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AMEX expansion - there must be a plan hidden away somewhere......
- Thread starter Giraffe
- Start date
wakeytom
New member
I think if we average 30k it will be the best in the third division (possibly ever or at least since the start of football in 1992). I think if we got back to the days of 7th in the PL 48k would be about the max. To be honest I think the Amex is a great size and actually I think in a way its easier to fill a smaller stadium in the fact that there is a fear of not buying a ticket when its 30k whereas for 48k you have a much better chance, so you probably actually get more with the smaller ground.
- Jan 3, 2012
- 17,346
Nifty with flatpack furniture you say? May l have your number please?
Cowfold's a long way. My expenses would clean you out.
Yup. "Premier League: 11 of 20 clubs could have made profits in 2016-17 without fans at games"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44850888
Brok
🦡
- Dec 26, 2011
- 4,373
Which is what el Presidente has been telling everyone for years...
blue-shifted
Banned
Meant to reply with quote to the following post ....
Last edited:
blue-shifted
Banned
But there’s more to football than just finance isn’t there. Our ultimate aim as a club surely isn’t just keeping a good balance sheet, surely we want to grow. We want there to be more of us who feel like we do and we want to welcome more people into our club.
At the moment yes, we’re in the premier league so gate receipts are a small percentage of our income. But we can’t rely on that being the case for ever.
Also, yes, we’d get more money finishing 2 places higher … so is your plan that we take every penny of this extraordinary windfall and spend it on players salaries to get us 2 places higher in one season? How’s that gone for Palace?
What if we looked further to the future and spent some of the money (let’s guess £20million, or about a fifth of our annual pl windfall) on adding another 10k seats (I do acknowledge the colossal logistical challenges), thereby giving an opportunity to get revenue in the future no matter what division we’re in, but much more importantly, growing the club. Giving those who are on the waiting list their chance to get a ticket. Giving the club the opportunity, to plaster “tickets available” over billboards all over town, bus in school kids, just do the stuff you need to do to attract new fans. At the moment, rightly or wrongly, the perception among casual local football supporters is that tickets aren’t ever available, so they don’t try so they don’t get the bug.
“ambition fatigue” Aren’t you being negative about this? They said we’d never fill the Amex and we did. We could sell more tickets than we do. Even if we go down. We could be bigger than we are, we could grow for the future.
At the moment yes, we’re in the premier league so gate receipts are a small percentage of our income. But we can’t rely on that being the case for ever.
Also, yes, we’d get more money finishing 2 places higher … so is your plan that we take every penny of this extraordinary windfall and spend it on players salaries to get us 2 places higher in one season? How’s that gone for Palace?
What if we looked further to the future and spent some of the money (let’s guess £20million, or about a fifth of our annual pl windfall) on adding another 10k seats (I do acknowledge the colossal logistical challenges), thereby giving an opportunity to get revenue in the future no matter what division we’re in, but much more importantly, growing the club. Giving those who are on the waiting list their chance to get a ticket. Giving the club the opportunity, to plaster “tickets available” over billboards all over town, bus in school kids, just do the stuff you need to do to attract new fans. At the moment, rightly or wrongly, the perception among casual local football supporters is that tickets aren’t ever available, so they don’t try so they don’t get the bug.
“ambition fatigue” Aren’t you being negative about this? They said we’d never fill the Amex and we did. We could sell more tickets than we do. Even if we go down. We could be bigger than we are, we could grow for the future.
Icy Gull
Back on the rollercoaster
- Jul 5, 2003
- 72,015
IMO, if we we get relegated we will not fill the Amex unless we are challenging and playing good football in the Championship. Drop away from that and I think you’d see thousands of empty seats, we have a history of crowds only turning up if we are flying. The Amex and the first time in the top division for decades has ensured a sold out stadium, but I agree with El Presidente, if we stay up but continue to be a bottom eight team or even just level out as a mid table team crowds will fall.
Insel affe
HellBilly
5 seasons of battling relegation will see that waiting list drop considerably, add the novelty factor for some wearing thin will also see a dwindling in support.
We are in a stadium that suits us well, no need for extra thousands or increasing the stands by thousands.
If I have one moan about the ground that could have been thought out a bit better it has to be the North stand, it is too small and is not what a kop should be, it does not generate enough noise that can reverberate around the ground, hardly intimidating.
We are in a stadium that suits us well, no need for extra thousands or increasing the stands by thousands.
If I have one moan about the ground that could have been thought out a bit better it has to be the North stand, it is too small and is not what a kop should be, it does not generate enough noise that can reverberate around the ground, hardly intimidating.
The only caveat to this is that people have been underestimating demand for Albion tickets for the best part of a decade. I remember when the Amex was first mooted, the consensus was that we'd be broadly similar to Huddersfield. Then we sold 14,000 season tickets. After one season of sold out crowds, the demand was such that the ground was expanded to 27,000. That was close to being sold out too, for two seasons. Then we had the Hyppia year and even after that, gates didn't really tail off noticeably.
