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Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo

Expand the stadium? The poll

  

1,304 members have voted

  1. 1. Expand the stadium?

    • Yes, asap!
      725
    • Maybe when we're established top flight. (Another 2 years+ survival)
      452
    • Not fussed.
      66
    • No.
      61


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Call me lazy but I so can't be arsed I've just copied and pasted my previous post below

In our long history, we have had long periods of success but have generally sat between the top and 2nd divisions. Widely known as a yoyo club. Middle of the road if you like. For the first time in our history, we have the backing of very wealthy owners who have a vision to move our club away from being middle of the road to establishing itself as one of the biggest clubs in the uk. It appears, they have a sensible plan to achieve this over a period of time to limit risk but there will always be a level of risk.

It's time, we as fans, open up our minds, buy into this and move away from the mentality we have been brought up with and accept that we can become one of the biggest , established clubs in the uk, living without fear of relegation but instead, with aspirations of europe our goal on a season by season basis and disappointment at finishing 11th.

If you don't think big, you don't ever stop becoming what you've always been. Stadium expansion and quick but considered growth is key to taking this club away from being a 'Norwich, a Forest, a Derby, a West Brom or a Southampton to becoming an Everton or even a spurs etc.

We need to stop thinking in terms of what we have always been and get worried about having a ground that we can't fill, or debts we may get stuck with and embrace the vision our owners have which is to take our club to the next level, to the level where our shirts are on sale in sports direct, our badge is on kids lunchboxes in shops outside Leicester and fake kits are on sale at the bazaars in Turkey!

The older of us remember Man C and Chelsea as much smaller clubs - look at them now they have been taken over my wealthy people with Vision who aim for the stars!

The Thais have a business growth plan for our club, they have a proven track record in building brands, have invested soundly and bravely and have showed no sign of walking away in the few years they have been here despite things not always going to plan.

Also -Fair plays regs - More revenue = greater spending ability on new players. The extension cost is outside of the fair play criteria so simply put, every extra penny in income it generates gives us a penny extra potential to sign better players.

We finished top 10 for 4 years in the O'Neill era. Were we established? Obviously not! To establish, we need better players and top management over time. To keep / attract these managers / players, we need to convince them we are an attractive proposition. We need to be percieved as BIG, as having a chance at titles or trophies otherwise we will win some and lose some against the Swansea's Southamptons Stokes and Broms. We will never be established, it could all go tits up at any time.

ok so far

1] Training facilities top notch - TICK

2] Stadium beats our rivals X

3] Revenue enables us to purchase the top players and stay within fair play regs X

sort 2 and number 3 is more within our reach!

embrace it!! Don't fight it!

Great post.

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Even if we go to 42k and go down and only fill 20k again who cares?

 

A lot of people will.. Everyone always mocks Middlesbrough for their attendance, they still get 20k+ but because they play in a large stadium it always appears empty. If we get relegated in the future and spend a few seasons down again, we'll probably be regarded similar to them. Also, would hate to play games in a 40k+ stadium where at least 1 stand is virtually empty as that would probably affect atmosphere.

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A lot of people will.. Everyone always mocks Middlesbrough for their attendance, they still get 20k+ but because they play in a large stadium it always appears empty. If we get relegated in the future and spend a few seasons down again, we'll probably be regarded similar to them. Also, would hate to play games in a 40k+ stadium where at least 1 stand is virtually empty as that would probably affect atmosphere.

But you can't simply say no to expansion based on the possibility of being relegated, if that was the case only a handfull of clubs would ever expand. 

 

Us Brit's are unique, we're the only country who are obsessed about having every seat filled.

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A lot of people will.. Everyone always mocks Middlesbrough for their attendance, they still get 20k+ but because they play in a large stadium it always appears empty. If we get relegated in the future and spend a few seasons down again, we'll probably be regarded similar to them. Also, would hate to play games in a 40k+ stadium where at least 1 stand is virtually empty as that would probably affect atmosphere.

So glad you aren't heading up the strategy! We should plan for relegation! Not what you meant I know? But that's how it sounds! That's how it sounds to me and probably Cambiasso, Shinji whatsisface etc.  We need to become progressive thinking and aim big. Nobody who ever aimed small got anything other than small! Nobody who never took a risk through fear of failure ever suceeded!!

