Stadium Expansion

[PhillippaT]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

Depends on the definition of 'county'...those who live in syston, Birstall, Anstey, Blaby, Enderby, wigston, Oadby etc etc would consider themselves as suburban city people I.e. 'greater Leicester'....yet technically are county.

 

The middle england county towns/villages kibworth, Oakham, bosworth. Ashby. Quorn are more tigers

This - the borough boundaries are a little, err, interesting.  I used to live in Thurmaston, which was in Charnwood, but never really felt outside of Leicester city as a whole...

[KingsX]

2 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

It's probably because gate money is small fry for us now. 10 or so years back when it made a difference they'd bang the drum and rightly so, I remember them calling you directly asking if you fancied going. Now with the money floating around, having 1000 seats returned by the away side going unsold makes so little difference to the bottom line they just won't bother. 

 

Not sure how many supporters understand this.  Gate revenue is shown in green on this chart.  Just seven years ago it was equal thirds with TV and commercial income.  Since then, it has merely doubled while broadcast income (yellow) has grown 20x.  Like other clubs our size, we depend on TV.  Stadium expansion will barely move the needle, and that likely from (corporate) hospitality.

 

 

Arsenal are the last one of the "big six" with significant dependence on gate money, and they are being passed by financially.  We'll see how Spurs do with the Toilet Bowl.

[Vlad the Fox]

2 hours ago, splinterdream said:

Football attendances suffered during hooliganism period but filbert street saw a record attendance of 47,290 in the 20's, bet the cities population was half of what it is now

True, I remember only 28000 at old Trafford, Newcastle, Leeds and Chelsea only getting 14-16k, while we were averaging 11-12k. The only teams that I can remember still getting high attendances were liverpool and Arsenal with Liverpool getting about 40000 at a time when they dominated domestically and in Europe. Hooliganism really did hammer attendances and football was on its knees, say what you like about the premier league but it ended a dark era in British football.   

[Heathrow fox]

34 minutes ago, Vlad the Fox said:

True, I remember only 28000 at old Trafford, Newcastle, Leeds and Chelsea only getting 14-16k, while we were averaging 11-12k. The only teams that I can remember still getting high attendances were liverpool and Arsenal with Liverpool getting about 40000 at a time when they dominated domestically and in Europe. Hooliganism really did hammer attendances and football was on its knees, say what you like about the premier league but it ended a dark era in British football.   

You only have to look in Fossils and foxes to see how low attendances got.The lowest gate was just above 7000 v West Brom I think?That was in the top flight? I always regard Sheff Wednesday as a big club because they would regularly get gates of 20000 +during that spell.Never did i think we would be debating about expanding to 40000+

 

 

[davieG]

During this time you could turn up at a couple of minutes to 3 park near the ground, get in straight away and find yourself stood with no one within 3 or 4 metres of you.

[Vlad the Fox]

6 minutes ago, Heathrow fox said:

You only have to look in Fossils and foxes to see how low attendances got.The lowest gate was just above 7000 v West Brom I think?That was in the top flight? I always regard Sheff Wednesday as a big club because they would regularly get gates of 20000 +during that spell.Never did i think we would be debating about expanding to 40000+

 

 

I can remember when we hit 18000 during Littles first season, it was great to see the stadium so full (21000 capacity at this time) after so many years since I’d seen a big crowd down there as a young kid.

[Vlad the Fox]

3 minutes ago, davieG said:

During this time you could turn up at a couple of minutes to 3 park near the ground, get in straight away and find yourself stood with no one within 3 or 4 metres of you.

And you could probably get served  3 or 4 beers at half time  

 

Having said that I’m sure I have vague memories of people taking there own crates of beer in, would that be right?

[sylofox]

3 hours ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

My mother-in-law stopped taking my wife and brother to the games in this period because of the "negative element." My brother-in-law is now an Arse.

Corrected that for you

[sylofox]

I really don't get this it was all city people the county supported rugby. Late 70's early 80's smiths coaches from Kibworth had one layed on for most away games. I know mkt harboro had one. Often you would see corby and Kettering coaches at away games. 

[FoxFossil]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

During this time you could turn up at a couple of minutes to 3 park near the ground, get in straight away and find yourself stood with no one within 3 or 4 metres of you.

Have you tried Lynx?

[sylofox]

3 minutes ago, FoxFossil said:

Have you tried Lynx?

Apparently having a bath works as well

[davieG]

17 minutes ago, FoxFossil said:

Have you tried Lynx?

Nah didn’t bother there were only men and boys there had no interest in attracting them 

[red5]

5 hours ago, sylofox said:

It wasn't always all seated. Football really did exist before the Premier league. Perhaps you should look at some of our attendance records

Haha, were you at the record attendance game? 

 

[sylofox]

1 minute ago, red5 said:

Haha, were you at the record attendance game? 

