Expand the stadium? The poll

[Sol thewall Bamba]

57 minutes ago, Wookie said:

I said that in 2015 you bin liner 

 

[sylofox]

2 minutes ago, Wookie said:

Apologies, I've had a mare 

No probs.

[Gerard]

3 minutes ago, Koke said:

 

Do we have a bigger fan base than West Brom? They've been in this league for donkeys years and are sitting 8th in the table and their 2016/17 average attendance is 23k, which is poor by them. They're the only relevant club in the West Midlands and the nearest PL club to them is us.

 

I use West Brom as an example seeing as we are similar sizes clubs. Will years of mid table mediocrity increase our fan base.

 

You can't buy a season ticket at Leicester for three years straight.

We have sold out every PL game in those three years.

 

Leicester City is more or less a closed shop, anyone who fancies coming along more regularly or who wants to sits with friends or family or even take their kids is restricted from doing so. Some tickets do make general sale but they'll be single tickets against not very glamorous opposition.

 

It's proven that capacity increases encourages thousands of new fans to buy season tickets.  If we aren't ripe for a capacity increase now then we'll never be.

[AKCJ]

22 minutes ago, Koke said:

 

Do we have a bigger fan base than West Brom? They've been in this league for donkeys years and are sitting 8th in the table and their 2016/17 average attendance is 23k, which is poor by them. They're the only relevant club in the West Midlands and the nearest PL club to them is us.

 

I use West Brom as an example seeing as we are similar sizes clubs. Will years of mid table mediocrity increase our fan base.

West Brom is one of the worst clubs to compare us to.

 

We're a bigger club and they live in/next to a city with 3 other bigger/similar sized clubs in it.

[Stadt]

20 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

 

 I didn't read the whole post 

[lgfualol]

GET IT DONEEEEEEE

 

Bin liner has now been added to my insults list. 

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Wookie said:

I said that in 2015 you bin liner 

'bin liner' 

 

That's a new one on me. Consider that stolen for future use! 

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

10 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

West Brom is one of the worst clubs to compare us to.

 

We're a bigger club and they live in/next to a city with 3 other bigger/similar sized clubs in it.

Exactly. know England ain't Germany, but single clubs in cities the size of Leicester sell out stadiums twice the size of the KP. I think we can handle another 10k.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

13 minutes ago, Wookie said:

 I didn't read the whole post 

No mate I was laughing at "bin liner" being used as an insult  

[Stadt]

33 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

No mate I was laughing at "bin liner" being used as an insult  

Oh right hahaha

[Blue ROI]

I'd be in favour of an expansion but no more than 40,000. An extra 5,000 would probably suffice

 

Attendances were in the region of 25,000 from 2003-13 so would be what we would be looking at should things go bad again.

 

Given Leicesters population is around 300,000 maybe having 32,000 is about right on average. Would a ground having around 10% capaity of the nearby area population be the norm?

[Gerard]

3 minutes ago, Blue ROI said:

I'd be in favour of an expansion but no more than 40,000. An extra 5,000 would probably suffice

 

Attendances were in the region of 25,000 from 2003-13 so would be what we would be looking at should things go bad again.

 

Given Leicesters population is around 300,000 maybe having 32,000 is about right on average. Would a ground having around 10% capaity of the nearby area population be the norm?

 

Population of the county is 1,000,000.

 

It's not just Leicester folk who support City.

[los dedos]

8 minutes ago, Blue ROI said:

I'd be in favour of an expansion but no more than 40,000. An extra 5,000 would probably suffice

 

Attendances were in the region of 25,000 from 2003-13 so would be what we would be looking at should things go bad again.

 

Given Leicesters population is around 300,000 maybe having 32,000 is about right on average. Would a ground having around 10% capaity of the nearby area population be the norm?

The Leicester urban area is 500,000 with the rest of the County making it closer to a Million add to that a load from North Northamptonshire and creeping well it Lincolnshire we have quite a big catchment area!!!

