Stadium expansion. Have we goofed up?

[Vegas Seagull]

All we need to do if there is huge demand for places is put prices up by 25% & we'll have the same revenue as if there were 40,000 there ( balancing cheaper extra seats - less pies)
So 32,500 becomes 40,000 with no building costs and no extra queues...

 

[withdeanwombat]

Albion's record average gate is 25,264.1977-78.

22,318 on average of them came to see Peter Ward.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Floating fans like watching a team doing well that's near the top of the division. If we get promoted, we will be lucky to win a third of our games and after the initial interest of watching the 'big' teams, the floating fans would drift away. It happened in the 80s and will happen again. 30K is enough for our needs.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

30k is good for now, but we've only scratched the surface of potential support in our catchment area. With rising population levels as well, the club would be foolish not to have looked at options for expansion within the next few years.

 

[El Presidente]

The last time we were in the top flight attendances fell by over 10,000 a game during our four year tenure, and our away support fell to less than a hundred on many trips up north as the prospect of almost certain defeat every week made such trips unappealing.

 

[Biscuit]

Getting away from the ground is hard enough now let alone with another 10k seats!

 

[junior]

If the attendance was increased by another 10k then people would start leaving in the 60th min to have any chance of getting near the front of the bus que.

 

[Notters]

As an aside, I've noticed that at least half the disabled seating areas are empty every game. Now, ideally it'd be great if we could attract a load more disabled fans, but if just those areas in the North stand were replaced you could probably fit in another couple of hundred seats, couldn't you?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Getting ahead of myself a bit, but lets just fantasise about 5 years time from now. We are an established Premier League team, on the up with a growing support.

in he meantime fellow south coast club Southampton, have bolted on another tier onto the Ikea flat pack that is St Marys, increasing to 40k.

we on the other hand still have our wonderfully designed stadium, but suddenly find we cannot increase capacity further and meet the demand from our new JCLs. What do we do? How have we catered for this inevitable growth in support?

I'm thinking that maybe in 5 years time there might have been a substantial move towards pay-per-view live TV coverage of games and that would offer a potentially unlimited audience of Seagulls fans all over the world. In which case the current stadium size will be just fine and ticket prices would probably actually come down seeing as how the spectators would only be there to get behind the team and provide a bit of background noise and colour. The big revenue stream would be live TV coverage.

 

[Notters]

Getting away from the ground is hard enough now let alone with another 10k seats!

It's not though, is it? Certainly there are no issues if heading towards Brighton or Lewes. For Brighton you can always walk straight onto a number 25 or 49 bus... I'd say it's easier to get away from than half of the grounds in the country. Every comment on the footballgroundguide slags off the transport and I think it's such a shame as it could be putting off loads of potential fans.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The last time we were in the top flight attendances fell by over 10,000 a game during our four year tenure, and our away support fell to less than a hundred on many trips up north as the prospect of almost certain defeat every week made such trips unappealing.

And the weird kick off times might deter people as well.

 

[Biscuit]

It's not though, is it? Certainly there are no issues if heading towards Brighton or Lewes. For Brighton you can always walk straight onto a number 25 or 49 bus... I'd say it's easier to get away from than half of the grounds in the country. Every comment on the footballgroundguide slags off the transport and I think it's such a shame as it could be putting off loads of potential fans.

Well I think it is. So does the club, which is why they're examining their transport measures and seeing if there's ways to streamline the process. The reason the transport is slagged off is because it's difficult compared to most grounds. If you added another 10,000 people on top of that it'd be stretched further.

Is it worth is to see beautiful football in a beautiful stadium, of course! But let's not bury our heads in the sands and pretend it's a doddle.

 

[Notters]

Albion's record average gate is 25,264.1977-78.

22,318 on average of them came to see Peter Ward.

...and we only need to average 18,075 over the next two games to beat that...

 

[Notters]

Well I think it is. So does the club, which is why they're examining their transport measures and seeing if there's ways to streamline the process. The reason the transport is slagged off is because it's difficult compared to most grounds. If you added another 10,000 people on top of that it'd be stretched further.

Is it worth is to see beautiful football in a beautiful stadium, of course! But let's not bury our heads in the sands and pretend it's a doddle.

So like a lot of people, you've slagged it off without saying what's wrong. It HAS been a doddle every single game for me. Yes, I appreciate not everyone lives in Brighton, but I do have mobility issues. There is never a queue for the 25 bus, the first 49 bus after the final whistle always leaves with about 8 people on it (virtually no-one uses this and I can't understand why) and the train queues have always cleared after half an hour. There aren't many other grounds that are as well served by public transport.

Obviously significant improvements would be needed for 10,000 extra people, though.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Well I think it is. So does the club, which is why they're examining their transport measures and seeing if there's ways to streamline the process. The reason the transport is slagged off is because it's difficult compared to most grounds. If you added another 10,000 people on top of that it'd be stretched further.

Is it worth is to see beautiful football in a beautiful stadium, of course! But let's not bury our heads in the sands and pretend it's a doddle.

I would dispute that it is difficult compared to most grounds. We have a station which a lot of grounds don't have, and although it might take 30 minutes of queuing to get away, if you're in a hurry, 30 minutes is nothing. If you stop and have just one drink, there's hardly any queues left.
There isn't the street parking of a lot of grounds but where there is, you're sat in traffic queues trying to get to a main road for ages. I think we compare favourably overall.

 

[Biscuit]

So like a lot of people, you've slagged it off without saying what's wrong. It HAS been a doddle every single game for me. Yes, I appreciate not everyone lives in Brighton, but I do have mobility issues. There is never a queue for the 25 bus, the first 49 bus after the final whistle always leaves with about 8 people on it (virtually no-one uses this and I can't understand why) and the train queues have always cleared after half an hour. There aren't many other grounds that are as well served by public transport.

Obviously significant improvements would be needed for 10,000 extra people, though.

I didn't feel the need to state the obvious re specific transport issues. I'm glad we both agree that with 10,000 extra people we'd need significant improvements - which was my point to start with.

 

[timco]

That could be a dodgy memory? All the plans were for 22,500-ish.

Anything above that would have been seized upon by anti Albion stirrers and their lawyers.

Initially yes but I always thought the max capacity was well above that and This Article seems to agree (although a 1000 less than my memory).

 

[El Presidente]

I don't think transport is that bad, many fans don't like public transport and think nothing of spending 30 minutes in a traffic jam in their car leaving a ground and being stuck in a jam, but the same in relation to a train is deemed to be unacceptable.

 

[screamadelica]

Remove the offices and motorway diners and replace with seats,safe standing behind the goals there are plenty of ways to increase the capacity.Only if required obviously

 

[Mackenzie]

30,000 seems about right to me. It'll ensure a waiting list for season tickets and sell out crowds if we ever reach the top league.