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Mr B said:
Do we really need to average 60k to have a stadium that holds 60k? I’d be more than happy to average 55k and have spare capacity for extra if needed.
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Yes, because every seat empty is lost revenue and it also removes the prestige of getting a ticket. The fairweather fans won't be giving up their seats if they know they can't return, give them any opportunity and they get bored they'll be soon gone and the number will be even lower.
 

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.
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The big crowds were great but people weren't shocked at all. Boro got 30k in their new ground. We knew we had a bigger support than them. It was expected to get those crowds if we did well. Nobody complained about the new stadium capacity when it was announced. Even those that were releluctant to leave roker park accepted the capacity if we stayed there would have been far too small.
 
Zimba said:
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.
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They’re trying to do that already (FOMO) by telling current corporate customers they’ll have to go to the back of the waiting list if they want to downgrade to general admission.

I don’t think that would work really you wouldn’t be able to turn the entire premier concourse into corporate so you need to retain the concourse level either way,

I can’t imaging a new east being much different to the current west stand it’s just a case of will all the corporate be in the upper tier or will they be kicking east standers out of their prime half way line seats and booting them upstairs
 
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.
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Simple answer to that is to only allow access to the big games if you've bought at least one lesser cat game. Walsall tickets fir phase 3 anyone 😉
 
BaconButty said:
They’re trying to do that already (FOMO) by telling current corporate customers they’ll have to go to the back of the waiting list if they want to downgrade to general admission.

I don’t think that would work really you wouldn’t be able to turn the entire premier concourse into corporate so you need to retain the concourse level either way,

I can’t imaging a new east being much different to the current west stand it’s just a case of will all the corporate be in the upper tier or will they be kicking east standers out of their prime half way line seats and booting them upstairs
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I dunno you know, as long as the South Stand was done first, can't see why you couldn't free the concourse space up in the pink; as long as all bits in orange go corporate.

There's not that much moving really; the P's getting the same seats in the East Stand; depending on the SW Corner was done, there's plenty potential space to serve L15-17/U18-20 and P1/P2/P5/P6 being done from the existing upper concourse.

Only really L18/L19 to move and I can't see much moaning really.

(Pink might have to move in slightly)
 
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Zimba said:
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I dunno you know, as long as the South Stand was done first, can't see why you couldn't free the concourse space up in the pink; as long as all bits in orange go corporate.

There's not that much moving really; the P's getting the same seats in the East Stand; depending on the SW Corner was done, there's plenty potential space to serve L15-17/U18-20 and P1/P2/P5/P6 being done from the existing upper concourse.

Only really L18/L19 to move and I can't see much moaning really.

(Pink might have to move in slightly)
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You might be onto something there I suppose. isn’t it blocked between the premier concourse and the north west upper corner, shouldn’t be an issue to knock an entrance through mind.

I’m sure one of the concourse levels in the north west corner isn’t used much, was where they originally had the Foundation before the Beacon (I could be wrong)
 
Sgt Pepper said:
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?

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.
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We have that situation now, if we got relegated to league 2, we’d have loads of empty seats.

Let’s plan to succeed, not to fail
 
I understand everyone’s point here about increased demand based only on doing well this season, but we’re guarenteed next season in the premier league and there is a huge waiting list.

Would be interested to know roughly the cost of expanding it to what it was designed for and I would of thought it would near enough pay for itself for the season after as long as it’s built in time and we stay up next season.
 
northernw said:
I understand everyone’s point here about increased demand based only on doing well this season, but we’re guarenteed next season in the premier league and there is a huge waiting list.

Would be interested to know roughly the cost of expanding it to what it was designed for and I would of thought it would near enough pay for itself for the season after as long as it’s built in time and we stay up next season.
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It really wouldn't. Construction is currently very expensive. Itll likely require near sell outs for over 10 years for the payback
 
brain_stew said:
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.
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We were only getting 40k last year!
 
42 said:
It really wouldn't. Construction is currently very expensive. Itll likely require near sell outs for over 10 years for the payback
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Honestly? That’s extortionate. I do everything myself so don’t know what the prices are for trade now.

I suppose it makes sense, but if someone said that to me i’d expect that to be the price of a hole new stadium. Suppose it’s steel though
 
northernw said:
Honestly? That’s extortionate. I do everything myself so don’t know what the prices are for trade now.

I suppose it makes sense, but if someone said that to me i’d expect that to be the price of a hole new stadium. Suppose
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It's costing Aston Villa £100m for their new stand construction costs are massive now. When Spurs built their new stadium it cost £1 billion
 
Mnemonic said:
We have that situation now, if we got relegated to league 2, we’d have loads of empty seats.

Let’s plan to succeed, not to fail
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Nobody is saying let’s never do it. Just some of us are saying wait to see if we continually sell it out because upto now this is only season 3 of 20 odd since the last extension. Read the latest posts about the construction costs these days. This isn’t something that can be knocked up overnight for peanuts. The people demanding an extension would likely be the first to piss and moan if we did and and our budgets on transfers got cut back as we had to cut our cloth accordingly. What’s wrong with finding our feet, assessing the demand and then deciding? Knee jerk decisions generally aren’t very well thought out or end well.
42 said:
It really wouldn't. Construction is currently very expensive. Itll likely require near sell outs for over 10 years for the payback
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Fuck that though mate, let’s just do it because suddenly demand exceeds supply for the first time in quarter of a century!
 
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