• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

SOL expansion

Mnemonic said:
The demand is never going to be sustainable. It's football, we'll have good patches and bad, all teams do. If you're waiting for absolute certainty that we'll be top of the premier and will stay there, it's not happening.

However, we'd be stuck at Roker Park if we took that risk adverse approach. Loads of people said we'd never fill a 40k stadium, never mind 48k.

We need to go for it. If we ever get relegated, I'm happy with some empty seats, if that means we can have 65K screaming at a 6-0 victory over the mags.
Click to expand...
Thats simply not true. The overwhelming expectation is we'd be getting the crowds we did following the move to the new stadium. Boro were getting 30k sell outs in their new ground. We have a bigger support so the expectation was pretty much the crowds we got following the move.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JPS

Mnemonic said:
If there is demand for 60k we’re missing out on 12000 tickets sales every game or about 7m a year in income.
Click to expand...

35,000 x 800 is more than 50,000 x 500 though.

There's more than income to straight demand though. Next season we could easily be selling tickets for more a game or similar even for the little games and they will sell because of fear of missing out.

If you have surplus seats then people will just go to the big games and avoid the little games because I ain't paying that to see Coventry!

I'm not saying it's right morally but business wise there's more money that way and that's before going into staff etc.
 
Last edited:
Expansion or not depends on how long the owners intend to stick round.
If it’s a forever thing then paying off an extension and hooking the next generation of fans won’t be a difficult decision. If they intend to sell within a the next few years then they won’t and they’ll stick with the cosmetic stuff.

The cosmetic thing I’d love to see would be the resurrection of the searchlights. But with three this time. One for every point available in a game. Program em to indicate a W or D deep into the following morning to the NE. Imagine the mags seeing three searchlights piercing their dim world view after every derby. It’d be worth it just for that.
Cmon KLD you know it makes sense.
 
Zimba said:
35,000 x 800 is more than 50,000 x 500 though.

There's more than income to straight demand though. Next season we could easily be selling tickets for more a game or similar even for the little games and they will sell because of fear of missing out.

If you have surplus seats then people will just go to the big games and avoid the little games because I ain't paying that to see Coventry!

I'm not saying it's right morally but business wise there's more money that way and that's before going into staff etc.
Click to expand...
That’s why they want the corporate

3000 x £2000 a season is £6million
Plus
6000 x £500 season tickets is £3million

You can see why they need corporate to be a big part of it

Also 3000 would be more than doubling our current corporate capacity which is very rarely sold out
 
BaconButty said:
That’s why they want the corporate

3000 x £2000 a season is £6million
Plus
6000 x £500 season tickets is £3million

You can see why they need corporate to be a big part of it

Also 3000 would be more than doubling our current corporate capacity which is very rarely sold out
Click to expand...

Aye totally agreed, so much money in the corporate. I'm surprised they don't do more in the lower bands like the £1.2k mark and use FOMO to try and persuade some people up who can't get tickets otherwise.

Bar boxes, personally I wouldn't build any corporate in the East Stand bar a very small section in the upper tier at the front but instead move everyone from the West Stand across to the East and instead build it there.

If you have most the West Stand corporate, then there's no need for the concourse space which would open up more space for restaurants (or whatever). It removes the controversy of moving people to worse seating aswell which would never end well.

(It's basically what Everton and most new grounds have) and wouldn't look crap on the TV either - see Wembley.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
Because the demand at this stage isn’t sustained and this waiting list has seemed a bit of a mess and a sham since the beginning reading the thread about it, with mixed numbers rumoured and given. For what it’s worth I’m in the camp of not believing there’s 15,000 (which would take ‘demand’ to 60k+) on it at all. The club are proving quite conclusively they can’t be trusted when it comes to all things ticketing. So why wait you ask, because I’ll say it again: we’ve sold the current capacity out over a full season 3 times in 25 years.

First season back in the big time for so many years away, overachieved - this always creates a fear of ‘fomo’ amongst some. If the level of demand sustains especially if we have a couple of average consolidating type seasons then fair enough I think it would be great.
Click to expand...
That just delays our club growing for a few years.

