[Football] Football grounds and sustainability

[Weststander]

Watching the Everton v Spurs game and hearing that Everton hope to move within 4 years, sad but understandable.

12 clubs still play on the same piece of ground they always owned. I'm a bit a a footy ground anorak, here is my take, views on what others think will fill me with interest.

Liverpool (same ground) - Keep building on it but still very prehistoric, especially for away fans.

The Anfield Road Stand where away fans sit is atrocious, but within three years it will be completely replaced with a huge new 16,000 end stand, giving four more than decent stands. All sustainable ... the owners calculate payback on cost on new stands over the medium term, due to a huge incremental rise in income from better facilities.

 

[Trotty]

Was the Leeds game a cup replay against Wimbledon, 45000 there as I was one of them? Dickie Guy in goal for the Dons, non league team then.

 

[drew]

Was the Leeds game a cup replay against Wimbledon, 45000 there as I was one of them? Dickie Guy in goal for the Dons, non league team then.

That was 75

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I looked on Google Earth and typed shit hole, it's still there..

It's not on mine, must have the welsh version? Mind you none of the valley towns came up!

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Exactly how much of an anorak are you? Wolves have four new stands, not one!

Yes since the 80's. As I said, they had new designs a few years ago, started by building one new stand and stopped there, much like Chelsea and the east stand in the 70's.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Fair question, I was pretty ambiguous. I mean for the club itself and whether it feels it has the right model for its future. Most old stadia now are no longer viable. For whatever reason, can't expand, poor facilities, etc. So, when I say sustainable, I mean from the point of view of modern football.

^^^ I did explain what I was getting at on the first page.

And if I were to knock my house down and build a new one on the same site would I no longer live at that address? (Re: WHL)

 

[Stumpy Tim]

These days, once a club gets into the Premier League sustainability means TV money. I'm not sure the ground has that much to do with financial stability

 

[Sussex Nomad]

These days, once a club gets into the Premier League sustainability means TV money. I'm not sure the ground has that much to do with financial stability

Yes, I realise what you're getting at, but I am talking stadia, not slush fund.

 

[zefarelly]

Ground ownership or renting, mortgages etc. . . . I don't think premiershite clubs survive regardless of ground without tv money, and major benefactors. For them it's, love aside, a good way of redirecting funds which may otherwise get reallocated and misused by the government of the day.

Surely sustainability depends on all your outgoings being taken into account, the principal one being wages.

 

[SAC]

As an earlier poster mentioned, it all depends what 'sustainable' means. If it means being financially viable come what may, then I'm not so sure about the Amex. At the moment with full houses every match - fine. But what's the break-even figure? If we got relegated a couple of times, and crowds dropped to 10-15,000, would the finances add up, or would the sheer cost of staffing, travel subsidy and so on mean we'd lose money every match? That's where somewhere like Turf Moor wins out I suppose - much of the crowd can walk there, so the attendances are less likely to drop steeply in the bad times, the facilities are poor in the first place, so won't take much to maintain, and so on.

Interesting question - good thread.

There were massive losses prior to promotion and there would be similar losses after relegation were the parachute money to run out. I suspect that most, if not all, Premier League clubs would be in the same boat.

 

[Napper]

Guess can put this here -

Interesting to see Hull city last week have their lowest crowd at the kcom . Just 10,630 v Swansea in the league and a season average of just over 12k .

All going wrong at that club .

Proud club who after going through some awful times have spent the last 13 years in the top 2 divisions . Several campaigns in the prem.

Can see them heading to league one soon though

Shame

 

[Sussex Nomad]

The Anfield Road Stand where away fans sit is atrocious, but within three years it will be completely replaced with a huge new 16,000 end stand, giving four more than decent stands. All sustainable ... the owners calculate payback on cost on new stands over the medium term, due to a huge incremental rise in income from better facilities.

Not according to Sky the other day. They are completely moving out of the ground within 4 years.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Guess can put this here -

Interesting to see Hull city last week have their lowest crowd at the kcom . Just 10,630 v Swansea in the league and a season average of just over 12k .

All going wrong at that club .

Proud club who after going through some awful times have spent the last 13 years in the top 2 divisions . Several campaigns in the prem.

Can see them heading to league one soon though

Shame

I watched Hull play Swansea in the old 4th division in 1999 at Boothferry Park. Very reminiscent of the old Goldstone, albeit bigger. Hull won 2-0 I think. Stuff like that, very random, you just never forget.

 

[Weststander]

Not according to Sky the other day. They are completely moving out of the ground within 4 years.

The other day? That was on April 1st.

 

[Weststander]

There were massive losses prior to promotion and there would be similar losses after relegation were the parachute money to run out. I suspect that most, if not all, Premier League clubs would be in the same boat.

True. The recent (on NSC) report on Championship club finances was telling.