Stadium Expansion...?

[foxestalkisfullofidiots]

2 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

So considering we're probably the best team we've had in 50 years or more, the Season Ticket holders are allowed to be not interested in this one to validate your point?

 

£10 for season ticket holders............ and still 2 blocks not even RELEASED for sale yet.

 

This is exactly the game where you'd think they can't get enough of being in the KP

I’m not going because I’ve literally overdosed on football over the Christmas period, I’m going villa and Southampton so I’m going to spend the day with my daughter ( that doesn’t like football ) I’m sure a lot of people will be thinking the same.

[HighPeakFox]

I think our (slightly opinionated) friend may have been subject to a restriction for the time being...

[Babylon]

52 minutes ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Being as the stadium expansion hasn't been built yet, the size of it yet to be established, if it indeed happens, this is a debate of opinion only.

 

No facts can be quoted against my point and therefore its purely opinion only, either way.

 

I stand by my view, the club aren't big enough to fill 40000+ weekly. Its not a fact I'm wrong, or a fact I'm right.

 

What I do know is its taken 2 weeks to sell 23000 tickets for a Saturday cup match and its whilst we're probably the best team we've been in 60+ years, if not ever.  So yes, this is an game indicator for me.

 

Several ST holders, despite this, have said on this post the game doesn't matter enough to them to go.  OK, that's fine, but if it doesn't matter to them when were 2nd in the Prem (For £10 a ticket) would they go if we were mid-table...........?

 

100% no then.

Comparing a third round FA cup game with a premier league game. FFS. Reality is, that early rounds nobody gives a flying fook half the time.

 

When I’ve gone to those games, I don’t see any regulars there. All the season ticket holders seats around me are full of new people, which suggests there is demand for tickets.

 

Its also not about instantly filling the ground, it’s about having space to grow. An expansion means you have the space to turn people who go to a few games into regular visitors. It means you can get in more young fans to grow the fan base for the future.

 

Nobody thought we’d sell out 32,000 when we left filbo. Demand wasn’t always there (shall we look at the third round fa cup numbers for back then, even when the competition still had some glamour?). But we grew into the ground and we are currently turning people away.

[TrentFox]

9 minutes ago, foxestalkisfullofidiots said:

I’m not going because I’ve literally overdosed on football over the Christmas period, I’m going villa and Southampton so I’m going to spend the day with my daughter ( that doesn’t like football ) I’m sure a lot of people will be thinking the same.

Wow. Your daughter must be very popular - and have an exceptionally large entertaining area?! 

[LinekersLugs]

1 hour ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

So you're (mostly) all taking the mick out of me. Fine.

 

You say we can fill 40000+ most weeks. I say we won't.

 

End of debate then.

 

Calm down lad 🤣🤣🤣

[splinterdream]

1 hour ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

So you're (mostly) all taking the mick out of me. Fine.

 

You say we can fill 40000+ most weeks. I say we won't.

 

End of debate then.

 

Why do you care if the stadium doesn't sell out anyway? 

 

You come across as an I'm alright Jack. 

[shailen]

It's all relative anyway. Man utd got 55k playing Derby in the carabo Cup when they usually get 75k every week. 

 

Fundamentally from a revenue point of view, we should be looking at ticket sales from league games, as it is the only competition we are guaranteed to play a certain number of games. Do we think we can sell 40k at most premier league games? Based on the fact that most games sell out currently and the supposed queue for applicants for new season tickets - I think it's definitely feasible. 

[Master Fox]

Man City don't sell out their Champions League games 

[Ian Nacho]

3 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Ok, so I've put a little thought to this over the last few days.

 

We're 2nd in the Prem, with probably our best top flight team (squad), since the 60's, if not better and we're at a cross roads now. Do we or don't we?

 

I personally feel, considering its taken the club a pathetic 2 weeks to sell a mere 23000 home tickets against Wigan in the cup we actually fit correctly into the current KP with our fan base.  

 

For the record I feel expanding the stadium will not be filled weekly and destroy the benefit we have with the current excellent atmosphere.  So NO to expansion.

 

Leicester/Leicestershire just isn't big enough to justify the fan base for a bigger stadium.  For example Leeds (780,000) has a higher population itself than the whole of Leicestershire (697000) in total.

 

BTW Tonight the West Ham crowd, battered weekly and in a crap stadium..............:

 

Referee:

Graham Scott

Attendance:

59,917

 

30000 more than we get!!!!!!!!!!!

The atmosphere is useless here, let’s be honest. 

[HighPeakFox]

In short, it's harder to sell out midweek and cup games against lowly opposition in early rounds. 