Again, you think demand is just magical, it’s up to the club to drive it.
 
riffraff said:
Expansion or not depends on how long the owners intend to stick round.
If it’s a forever thing then paying off an extension and hooking the next generation of fans won’t be a difficult decision. If they intend to sell within a the next few years then they won’t and they’ll stick with the cosmetic stuff.

The cosmetic thing I’d love to see would be the resurrection of the searchlights. But with three this time. One for every point available in a game. Program em to indicate a W or D deep into the following morning to the NE. Imagine the mags seeing three searchlights piercing their dim world view after every derby. It’d be worth it just for that.
Cmon KLD you know it makes sense.
Click to expand...
Don’t think that’s true. Development now brings in a bigger turnover, profit, EBITDA. They get their investment back through the sale, not through profit while they’re in charge.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
I’m not talking about extremes like if we plummeted to the third tier again, obviously then it would be natural crowds would dip. However since 2001 when it was extended last to the current capacity there have only been 3 seasons we have sold it out over full seasons, including a full 10 year stint in the PL from 07-17 when we didn’t achieve it once.
Click to expand...

The first 2 decades of attendances this century are ancient history at this point. Demand for Premier League football, especially post COVID is at a completely different level now. How many turned up to watch a Mick McCarthy side 2 decades ago has no relation to current demand.
North Yorks Mackem said:
Thats simply not true. The overwhelming expectation is we'd be getting the crowds we did following the move to the new stadium. Boro were getting 30k sell outs in their new ground. We have a bigger support so the expectation was pretty much the crowds we got following the move.
Click to expand...

I was just a kid at the time but this isn't how I remember it at all. Everyone expected an increase but we were all shocked when we starting to regularly see 40K through the gate in the Championship.
 
Last edited:
I've always been against the expansion, purely because in my lifetime we have spent as much time out of the top flight as we have in it and even when in the top flight the attendances settled to about 44 to 46k and the odd sell outs.

But football attendances are generally rising and 52k is the new 42k and is becoming a minimum standard for the bigger clubs.

We actually now have a waiting list as well which seems weird to me at 53 years old. Its always been no bother getting a ticket, now its a pain.

If we stop up again next season and looking like a long term premier league club, I'd be more inclined to support it now.

(Still think they are being arseholes keeping the front row of the away end blocked off. )
 
Mnemonic said:
That just delays our club growing for a few years.

Again, you think demand is just magical, it’s up to the club to drive it.
Click to expand...
And how exactly does the club grow if we had a couple of mediocre seasons and demand fell, meaning after spending millions on the construction, the extra seats and extra corporate weren’t being filled?
brain_stew said:
The first 2 decades of attendances this century are ancient history at this point. Demand for Premier League football, especially post COVID is at a completely different level now. How many turned up to watch a Mick McCarthy side 2 decades ago has no relation to current demand.


I was just a kid at the time but this isn't how I remember it at all. Everyone expected an increase but we were all shocked when we starting to regularly see 40K through the gate in the Championship.
Click to expand...
2014-16 (as a random date selection when we were PL and didn’t go down) is ancient history? Not sure about that, especially considering our attendances in the PL were higher in the early 2000s for a couple of seasons than they were in our last stint up here when the popularity was generally much bigger and more family friendly (albeit pre covid).

I wouldn’t disagree about the post Covid demand and while it shows no sign of relenting, I think it’s going to be an interesting time attendance and crowd make up wise across the board in the coming years because while popularity may remain, the prices are beginning to get out of control and you hear grumblings from fanbases across the country about it - so this may end up balancing demand out if people become priced out. Probably less of a problem for the huge successful clubs and London/Manchester based clubs who can easily fill the void with tourists, but not as easy for clubs like us to do.
 
Sgt Pepper said:
2014-16 (as a random date selection when we were PL and didn’t go down) is ancient history? .
Click to expand...

As far as their relevance to demand for tickets to Premier League football in 2026, yes, they are. We had the same stats rolled out over the summer where a very small few of us on this board were convinced we'd sell out season tickets and every game when the majority thought that was impossible because we only got 40K 10 years ago. Time has moved on, and there's been nothing to suggest that demand is slowing down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top