 

No. But I'm not that senile I can't remember Filbert St holding 30k+ either. 

[Raw Dykes]

While gate revenue might only make up a small fraction of our current income, I still think it would be hugely beneficial to the club to expand the stadium.

 

If it gets filled regularly, then it won't be too long before it's paid for itself, and then it's all extra profit after that. The extra cash it would bring in might be the difference between us being able to afford that player we've been after or not one day.

 

A bigger stadium affects how the club's stature is perceived. This could possibly be the deciding factor for a player, manager or whoever picking us over a rival.

 

There's a lot of people who can't attend games while the stadium is full every game. While this might seem like something that the club don't see as all that important, some of the people who might go but can't will be kids or neutrals who might have become fans based on seeing the team play.

 

I really hope those leaked plans are still in the works.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

1 hour ago, Raw Dykes said:

While gate revenue might only make up a small fraction of our current income, I still think it would be hugely beneficial to the club to expand the stadium.

 

If it gets filled regularly, then it won't be too long before it's paid for itself, and then it's all extra profit after that. The extra cash it would bring in might be the difference between us being able to afford that player we've been after or not one day.

 

A bigger stadium affects how the club's stature is perceived. This could possibly be the deciding factor for a player, manager or whoever picking us over a rival.

 

There's a lot of people who can't attend games while the stadium is full every game. While this might seem like something that the club don't see as all that important, some of the people who might go but can't will be kids or neutrals who might have become fans based on seeing the team play.

 

I really hope those leaked plans are still in the works.

Totally agree. 

[Stoopid]

4 hours ago, davieG said:

During this time you could turn up at a couple of minutes to 3 park near the ground, get in straight away and find yourself stood with no one within 3 or 4 metres of you.

Those were the days...

[dayday]

8 hours ago, sylofox said:

Perhaps not in your life time. But 8k in a 30k filbert Street was poor. We've had some pretty grim turn outs in the past. 

That was true, yet every club in the country in the 80s had shit gates due to the hooligan era.

 

Yet when our capacity went from 22 to 32k in 2003, our average gate shot up by 10k, the support is there 

[Stoopid]

6 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

I can remember when we hit 18000 during Littles first season, it was great to see the stadium so full (21000 capacity at this time) after so many years since I’d seen a big crowd down there as a young kid.

I know it's an unconventional view but I kind of miss the days of paltry attendances, ho-hum football and shocking pitches.

I used to lean over the crash barriers, making abstract creations on the terraces with beer, spittle and fag-ends. 

Like a situationist art exercise in futility and disappointment.

i accept I'm pretty weird...

[sishades]

10 hours ago, Stoopid said:

During this time you could turn up at a couple of minutes to 3 park near the ground, get in straight away and find yourself stood with no one within 3 or 4 metres of you.

I always wondered who it was sitting 117 yards from me. I remember one season 1987 the attendance surpassed 10K only once!! And it only cost 4.50 to get in. It was free for me for two years when I was a student as my neighbour was head of security and he used to let me in via the players entrance in the old main stand.

[majaco]

It was a totally different experience in the early eighties.  You could take a Robinsons coach from Burbage, get crushed in Pen 4, visit the toilet at half-time to get a urine wash over your shoes, from the emptying bladders of those who pissed against a wall rather than waiting for urinal space, before leaving at the end of the game to get crushed again partly because of tv vans cutting down the space in the narrow streets of terraced housing.

 

Those were the days.

[st albans fox]

9 minutes ago, majaco said:

It was a totally different experience in the early eighties.  You could take a Robinsons coach from Burbage, get crushed in Pen 4, visit the toilet at half-time to get a urine wash over your shoes, from the emptying bladders of those who pissed against a wall rather than waiting for urinal space, before leaving at the end of the game to get crushed again partly because of tv vans cutting down the space in the narrow streets of terraced housing.

 

Those were the days.

There’s a song in there somewhere ............

[Strokes]

20 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

Depends on the definition of 'county'...those who live in syston, Birstall, Anstey, Blaby, Enderby, wigston, Oadby etc etc would consider themselves as suburban city people I.e. 'greater Leicester'....yet technically are county.

 

The middle england county towns/villages kibworth, Oakham, bosworth. Ashby. Quorn are more tigers

If you’re in the county council district or city council district, is surely the only way of defining it.

[dyanmark]

I am recalling correctly .I'm sure I went to Filbert street way back probably around 1964 with 40,000 in there.It was a proper crush though not pleasant.

[Guest Markyblue]

9 minutes ago, dyanmark said:

I am recalling correctly .I'm sure I went to Filbert street way back probably around 1964 with 40,000 in there.It was a proper crush though not pleasant.

Arsenal in the cup mid 70s nearly 40000,sat on the wall at the front in the pop side. How people didn't get crushed is a miricle.