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SOL expansion

Big Duke Six said:
He knew the potential, and had the foresight to do it.
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Exactly. If someone was thinking like a few on here we'd have had a 25,000 seater stadium and wouldn't be half the club we could be. Get the fucker extended, market ourselves as the NE club where you can get a PL ticket fairly easily, get fans for life. Give away fans 5,000 tickets if the worst comes to the worst, but I don't think it will.
Sgt Pepper said:
We hadn’t though, we’d been pretty much filling the SOL since it opened. Some crowds in the first half of the first SOL season were a bit lower but as the season progressed it was filling and if you watch highlights back it was often just the away end that had empty seats. Wasn’t a crowd below 35k in the second half of the season and bearing in mind the 3k away allocation + hospitality and segregation that meant the 41k or so was pretty much full.

Example: this match had 35k there

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You haven't read my post properly.
 

scott934 said:
Exactly. If someone was thinking like a few on here we'd have had a 25,000 seater stadium and wouldn't be half the club we could be. Get the fucker extended, market ourselves as the NE club where you can get a PL ticket fairly easily, get fans for life. Give away fans 5,000 tickets if the worst comes to the worst, but I don't think it will.

You haven't read my post properly.
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I just qualified it after realising.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
We hadn’t though, we’d been pretty much filling the SOL since it opened. Some crowds in the first half of the first SOL season were a bit lower but as the season progressed it was filling and if you watch highlights back it was often just the away end that had empty seats. Wasn’t a crowd below 35k in the second half of the season and bearing in mind the 3k away allocation + hospitality and segregation that meant the 41k or so was pretty much full.

Example: this match had 35k there

You must be logged on to see media items

Edit: misread your post, thought you were asking why we extended it again when we’d been averaging less than half a few years before.
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Think he means at Roker we were averaging below 20k and Murray built a Stadium more than double the size.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
We hadn’t though, we’d been pretty much filling the SOL since it opened. Some crowds in the first half of the first SOL season were a bit lower but as the season progressed it was filling and if you watch highlights back it was often just the away end that had empty seats. Wasn’t a crowd below 35k in the second half of the season and bearing in mind the 3k away allocation + hospitality and segregation that meant the 41k or so was pretty much full.

Example: this match had 35k there

You must be logged on to see media items

Edit: misread your post, thought you were asking why we extended it again when we’d been averaging less than half a few years before.
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Not true mind. Average attendance in the opening season at the SoL was 34K? Very impressive as we hadn't done that since the 60s or 70s but 8k empty seats on average. However, point is back them building a stadium and expecting it full every week not as big a deal as now. So current expansion debate you could say, sure, do it.
 
Ava Ava Ava said:
Timings is everything but incredibly difficult to get right.

We could stabilise with three years in the prem, plan our extension then it could easily go to shit.

Look at Wolves and especially Forest, who are going for an extension/rebuild on the back of a couple of good years and then boom, look at the state of them at the moment.

I think we should crack on with expansion and remodelling the concourses ready for at least next season because you cannot assume what your status will be in a few years time so take advantage of the current situation.
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With regards to forest, that was always going to go to shit. An egomaniac in charge, who has little respect for the competition rules as shown by their overspending in year 1 after promotion. They also held MGW hostage, forcing him to stay despite him wanting to leave. That's the polar opposite of what we do, if someone wants to go they can. It's no surprise their form hasn't been great this season. Couple that with sacking a manager because he fell out with the owner, replacing him with someone clearly not capable of managing in the PL, then sacking him after no wins in 8.

Wolves are a slightly different case. They've constantly sold their best players for good money but their recruitment has been poor.
 
Wrenthorpe Mackem said:
Not true mind. Average attendance in the opening season at the SoL was 34K? Very impressive as we hadn't done that since the 60s or 70s but 8k empty seats on average. However, point is back them building a stadium and expecting it full every week not as big a deal as now. So current expansion debate you could say, sure, do it.
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I did qualify that though by saying if you look at the crowds, it was the earlier half of the season games that dragged the average down. No crowds under 35k and mainly late 30s with a few 40ks and 41ks thrown in. I misread the post anyway.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
I did qualify that though by saying if you look at the crowds, it was the earlier half of the season games that dragged the average down. No crowds under 35k and mainly late 30s with a few 40ks and 41ks thrown in. I misread the post anyway.
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True. Remember it well....after Xmas we were pushing high 30s constantly/40K constantly.
 
