What is the maximum amount of seats the Amex could have ?

[Surf's Up]

sorry - crowd not crown - must pay more attention!

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

It's a shame that we are never likely to hit a 30k crowd - even 30,001 would do, but with segregation of fans/no shows on the day I would think we'll always be 800+ shy of the 30,750 capacity.

 

[brightn'ove]

It's a shame that we are never likely to hit a 30k crowd - even 30,001 would do, but with segregation of fans/no shows on the day I would think we'll always be 800+ shy of the 30,750 capacity.

the liverpool game very nearly broke the 22,000 mark (and that is with a 22,300 capacity). if we were to have a draw like that, then i can see us JUST breaking the 30,000 mark. But it would have to be a cup game, and against somebody like Arsenal or Man u, where the fans are unlikely to get at each other meaning minimal segregation would be required. also tickets would be bought specifically for that game so would mean minimal no shows, 1901s and corporates would also show up.

 

[Simster]

I have no idea why the club struggled to get near 22,000 more than just the once. I can only presume this was to do with holding back excessive numbers of tickets for comps and cock-up contingency.

But it has to be possible to get a 30,000 gate with ground capacity set at 30,750. Southampton's ground holds 32,300 or something. Pretty much every seat was announced as sold on Saturday and they've had several gates of over 32,000 in the past few years. A ticket exchange would also help when you consider the number of no-show season ticket holders...

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Fair comments.

 

[Northstandite]

This.

We are finally just another provincial club with moderately good support. Like Leicester, Southampton, Stoke, Norwich, Ipswich, and so on. All of those clubs have been more successful than we have, and all of them have a ground holding between 27,000 and 32,000 which they fill when playing well but which don't look ridiculously empty for less attractive fixtures.

Therefore 30,750 will do nicely - especially as our ground is better than all of those, right down to smartcards, better pies, comfy seats and asthetics of the stadium. Delusions of grandeur belong down the road at Portsmouth, sorry I mean "lower league Portsmouth".

30,750 will be immense & should serve us for several seasons.

But with the growth of numbers over the years watching sport, and the never ending growth of football, never say never to expansion.

Fellow provincial clubs S'ton, Derby & Leicester have designed their stadia to allow a second tier, despite having smaller pop'n catchments than the Albion.

The A27 flyover & train station/trains would need to be radically improved first.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

30,750 is surely enough. For now.

As I understand it, the roof cannot be taken down as it holds the whole stadium together, But there's probably engineering types who could solve that.

The other way to expand capacity is to move all the seats closer together. This is definitely possible as perry himself said it.

 

[Sam-]

30,750 will be immense & should serve us for several seasons.

But with the growth of numbers over the years watching sport, and the never ending growth of football, never say never to expansion.

Fellow provincial clubs S'ton, Derby & Leicester have designed their stadia to allow a second tier, despite having smaller pop'n catchments than the Albion.

The A27 flyover & train station/trains would need to be radically improved first.

Not sure on the other clubs but best mate at uni is a derby fan and have watched them play 3 or 4 times this season (including the brighton game).
Dont think we should compare ourselves with derby yet in terms of capacity and attendances.
I know every home game was pretty much sold out this year, but its been a new stadium, promoted last year and we were pushing play offs all year. As well our stadium only held 22,500 odd this year.
Derby get crowds of 28,000+ week in week out, despite being a mid-table team with not much new happening each year. I have my doubts as to wether the albion being in such a progressive position is a sustainable indicator to crowds.

 

[seagulls4ever]

I believe it can go to 35K easily.

 

[Northstandite]

Not sure on the other clubs but best mate at uni is a derby fan and have watched them play 3 or 4 times this season (including the brighton game).
Dont think we should compare ourselves with derby yet in terms of capacity and attendances.
I know every home game was pretty much sold out this year, but its been a new stadium, promoted last year and we were pushing play offs all year. As well our stadium only held 22,500 odd this year.
Derby get crowds of 28,000+ week in week out, despite being a mid-table team with not much new happening each year. I have my doubts as to wether the albion being in such a progressive position is a sustainable indicator to crowds.

Their catchment of Derby & Ilkston, and a few small towns pales into insignificance, compared to the Albion's.
And there are so many other pro clubs in that part of the world.

But the Derby fans are very loyal, and they always get great gates.

Long term, if directed & managed well, the Albion's future has massive potential.

But no hurry; we've only just left the athletics stadium!

 

[Simster]

Their catchment of Derby & Ilkston, and a few small towns pales into insignificance, compared to the Albion's.
And there are so many other pro clubs in that part of the world.

