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SOL expansion


Hank Scorpio said:
Yeah mate but I suspect the capacity might actually increase slightly. It’s long way off though.

I do however think the club have finally realised our hospitality offering is poor and it needs improving - especially if we want to keep gigs coming to the stadium.

The good news is; as it’s now likely the mags will just redevelop SJP, there’s no danger they will take the big gigs from us.


Long term plans mate.
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What's the reasoning behind this mate?
 
I’d do the East stand first to help increase hospitality and crowd size for games and concerts. Might sound daft, but I’d also phase in a seat replacement to replace the current seats with a larger seat size. Might be just me, but I always feel as though I’m crammed in, even though I’m not next to fat lads. I know this would reduce the overall capacity, but being realistic, do we really need a 60k+ stadium. A fully extended stadium of around 55k offering good spacious seats would be more than enough for what we need.
 
PaddySAFC97 said:
With football as popular as ever and with reasonable pricing a half decent Sunderland side in the Premier League could easily average 55,000.
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I'd love to believe you but can't see it. Looking back over my time (Maybe that's my problem, I'm looking back) we haven't managed it. And as strange as it may seem the biggest crowds I've ever experienced have been for Cup games. Namely Man Utd, Spurs and Man City. I seem to recall a canny turn out against Everton in the Cup as well, and for a league game I felt a little crushed V West Ham on one occasion. Obviously we've had some good shows against the Mags but generally we seemed to pull about 40 to 47k for one or two big games during our more successful seasons.

I could be wrong mate, I'm just going by memory which isn't my forte these days. :)
 
---Nemo--- said:
I'd love to believe you but can't see it. Looking back over my time (Maybe that's my problem, I'm looking back) we haven't managed it. And as strange as it may seem the biggest crowds I've ever experienced have been for Cup games. Namely Man Utd, Spurs and Man City. I seem to recall a canny turn out against Everton in the Cup as well, and for a league game I felt a little crushed V West Ham on one occasion. Obviously we've had some good shows against the Mags but generally we seemed to pull about 40 to 47k for one or two big games during our more successful seasons.

I could be wrong mate, I'm just going by memory which isn't my forte these days. :)
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The last time we were half decent in the top flight was the Reid era , both seasons we finished 7 th our ave attendance was 47000
 
---Nemo--- said:
Looked at Statcat and second season finishing 7th was between 48k and 44k. First season was 42k and 39k.
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The 3rd season we were shite, survived on the last day of the season drawing with Derby County with a Season average of 46,745 although due to the 2 previous seasons we sold a record 35,500 season tickets that 3rd season hence why Bob was planning the South Stand Extension. After that Crowds nosedived to sub 40k for the 19 point season.
 
---Nemo--- said:
I'd love to believe you but can't see it. Looking back over my time (Maybe that's my problem, I'm looking back) we haven't managed it. And as strange as it may seem the biggest crowds I've ever experienced have been for Cup games. Namely Man Utd, Spurs and Man City. I seem to recall a canny turn out against Everton in the Cup as well, and for a league game I felt a little crushed V West Ham on one occasion. Obviously we've had some good shows against the Mags but generally we seemed to pull about 40 to 47k for one or two big games during our more successful seasons.

I could be wrong mate, I'm just going by memory which isn't my forte these days. :)
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The counter us were getting 40+ now.

The fact the likes of Brighton, Brentford etc are getting decent attendances shows you the potential.
 
Blyth said:
The counter us were getting 40+ now.

The fact the likes of Brighton, Brentford etc are getting decent attendances shows you the potential.
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Cracking turnout but how many empty seats on average per game?

As said, I'd love to see it before I shuffle off my mortal coil. I just can't see us expanding prior to us filling the place on a more regular basis. Increased corporate is more likely.
 
---Nemo--- said:
What's the reasoning behind this mate?
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There’s a couple of main reasons mate…

Firstly, the access tunnels at SJP make it very difficult and time consuming to set up a big stage. The few gigs they have hosted, the stage is nearly always at the corner of the pitch and fairly small.

Secondly, there simply isn’t the room outside of SJP to deliver the equipment needed for a big gig. When the SOL hosts the likes of Beyonce, there around 40 huge trucks that deliver and then pick up the equipment from outside the South Stand. To do the same at SJP, they would basically need to close the public road outside of the gallowgate for a couple of weeks which would be expensive.

