Stadium Expansion update July 2021

[UHDrive]

I always have and always will love the club and our fantastic owners and what we have achieved.

 

But i think this is an opportunity missed. We have one of the best if not the best training facilities in the country with a disproportionate stadium that doesn't represent scale with the stadium. With the sheer scale of the development and site as a whole including for the arena etc, they should've increased numbers utilising the North and South stands, whether by merging them into the East Stand or increasing them.

 

For a club our size we still need infrastructure that is world class as per the training ground and especially to further attract the best football talent we can. The upside is that from the drawings we've seen so far shows that the view of the east stand facade when fans are entering the site will be incredible! 

 

Not sure also why their is further consultation when this has already been done and millions spent on planning and technical info. I'm guessing the planning application will be submitted around autumn time, in time for build start in spring. 

 

I'm thrilled that the whole scheme is being done. it's fantastic and the overall site with the arena etc will only add to our club as a magnate for fans. Let's hope the scheme is done in such a way that the North and South stands can be done in the future.

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

12 minutes ago, The_77 said:

Brb, starting a change.org petition…
 

 

And speaking of Barries, I’m sure we’ll all get to hear from Pierpoint that the arena was one of his original ideas.

'I had a 60k stadium all lined up for the cost of 500 pounds but the powers that be didn't want to listen to me and then I had people outside my house threatening me'

[Jimbo]

34 minutes ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

I think the demand is there, even if we aren't an integral part of the Big 6. My kids primary school is now 90 percent LCFC shirts, but only a few go to games. Other parents tell me they are "surprised" I got tickets -- they are convinced it's impossible.

 

The club doesn't really have to try and sell tickets to league games, and won't put a lot of effort into that aspect just to sell the odd few not being sold for Burnley.

 

If they expanded to 48k and put the effort in to selling tickets (advertising, school promotions, etc.), they would fill the stadium most weeks.

 

That being said, I understand the go slow approach.

That's the idea though, create a supposed idea that the demand is there. If people think something is hard to come by, they put the extra effort in to get hold of it. If there is no real need to rush to buy something it becomes stale, people put off making the effort and then sometimes don't bother at all. 

 

To put it in it's simplest form. For example, of you wanted a ticket to a game. You're under the impression that there are only 2000 tickets available, and 3000 fans want tickets. You refresh the Web page every 5 seconds waiting for the sale time to become live, you get a ticket immediately, you're happy.

 

On the flip side, there are 5000 thousand tickets available, 3000 fans want to go. You don't rush, there's no need. Something comes up, it's gonna clash with the kickoff time, you end up not bothering. 

 

In the 1st scenario all 2000 tickets go within hours. In the 2nd you could be left with more than 50% still available.

 

 

Why do you think comedians, bands and music artists, when they're touring, release dates, wait for them to sell out, then add extra dates for the same venue but the day after. It creates a hype around obtaining a ticket. That hype creates extra demand, more chance of selling out for each date, or in our case fixture, more money made and interest remains high.

 

Of course, that is the simplest form of marketing around supply and demand, there are many other factors to it. But I would almost guarantee that too many seats added in one would see demand for tickets actually fall because the hype around getting one, and that feeling of being "lucky" or "surprised" to get one won't be there, so people won't try as hard

[Manc Fox]

1 minute ago, The_77 said:

I didn’t want to be a Debbie Downer on this thread but this is concerning. 

Don't worry, all in good fun

Although i have been told the tower being built will be known as the greggs tower for some reason!!

 

 

P.S Not ITK 

[Daggers]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

Of course, that is the simplest form of marketing around supply and demand, there are many other factors to it. But I would almost guarantee that too many seats added in one would see demand for tickets actually fall because the hype around getting one, and that feeling of being "lucky" or "surprised" to get one won't be there, so people won't try as hard

 

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

Not sure also why their is further consultation

There has been no official release of plans for the stadium  and certainly no public consultation which I believe is a legal requirement for any large development even small developments require neighbours to be consulted.

[UHDrive]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

There has been no official release of plans for the stadium  and certainly no public consultation which I believe is a legal requirement for any large development even small developments require neighbours to be consulted.

That's correct. But only when an application has been submitted or a pre app

[davieG]

Just now, UHDrive said:

That's correct. But only when an application has been submitted or a pre app

Getting the consultation in before the planning app seems a good idea to me and should help the application to go through with ease. It also puts the club in a good position with the local communality not looking like their being ignored.

