[Albion] Yet another club to increase ground capacity….

[el punal]

During the pandemic we had a £4 million stadium extension plan put on hold. I believe some of the work has now been done including filling in some corners but the plan for more atmosphere sapping prawn sandwich seats in the North wasn't done. If they can add a 270 person hospitality suite in the North, they could add a lot more peasant seats.

EDIT:

Covered here with plans etc: https://www.northstandchat.com/threads/amex-expansion.378368/

Mostly hospitality in the plans, but also discusses the fanzine

Why would you want to add peasant seats in the North, everyone stands shirley? By the way, what does an atmosphere sapping prawn sandwich seat look like - probably a bit more sophisticated than a meat and two veg I would imagine?

 

[Greg Bobkin]

the opposition were one of the 14 non top six .....

Exactly - not enough of a pull for some people.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Something that strangely doesn't apply at Villa Park, Mollineaux, the City Ground, Goodison, King Power, Selhurst, Craven Cottage, Portman Road etc. Maybe it's only in Sussex that kids play grassroots sports, matches are shown on TV, the weather can be shite etc.

I have no stats to back this up, but I'm pretty sure there would be gaps in those grounds for certain games, under certain conditions.

I don't really care either way - people can do what they like. But what did make me laugh was the people involved in the mass exodus at 40-ish minutes who missed both of the goals

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

At the.....
Peter Sutcliffe Stadium,


To soon?

aka The Yorkie Ripper ground.

 

[Motogull]

The one thing I would like to see purely from a design perspective is to add a box in the north east corner to match the south east. That empty corner looks unfinished, & adding something there would nicely balance things.

And at the same time, rip the silly plod box out.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Bums on seats no longer matter, which is why Bmuff and Brentford can survive in the Premier League. All the money comes from TV - it doesn't really matter that much if you are playing in front of 11,000 or 60,000.

I suspect footballers prefer playing in front of 60,000 rather than 11,000. The next generation of tv deals may well be done on an individual club basis with the bigger clubs, with bigger stadiums, and usually better atmospheres, being able to command greater revenues.
As for Albion, privately Bloom and Barber must wish they could expand the Amex, or add another tier on the north & south stands, to take the us up to 38,000 or so.

 

[ac gull]

When it comes to expanding an existing stadium, often means reducing capacity for a while, then clubs change their minds

See Wolves and Villa recent ambitions and plans

Forest to get to 40k will have to go to under 30k for a bit - be interesting to see if they do demolish their old stand

Liverpool re building up back of existing stands then removing old roof are only recent ones who have spent hard cash on expansions

 

[FatSuperman]

This all depends on your definition of 'long term'. For now the stadium capacity is perfect, but if we continue to succeed and perhaps even start winning things, then over the next few decades we will gain a massive number of new fans - those kids who aren't even born yet, and then their kids. The catchment is huge, assuming we could find a sensible way to get people to and from the stadium.

This definitely needs to become a huge problem of meeting demand before we rebuilt / relocated, and that requires consistent success and a few superstars staying at Brighton for a number of years.

It's probably all of our number 1 Brighton dream - well, second behind that dream where you come through the academy, score a hattrick on your debut at 15 years old, going on to get 50 goals in your first season (an invincible double season at that), and where you get the ballon d'or on your second season (a quadruple) and string along the super clubs for two transfer windows, before finally revealing you're never leaving in a live stream where you rip off your shirt to show you've had the BHAFC crest tattoo'd on your chest this whole time. That one is obviously the number 1 dream. But other than that.

 

[Weststander]

[Not a whinge about us, we’ve met our natural cap imho due to a poor rail link. As borne out by a sea of empty seats in videos as Baleba hit his wonder strike].

Feels like we‘re now in the middle of a second wave of huge stadium expansions/moves in England. Following Liverpool and Everton.
Old Trafford 100k.
Newcastle to Leazes Park, possibly 65k.
Villa Park 43k to 50k with a new north stand.
Leeds now with a proposed 56.5k, replacing the decrepit main and ‘home’ stands.

 

[Simster]

Man City to 60k and Birmingham City moving to a new 62k ground as well.

But these are all big city clubs. We are a provincial club like Stoke, Plymouth Hull, Southampton, and Portsmouth. I don't think there is much wrong with a capacity of 32,000 for clubs our size.

 

[Zeberdi]

[Not a whinge about us, we’ve met our natural cap imho due to a poor rail link. As borne out by a sea of empty seats in videos as Baleba struck his wonder strike].

Given ticket sales are a limited source of revenue anyway and those people are leaving seats early that are already paid for, not sure why having poor rail links makes us particularly less competitive? The stadium still has few empty seats at every game because a percentage of STHs haven’t put their tickets on the exchange (or it’s not fully sold out) but not enough to make a particularly significant dent in matchday revenue anyway surely?

I think having silly money investment owners that means you can spend £110 million on top MF or £170m on a world class striker is where the financial disparities lie and why we will never sustain a CL position even if we qualify one day.

More and more clubs are getting that level of new investment so yes, it will make it harder and harder to compete for mid-table in future seasons.

But I think we can still compete in periodic breakout seasons when we play our best football and where it’s been preceded by a particularly good season for recruitment of young talent and development of that talent. For me, 2022/23 was just that.

 

[Weststander]

Man City to 60k and Birmingham City moving to a new 62k ground as well.

But these are all big city clubs. We are a provincial club like Stoke, Plymouth Hull, Southampton, and Portsmouth. I don't think there is much wrong with a capacity of 32,000 for clubs our size.

And with TV income dominating, it’s not a key factor these days in league placing.

 

[dazzer6666]

[Not a whinge about us, we’ve met our natural cap imho due to a poor rail link. As borne out by a sea of empty seats in videos as Baleba hit his wonder strike].

Feels like we‘re now in the middle of a second wave of huge stadium expansions/moves in England. Following Liverpool and Everton.
Old Trafford 100k.
Newcastle to Leazes Park, possibly 65k.
Villa Park 43k to 50k with a new north stand.
Leeds now with a proposed 56.5k, replacing the decrepit main and ‘home’ stands.

View attachment 200778

….and getting away from most of those will, like now, be as bad, or worse than getting away from the Amex.

 

[Weststander]

Given ticket sales are a limited source of revenue anyway and those people are leaving seats early that are already paid for, not sure why having poor rail links makes us particularly less competitive? The stadium still has few empty seats at every game because a percentage of STHs haven’t put their tickets on the exchange (or it’s not fully sold out) but not enough to make a particularly significant dent in matchday revenue anyway surely?

I think having silly money investment owners that means you can spend £110 million on top MF or £170m on a world class striker is where the financial disparities lie and why we will never sustain a CL position even if we qualify one day.

More and more clubs are getting that level of new investment so yes, it will make it harder and harder to compete for mid-table in future seasons.

But I think we can still compete in periodic breakout seasons when we play our best football and where it’s been preceded by a particularly good season for recruitment of young talent and development of that talent. For me, 2022/23 was just that.

see post #92

Plus I opened with a comment about us, to preempt any reply wrongly assuming that I was ungrateful to TB in settling at 31,800 or 32,500 with the NS Shelf. We’ll only be able to cater for far bigger crowds who stay until final whistle with a radical improvement in public transport to/from Falmer. