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urban.spaceman

Stadium Expansion...?

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18 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

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? 

i think we could sell 50k tickets for games in the champions league

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11 hours 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.

I don't think you can work out whether we need 40k+ seats based on one FA Cup game against lower league opposition, for many reasons. It's in the middle of a congested schedule, for one. A lot of of people will have had their fill of football over Christmas, and will feel like they can give that one a miss. It's also very likely going to be our reserves playing Wigan, as well. People expect that. There's a semi final just after. Anyone going to just one of those will pick the semi final.

 

What you need to look at is the league attendances. We've been near capacity ever since we got back in the PL in 2014. Clearly, demand is higher than supply. It's a great time to expand the stadium. We're by far the most successful club for miles around and are likely to be for a while. We might not sell out a 42k stadium every match, but if we do a few times each season, it'll be worth it. Besides, the potential will be there to grow again.

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Guest Markyblue

Ft is ft and i can understand a lot of topics can bring different options and opinions but i struggle to fathom how anyone can not want to expand the stadium with all the benefits and really no downside. And please nobody mention reduction of atmosphere,  we haven't really got one at the minute. 

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Well, as a member who hasn't been able to get a season ticket, I am excited at the prospect! I am sure I am not the only one who is spending roughly the same amount of one of the cheaper end season tickets in going to 10 matches a season who is wishing I could just get a season ticket and have access to all of the home games! 

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Important to remember that the club don't push ticket sales AT ALL at the moment. When was the last time you saw an advert for a ticket for a City game? I don't think there have been any since 2014/15, becasue they don't need to. We sell out every week to the same people that know the system and snap the tickets up. 

 

If we had another 10K seats and the club actually pushed to sell them, we'd do it no problem. 

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4 hours ago, ozleicester said:

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.

Good point about streams etc affecting future attendances.Its only that and the inevitable upheaval a ground expansion would create,that give me cause for concern.The rest is all no brainer and it’s a shame we didn’t build a 40000 seater in the first place.Like we were originally going too.Im sure the clubs owners are going through every option with a fine tooth comb.I’ll trust their final outcome.

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21 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Important to remember that the club don't push ticket sales AT ALL at the moment. When was the last time you saw an advert for a ticket for a City game? I don't think there have been any since 2014/15, becasue they don't need to. We sell out every week to the same people that know the system and snap the tickets up. 

 

If we had another 10K seats and the club actually pushed to sell them, we'd do it no problem. 

very true, when travelling around Manchester all you see is ads for man city tickets. 40k is very reasonable, i personally think 42,500 is the perfect amount until we win the champions league then maybe 50k :scarf:

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2 minutes ago, Babylon said:

What do people think we should do? Expand the ground 500 seats at a time to make sure we can fill them all? 

Well, I suppose we need to wait and see how practical stadium amendments are over a summer break - which is the best and probably most practical solution. I suppose you can prepare all material beforehand, have it at hand nearby in order to keep interference with the league and cup fixtures at a minimum and work all day.

 

Some of the international breaks could also be used to do first prep works.

 

And I suppose the club and the city are debating whether or not several shifts and work at night will be permitted.

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47 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Important to remember that the club don't push ticket sales AT ALL at the moment. When was the last time you saw an advert for a ticket for a City game? I don't think there have been any since 2014/15, becasue they don't need to. We sell out every week to the same people that know the system and snap the tickets up. 

 

If we had another 10K seats and the club actually pushed to sell them, we'd do it no problem. 

Yeah spot on.

 

It's pretty much a closed shop to non members and STH's aside from a few cup games.  Looking back (as a calculated guess) I think there are around 3500 new STH's since we were promoted 14/15, over the 6 years.  If you wanted to take additional family members for a game or two or half a dozen a season its nigh on impossible currently.

 

40,000 gives the club so much scope to do so many things if perhaps they only get to 37k or 38k for most games which I expect as a minimum, reduced pricing for U22's or U18's to get more young fans in as a feeder to the longstanding fans of the future (the stats tell us the fans are aging vs the 80's/90's) promotional family tickets at a reduced price perhaps, more England internationals etc.

 

Whatever we all think "the perception" of the big 6 by players, means that we lose players like Mahrez to Man C, Maguire to Man U etc.  With the training ground being finished if we go to 40k seats, that argument diminishes as we become probably the biggest club in the Midlands, then Villa are only bigger historically.  And we seriously challenge the big 6.

Very exciting times and how lucky we are to have the owners, Susan Whelan and dare I say it Rudkin!!  Of late purchases are looking good (if still the occasional howler), Maddison, Soyuncu, Parreira, Justin.

 

With a decent lucky run we could be at Wembley and the Champions League is now a STRONG possibility, Spurs, Wolves and Manure are really going to have to go some to get into the top 4, but just slip up too many times.

 

Enjoy now and the exciting times ahead:scarf:The best of times over the last 5 years!!!

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I always remember when Top said at the champions parade we need a bigger stadium, but 4 years later nothing has happened. I suppose we can't have everything, at least the training ground is happening. I can't help but feel that they can't do what they want to do at the current venue though.

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Since being promoted we've consistently had 99.5% or greater attendance at PL games even for the 'lower-tier' fixtures, and we have membership schemes which take multiple years of accumulating points (at great expense) before you can succesfully get a season ticket. The demand is clearly there for the majority of matches, and so the expansion is a no-brainer.

 

Just because one game out of maybe 25 each season has a lower attendance shouldn't be a reason to scrap the whole project. Especially when there are a host of factors which explain the low attendance.

