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SOL expansion

The Onion Bag said:
It wouldnt be a barrier, it would be the side of the stand. Maybe they could take that away, but then people would get wet. Or the roof would fall down.
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You’ve lost me marra, by that thinking, you think it’s impossible to ever put an upper tier in the north west corner?

I’m fairly certain the stadium was built to allow expansion easily on top of the lower tiers.
 

Smiter said:
You’ve lost me marra, by that thinking, you think it’s impossible to ever put an upper tier in the north west corner?

I’m fairly certain the stadium was built to allow expansion easily on top of the lower tiers.
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It's the sightlines. The North West corner works because the North stand has a roof at the same level. If the South West corner was extended with the South stand roof still in place a significant number of seats would have an obstructed view of the southern areas of the pitch.
 
Local Lad said:
I cant remember it if it was on here or elsewhere but I seen somewhere that there's a move away from people wanting to pay thousands to sit in a box with people they know and towards people wanting to mingle and network and then sit in a comfortable seat. I think extending the east stand would come at a huge loss of seats for us normal people so extending the south stand at the same time would be a good idea.

If we stay up this season which is looking more likely every week I think its too late to extend unless they can do it in a way that very little capacity is lost.
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The original plan (early oooo's)was to add an extra 7300 seats to south stand !..clearly the new proposal ( used as objection to the altering of housing development plans so close to south stand ) has the south being extended with 5300 seats and this is because of a bigger corporate area and concourse....... If anything gets built(which i doubt in the short term) it will start with the south stand thats for sure!...logistically works wont start next year but perhaps the next at the earliest
Fletch said:
Would south stand extension add about 4.5k ?
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5.300k
 
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oddbod said:
They will sell the tickets at the maximum price point for demand and still make loads on food and drink.
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Maybe, but there's no point having a situation like in 76 yards where seats are not being sold, even for games that otherwise sold out in 10 minutes.
 
AndrewP said:
Maybe, but there's no point having a situation like in 76 yards where seats are not being sold, even for games that otherwise sold out in 10 minutes.
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Very true! they will try to find the right balance and in a poor region like ours that may be a limiting factor in our growth!My view is the more people in the stadium the better as whilst we may not get top dollar from seats when compared to other affluent areas it will increase the fan base over time through their children and as that will increase revenue ....... the question on expansion will always be around "is it worth it"?and my view it is a resounding yes!
 
oddbod said:
Very true! they will try to find the right balance and in a poor region like ours that may be a limiting factor in our growth!My view is the more people in the stadium the better as whilst we may not get top dollar from seats when compared to other affluent areas it will increase the fan base over time through their children and as that will increase revenue ....... the question on expansion will always be around "is it worth it"?and my view it is a resounding yes!
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In theory, that is a good point, sadly in practice, they couldn’t give a fuck about the fans, in my experience.
Not unless they can gain some good publicity through it, anyway.
 
oddbod said:
The original plan (early oooo's)was to add an extra 7300 seats to south stand !..clearly the new proposal ( used as objection to the altering of housing development plans so close to south stand ) has the south being extended with 5300 seats and this is because of a bigger corporate area and concourse....... If anything gets built(which i doubt in the short term) it will start with the south stand thats for sure!...logistically works wont start next year but perhaps the next at the earliest

5.300k
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I’m not so certain it starts with the south stand mate, just makes zero sense from a corporate point of view whatever way they want to do it.
 
Due to increasing hospitality options and better concourses etc the south stand extension won’t be as extensive (seat wise) as the north stand one.

I’d go for a major east stand extension better facilities .

Wonder how many seats that would add ?
 
Father Jack Hackett said:
In theory, that is a good point, sadly in practice, they couldn’t give a fuck about the fans, in my experience.
Not unless they can gain some good publicity through it, anyway.
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If you take the emotion out of the situation it always comes down to supply and demand......and methods of achieving growth of the business!There is a model out there that promotes keeping the sol as it is do a little corporate restructuring that might reduce capacity and charge as much as you can for seats in a limited availability market......the problem with that is there is a price ceiling where many will not break through ......especially in a poor region like ours!.....

The other model has you making the sol as big as you can afford and get more bums on seats and whilst the revenue from seats might take years to get it back the increased revenue(sales of shirts ect) from having more fans coming to the games will benefit the club in the long run!
Smiter said:
I’m not so certain it starts with the south stand mate, just makes zero sense from a corporate point of view whatever way they want to do it.
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I think your wrong mate! if the sheepfolds housing development was not on the cards I might agree with you! but it is and any expansion will start with the south stand ...... they could have the stage on the centre line encroaching into the east stand and use corporate in the premier ,north and south stand!
 
