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SOL expansion

Cappuccino Kid said:
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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But SOL was built so it was easy to make it bigger
 

Mantobar said:
But SOL was built so it was easy to make it bigger
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Almost 30 years ago. The whole football experience has moved on since then. My point is it isn’t going to be the cheapest possible option just to increase capacity (like the North Stand extension was). It will entail a lot more than that.
 
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I do think I'd we csn, extend the south stand a one big tier. Make it our proper home end
Don't want a particular carbon copy of north stand
 
Paul3845 said:
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.
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This, was just typing what you said. You would have to take the South Stand Roof off aswell or about 2,000 people would be looking at the top of the roof.
 
AndrewP said:
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.
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Whilst I personally bothered about empty seats I get the argument but again personally I cannot see any decent arguments against expansion as long as it's funded over the long term and won't effect spending on the team.....the club is improving day by day and expanding the ground is a natural part of that .....personally I'm hoping I'll be around to see a south and east stand expanded and what a magnificent sight that would be!
 
oddbod said:
Whilst I personally bothered about empty seats I get the argument but again personally I cannot see any decent arguments against expansion as long as it's funded over the long term and won't effect spending on the team.....the club is improving day by day and expanding the ground is a natural part of that .....personally I'm hoping I'll be around to see a south and east stand expanded and what a magnificent sight that would be!
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I agree. It's like extending your house with a mortgage - you spread the cost over 25 years.

But regardless of the financial impact (which isn't too significant) for me it's about the culture of the club and who we are.

Since the SoL opened (largely) anyone who wants a ticket has been able to get one, and we have offered significant discounts for kids - the future of the club.

Now we're in a position where this can't happen so we need to create further capacity to create sufficient head room to both satisfy our current, and secure our future, support.
 
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The new resale site should make or break it. If they can see proper volume on the secondary market filling the ground each week, that should put the demand side together for them.

My guess is that there’s enough demand to fill 55k if the club continues performing as a top half PL side. The investment sits outside of PSR and could be funded with debt, and KLD would get this money back when he sells the club.
 
Paul3845 said:
I agree. It's like extending your house with a mortgage - you spread the cost over 25 years.

But regardless of the financial impact (which isn't too significant) for me it's about the culture of the club and who we are.

Since the SoL opened (largely) anyone who wants a ticket has been able to get one, and we have offered significant discounts for kids - the future of the club.

Now we're in a position where this can't happen so we need to create further capacity to create sufficient head room to both satisfy our current, and secure our future, support.
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Not sure about the culture thing ! ,the club offered discounts to encourage sales in leaner times not out to securing fans for the future ..but that is not the case at the moment and expansion is the obvious answer ...The dillema for the club is do we maximise income from the extension or do we offer concession seats .......Personally i would prefer the latter but wont be surprised if its the former..... Our club is changing and im not sure all will like it!
 
oddbod said:
Not sure about the culture thing ! ,the club offered discounts to encourage sales in leaner times not out to securing fans for the future ..but that is not the case at the moment and expansion is the obvious answer ...The dillema for the club is do we maximise income from the extension or do we offer concession seats .......Personally i would prefer the latter but wont be surprised if its the former..... Our club is changing and im not sure all will like it!
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Yeah good post this, when demand is so high the goal posts change in terms of what can do.

I just hope we don’t introduced a membership fee on top of season cards which is just a tax on supporters
 
Paul3845 said:
I agree. It's like extending your house with a mortgage - you spread the cost over 25 years.

But regardless of the financial impact (which isn't too significant) for me it's about the culture of the club and who we are.

Since the SoL opened (largely) anyone who wants a ticket has been able to get one, and we have offered significant discounts for kids - the future of the club.

Now we're in a position where this can't happen so we need to create further capacity to create sufficient head room to both satisfy our current, and secure our future, support.
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more so the future as many in 50/50 areas will just take their kids to the mags when/if they build their "super stadia" and sad to think those living close by cant get tickets also.

do it while we can
Blyth said:
Some posters would never have left Roker park like.

The usual “what if we have empty seats” “what if we get relegated” “there’s some spare hospitality seats not sold”

If we continue to think like that we’ll go nowhere.
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the same posters who thought relegation would be good to clear the decks , or it would be too early for promotion etc etc
 
oddbod said:
Not sure about the culture thing ! ,the club offered discounts to encourage sales in leaner times not out to securing fans for the future ..but that is not the case at the moment and expansion is the obvious answer ...The dillema for the club is do we maximise income from the extension or do we offer concession seats .......Personally i would prefer the latter but wont be surprised if its the former..... Our club is changing and im not sure all will like it!
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Focus on corporate offering in the East stand extension for income streams, make the South stand a massive home end to make normal tickets more readily available. Covers both bases
 
oddbod said:
Not sure about the culture thing ! ,the club offered discounts to encourage sales in leaner times not out to securing fans for the future ..but that is not the case at the moment and expansion is the obvious answer ...The dillema for the club is do we maximise income from the extension or do we offer concession seats .......Personally i would prefer the latter but wont be surprised if its the former..... Our club is changing and im not sure all will like it!
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I think it's very difficult to quantify the benefit of discounted or concessionary tickets. In fact, there's a valid argument that it promotes negative sentiment with those paying full price.

In the past, it was widely accepted that anyone who wanted to go to the match would go, regardless (within reason) of ticket cost. I recall in the Ellis Short era, ticket offers didn't really produce any significant uptick in attendance numbers. This season has demonstrated that we can fill the ground without additional concessions, but with a greater focus on fair pricing for all. Personally, I wouldn't expect the extension to happen unless the club are confident that the proportional revenue it produces will be on par with the rest of the stadium, or even greater through hospitality.
 
TexasMackem said:
Personally, I wouldn't expect the extension to happen unless the club are confident that the proportional revenue it produces will be on par with the rest of the stadium, or even greater through hospitality.
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Given funding any extension doesn’t impact PSR negatively and the additional revenue it generates impacts it positively then it’s a no brainer.
 
Was at the optus stadium in Perth last year, we were on top tier and all tiers had hospitality with glass walls on outside, would love to see something like that if s stand was built with views over river. A lot better than the drab concourse we now have, even the smaller football stadium had open airy spaces for food and drink
 
ron said:
Was at the optus stadium in Perth last year, we were on top tier and all tiers had hospitality with glass walls on outside, would love to see something like that if s stand was built with views over river. A lot better than the drab concourse we now have, even the smaller football stadium had open airy spaces for food and drink
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Sounds class - currently at the SOL I go nowhere near the concourse other than to get to my seat, it's just an horrendous experience. I'm convinced they could generate a lot of revenue by improving the whole experience.
 
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