  • Immediately after Christmas, so money is likely to be tight for some fans
  • First (for us) round of a cup, which never attracts a lot of interest at this stage for any PL club
  • Against a lower-tier side, so not the most appealing fixture anyway and we'll probably play a second-string
  • In a busy period of fixtures, so any single-game fans are likely to pick other options
  • Equally, ST holders have had a lot of football recently, so maybe not as keen as usual to pay an additional cost for another game
  • There's another far more significant cup game next up on the schedule (which is a sellout, btw).

 

There's nothing wrong with expanding beyond what we need and then - as necessary - closing off a section of the ground (could always cover it so there aren't empty seats on display). I'd much rather have 38k fans in the stadium with 4k empty seats than 32k in the stadium and 6k missing out entirely. 

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So we have sold 23k ish, Wigan would have been given the full allocation (according to their website) so whats that about 5k in the cup? So 28k already accounted for? so will probably have 30k (if Wigan sell out their allocation) in the cup 3rd round against Wigan? Where is the issue?

 

I'm a season ticket holder that isnt going to the game, i cant justify to be honest, with the Villa game only a few days later, the tickets prices are good but its not just that for me so i took the decision to not bother.

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I live in Qatar but come to the UK a couple of times a year for work. When i need to come I try to schedule it when LCFC are playing away. Obviously i am not a ST holder and international membership is just a waste of money so forget about getting a ticket to a home game. I normally buy a ticket to  an  LCFC away game but in the home supporters section. Even at the bigger teams - Liverpool Manure and Arseandhole these tickets are available through third party websites. It would be great for me if the stadium was expanded so that i could get the occasional home game ticket. I am sure with our popularity overseas we could also attract a number of international visitors/tours with an increased capacity.  A little spare capacity would be a great thing and i am sure it can be filled by innovative marketing offers.     

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I think we've been very smart in going about the business of the stadium expansion. We've seen ourselves the problems it can cause when you expand/build a new stadium before you're absolutely ready to do so.

 

It appears that plans are in place and that we're waiting for the right time to go ahead. This is our longest run in the premier league, barring a disaster of truly epic proportions, and providing we can sustain it next year with, hopefully, the added strain of european nights midweek then we are well placed to push on from there in terms of growing as a club. Arguably more so than when we won the league as, I think it's fair to say, that came a bit out of the blue. 

 

From a business point of view a downturn in fortunes is always just around the corner, and even a couple of season of finishing lower half in the table would see us not filling a 40000 seater. We need to maintain our current trajectory and pretty much follow the spurs model of consecutive high place finishes and consistently compete

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9 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

I always remember when Top said at the champions parade we need a bigger stadium, but 4 years later nothing has happened. I suppose we can't have everything, at least the training ground is happening. I can't help but feel that they can't do what they want to do at the current venue though.

To be fair, even if they started planning things during the title season they wouldn't have been in a position to actually start work until the end of 2016/17. By that point, the title season did look like a one-off and we immediately went back to mid-table. Still enough justification to expand, but no real rush to do so (despite frequent sell-outs) and it probably went a bit on the back-burner. Especially with all the other stuff that's gone on since (training ground, the crash, multiple changes to managers). The difference now is that our level of performance feels a lot more sustainable and long-term, so an expansion is less 'risky' than it maybe was previously.

 

On the assumption that the on-field success can continue, I imagine we'll go full-throttle on stadium expansion as soon as the training ground is finished. I've no idea what the time-scales/disruption would be like, but it may be in the off-season summer 2021 when that work gets carried out.

Edited by Xen
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19 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

I always remember when Top said at the champions parade we need a bigger stadium, but 4 years later nothing has happened. I suppose we can't have everything, at least the training ground is happening. I can't help but feel that they can't do what they want to do at the current venue though.

The reality is we need the neighbouring land which is taken up by E-ON at the moment. They may be existing liabilities with the landlord or E-ON themselves need to finding alternative accommodation for their offices. 

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To be honest, the club are not going to base expansion of our stadium and on a 3rd round cup game Vs Wigan. The club will be looking at the demand for season tickets each year, over a number of years. Maybe build in a bit of sustainable growth and ambition within the numbers and will take it from there. Whether that means there is demand for us to expand the stadium, I don't know, however I have faith in the owners as they have shown themselves to be very astute. 

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25 minutes ago, goose2010 said:

So we have sold 23k ish, Wigan would have been given the full allocation (according to their website) so whats that about 5k in the cup? So 28k already accounted for? so will probably have 30k (if Wigan sell out their allocation) in the cup 3rd round against Wigan? Where is the issue?

 

I'm a season ticket holder that isnt going to the game, i cant justify to be honest, with the Villa game only a few days later, the tickets prices are good but its not just that for me so i took the decision to not bother.

Surely Wigan won't sell out? They took about 300 to Forest the other week. 

 

Just looked, they've sold 1000. 

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15 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

 

Its taken 2 weeks to sell 23000 tickets for a Saturday fixture in the FA cup.  Man U would sell that in a day.

Would you care to tell us again .how long it's taken to sell 23k tickets please.

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36 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

The reality is we need the neighbouring land which is taken up by E-ON at the moment. They may be existing liabilities with the landlord or E-ON themselves need to finding alternative accommodation for their offices. 

We need the national grid building*, the plans that were leaked showed the E-ON building still in place and the rest built around it....

 

 

*Not sure if we own it already or not

Screenshot 2020-01-02 at 11.58.24.png

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36 minutes ago, sylofox said:

Would you care to tell us again .how long it's taken to sell 23k tickets please.

Love how he uses the biggest club in the world as an example. A club who had 20,000 (minimum) empty seats against Rochdale

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14 minutes ago, Babylon said:

We need the national grid building*, the plans that were leaked showed the E-ON building still in place and the rest built around it....

 

 

*Not sure if we own it already or not

Screenshot 2020-01-02 at 11.58.24.png

I've been told the eon building is the only hold up. But is being sorted. 

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