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A boring reason I know, but I reckon those at the top of the club are focussed on getting things right as a newly promoted premier league club (hospitality offerings, maximising concession & sponsor revenue etc) before undertaking a huge construction project like expanding the stadium. Would take the attention of a lot of important people to project manage it properly.
 
oddbod said:
If you take the emotion out of the situation it always comes down to supply and demand......and methods of achieving growth of the business!There is a model out there that promotes keeping the sol as it is do a little corporate restructuring that might reduce capacity and charge as much as you can for seats in a limited availability market......the problem with that is there is a price ceiling where many will not break through ......especially in a poor region like ours!.....

The other model has you making the sol as big as you can afford and get more bums on seats and whilst the revenue from seats might take years to get it back the increased revenue(sales of shirts ect) from having more fans coming to the games will benefit the club in the long run!

I think your wrong mate! if the sheepfolds housing development was not on the cards I might agree with you! but it is and any expansion will start with the south stand ...... they could have the stage on the centre line encroaching into the east stand and use corporate in the premier ,north and south stand!
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It’s hard to take emotion out of it when I’ve had a season ticket for 33 years and, through no fault of my own, they sold my seat and are completely unwilling to do anything about it as well as being positively rude.
 
Father Jack Hackett said:
It’s hard to take emotion out of it when I’ve had a season ticket for 33 years and, through no fault of my own, they sold my seat and are completely unwilling to do anything about it as well as being positively rude.
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I dont want to be harsh mate as i dont know your story but im assuming its a direct debit thing ? but business are for the most part shit at dealing with errors of these types and you feel like a number but the stark truth is they are a business and i would hope there are not many in your awful situation.
 
oddbod said:
I dont want to be harsh mate as i dont know your story but im assuming its a direct debit thing ? but business are for the most part shit at dealing with errors of these types and you feel like a number but the stark truth is they are a business and i would hope there are not many in your awful situation.
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They cancelled and sold my season ticket mate. I’ve had one for 33 years.
Nothing to do with direct debits, I cancelled my daughter’s as she loves nearly 40 miles away and wouldn’t have been able to satisfy the 70% rule but they cancelled both and blamed me.
They were incredibly rude (wankers, basically) and I formed me I am Jim longer a season ticket holder. Fuck their business models, they could have helped me if they really wanted to, I have contacted almost everyone at the club and not one was willing to do a single thing.
 
Father Jack Hackett said:
They cancelled and sold my season ticket mate. I’ve had one for 33 years.
Nothing to do with direct debits, I cancelled my daughter’s as she loves nearly 40 miles away and wouldn’t have been able to satisfy the 70% rule but they cancelled both and blamed me.
They were incredibly rude (wankers, basically) and I formed me I am Jim longer a season ticket holder. Fuck their business models, they could have helped me if they really wanted to, I have contacted almost everyone at the club and not one was willing to do a single thing.
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Thats awful mate ! If i had evidence i would write to my mp and create a stink !as it stinks......
 
oddbod said:
Thats awful mate ! If i had evidence i would write to my mp and create a stink !as it stinks......
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I’ve written to everyone mate - the local press - nothing, the FSA, the independent ombudsman and everyone at the club - even KLD. Paul Kingsmore, the COO informed me I had 2 weeks to pay for a much more expensive seat in the summer or, in his words “you will no longer be a season ticket holder”.
 
oddbod said:
Very true! they will try to find the right balance and in a poor region like ours that may be a limiting factor in our growth!My view is the more people in the stadium the better as whilst we may not get top dollar from seats when compared to other affluent areas it will increase the fan base over time through their children and as that will increase revenue ....... the question on expansion will always be around "is it worth it"?and my view it is a resounding yes!
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It's a very difficult one.. As it stands there's plenty of demand and we will lose out on potential young fans if we don't expand and, crucially, if we keep up the way we are playing.

On the other hand, if we extend and standards drop, then we'll be left with loads of empty seats. Some might say who cares? I see their point in many ways, who cares about piss taking about empty seats?

One real potential issue having plenty of availability might cause is the club might be unable to generate as much matchday income from season tickets as there will be no fear of missing out.

If the season keeps going well, the majority of current season ticket holders are going to see a huge increase in prices. They'll likely tolerate that, because of the current difficulty in getting match by match tickets. If the ground was bigger that might not be true.

It would be nice to have a new South Stand though as it looks a bit crap walking over the new bridge. Also I'll get a ticket easier, so selfishly yeah bring it on. I'm just not sure the club will be in any rush for the reasons stated.
 
One thing that a lot of people aren’t factoring in is the cost. It’s not going to be cheap if it’s done properly, as I expect it would be given any extension will also be used to massively upgrade on the hospitality offerings. Whilst not exactly comparable as it’s an older ground, I’m sure I read that Villa’s expansion of one stand is costing £100m.

The way the club will be thinking is how long any expansion will realistically take to pay back, especially when history suggests that we spend most of our time dipping in and out of the top two divisions. And we all know that the people creating the current demand will be first to fuck off if and/or when things are not going so well.
 
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