[Webbo]

2 hours ago, AKCJ said:

Not sure why a fan wouldn't want to expand...

 

 

Not unless you're happy with being a middle of the road yoyo sized club and nothing to identify us when put alongside the likes of Southampton, Middlesbrough, Derby and Reading.

 

Lets use this success to push on, why stick with average?

Having a bigger stadium won't make us a bigger club. The increase in revenue, assuming we sold out every week, wouldn't even cover Vardy's wages.

[Gerard]

Just now, Webbo said:

Having a bigger stadium won't make us a bigger club. The increase in revenue, assuming we sold out every week, wouldn't even cover Vardy's wages.

 

i disagree. 

 

For example a 50,000 stadium almost full every week attracts new fans and more merchandise sold, more lucrative sponsorship deals, more appealing to new players, more media exposure, etc. The whole thing is a self fulfilling prophecy. 

[dynamark]

We could possibly take a few bits off the Ricoh they don't use for a knock down price and add them on the side .Watching Auf Weidesehn Pet earlier and it came to me in a flash.

Ill pop in the Duncan road club before the game and get a few of the lads together sort out a price and  we could get  it knocked out in about six weeks.

[Webbo]

8 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

i disagree. 

 

For example a 50,000 stadium almost full every week attracts new fans and more merchandise sold, more lucrative sponsorship deals, more appealing to new players, more media exposure, etc. The whole thing is a self fulfilling prophecy. 

There isn't the capacity to extend the stadium to 50,000, not that we'd ever sell that amount of tickets anyway. It's 40,000 maximum which I don't think we'd sell out very often. 

 

In the accounts from a couple of years ago we made £10.5 million from ticket sales. An 8,000/25% increase would be between 2-3 million, take away the extra costs of a bigger capacity and the money required to service the loan to build it you'd be lucky to see an extra £2 million a year in revenue. Vardy is on £120,000 a week, that's £6 million a year.

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Koke said:

 

Do we have a bigger fan base than West Brom? They've been in this league for donkeys years and are sitting 8th in the table and their 2016/17 average attendance is 23k, which is poor by them. They're the only relevant club in the West Midlands and the nearest PL club to them is us.

 

I use West Brom as an example seeing as we are similar sizes clubs. Will years of mid table mediocrity increase our fan base.

We do have a bigger fanbase. However, the club would have to be fluid with pricing rather than being rigid. Keep your season tickets competitive. Your big games will always sell out in Leicester for me. The lower games price reasonably and make a song/dance about it. 

 

29 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Having a bigger stadium won't make us a bigger club. The increase in revenue, assuming we sold out every week, wouldn't even cover Vardy's wages.

Expending your stadium in this era isn't about finances any more I think we all agreed on that. However, it is about status and the feeling of ambition. The KP makes a racket with 32,000 in it and like the Sevilla game, you have blokes like Buffon pointing out how we are dangerous opposition at our place. Make it 40k with the crowd roaring us on and the motion is forward building. 

 

We are reaching a crossroads now as a club. Do we sit stagnant and become a run of the mill yo-yo? Or do we show a little ambition, more than the acclaimed likes of Southampton have? Finance is no longer factor, the past two seasons have seen us hit a wealth layered on top of the TV deals which everyone else gets. This also means we can afford to have an extension and take the hit if it's not full every week. 

 

Most importantly, what's missed amongst all the business talk is that there's a generation of children what can't watch Leicester City play. At a time what's never better to get a generation hooked. 

 

Take your 30 year old glory hunter father who has a kid now talking about Mahrez and Vardy - this kid wants to go watch us play but he can't, the finances of membership and ticket availability deny them. They deny the opportunity to make that 30yr old father begin to align with his local club, they stop a child and his siblings from watching their home town club play. Build it - lessen the season ticket demand and allow those what don't want to pay a silly membership an opportunity to watch us play. 

[Webbo]

2 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

We do have a bigger fanbase. However, the club would have to be fluid with pricing rather than being rigid. Keep your season tickets competitive. Your big games will always sell out in Leicester for me. The lower games price reasonably and make a song/dance about it. 

