddbod said:
whats wrong with investing long term in creating a 63,700 seater stadium with magnificent facilities worthy of our fans? If we have better facilities the club will make more money even if its only gets a 45-50 thousand average ...... Why do fans have a fear of empty sets ?what is it about it? ..many of the bigger european clubs dont sell out and they are not bothered as long as the money rolls in ...is this empty seat phobia justa safc thing?are we so down trodden that we can only see investment in the team as good investment.I want to have pride in my club and the only pride i feel is the pride that we have the best fans in the land and that's it as a team we are second rate and our ground is looking tired and the facilities are poor in comparison to top clubs so anybody that wants to hold us back is stuck in the past and needs to wake up pdq or we are going nowhere.
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Because people aren't living in cloud cuckoo land and expect us to just pull another 24k from fresh air. I go to watch the game, I don't want to be sitting in a half empty morgue like Wigan.

If you want to improve the facilities, then improve the facilities, you don't do that by building an extra tier of seats. Infact that'll do absolutely nothing for half the stadium (North / West stand).

I'd rather sit in a stadium with 35k seats and the place bouncing rather than a stadium with 60k seats with 25k seats empty. Oh and btw you'd actually make more money by having less seats, not more.
 
Zimba said:
Because people aren't living in cloud cuckoo land and expect us to just pull another 24k from fresh air. I go to watch the game, I don't want to be sitting in a half empty morgue like Wigan.

If you want to improve the facilities, then improve the facilities, you don't do that by building an extra tier of seats. Infact that'll do absolutely nothing for half the stadium (North / West stand).

I'd rather sit in a stadium with 35k seats and the place bouncing rather than a stadium with 60k seats with 25k seats empty. Oh and btw you'd actually make more money by having less seats, not more.
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How?
 
HoxtonMackem said:
People wanting the ground expanded must be either pissed or simply haven’t a clue.

We’ve sold out the ground entirely about once or twice in three years.

For there to be a business case for it, it would have to be getting regularly sold out on a game by game basis for at least a few seasons. Not happened in over twenty year. That in turn would realistically mean challenging at least in the middle of the prem on a consistent basis at the very least. Twaddling about at the bottom of the PL as we did for most of the short years only averaged no more than 40k.

Add onto all of that, current materials costs (particularly steel) are at an astronomical high, as are plant and labour costs. The north stand cost £7m to extend almost 25 years ago, factor in the above and general inflation ffs.

It’s never going to happen under this ownership, let’s be honest.
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Steel's reduced/reducing in price.

You've also got to consider that a new stand could comprise additional corporate opportunities within the design.

It's happening.
 
Skylon said:
How?
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Assume you meant the last bit.

If you have too much demand for supply then you can upping the prices big time. No-one and I mean no-one would be giving up their seats, unless they really can't afford it, if they know they won't get another seat because there's so much demand. If you had a 65k seater stadium if you upped the prices people just won't renew as they know they can just pick up another seat anyway so there's no pressure.

It happened big time with the Oasis gigs recently with people paying £350 for a ticket and not giving a care in the world.

Basically FOMO (fear of missing out).
 
If we ever consistently qualify for Europe I'm sure we will but if that day ever comes is the better question.
 
Zimba said:
Assume you meant the last bit.

If you have too much demand for supply then you can upping the prices big time. No-one and I mean no-one would be giving up their seats, unless they really can't afford it, if they know they won't get another seat because there's so much demand. If you had a 65k seater stadium if you upped the prices people just won't renew as they know they can just pick up another seat anyway so there's no pressure.

It happened big time with the Oasis gigs recently with people paying £350 for a ticket and not giving a care in the world.

Basically FOMO (fear of missing out).
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Terrible comparison imho. Kinda get your point though, but disagree
 
The rumours of expansion always come up when we renew our planning permission for the extension.

The planning permission is in place just in case we ever need to expand, so if the need arises they don't need to go through that part of it.

However 2000-01 and 2001-02 we were selling out or coming close to selling out very home league game. Our implosion and subsequent relegation stopped that, but after relegation our 2 seasons in the championship - including the season we won it - we were getting below 30k for most games.
Logic would suggest - given that we are now getting over 40k in the championship - that were we to gain promotion and establish ourselves in the Premier League even as mid-table regulars, then it could get very difficult to get tickets very quickly.
 
Northumberland Rocks said:
Horses for courses.

We have the land and thsnks to Sir Bob Murray’s foresight we can extend the SOL relitively cheaply snd easily.
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Please define your version of relatively cheaply, stadium builds and extensions will have gone up alarmingly since 1997 probably by 10/15 times.

It would make absolutely no financial sense whatsoever for KLD to expand the SOL at this point in time.

If Sunderland get promoted which I would like to see by the way they will almost certainly sell out the SOL regularly, but from an owners prospective that isn't reason enough to expand the stadium capacity in the short term.

The reasoning for the above is that firstly he could simply raise ticket prices incrementally and test the waters for long term demand, I know for a fact that Sunderland fans in general are quite sensitive in regards to ticket price increases and have bulked at multiple Cup ties in the past even when the tickets were priced very fairly. Arsenal in the FA Cup, and Manchester United in the League Cup semi final both spring to mind with low attendances in both of those games as examples.

Most sensible owners will raise ticket prices with increased demand and keep on raising them if the games are still selling out and a season ticket waiting list appears and grows consistently then is the time to expand the stadiums capacity, with planning done previously.

Most football fans want a bigger capacity stadium but building or expanding a stadium just for a cock waving contest for fans makes no financial sense, those saying that concerts will pay for the building costs are living in Cuckoo land unfortunately.

Sorry for the War and Peace novel 😀
 
Zimba said:
Assume you meant the last bit.

If you have too much demand for supply then you can upping the prices big time. No-one and I mean no-one would be giving up their seats, unless they really can't afford it, if they know they won't get another seat because there's so much demand. If you had a 65k seater stadium if you upped the prices people just won't renew as they know they can just pick up another seat anyway so there's no pressure.

It happened big time with the Oasis gigs recently with people paying £350 for a ticket and not giving a care in the world.

Basically FOMO (fear of missing out).
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Exactly the principle Everton have taken with the new stadium. Keep every single seat in demand and your pricing structure rises.
 
😂😂😂 we’d never fill it man. Ok for concerts etc but look shite when we oaky. It would look empty even with 40k in it.
People are mental on here like.
 
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