 

Lottery winners aside!  :)

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I voted for the 'lets wait to be established' option, but was torn. As someone living in the south east I find it hard to get to many games, the financial commitment is high, and obviously the travel time is a factor too, but if the ground were to be developed i'd have a better opportunity to get tickets for the games i can attend. 

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But you can't simply say no to expansion based on the possibility of being relegated, if that was the case only a handfull of clubs would ever expand. 

 

Us Brit's are unique, we're the only country who are obsessed about having every seat filled.

 

Fair point. Ideal situation would be what Voll Blau suggested ie reducing ticket prices to ensure it is mostly filled, clubs make enough from the TV deal now to give a little back to the fans. If we could fill a 40k stadium in the prem, then hopefully the majority stay should we get relegated. Only issue though is we wouldn't be able to keep offering cheap ticket prices should we be relegated as we won't have the TV money we were getting before.

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it's not about filing the stadium! - it's about establishing ourselves as a force, not relegation fodder! ok lets put it another way! You are a top player and have a few clubs after you such as maybe Stoke, Southampton, Swansea, Brom etc and Leicester! You have ambition but aren't quite Ronaldo yet! Do you join club A or B ?

 

A} we can offer you £30k per week, maybe more if we stay up which is our main aim but with fair plays rules we can't do any better and if we get relegated, we have to protect ourselves.

 

B] we are aiming for a top 10 finish. We have invested heavily in training facilities and have one of the leading facilities in the UK and our sports science techniques can extend your career. We can pay you £30k per week but are willing to give you a long term contract. We are looking to expand the stadium next year to generate extra revenue, after which we will be in a better position to increase our wages, recruit more talent and push for a place in europe. 

We are increasing our fanbase all over the globe and playing for us will maximise your profile in the short and medium term.

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it's not about filing the stadium! - it's about establishing ourselves as a force, not relegation fodder! ok lets put it another way! You are a top player and have a few clubs after you such as maybe Stoke, Southampton, Swansea, Brom etc and Leicester! You have ambition but aren't quite Ronaldo yet! Do you join club A or B ?

 

A} we can offer you £30k per week, maybe more if we stay up which is our main aim but with fair plays rules we can't do any better and if we get relegated, we have to protect ourselves.

 

B] we are aiming for a top 10 finish. We have invested heavily in training facilities and have one of the leading facilities in the UK and our sports science techniques can extend your career. We can pay you £30k per week but are willing to give you a long term contract. We are looking to expand the stadium next year to generate extra revenue, after which we will be in a better position to increase our wages, recruit more talent and push for a place in europe. 

We are increasing our fanbase all over the globe and playing for us will maximise your profile in the short and medium term.

 

So what's the point in expanding then?

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Villa have Birmingham City, wolves and West Brom on their door step and play shot football and have done for a while.

 

Wolves is its own town respectively. And Birmingham has over 3 times the population of Leicester.

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A lot of people will.. Everyone always mocks Middlesbrough for their attendance, they still get 20k+ but because they play in a large stadium it always appears empty. If we get relegated in the future and spend a few seasons down again, we'll probably be regarded similar to them. Also, would hate to play games in a 40k+ stadium where at least 1 stand is virtually empty as that would probably affect atmosphere.

Simple, keep the cameras where they are and it will look no sodding different as they point towards the other stand.

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So what's the point in expanding then?

Everything below the words you highlighted! Of course it's about increasing attendance an generating more revenue and everything I said earlier but more important RIGHT NOW is the statement it makes!

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Guest MattP

Mixed feelings on it to be honest.

 

Immediate future it's clearly a great idea, expanding support, sell outs, exciting times ahead with a good squad and financial clout behind us to make it even better.

 

Like all medium sized clubs though, we are always only one manager change from successful stability being ripped out and deep down we all know one day we will drop back down, it would be awful playing in a 40,000 stadium at times less than half full.

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Everything below the words you highlighted! Of course it's about increasing attendance an generating more revenue and everything I said earlier but more important RIGHT NOW is the statement it makes!