 

Expending your stadium in this era isn't about finances any more I think we all agreed on that. However, it is about status and the feeling of ambition. The KP makes a racket with 32,000 in it and like the Sevilla game, you have blokes like Buffon pointing out how we are dangerous opposition at our place. Make it 40k with the crowd roaring us on and the motion is forward building. 

 

We are reaching a crossroads now as a club. Do we sit stagnant and become a run of the mill yo-yo? Or do we show a little ambition, more than the acclaimed likes of Southampton have? Finance is no longer factor, the past two seasons have seen us hit a wealth layered on top of the TV deals which everyone else gets. This also means we can afford to have an extension and take the hit if it's not full every week. 

 

Most importantly, what's missed amongst all the business talk is that there's a generation of children what can't watch Leicester City play. At a time what's never better to get a generation hooked. 

 

Take your 30 year old glory hunter father who has a kid now talking about Mahrez and Vardy - this kid wants to go watch us play but he can't, the finances of membership and ticket availability deny them. They deny the opportunity to make that 30yr old father begin to align with his local club, they stop a child and his siblings from watching their home town club play. Build it - less the season ticket demand and allow those what don't want to pay a silly membership an opportunity to watch us play. 

Villa Park holds nearly 43k, Sheff Wednesday's ground, just short of 40,000. Having a big ground doesn't guarantee success.

[Gerard]

6 minutes ago, Webbo said:

There isn't the capacity to extend the stadium to 50,000, not that we'd ever sell that amount of tickets anyway. It's 40,000 maximum which I don't think we'd sell out very often. 

 

In the accounts from a couple of years ago we made £10.5 million from ticket sales. An 8,000/25% increase would be between 2-3 million, take away the extra costs of a bigger capacity and the money required to service the loan to build it you'd be lucky to see an extra £2 million a year in revenue. Vardy is on £120,000 a week, that's £6 million a year.

 

For me it's not just about revenue though, it's about making the club bigger, whether it's 40,000 or 50,000 is just semantics. I think if we had a bigger stadium and higher attendances then it opens new possibilities for us with bigger sponsorship deals, a higher profile, etc. 

 

Season tickets haven't gone on sale for three years now due to lack of supply, gold and silver memberships are also restricted. The next generation of fans can't go and get a season ticket with their parents because of not enough supply and too much demand. 

 

At some point we're going to get relegated again and if we don't invest in the club's infrastructure then we'll have nothing tangible to separate us from the likes of Forest, Derby and similar sized clubs despite having hundreds of millions of Pounds worth of revenue more than them in that time.

 

If another 10,000 seats cost us £30m then so what, that's just the price of a Slimani or a Musa and Mendy.

 

I want the club to try and evolve and not just stay as we are until we get the inevitable relegation and back to square one as another similar sized club to us gets a crack at moving themselves up the ladder.  I don't see why long term we can't aspire to compete with the likes of Everton, West Ham and Newcastle rather than accepting our level is Southampton, Stoke and West Brom.

 

 

[Webbo]

4 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

For me it's not just about revenue though, it's about making the club bigger, whether it's 40,000 or 50,000 is just semantics. I think if we had a bigger stadium and higher attendances then it opens new possibilities for us with bigger sponsorship deals, a higher profile, etc. 

 

Season tickets haven't gone on sale for three years now due to lack of supply, gold and silver memberships are also restricted. The next generation of fans can't go and get a season ticket with their parents because of not enough supply and too much demand. 

 

At some point we're going to get relegated again and if we don't invest in the club's infrastructure then we'll have nothing tangible to separate us from the likes of Forest, Derby and similar sized clubs despite having hundreds of millions of Pounds worth of revenue more than them in that time.

 

If another 10,000 seats cost us £30m then so what, that's just the price of a Slimani or a Musa and Mendy.

