Stadium Expansion...?

[Rusko187]

16 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!!!!!!!!!!!

With all due respect, I'm a season ticket holder with a young family and limited money (on the back of a rather expensive time of year). I still manage to get to the home games and going to the League Cup semi final, if there's one game in our upcoming fixtures where I could take it or leave it... that would be Wigan 3rd round of the FA Cup, I'm confident the team will do enough to get through and will be fine without me. And I dare say that maybe the logic others may also look at too.

 

For stadium expansion, I think we're good to extend 1 or 2 stands as rumoured. We sell out the stadium as it is with a waiting list for season tickets and memberships, to go to 42k I think we should fill that no problem.

[CosbehFox]

18 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

Dependent on what's inside the National Grid building - it may mean they are having to relocate their infrastructure. They did have big refurbishment plans lined up for the Gasworks site. 

[Beechey]

2 minutes ago, Rusko187 said:

With all due respect, I'm a season ticket holder with a young family and limited money (on the back of a rather expensive time of year). I still manage to get to the home games and going to the League Cup semi final, if there's one game in our upcoming fixtures where I could take it or leave it... that would be Wigan 3rd round of the FA Cup, I'm confident the team will do enough to get through and will be fine without me. And I dare say that maybe the logic others may also look at too.

 

For stadium expansion, I think we're good to extend 1 or 2 stands as rumoured. We sell out the stadium as it is with a waiting list for season tickets and memberships, to go to 42k I think we should fill that no problem.

There are those of us who would kill for a ST, but it seems hopeless, and the queue is so long for those with many more points as well.

I'm lucky enough to have a friend who works for Nike who gets me tickets though, otherwise I'd be stuffed.

 

Damn near every game is sold out as it is.

 

I think we could comfortably fill 40,000-odd, especially if the team plays this well.

[Rusko187]

6 minutes ago, Beechey said:

There are those of us who would kill for a ST, but it seems hopeless, and the queue is so long for those with many more points as well.

I'm lucky enough to have a friend who works for Nike who gets me tickets though, otherwise I'd be stuffed.

 

Damn near every game is sold out as it is.

 

I think we could comfortably fill 40,000-odd, especially if the team plays this well.

Exactly, Dirkster has based his entire argument seemingly on us not selling out against Wigan in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, when this time of year is heavily congested with matches. The ticket price of £10-£15 I admit is reasonable.... but there are other match day associated costs which I could honestly do without.

 

So a couple of questions back to Dirkster:

 

How well have the tickets sold for Villa Semi final at home?

What are the stats for Premier League attendances for home matches?

How many fans are clambering for tickets week in/out?

 

Those are the figures the club will be looking to when making their decision, Leicester has a large untapped fan base waiting for tickets... look at the Premier League win and the parade, how many people attended that? Look to the future foxes fans, some kids worst spell in Leicesters history will the Watford play-offs, all they will know is some form of success and will look at Leicester as their team as opposed to United, Chelsea etc. Trust me, this club are doing things right, they're investing in infrastructure and expansion... not tanking 100s of millions on a starting line up. Will we fill 42k on Day 1? Maybe not, but in time we will. Will we fill the stadium in nothing games? Maybe not.... but there is an appetite from the fan base, and the club are in a fantastic position to act upon it. Maybe the worst thing they do if they don't expand.

[BenTheFox]

17 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Really?

 

Villa can get 42000 and its a city of over a Million people. Forest get 28000 (Division below), but its a bigger city in population than Leicester.

 

I'll play the pantomime villain here, but Leicester / Leicestershire just isn't big enough to justify 42000 (or whatever) seats........

Factually incorrect. 

[HighPeakFox]

Guys, I think Dirkster has a muffler on currently.

[StanSP]

16 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

Factually incorrect. 

Not really.

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/nottingham-forest/attendances

That's only for this season but looking back for last season they got mainly that amount too.

 

 

[ithuriel]

Peeps must also keep in mind the youngsters that are growing up that will be kicked out of the family stand and will drift away if they cant get tickets elsewhere.

The club knows it needs to increase capacity and has plans, though it will be interesting to see by how much when they eventually do and will it be in phases?

[BenTheFox]

Just now, StanSP said:

Not really.

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/nottingham-forest/attendances

That's only for this season but looking back for last season they got mainly that amount too.

 

 

I wasn't referring to the attendances,I was referring to 'Nottingham has a bigger population than Leicester' when in truth it doesn't. 

[smr]

I'm a STH along with my Dad, if I could I'd get 4 seats so my two boys can come along with me.

 

So for me the stadium does need expanding.

[Vestan Pance]

Leicester remains the highest populated City in the U.K with just one football team.

Leicestershire I believe is also the highest populated county with only one football team. 

 

[ealingfox]

21 minutes ago, Vestan Pance said:

Leicester remains the highest populated City in the U.K with just one football team.

Leicestershire I believe is also the highest populated county with only one football team. 

 

 

Leeds?

[dayday]

33 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Not really.

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/nottingham-forest/attendances

That's only for this season but looking back for last season they got mainly that amount too.

 

 

Since Leicester have been in the Walkers/King Power Stadium, Forest have only bettered is once on average gates 

[Vestan Pance]

12 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

 

Leeds?