[turlo]

7,500 seats is probably the most that can be gained by adding an extra level to the East Stand. At Anfield they added an extra 8k seats when they added another level to the main stand and did the works without having to reduce the ground capacity during the season. Assume we are taking a similar approach of doing 1 stand at a time and there is potential for further expansion

[zealot]

 Great news!!! 

[fuchsntf]

10 minutes ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

I think the club should also cater to the casual fan, including -- for example -- two families wanting to get together and do something on a Saturday. Those kids become the hard-core fans of the future.

Family-boxes..??

[Ric Flair]

This is really promising news but from a business point of view I'm torn on whether an additional 8k is worth the cost of the redevelopment? It's clear that the club are limited with how much they could increase the capacity to and it doesn't make sense to only expand by 8k if there's a possibility to add a few more thousand on somewhere else at a later stage, so this is pretty much it. After this we'll be in the realms of a new stadium which would cost an absolute fortune but perhaps in the long run would make the most sense?

 

I think we need 45k minimum, although I'm open to persuasion that these plans are enough. It's obviously exciting news but it'll cost north of £100m for essentially 8k more seats.

[UHDrive]

4 minutes ago, davieG said:

Getting the consultation in before the planning app seems a good idea to me and should help the application to go through with ease. It also puts the club in a good position with the local communality not looking like their being ignored.

Yep your right it is and I agree with such a large scheme. It's probably the pandemic that's the reason they have stretched the consultation out around the time that they've completed the design and details, because if anything major is picked up during these consultations then it won't be cheap to re amend the drawing packs.

[Spudulike]

10 minutes ago, davieG said:

Getting the consultation in before the planning app seems a good idea to me and should help the application to go through with ease. It also puts the club in a good position with the local communality not looking like their being ignored.

Still not quite sure who the locals are? Who's going to be most effected by this? 

[sacreblueits442]

23 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

That's the idea though, create a supposed idea that the demand is there. If people think something is hard to come by, they put the extra effort in to get hold of it. If there is no real need to rush to buy something it becomes stale, people put off making the effort and then sometimes don't bother at all. 

 

To put it in it's simplest form. For example, of you wanted a ticket to a game. You're under the impression that there are only 2000 tickets available, and 3000 fans want tickets. You refresh the Web page every 5 seconds waiting for the sale time to become live, you get a ticket immediately, you're happy.

 

On the flip side, there are 5000 thousand tickets available, 3000 fans want to go. You don't rush, there's no need. Something comes up, it's gonna clash with the kickoff time, you end up not bothering. 

 

In the 1st scenario all 2000 tickets go within hours. In the 2nd you could be left with more than 50% still available.

 

 

Why do you think comedians, bands and music artists, when they're touring, release dates, wait for them to sell out, then add extra dates for the same venue but the day after. It creates a hype around obtaining a ticket. That hype creates extra demand, more chance of selling out for each date, or in our case fixture, more money made and interest remains high.

 

Of course, that is the simplest form of marketing around supply and demand, there are many other factors to it. But I would almost guarantee that too many seats added in one would see demand for tickets actually fall because the hype around getting one, and that feeling of being "lucky" or "surprised" to get one won't be there, so people won't try as hard

....conversely, @MarriedaLeicesterGirl was stating that if people believe there is a shortage of tickets, they do not bother to try to get them, therefore contradicts what you have said!!!

I am not disagreeing with the logic behind your post, just that for a lot of people I know, they do not believe it is easy to get a "walk up" ticket and therefore do no try.

[coolhandfox]

26 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

This is really promising news but from a business point of view I'm torn on whether an additional 8k is worth the cost of the redevelopment? It's clear that the club are limited with how much they could increase the capacity to and it doesn't make sense to only expand by 8k if there's a possibility to add a few more thousand on somewhere else at a later stage, so this is pretty much it. After this we'll be in the realms of a new stadium which would cost an absolute fortune but perhaps in the long run would make the most sense?

 

I think we need 45k minimum, although I'm open to persuasion that these plans are enough. It's obviously exciting news but it'll cost north of £100m for essentially 8k more seats.

The key thing is infrastructure expenditure does'nt count toward FFP, but the extra income generated will be very help to reduce our income to wage ratio.

 

It not only 8k seats, but the extra hospitality, which the club have already sold out season ticket wise at 2-3k a person, fan village getting people down to the ground earlier buying food, drinks, more foot faall though the new shop with 8k fans. More sponsorship on the new stand.

 

More non match day income, hotel, arena, car.

 

I think they would rather have 40k sold out with people still wanting tickets, that way people still have season tickets, want memberships etc.