 

But a lot of what you stated in "point B" is already in place, we have leading "sports science" techniques, this was shown with very few of our players being seriously injured during the season. We are past "point A" tbh, what you've mentioned in "pointB" is what we have done with Kramaric just with a clause in his contract so if we go down he can leave.

 

Apart from the financial benefit (which is relatively short term in the grand scheme of things), what other benefits are there?

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If we can prove we need it then yeah.

One season of sell outs (some of them just about and also involved a few empty st seats at games) doesn't mean shit really.

it's called a strategic growth plan! If you wait to see if you need something, when you do need it, you can't accommodate it. Strategy is about having a plan and taking steps to achieve it! Let's wait and see what happens isn't a plan! 

 

Our owners are planning to grow and have the means to grow but are hindered by the revenue the club can generate compared to the BIG clubs! The only way to grow, and succeed is to plan to be on a level playing field with those clubs as best possible and grow your brand and support base. The owners aren't just going to build a stadium and hope people turn up! They will have done endless modelling, scenario mapping and have a number of sub plans to fill the stadium.

 

relegation is a risk, an economic downturn is a risk, sky TV is the biggest risk. They will have risk mitigation plans too! The fact is the revenue the stadium expansion generates enables greater spending power which in turn reduces the risk of relegation in future.

 

Wait and see is occasionally a good strategy but not here and not now!

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Expand asap. I've copied my argument from the other thread.

Through the late 70s and 80s I was a member and my parents never had any trouble getting tickets for matches. I've now had season ticket since about 90, my other half used to have one until the kids came along and she gave hers up. As the kids have got older we've brought them to more and more matches. This was until last season when they managed about two games, my six and four year old often in tears because my other half can't get tickets to join me, this year she decided that she would get season tickets, not a chance.

As a kid football and Leicester was my life, I lived for Saturday's, weekdays dominated with thoughts of the past and upcoming games, it was the ability to go to all the games that forged my devotion and I have had fantastic days supporting City, I want that for my kids yet I can't give it to them.

I stood with 8000 at filbert street and dreamed of success and bigger crowds, when we started to fill Filbert Street under O'Neill and then moved as Filbert Street couldn't be expanded and we couldn't meet demand I was ecstatic, the club was moving in a direction beyond my wildest dreams. I now look at where the owners are trying to get us to and feel like I did all those years ago. Yes things went wrong on the pitch pretty quickly and we found ourselves down in div 3 but the stadium raised our stock. We attracted the better players, would mandaric have fancied us without the new stadium? Maybe, maybe not. What about the current owners? Most likely not. However when we bounced back everything was in place to progress and expand. If we, as the owners want, are to break into the top half and then further everything needs to be in place otherwise we'll stall, we'll struggle to hold onto players, managers and eventually stagnate. We might get relegated, but If so everything is in place, we may not however, and this is a long term plan for sustained success, we should embrace it.

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But a lot of what you stated in "point B" is already in place, we have leading "sports science" techniques, this was shown with very few of our players being seriously injured during the season. We are past "point A" tbh, what you've mentioned in "pointB" is what we have done with Kramaric just with a clause in his contract so if we go down he can leave.

 

Apart from the financial benefit (which is relatively short term in the grand scheme of things), what other benefits are there?

ok we've achieved our goal then. well done everyone! we don't need to keep growing. We can consider ourselves made it - as big as err Spurs - we have everything in place to go for a top 4 finish!  (apologies that was a bit sarcastic!)

 

It's about perception, attraction! it's about sky talking about us pushing for Europe and not tipped for relegation, it's about being seen as big, as established, as a force! The stadium is just one piece of the jigsaw (albeit a wok off 40,000 big friggin piece) 

 

We may pull off the odd coup with Cambiasso and Kram etc but we win some, we lose some as we are on a par with so many but fall short of the few!

 

AS i've said lots of times and you have read my recent posts Ollie, if you don't aim to be better / bigger than you are, you won't stop being what you have always been and we've always been a wannabe, so close but yet so far from winning anything of note. Yes you may try and fail but you may not fail and at least you tried!!

 

The stadium expansion tells the rest of the world.. We are ambitious, we are aiming high, come and be part of it!!!   It does half of your negotiating for you!!

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