There’s also a smaller issue of concourse space. Although the SOL concourses are too small, the club can use the East Stand car park and the road outside of the North Stand to make additional space. SJP doesn’t really have that option.
 
---Nemo--- said:
Cracking turnout but how many empty seats on average per game?

As said, I'd love to see it before I shuffle off my mortal coil. I just can't see us expanding prior to us filling the place on a more regular basis. Increased corporate is more likely.
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It makes zero sense to increase corporate and not put extra seating it. You just can’t do it.
 
Blyth said:
It makes zero sense to increase corporate and not put extra seating it. You just can’t do it.
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As far as I’m aware, if the East Stand is redeveloped (which is still a long way off) then a small amount of extra normal seating will be installed to push us towards/just over a total capacity of 50,000.

The north stand and west stands will be the first to see changes - but not to overall capacity
 
Spaceturtle said:
I think infrastructure doesn’t could negatively against ffp so I wouldn’t be surprised if kyril was thinking about going for it. He said it was one of the reasons for buying the club at the very start. The fact that it could be done so easily, room planning etc
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Hopefully.

The Tottenham supporter was on this thread saying we shouldn’t do it (not sure what the f it has to do with him as a general point), however, thanks to Sir Bob we can expand relitively cheaply and easily.

Given the fantastic developments around the stadium it maybe wise to do it sooner rather than later to negate any possible nimbyism.

We have good ticketing options for kids (I’m not knocking the club on this but it was disappointing to here we are turning kids away cos they could only pay by cash) but let’s increase it further.

As I have said future proof the SOL and build our fan base. Some investment now for longer term gain.
 
Weststand said:
Completely the wrong term to use is delusional, its about forward thinking big and not been content and standing still - plan for the future and not for the present so to speak..

Definitely not delusional
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Fair enough.

It's widely accepted at the top clubs that they sell out every game, have done for years, then build new seating to increase capacity once they know the demand is there.

A "build it and they will come" mentality is lovely, but we don't have the money to have a proper push for the premier league - the ultimate prize. What makes anyone think KLD is going to spend millions on increasing capacity for a stadium that we can't fill?

Increasing capacity for the future is fine, and I take your point, but actually believing KLD is going to pump millions in to carry out the work is..... Delusional :lol:
 
Invest in the stadium and its facilities… Yes! Expand capacity at the ground… No!

Only time you expand a ground is when you’ve built up enough demand to warrant additional seating. We never sell out so don’t have that demand. Hopefully a few years might be different but definitely not at the moment.
 
Hank Scorpio said:
There’s a couple of main reasons mate…

Firstly, the access tunnels at SJP make it very difficult and time consuming to set up a big stage. The few gigs they have hosted, the stage is nearly always at the corner of the pitch and fairly small.

Secondly, there simply isn’t the room outside of SJP to deliver the equipment needed for a big gig. When the SOL hosts the likes of Beyonce, there around 40 huge trucks that deliver and then pick up the equipment from outside the South Stand. To do the same at SJP, they would basically need to close the public road outside of the gallowgate for a couple of weeks which would be expensive.

There’s also a smaller issue of concourse space. Although the SOL concourses are too small, the club can use the East Stand car park and the road outside of the North Stand to make additional space. SJP doesn’t really have that option.
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Cheers Hank. Much appreciated.
Blyth said:
It makes zero sense to increase corporate and not put extra seating it. You just can’t do it.
Click to expand...
We'll see.
 
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south west sufferer said:
Invest in the stadium and its facilities… Yes! Expand capacity at the ground… No!

Only time you expand a ground is when you’ve built up enough demand to warrant additional seating. We never sell out so don’t have that demand. Hopefully a few years might be different but definitely not at the moment.
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Why not though?

If we're investing millions into creating new hospitality areas then why not spend a bit more and extend the ground to a sustainable amount?
 
Mr B said:
I’d do the East stand first to help increase hospitality and crowd size for games and concerts. Might sound daft, but I’d also phase in a seat replacement to replace the current seats with a larger seat size. Might be just me, but I always feel as though I’m crammed in, even though I’m not next to fat lads. I know this would reduce the overall capacity, but being realistic, do we really need a 60k+ stadium. A fully extended stadium of around 55k offering good spacious seats would be more than enough for what we need.
Click to expand...
It's 90 minutes mate !gan on a fekking diet lard arse;)..youl be wanting. maid service next!
 
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