They've not got a football team🤔

[Rain King]

I have four people in my close family who are desperate for season tickets. One was a season ticket holder for 25 years until 2010 when circumstances meant they couldn't go for a few years. The other 3 are kids who are desperate to go but they can only occasionally get enough tickets together.

The sooner it happens the better otherwise we risk losing new fans at a time when we our best placed to gain them.

[Stadt]

Can’t get my head around fans that don’t want to expand because we might occasionally have a few thousand empty seats. The lack of capacity now is holding us back 

[tylesta]

17 hours ago, Dirkster the Fox said:

Again please read my posts above.  This is because the club had no faith in the game being sold out.

 

They initially put the West stand and parts of the Family stand up for sale, then section by section of the cop, round into the East Stand.  For example L1 and K1 still blocked out for sale as I type.

 

All because, despite £10/15 a ticket the club couldn't be confident we'd sell half the ground out, let alone all home sections.

 

Basically part of my whole point tonight about us not being able to justify a 40000+ stadium.

I bet you're one of them fans that take prawn sandwiches and a flask of bovril

[tylesta]

34 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Can’t get my head around fans that don’t want to expand because we might occasionally have a few thousand empty seats. The lack of capacity now is holding us back 

The thing is I heard dirk say about killing the atmosphere. Surely it wouldn't affect it as sell upper tier last! The amount of people on here, twitter and facebook asking for tickets is mad.

 

I could understand Dirkstercomments if we was regularly selling 26-27k tickets per game but we sellin at 99.5% every season....plus m1 when away fans don't sell so there is demand plenty

Edited 2 January 2020 by tylesta

[ClaphamFox]

When you expand a stadium, you expand people's perceptions of how easily they can get tickets. In our last year at Filbert Street our average league crowd was 19,783 in a 22,000 ground - just under 90%. The next season (in the Championship) we averaged 29,230.

Our current average crowd is around 99% capacity. Is anybody seriously suggesting that we would not be able to make a step change in attendances with a bigger stadium? With the right pricing, we could easily average 40,000+.

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

As for basing our expansion plans on selling out third round FA Cup ties, it is also worth pointing out that the club hasn't done much at all to promote the match (or even the Villa semi final). I'm a member, and all I got was an email when my buying window opened. I am often on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and don't recall getting any targeted ads telling me tickets are still available. And the truth is, we are still in the school holidays, so it is harder to organize efforts to get groups to the game (or even to get the word out -- for casual fans, they might not eat and breathe football, but wouldn't mind going to a match -- but have "tuned out" as far as trying to get tickets since it's so hard to get PL tickets on general sale.)

 

The club does very little to promote ticket sales beyond previous buyers.

 

 

 

 

[ClaphamFox]

51 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Can’t get my head around fans that don’t want to expand because we might occasionally have a few thousand empty seats. The lack of capacity now is holding us back 

Exactly this. It's surprising how limited in ambition and imagination some people are. A bigger stadium is an absolute no-brainer.

[Mapperleyfox]

3 hours 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. 

As an ex E.ON employee until recently it wouldn't surprise me if they are planning to close that particular office anyway in the near future, given the perilous state of their business.

 

Negotiation for the site might not be as difficult as we think.

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

57 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Can’t get my head around fans that don’t want to expand because we might occasionally have a few thousand empty seats. The lack of capacity now is holding us back 

Everton are looking at 50,000+

Wolves are looking at 40.000+, with longterm 50,000

Sheffield United are looking at 40,000+

 

I just don't think there will be a top half PL club without a stadium seating 40,000+ in 10 years.

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

Everton are looking at 50,000+

Wolves are looking at 40.000+, with longterm 50,000

Sheffield United are looking at 40,000+

 

I just don't think there will be a top half PL club without a stadium seating 40,000+ in 10 years.

Even if we don’t sell out, it’s matter of price rather than lack of fans. Sunderland were dogshit for ages and it has a lesser population than Leicester yet they regularly got ~50k attendances because of pricing 

[Footballwipe]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Can’t get my head around fans that don’t want to expand because we might occasionally have a few thousand empty seats. The lack of capacity now is holding us back 

Can I be a Devil's Advocate and ask what you define by "holding us back"?

 

In the latest financials our gate receipts were £12.8m (16.5m for the UCL season). The cost of expansion will be in the mid to high eight figures, I suspect. An increase of 10,000 on the current capacity and the current pricing structure may only net us an extra £4-5 million per season in receipts.  Now I suspect that we'll probably have a fair few tasty executive boxes included in any expansion to bolster those revenues stretching around the East Stand, and the matchday income will inevitably increase.

 

I just wanted to ask because I don't think any expansion will burst the dam of us earning megabucks income-wise (unless the expansion came with a big old price increase) I think the overall improvements in and around the stadium will have us looking a cut above what we currently have, and can definitely aide us to rise.

 

For every person saying that expansion might leave us with empty seats. Turn it on it's head. Think about the noise of those last minute winners, match on a knife edge deciders, the fervent atmospheres that could be even better with more fans packed into the stadium. Even Arsenal & Man City can't sustain 100% attendances, look at their crowds. Only the Liverpool/Man Utd can and will do this. Embrace change.