[Albion] The Ambition to being Top 10 club.

[spence]

In this league more than any other, money talks. To consistently become a top 10 club, you have to pay top 10 wages. In 2018, out of 20 clubs we were 19th in terms of players wages.

Following the summer transfer window our wages budget will undoubtedly have swelled. But Potter will have to perform absolute MIRACLES to get us into that top 10. I can't see it happening any time soon.

The new multi million pound sponsor deal helps. That can see us pay out more in wages. Ultimately you are right. We will be needing to pay players over 100k per week to be a consistent top 10 club

 

[Napper]

West Ham not sold out



Just saying

 

[Husty]

The club wants to put more premium seating in. Likely in the NE corner. We've known this for a while.



The problem is infrastructure not, er, structure. There's no way of getting 1000s of extra people in and out of Falmer.

Monorail.

 

[studio150]

Yeah the club are promoting sales of this like crazy. They're practically begging people to come along. Surprised they don't price matches like this (in the school holidays) as a bit cheaper as way of guaranteeing a full stadium.

They have it's a B grade game.

 

[Braggfan]

Monorail.

Just ask the people of North Haverbrook and Ogdenville

 

[Pavilionaire]

Personally, I'm happy with the stadium and if Tony is going to extend his Albion empire I'd prefer him to build an ice rink and bring ice hockey back to Brighton.

 

[studio150]

Any thoughts on Tony's ambition, and what we need to become to be a recognised top 10 club.

Finish in the top 10 each season

 

[Megazone]

Correct. The arches hold up the entire roof around the stadium. You cannot add additional tiers at the Amex without dismantling the roofs and arches.

So Poyet was right all along?

 

[Stat Brother]

Yeah the club are promoting sales of this like crazy. They're practically begging people to come along. Surprised they don't price matches like this (in the school holidays) as a bit cheaper as way of guaranteeing a full stadium.

With an 8,000 person waiting list it shouldn't have too.

West Ham not sold out



Just saying

Yeah seemingly it needs too.


Is the waiting list also on points or first come first served?

 

[Megazone]

Personally, I'm happy with the stadium and if Tony is going to extend his Albion empire I'd prefer him to build an ice rink and bring ice hockey back to Brighton.

I'd rather him focus on redeveloping the Madeira terrace arcades.

 

[SollysLeftFoot]

Are you suggesting that without stadium expansion, we cannot become a top 10 club - as with this, insinuating that attendances correlate with league position? Because otherwise, I'm lost on the point of this thread.

 

[Easy 10]

The new multi million pound sponsor deal helps. That can see us pay out more in wages. Ultimately you are right. We will be needing to pay players over 100k per week to be a consistent top 10 club

Yep. The club are always trying to maximise revenue streams, as PB is always at pains to point out. The massive sponsorship deal with Amex will certainly give a healthy boost to the bank balance, but it remains to be seen whether that will ever translate to us becoming a club that actually pays top 10 wages in the Premier League. Personally, I have my doubts of us ever being 'that type' of club.

In the Championship the year we were promoted we were 9th out of 24 in terms of wages paid, but I get the impression that was TB's "big tilt" at keeping the squad together and having another go at going up, after having gone so close before. If we'd failed again that following year, then I think we'd have lost our best players and a period of relative austerity would have ensued.

He pushed the boat out wages-wise in the league below to have a chance at getting the Premier League riches. Now we're in the Premier League, will he fund top 10 wages to finish 10th or better ? I don't think so, because the benefits of finishing 10th over (say) 15th aren't THAT big, in the great scheme of things. TB will just hope Potter and the coaching staff can extract top 10 finishes without a top 10 budget, through smart acquisitions and innovative coaching.

 

[dingodan]

I Love tony Bloom's ambition and vision for our club. I know the subject of our ground expansion is sometimes a subject that may sound like a broken record.
But, after Bloom revealed his plans for the future and Paul Barber mentioning the fact we have over 8,000 members on the season ticket waiting list.

Surely expansion cannot be ruled out indefinitely. Grounds grow to match the identity of the team.
The day Tony's dream becomes a reality. And that can't be far away given our progress.. I'm just feeling a bit shut out by the situation..

Is the club going to become just an expensive exclusive business. Only for those who have managed to be one of the lucky 27K or so STH.
The club pride themselves on being able to cater for as many supporters as they can. Is that philosaphy going to slowly become not possible as the club grows.