[Mehrez]

West Ham were doing kids tickets for a quid and adults for 20 today that’s why they’ve actually had a decent attendance btw

[Finnaldo]

4 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Leicester/Leicestershire just isn't big enough to justify the fan base for a bigger stadium.  For example Leeds (780,000) has a higher population itself than the whole of Leicestershire (697000) in total.

That’s not right is it? The population of Leicestershire was just over a million last time I checked.

 

Nottingham is also smaller population—wise than Leicester I believe.

 

As others have mentioned, FA Cup is a harsh measure against Premier League games, personally I don’t think we’d necessarily fill 42,000 instantly but it’s an investment to grow the club, and further success could help that growth.

[red5]

38 minutes ago, Mehrez said:

West Ham were doing kids tickets for a quid and adults for 20 today that’s why they’ve actually had a decent attendance btw

Thought they were potentially pricing out future generations by charging our kids £25.

[Mr Weller]

The reason crowds appear for larger stadiums is that people who couldn’t get a ticket normally and have stopped trying find they can tickets again. 

A lot of people either can’t afford a season ticket or can’t justify it because of other commitments but they still want to go to some matches. No one knows how many of these there are but the club will have have a pretty good idea based on their market research.

Btw Leicester itself is a bigger city than Nottingham but greater Nottingham is still a bigger area. However Leicester has been growing more quickly for some time and with only one club in the city has no competition, unlike Forest.

My instinct is we could fill 42,000 in time and straight away for some games, but not for all. That takes time to build up because going to matches is habit forming.

[KingsX]

6 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Ok, so I've put a little thought to this over the last few days.

 

We're 2nd in the Prem, with probably our best top flight team (squad), since the 60's, if not better and we're at a cross roads now. Do we or don't we?

 

I personally feel, considering its taken the club a pathetic 2 weeks to sell a mere 23000 home tickets against Wigan in the cup we actually fit correctly into the current KP with our fan base.  

 

For the record I feel expanding the stadium will not be filled weekly and destroy the benefit we have with the current excellent atmosphere.  So NO to expansion.

 

Leicester/Leicestershire just isn't big enough to justify the fan base for a bigger stadium.  For example Leeds (780,000) has a higher population itself than the whole of Leicestershire (697000) in total.

 

BTW Tonight the West Ham crowd, battered weekly and in a crap stadium..............:

 

Referee:

Graham Scott

Attendance:

59,917

 

30000 more than we get!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Your only argument is that advance sales for one reserves workout against a team headed for the third division, should determine capacity for 19 top division games (plus upcoming European fixtures).  It’s a bloody good thing you don’t work for Honda.

 

They make scooters and full-size automobiles.  Both have Honda badges, and will get you from “A” to “B”.  But for some reason most people want the cars.  Honda sell about 90,000 scooters a year in the US, for $2500 to $5000 a pop.  They sell nearly 2 million cars, even though they cost ten times as much.

 

By your reasoning they should base auto production on forecasted sales of cheap scooters, and close all but one factory.  Brilliant economics.

[norwichfox]

I'm fat enough to take up 2 seats if it'll help.

[Gamble92]

2 hours ago, Mr Weller said:

The reason crowds appear for larger stadiums is that people who couldn’t get a ticket normally and have stopped trying find they can tickets again. 

A lot of people either can’t afford a season ticket or can’t justify it because of other commitments but they still want to go to some matches. No one knows how many of these there are but the club will have have a pretty good idea based on their market research.

Btw Leicester itself is a bigger city than Nottingham but greater Nottingham is still a bigger area. However Leicester has been growing more quickly for some time and with only one club in the city has no competition, unlike Forest.

My instinct is we could fill 42,000 in time and straight away for some games, but not for all. That takes time to build up because going to matches is habit forming.

I don't think (now non league) Notts County offer much 'competition' to Forest tbh. 

I think having a massively successful Rugby team getting 15-20k attendances was always our biggest concern, especially when we ourselves couldn't offer top level sport. The city was definitely viewed as a rugby place and our attendances reflected that until we started to consistently fill Filbert Street and then Filbert Way. 

 

I think your first point is quite true. there was no end of people saying we would never fill the new stadium out when we were moving from Filbert street. If you look at our last few seasons at Filbert Street there was even attendances as low as 15/16k in the Premier League. If you were having this discussion then and using them statistics you'd never imagine us having 30,000 every week at any point in our future. 

[Babylon]

8 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Ok, so I've put a little thought to this over the last few days.

 

We're 2nd in the Prem, with probably our best top flight team (squad), since the 60's, if not better and we're at a cross roads now. Do we or don't we?

 

I personally feel, considering its taken the club a pathetic 2 weeks to sell a mere 23000 home tickets against Wigan in the cup we actually fit correctly into the current KP with our fan base.  