Edited 28 July 2021 by coolhandfox

[CrispinLA in Texas]

19 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

This is really promising news but from a business point of view I'm torn on whether an additional 8k is worth the cost of the redevelopment? It's clear that the club are limited with how much they could increase the capacity to and it doesn't make sense to only expand by 8k if there's a possibility to add a few more thousand on somewhere else at a later stage, so this is pretty much it. After this we'll be in the realms of a new stadium which would cost an absolute fortune but perhaps in the long run would make the most sense?

 

I think we need 45k minimum, although I'm open to persuasion that these plans are enough. It's obviously exciting news but it'll cost north of £100m for essentially 8k more seats.

Maybe they can't expand King Power to 45k and 40k is the limit

[Ric Flair]

Just now, coolhandfox said:

The key thing is infrastructure expenditure does count toward FFP, but the extra income generated will be very help to reduce our income to wage ratio.

 

It not only 8k seats, but the extra hospitality, which the club have already sold out season ticket wise at 2-3k a person, fan village getting people down to the ground earlier buying food, drinks, more foot faall though the new shop with 8k fans. More sponsorship on the new stand.

 

More non match day income, hotel, arena, car.

 

I think they would rather have 40k sold out with people still wanting tickets, that way people still have season tickets, want memberships etc.

Yeah it all seems promising, I'm just thinking aloud on whether these developments are full and final or this is the 1st stage. In my mind the development of the East Stand, adding x amount of thousand on was best done by also developing both ends with a bit more on too, it makes the most sense to do it at the same time but maybe I'm wrong.

[davieG]

19 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

Yep your right it is and I agree with such a large scheme. It's probably the pandemic that's the reason they have stretched the consultation out around the time that they've completed the design and details, because if anything major is picked up during these consultations then it won't be cheap to re amend the drawing packs.

I think consultation with the city planners will have already taken place and I doubt anything major will come from these consultations there's many reasons to consult.

 

Through the consultation with our fans, our local community, businesses and stakeholders, we hope to achieve something that we can all be proud of for years to come. It’s these conversations that will help us communicate our vision to the people at its heart and take onboard the views of our community to help shape it.

 

 

[Ric Flair]

1 minute ago, CrispinLA in Texas said:

Maybe they can't expand King Power to 45k and 40k is the limit

In which case a new ground will be in the back of their minds and spending £100m + to then want a new ground in the medium term would make that outlay less attractive.

[davieG]

17 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Still not quite sure who the locals are? Who's going to be most effected by this? 

There's always someone, there were plenty for the Training Ground.

 

Increased capacity will likely mean more cars, congested roads, parking issues, rat runs etc. 

 

The folks on Western Road complained a lot about the Bede Island idea and plenty found reasons to stop us developing Filbert Street not least the Councillor led Offiside group.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, Lako42 said:

And? 

 

I'm talking from a fans point of view, as we all should. The point of an increase for the fans is increasing the ability of the local people actually getting a ticket to the game, especially increasing the loyal fan base by increasing st availability. 

 

 

 

Like you said in your previous post they'll want to recoup the cash as quickly as possible, and STs are the least effective way of doing so. 

[sacreblueits442]

5 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

The key thing is infrastructure expenditure does count toward FFP, but the extra income generated will be very help to reduce our income to wage ratio.

 

It not only 8k seats, but the extra hospitality, which the club have already sold out season ticket wise at 2-3k a person, fan village getting people down to the ground earlier buying food, drinks, more foot faall though the new shop with 8k fans. More sponsorship on the new stand.

 

More non match day income, hotel, arena, car.

 

I think they would rather have 40k sold out with people still wanting tickets, that way people still have season tickets, want memberships etc.

....I thought that was not part of the FFP ruling!!!

We would surely be in breach of this, if that was the case. Didn't Manchester City get away with it by some creative description of increase revenue?

[snoopy87]

Personally think 40k is a bit too reserved for us at this time, however, it is probably all the east stand can accommodate.

 

I have no doubt if we needed to, the north and south can and will be extended when the time comes, the ground is essentially the "old" Old Trafford, look at that place now.

 

the only stand that will ever be an issue is the West because of the way its designed and the canal behind it.

 

The arena is the biggest excitement, will be very interested to see how big they make it. I have no doubt KP will plump the money to attract the big names to it should it have the capacity.

[GlennyFox55]

6 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....I thought that was not part of the FFP ruling!!!

We would surely be in breach of this, if that was the case. Didn't Manchester City get away with it by some creative description of increase revenue?

Yepp that’s right, money spent on stadiums, training facilities, youth development or community projects are exempt.