Just watched the sunderland highly video of Mukiele from Saturday and there's loads of patches of empty seats. At both ends of the ground and even in the east stand.

How are all these empty? Have reselling websites bought season tickets and can't sell them on or summit?
 
Mowgli said:
Just watched the sunderland highly video of Mukiele from Saturday and there's loads of patches of empty seats. At both ends of the ground and even in the east stand.

How are all these empty? Have reselling websites bought season tickets and can't sell them on or summit?
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I do find it amazing that they were all SC holders who just couldn’t/didn’t want to attend. We’re flying high in the premier league man!
 
Mowgli said:
Just watched the sunderland highly video of Mukiele from Saturday and there's loads of patches of empty seats. At both ends of the ground and even in the east stand.

How are all these empty? Have reselling websites bought season tickets and can't sell them on or summit?
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It annoys me far more than it should like 🤣

Big clump of them every game in the West Stand behind the dugouts which Ive been told are for youth players etc. Further behind them are empty every week too (corporate I think). Same at the back of the North Stand (corporate again)

My row, second back row in SEC is only 2/3rds full every game. Same seats always empty.

Always quite a lot not being used dotted about in each stand which I put down to people not being able to make it, but seems to be more than noticeable at other clubs (from TV).

Shame for other fans as the demand is there and we've got a season ticket sell out in the lower bowl - but this is an issue. Got to be a (better) way of reselling.
 
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LambethMackem said:
I do find it amazing that they were all SC holders who just couldn’t/didn’t want to attend. We’re flying high in the premier league man!
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Some may be seats that need to be reserved for wheelchair companions. I don't know if there is any legal requirement, but could there be a purchase deadline for disabled spots (a day or two before match) which would then release the companion seats to general public.
 
Norfolk'n'chance said:
It annoys me far more than it should like 🤣

Big clump of them every game in the West Stand behind the dugouts which Ive been told are for youth players etc. Further behind them are empty every week too (corporate I think). Same at the back of the North Stand (corporate again)

My row, second back row in SEC is only 2/3rds full every game. Same seats always empty.

Always quite a lot not being used dotted about in each stand which I put down to people not being able to make it, but seems to be more than noticeable at other clubs (from TV).

Shame for other fans as the demand is there and we've got a season ticket sell out in the lower bowl - but this is an issue. Got to be a (better) way of reselling.
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Guess we’ll know if there’s a serious problem if there’s still empty seats when we’re playing Arsenal and the like in a few weeks.

Let’s say there’s 500-1000 seats dotted around the ground unoccupied and the club get £30 for a resale, over the rest of the season that’s at least a couple weeks of Granit’s salary sorted :lol:
 
Mowgli said:
Just watched the sunderland highly video of Mukiele from Saturday and there's loads of patches of empty seats. At both ends of the ground and even in the east stand.

How are all these empty? Have reselling websites bought season tickets and can't sell them on or summit?
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One thing I’ve noticed is the blocks directly behind the dugouts aren’t full. The club are holding them back for someone. Just a shame they’re not releasing them even on the day of the game.
 
Let's invest the 30/40m for the extension on players to secure our Premiership safety over the next +5 years.
 
BRMC said:
Let's invest the 30/40m for the extension on players to secure our Premiership safety over the next +5 year
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Where do you live mate innertiaville? Of course given a binary choice like that most would agree with you oh and so would I ..But i fear that type of thinking is not suited to the growth of our club in modern times ..We need to grow the team and the business in tandem.

I personally think we have a ownership group that will do the right thing for the club and expansion of the sol will be done when the time is right (and affordable)and will not effect the funding of the team on a year to year basis probably through long term low interest loans from the KLD family group.!
 
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