 

For the record I feel expanding the stadium will not be filled weekly and destroy the benefit we have with the current excellent atmosphere.  So NO to expansion.

 

Leicester/Leicestershire just isn't big enough to justify the fan base for a bigger stadium.  For example Leeds (780,000) has a higher population itself than the whole of Leicestershire (697000) in total.

 

BTW Tonight the West Ham crowd, battered weekly and in a crap stadium..............:

 

Referee:

Graham Scott

Attendance:

59,917

 

30000 more than we get!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet West Ham only got 24,000 against Macclesfield in the league cup 3rd Round last season.

 

Someone tell them to close the stadium as they won’t fill it for league games.... oh they get nearly 60,000.

[ozleicester]

The issue will become bigger once the 3pm television rule is removed and streaming makes all games available.

 

Can see a lot of clubs struggling to fill larger stadiums, or they will end up like NUFC yesterday and USA sports games where they just hand out thousands of tickets to anyone who will go.

 

In the mean time, lets build it and take advantage while we can.

[deanolegend1989]

I’ve been a Leicester fan since the 90s and started going regularly between 04-12 despite living 3 hours away. But since we got back to the premier it’s been near impossible to get seats.

Ive tried nearly every game this season and only Burnley at home did I see it reach general sale and even then it was 1 seat alone , which put off me my gf and my friends.

I have also seen quite a few Leicester fans recently in my area and lots say the same thing ‘It’s impossible to get tickets unless your a member etc’

Increasing the stadium would get more sales of season ticket holders by a few 1000 at least and get to general sale earlier and more people will get groups to come and not have to worry about not sitting together.

35-38k would happen nearly every week and corporate seats also being sold, I’d be surprised if we wernt far off 40k.  it would give potential to getting more through generations coming as well. If we put a nice big attractive stand and modernise it, this would also attract not only more fans but also more players. We would be seen more as a ‘big club’ with a big stadium and bigger fan base and would grow era to era to the point we would have a better chance of establishing. Get a generation of new fans hooked then even if things go badly in a decade or 2 , we would be a sleeping giant with good history and would always have the chance to rebuild.

Its a win win for me , I can’t see why anyone would argue. Who cares about atmosphere anyway really, all my Utd Liverpool Newcastle etc loving mates always troll me how bad our atmosphere is and were a small club with a bowl stadium and our ‘tinpot clappers’.

End if the day I’d rather have 33k in a 45k stadium than 32k in a 32k stadium.

This is great times for Leicester City FC and we can build the size of our club!  

Edited 2 January 2020 by deanolegend1989

[Guest Markyblue]

Dirkster is entitled to his opinion but he is also wrong.  Luckily we have owners with vision and ambition and the capacity will increase significantly in the next couple of years.  Build it and they will come. 

[dayday]

9 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

So you're (mostly) all taking the mick out of me. Fine.

 

You say we can fill 40000+ most weeks. I say we won't.

 

End of debate then.

 

You do realise we’re a 1 club city/county, with a large catchment area, name me another club who can say the same?

 

As for the f.a.cup it’s not that bigger deal anymore, I can remember queuing against Bristol City in the early 90s, we will never get them times anymore.

 

 

[Ashley]

10 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

So you're (mostly) all taking the mick out of me. Fine.

 

You say we can fill 40000+ most weeks. I say we won't.

 

End of debate then.

 

Listen.

 

We would quite easily fill 40,000 every week, if not 45,48,000 too. Should the rumours of us going that big happen. 

 

Why you ask? Well have a read below.

 

Should we have sustained(correct word?) Success from now and over the next few years and beyond our catchment area will grow massively. 

 

I'd argue we would have a catchment area as far south as MK/Nortampton and as far north as Stoke. 

 

Peterborough to Birmingham. 

 

Coventry are on their last legs(not nice to see but let's face it they are) should they go out of business we would attract their future fanbase. Kids now from when I was growing up are running around playing football in Leicester kits. The potential is there. 

 

[Nick]

Stadium expansion is about so much more than gate revenue and atmosphere. It’s about raising the club profile, access, transport links, holding events, placing the infrastructure of the football club at the centre of community and business, raising aspirations, attracting better players, gaining more lucrative sponsors and investment, attracting visitors to the stadium and its surrounding campus of attractions and events....

 

A 10k extension and developing the surrounding area can only be good whether or not the stadium is rammed to the brim or not for every game isn’t all that relevant tbh.

[CosbehFox]

Something that's occurred to me this morning - if we qualify for the CL, there's a very realistic chance we have a home fixture against the champions of Spain, Germany or Italy. 

 

You telling me wouldn't sell 40k against a Barca, Juve or Bayern?