New Stadium + Poor Crowds + Poor Form = Administration

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Taken from the Darlo In Administration' thread:

'The Quakers moved into their new £20m Reynolds Arena in August but poor crowds and form saw them go into administration last week.'


THAT'S why the club needs to pump some money into the playing side as soon as Falmer gets the green light. This season. Not three years down the line.

 

[the right footed denilson]

spot on

its no point having a flash ground if ur a shit team.

 

[byf]

Yeh your right there,They need to go hand in hand.

But the fact of the matter is: the public enquiry and other costs are eating away at the club at the moment.

You wait until it gets the go ahead,wheres this magiic money coming from,Dick tight will still be pumping it all into falmer+in my opinion we will fail on that one and not have the finances to build the ground.

 

[BrightonBird]

Swings and Roundabouts. Could we guarantee a crowd of +20,000 when Falmer gets the nod? Do we have enough money to buy in new players when Falmer is sorted?

I want Falmer to go ahead but what happens if we don't get the support we so desperatly need? Also, if we don't get players, will new fans stay? I want us to be in with a good shot (god knows we deserve it), but we could easily end up in the same situation.

 

[Yorkie]

Tom, You're only reading half the story.

The idea was that the stadium would be used for other purposes too and the council refused them permission to do so.

That prevented them from getting additional income. As far as I am aware Falmer has permission to be used for other events.

Before I get jumped upon from a great height, yes I do want to see investment in the players as well as.

 

[Safeway]

Not quite the same. It is blatantly obvious that Darlington are never, EVER, going to get crowds even in the mid teens, let alone high twenties (thousands). Same goes for Port Vale. They done their bollocks building a ground that holds 24,000 (and haven't even finished it) yet get an average home gate of around 5,000. Totally pointless and asking for trouble.

I'm not saying that we will get 23,000 for every game at Falmer but I am willing to bet good money that capacity will be at least 50% from the start, improving as we get better.

 

[Safeway]

And another thing.....

Although crowds might not be massively higher that what we are currently getting at Withdean, the running costs will be far less (or fewer?) because we won't be being raped by Ecovert. That, over the course of a season, is going to make a huge difference.

 

[the right footed denilson]

AND REMEMBER

WE CANT EVEN FILL WITHDEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zebedee]

I agree with you Tom. Darlo's predicament is very much the nightmare scenario. Whilst the Albion will always have a hard core of 5,000 to 10,000 fans, we are unlikely to get many more supporters turning out unless the club is playing attractive, positive football, backed by an ambitious but financially astute board. I will support the club come what may but not every fan views things in quite the same way.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Tom, You're only reading half the story.

The idea was that the stadium would be used for other purposes too and the council refused them permission to do so.

That prevented them from getting additional income. As far as I am aware Falmer has permission to be used for other events.

Before I get jumped upon from a great height, yes I do want to see investment in the players as well as.

Maybe Yorkie, but the club DOES need a big injection of cash very soon. It's like the railways. Sccessive governments starved them of cash and suddenly twenty years down the line everybody's whinging we've got a shit railway. Which we have. If the club get the green light for Falmer in the next month or so and don't invest a bit of money in tryng to get promoted from this piss-poor division THIS season - there will rarely be an easier opportunity cos the standard is dross) then maybe a few questions need to be asked.

 

[Yorkie]

AND REMEMBER

WE CANT EVEN FILL WITHDEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because we have no roof (sorry to state the obvious) and not everyone has internet access to know that tickets are being returned a few days before the match by visiting teams.

Falmer will not totally rely on income from the Albion.

Huddersfield do not pay the total income of the McAlpine stadium. I know the Giants RL team play there but our firm has had work's dos in the hospitality rooms etc.

 

[Safeway]

AND REMEMBER

WE CANT EVEN FILL WITHDEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shut up you f***ing RUG!!

The reason we 'can't' fill Withdean is because for the last four seasons it's been a virtual sell-out and the mentality for a lot of people is that they won't get a ticket and simply don't bother trying to get one. I know for a fact the club are trying hard to dispell this but it's going to take time.

If Withdean was a normal, pay-on-the-day ground then we'd have least the third highest average in the division.

 

[Safeway]

Oops, ignore that.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Not quite the same. It is blatantly obvious that Darlington are never, EVER, going to get crowds even in the mid teens, let alone high twenties (thousands). Same goes for Port Vale. They done their bollocks building a ground that holds 24,000 (and haven't even finished it) yet get an average home gate of around 5,000. Totally pointless and asking for trouble.

WHY? There's businessmen behind these stadiums, they do business plans, they think they know their catchments areas, they're fully expecting a big return on their investments - and there's a damn sight less in the way of alternative entertainment for Darlington and port Vale fans than there is for us spoilt brats in BN1. I think the Albion have absolutely no sound basis for assuming if they build a wizzy new stadium it'll automatically fill up. Better have a bloody good product available when the new stadium's ready I'd say is the bottom line.

 

[Yorkie]

So you don't think there'll be car boot sales and pop concerts at Falmer then Tom?

 

[Spiros]

THPP - While you may have a point, as Safeway pointed out Darlo have never had huge crowds. We have typically drawn above 10,000 average for a season unless we are doing really badly (ie the latter Lloyd era). Our situation is totally different to Darlo's. Their expenses went up as a result of a new ground - ours may well come down. They were only getting 5K in a ground that held more, even though people could pay on the day. We rarely fall 1,000 short of capacity, even though our visitors usually send some tickets back late, most of the crowd have to sit in the open and you have to jump through hoops to get tickets before the day. After all we've been through I like to think that we will be patient enough not to expect consecutive promotions to the premiership once we get to Falmer.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

So you don't think there'll be car boot sales and pop concerts at Falmer then Tom?

On the contrary Yorkie, I have full faith in the income-generating capabilities of the car boot sale

 

[the right footed denilson]

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Icy Gull]

With good facilities, which Falmer will have, and a half decent team (i.e not propping up the division) I am sure we will get 10,000 crowds minimum from the off. Comparisons cannot be made with Withdean, which as a football stadium is a shithole with shit facilities without mentioning other problems associated with it.

Charlton and Reading have both shown what can be achieved with new stadiums. Are they potentially any bigger than us? Reading certainly aren't. We should not be comparing ourselves to Darlington, unless we end up staying at Withdean

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

THPP - While you may have a point, as Safeway pointed out Darlo have never had huge crowds. We have typically drawn above 10,000 average for a season unless we are doing really badly (ie the latter Lloyd era). Our situation is totally different to Darlo's. Their expenses went up as a result of a new ground - ours may well come down. They were only getting 5K in a ground that held more, even though people could pay on the day. We rarely fall 1,000 short of capacity, even though our visitors usually send some tickets back late, most of the crowd have to sit in the open and you have to jump through hoops to get tickets before the day. After all we've been through I like to think that we will be patient enough not to expect consecutive promotions to the premiership once we get to Falmer.

Spiros - I'd just point you to me reply to Safeway which says there businessmen with business plans behind Darlo and every other new ground. The Madstad is probably our best business model. Which involved Madjeski bankrolling the playing side as well as financing the stadium. All I'm saying is the Albion neglect investing in the playing side at their peril. And if we ain't got no money, then go out and find an ethical investor who has. Or float shares and see how many get taken up. There's ways and means as long as the will is there.