What is the optiumum size for an Albion stadium?
Question: if we ever got to the Premiership, would Falmer be big enough?
It might be. The prices will go up and the gates will go down.
If the bankers are in charge
£30 x 15,000 = £450,000
£15 x 30,000 = £450,000
£20 x 22,500 = £450,000
My feeling is that the Albion bankers feel that Falmer would be big enough and that they only have aspirations of being a Championship club (unlike Bolton and Middlesbrough with bigger grounds). They may be right. Football may slump back to the low attendances of the late seventies and eighties and 22,500 will be enough?
What attendances would Albion get?
Goldstone (since 1960):
Old Division One, average 18,000 to 22,000 (at a time when attendances were at least 20% lower than today) = 21,600 to 26,400 (today)
Old Division Two = average 14,000 to 26,000 (when attendances for the lower divisions were a bit lower)
Old Division Three: average about 8,000 to 20,000
Old Division Four: average about 6,000 to 17,000.
In unsuccessful seasons, the gates were at the lower end of the scale. The average for the Goldstone for all years was 10,500.
Myself, I would be inclined to favour a stadium of about 28,000 (with options to increase the size to 36,748. But then I am a romantic not a banker.
A banker would just up the prices to get in of the stadium got full up. But when has football been about the bank balance?
Question: if we ever got to the Premiership, would Falmer be big enough?
It might be. The prices will go up and the gates will go down.
If the bankers are in charge
£30 x 15,000 = £450,000
£15 x 30,000 = £450,000
£20 x 22,500 = £450,000
My feeling is that the Albion bankers feel that Falmer would be big enough and that they only have aspirations of being a Championship club (unlike Bolton and Middlesbrough with bigger grounds). They may be right. Football may slump back to the low attendances of the late seventies and eighties and 22,500 will be enough?
What attendances would Albion get?
Goldstone (since 1960):
Old Division One, average 18,000 to 22,000 (at a time when attendances were at least 20% lower than today) = 21,600 to 26,400 (today)
Old Division Two = average 14,000 to 26,000 (when attendances for the lower divisions were a bit lower)
Old Division Three: average about 8,000 to 20,000
Old Division Four: average about 6,000 to 17,000.
In unsuccessful seasons, the gates were at the lower end of the scale. The average for the Goldstone for all years was 10,500.
Myself, I would be inclined to favour a stadium of about 28,000 (with options to increase the size to 36,748. But then I am a romantic not a banker.
A banker would just up the prices to get in of the stadium got full up. But when has football been about the bank balance?