 

I want the club to try and evolve and not just stay as we are until we get the inevitable relegation and back to square one as another similar sized club to us gets a crack at moving themselves up the ladder.  I don't see why long term we can't aspire to compete with the likes of Everton, West Ham and Newcastle rather than accepting our level is Southampton, Stoke and West Brom.

 

 

The owners already sponsor the stadium and the shirts. I can't see that they'd commit to spending millions on the stadium so they can have the privilege of paying even more to sponsor us. 

[CosbehFox]

Just now, Webbo said:

Villa Park holds nearly 43k, Sheff Wednesday's ground, just short of 40,000. Having a big ground doesn't guarantee success.

Depends how you define success in this era of football. We are an incredible exception - the risk for us 'to give it a go' is as low as it's ever going to be in our club's history. For a club like us, it's about showpiece games and memorable occasions. I want those moments watched by more of our fans. You can't argue that Villa and Wednesday are viewed as bigger clubs than us - their stadiums are a part of that. 

 

Villa have been in the top six of the Premier League in a 43,000 Villa Park and in recent years went on a great Cup run (a famous quarter-final against WBA comes to mind). Has it made them grow as a club? Yes, because even despite relegation they got nearly 42,000 to play Burton this season. 

 

Hillsborough is slightly irrelevant to the discussion because it's capacity was not dictated by Sheffield Wednesday's modern crowd figures. The stadium was that size from the 1950s onwards. As a result of its capacity, it was awarded FA Cup Semi-Finals and the European Championships. For example, lets say the World Cup is awarded to England - with our 40,000 stadium we'd be picked over Nottingham and Derby easily. 

 

 

[Webbo]

We haven't had a world cup in this country for 50 years and have no chance of another for at least 12 years. 1 or 2 games every 60 years doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

If the owners are happy to spend the money I have no objection but I think people need to tone down their expectations of what the consequences will be.

[Foxxed]

At this point more than any we have the finances. Webbo's comparison to Vardy's wage is obviously correct. His yearly wages would eclipse any increased revenue. But should we continue to do as well as we are, and fill the seats, the effect on our balance sheets over the next decade will justify itself. But, yeah, it obviously won't confer success itself, although the more successful we are the more the increase will affect the atmosphere. It's a punt. (Last word correctly typed).

[fleckneymike]

8 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

For me it's not just about revenue though, it's about making the club bigger, whether it's 40,000 or 50,000 is just semantics. I think if we had a bigger stadium and higher attendances then it opens new possibilities for us with bigger sponsorship deals, a higher profile, etc. 

 

Season tickets haven't gone on sale for three years now due to lack of supply, gold and silver memberships are also restricted. The next generation of fans can't go and get a season ticket with their parents because of not enough supply and too much demand. 

 

At some point we're going to get relegated again and if we don't invest in the club's infrastructure then we'll have nothing tangible to separate us from the likes of Forest, Derby and similar sized clubs despite having hundreds of millions of Pounds worth of revenue more than them in that time.

 

If another 10,000 seats cost us £30m then so what, that's just the price of a Slimani or a Musa and Mendy.

 

I want the club to try and evolve and not just stay as we are until we get the inevitable relegation and back to square one as another similar sized club to us gets a crack at moving themselves up the ladder.  I don't see why long term we can't aspire to compete with the likes of Everton, West Ham and Newcastle rather than accepting our level is Southampton, Stoke and West Brom.

 

 

Why we would want to compete with them? Surely they'd want to compete with us?

 

In the Premier League era only Everton from that list have won a trophy (and that was in 1995). We're actually the fifth most successful club (domestically) in the past 20 odd years.

 

1. Man Utd: League (x13), FA Cup (x5), League Cup (x4), Champions League (x2)

2. Chelsea: League (x4), FA Cup (x6), League Cup (x4), Champions League (x1)

3. Arsenal: League (x3), FA Cup (x6)

4. Man City: League (x2), FA Cup (x1), League Cup (x2)

5. Leicester: League (x1), League Cup (x2)

6. Blackburn: League (x1), League Cup (x1)