Obviously relegated would see gates tail off, but I don't think it would be any worse than most other clubs, and actually probably better than many.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,262
I think that putting in more seats is a nice idea but it's not feasible so we need to let it go.
I don't necessarily subscribe to the argument that crowds will dwindle if we are fighting relegation or drop down a division. Prices of tickets is a huge factor for many and a few seasons in the Prem plus the security of parachute payments would enable us to mitigate against that by decreasing ticket prices in the event of relegation. If the unthinkable happened and we went down we could make it £20 a ticket and guarantee a healthy attendance.
I think the club have done a great job of creating goodwill across a wide fanbase such that people would be coming to the Amex even if we were lower half of the Championship. The thing that could really bugger things up is if we had another Sami Hyypia on our hands.
I don't necessarily subscribe to the argument that crowds will dwindle if we are fighting relegation or drop down a division. Prices of tickets is a huge factor for many and a few seasons in the Prem plus the security of parachute payments would enable us to mitigate against that by decreasing ticket prices in the event of relegation. If the unthinkable happened and we went down we could make it £20 a ticket and guarantee a healthy attendance.
I think the club have done a great job of creating goodwill across a wide fanbase such that people would be coming to the Amex even if we were lower half of the Championship. The thing that could really bugger things up is if we had another Sami Hyypia on our hands.
Icy Gull
Back on the rollercoaster
- Jul 5, 2003
- 72,015
True but don’t underestimate the fickleness of Albion fans, there are plenty of other things to do with your Saturday afternoon around Brighton, I remember how the crowds fell away after the initial season in the First Division at the Goldstone, even when we were doing well under Mike Bailey. We are still on an upward curve, once we go on a downhill one we are likely to lose thousands imo. Hope I’m wrong and the upward trend goes on for years.
Aren’t Saints crowds falling away badly as they enter a second season of being rubbish after a sustained push up the divisions and the tables playing better football than we have played so far at this level?
Which reminds me haven’t you got a brother who is an ardent Saints fan? You almost certainly have a better idea than me how they are feeling these days!
They're averaging 1,300 fewer than us:
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/premier-league/attendances
And yes, my brother and my best mate are Saints fan - both are just pissed off with it all, and yet their gates are similar to ours. I do think we're very similar clubs these days - similar standard, similar gates, similar sized stadiums and very similar type of catchment area (mid-sized provincial cities with unusually large rural catchment areas incorporating some large nearby towns). That's why I think people overplay our "fickle support" these days, because we're not much different from them. It's not really bad at all.
Talking of Southampton FC - here's a LOVELY fact: In the last 10 months, Leicester City have won more times at St Mary's than Southampton have.
Talking of Southampton FC - here's a LOVELY fact: In the last 10 months, both Chelsea AND Leicester City have each won more times at St Mary's than Southampton have.
Fixed for you
Knocky's Nose
Mon nez est retiré.
This.
I often look at the North Stand (from my poncy East Lower with about 70% of them sitting like Thunderbirds puppets) and think "that lot can belt out some volume... Imagine what it'd be like if there was another level above them?!"
I've thought for a long time that there is room behind the North Stand for 8 or so more rows, which would make it about the same size as Cardiff's home end. Well, for most of the 4 central blocks anyway.
If they don't put seats in there, then it would be the perfect place to trail safe standing if we ever get the chance.
From a capacity point of view, I don't see why we shouldn't want the same as what Leicester and Southampton have, or somewhere in between. Didn't we have similar sized crowds to them in The Championship?
Imagine if someone said building The Amex wasn't cost effective. We wouldn't have got it done. To be honest, with the amount we lose every season, it probably isn't that cost effective. But it got built anyway because we wanted more fans and for the club to grow.
My point is that we took a bit of a risk building the stadium, and it paid off. We've could've ended up playing in front of 12000 in a 22000 stadium in League 1. We still built it. It's called ambition.
This might seem like a bit of a contradiction, but I'm saying we should add a couple of thousand tops, (if we can, and that's if we can sort the transport out a bit) not ten thousand.
If they don't put seats in there, then it would be the perfect place to trail safe standing if we ever get the chance.
From a capacity point of view, I don't see why we shouldn't want the same as what Leicester and Southampton have, or somewhere in between. Didn't we have similar sized crowds to them in The Championship?
Imagine if someone said building The Amex wasn't cost effective. We wouldn't have got it done. To be honest, with the amount we lose every season, it probably isn't that cost effective. But it got built anyway because we wanted more fans and for the club to grow.
My point is that we took a bit of a risk building the stadium, and it paid off. We've could've ended up playing in front of 12000 in a 22000 stadium in League 1. We still built it. It's called ambition.
This might seem like a bit of a contradiction, but I'm saying we should add a couple of thousand tops, (if we can, and that's if we can sort the transport out a bit) not ten thousand.
Doubt we lost money last season, and suspect we’re unlikely to this season........the losses in the Championship were seen as a longer term investment by TB to get us where we are. Gate revenue has dropped from being 90%+ of income to less than 20% with the TV money influx.