But the Derby fans are very loyal, and they always get great gates.

Long term, if directed & managed well, the Albion's future has massive potential.

But no hurry; we've only just left the athletics stadium!

Outside the big cities, I'd say that Derby and Wolves were probably the biggest clubs in the country. For this reason, I left both clubs out of my list of "moderately well supported provincial clubs", as both of those are VERY well supported.

 

[Drumstick]

Which, spookily would be just a little more than the record crown for the Goldstone! but "safe standing" is only permitted in certain parts of the ground.

My very poor questimations was going on the north and south stands leaving the east and West as seats.

 

[Aristotle]

I reckon the Southstand could go back quite some way if we really wanted it to. I would like to know why we don't have a massive stand behind one of the goals

If it went back far enough we might even be able to fit in a hammer cage and long jump pit for old time's sake...

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Outside the big cities, I'd say that Derby and Wolves were probably the biggest clubs in the country. For this reason, I left both clubs out of my list of "moderately well supported provincial clubs", as both of those are VERY well supported.

Agree on Derby, their support has always been phenomenal, but Wolves, who I agree have big historic attendances, averaged 25,500 this season in a ground that holds a good few thousand more. The population of Wolverhampton itself is 239,000, smaller than Brighton and Hove, and while the West Midlands is a massive population centre, they are competing with West Brom, Coventry and to a lesser extent Walsall for fans in that region, as well as with other midlands teams.

 

[Northstandite]

Outside the big cities, I'd say that Derby and Wolves were probably the biggest clubs in the country. For this reason, I left both clubs out of my list of "moderately well supported provincial clubs", as both of those are VERY well supported.

The Wolves catchment is pretty big - 1/2 the vast Black Country (the part west of Brum), Telford, Stafford, and some other towns.

I can see them back in the PL within 2 years, with that amazing 3 sides stand taking shape.

Steve Morgan (Redrow homes multi millionaire) ensures that have no debt.

 

[The Large One]

But it has to be possible to get a 30,000 gate with ground capacity set at 30,750. Southampton's ground holds 32,300 or something. Pretty much every seat was announced as sold on Saturday and they've had several gates of over 32,000 in the past few years. A ticket exchange would also help when you consider the number of no-show season ticket holders...

Fair point if you consider there are going to be 30,750 seats.

According to Martin Perry, there aren't. It's the legal capacity for the stadium, not necessarily the number of seats.

 

[Seagull Steve]

I think 30,000 will be plenty. I would love to see 30,000 week in week out, but that just isn't going to happen. Granted Palace was a night game, but I'd have put my house on that being the highest gate of the season. Liverpool was a massive draw and we nearly sold out then, and that too was an night game midweek. So as I say, the quoted capacity will be fine for now.

 

[Simster]

Agree on Derby, their support has always been phenomenal, but Wolves, who I agree have big historic attendances, averaged 25,500 this season in a ground that holds a good few thousand more. The population of Wolverhampton itself is 239,000, smaller than Brighton and Hove, and while the West Midlands is a massive population centre, they are competing with West Brom, Coventry and to a lesser extent Walsall for fans in that region, as well as with other midlands teams.

You are completely wrong about Wolves. Their ground has been more or less sold out for years, and the reason they averaged 25,500 is because they knocked down one end half way through the season to commence building work, meaning that capacity was restricted to 24,000. And they really aren't competing with Coventry as Coventry is MILES away. In fact it's arguable that they are competing with West Brom as West Bromwich is basically a part of Birmingham (a quarter of the Hawthorns is actually inside Birmingham city limits).

Wolves have always been a biggish club. Pretty much the only time their gates have ever been crap (4-5,000) was went they plummetted down the league having been nearly bankrupted trying to build a new stand. But then by the late 80s Steve Bull arrived with the club in division 4 their gates started to climb again. By the time Bull and Mutch were scoring for fun in divs 4 and 3, they were regularly getting 18,000, which was basically a sell out for the half of Molineaux that wasn't condemned. And this was when gates were truly shit, in the late 80s.

They're a huge club, certainly much bigger than us.

England historical attendance and performance

 

[Simster]

Fair point if you consider there are going to be 30,750 seats.

According to Martin Perry, there aren't. It's the legal capacity for the stadium, not necessarily the number of seats.

Interesting. No point putting them in if the demand isn't there I suppose.

 

[Badger]

Fair point if you consider there are going to be 30,750 seats.

According to Martin Perry, there aren't. It's the legal capacity for the stadium, not necessarily the number of seats.

Does that mean we're going to have emergency chairs? You know the ones you get out when you have extra people round.