Any thoughts on Tony's ambition, and what we need to become to be a recognised top 10 club.

Ok, first of all, it IS far away. Very far away. The progression from the Championship to the Premier League is quite a distance. The progression from lower Premier League side to (established and consistent) top 10 Premier League side is even greater than that.

Maybe, with some real luck and great work on the part of the squad and coaching staff, we could finish in the top 10 at some point in the next handful of seasons. But that would be a remarkable achievement and something to be enjoyed if we are fortunate enough to see it happen. But that is not the vision achieved. The vision is to be considered a club expected to finish top 10 season after season. Even then, it likely won't happen every season, but our reputation would be such that it would be expected. Getting there will be a very long journey, and expect us to rise and fall in the process of getting there too.

Now, as for the capacity of the stadium. It would of course be nice to be able to accomodate 60k fans every week but it isn't going to happen in any kind of forseeable timeframe, maybe it won't in our lifetimes and I do think we have to accept that and appreciate what we have. There may be scope for expansion beyond the few hundred seats talked about at the moment, but if something is possible, it would be a long, arduous and expensive process, and it would be something we would look at only when the vision has been achieved, again, that is a long long way off.

Note that Arsenal were playing at Highbury, with a capacity of less than 40k (38.5k, so about 8k more than we have now) when they were the very best team in English football.

I don't mean to put a downer on your suggestion/question, but it's not really realistic, infact I may be wrong, but I would imagine that a capacity of 50k or 60k wouldn't require an expansion, it would require a new stadium. I just think this is all asking a little too much.

Maybe, in the long term, should we achieve our vision, then maybe, we could edge towards the capacity that Arsenal's invincibles enjoyed at Highbury. Maybe. But even that isn't a sure thing.

I think to mourn what we don't have, rather than just appreciate what we do have (especially when you consider the hard times we have had), is to be somewhat lacking in perspective. No offense.

 

[Stat Brother]

Are you suggesting that without stadium expansion, we cannot become a top 10 club - as with this, insinuating that attendances correlate with league position? Because otherwise, I'm lost on the point of this thread.

The third paragraph reads like a person bemoaning they can't go to games, despite the fact in the time it took to write the thread he could have bought a ticket.

Esp as it'll cost only £35 and he's had 2 months notice to save up the money.

 

[Marshy]

In this league more than any other, money talks. To consistently become a top 10 club, you have to pay top 10 wages. In 2018, out of 20 clubs we were 19th in terms of players wages paid.

Following the summer transfer window our wagebill will undoubtedly have swelled. But Potter will have to perform absolute MIRACLES to get us into that top 10. I can't see it happening any time soon.

Agreed and still this season probably only Sheff Utd Norwich and Burnley will pay less than us.

 

[Easy 10]

So Poyet was right all along?

There's a structural ceiling at the Amex that cannot be raised. And there was also a ceiling on the playing budget that Bloom wouldn't raise. We didn't break the bank to get into the Premier League, which is exactly what Poyet wanted Bloom to do. So in that respect yes, Poyet was right in what he said. He had a hissy fit about it and the rest is history.

 

[SollysLeftFoot]

The third paragraph reads like a person bemoaning they can't go to games, despite the fact in the time it took to write the thread he could have bought a ticket.

Esp as it'll cost only £35 and he's had 2 months notice to save up the money.

That's a tough ask, Stat. It's always someone else's fault.

As such, a solution to stadium expansion is pretty simple.

A monorail with inward facing seats around the perimetre of the roof will solve this.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

The same man who said:

- I want to build a world class stadium
- I want to build world class training facilities
- I want to take this club to the Premier League
- I want to keep this club in the Premier League

is now saying :
- I want this to be a top 10 Premier League club


He's not got a bad track record of doing what he wants has he?

 

[Easy 10]

Agreed and still this season probably only Sheff Utd Norwich and Burnley will pay less than us.

Yep, that sounds about right. We were only paying £4m a year less than Burnley in 2018, but with our activity this summer compared with theirs, we've probably only just overtaken them now. I'd expect us to be 17th in the wages league table this season. Which makes any notion of finishing 10th a huge stretch at the moment.

 

[spence]

The same man who said:

- I want to build a world class stadium
- I want to build world class training facilities
- I want to take this club to the Premier League
- I want to keep this club in the Premier League

is now saying :
- I want this to be a top 10 Premier League club


He's not got a bad track record of doing what he wants has he?

He also wants a hotel. That's just a matter of time.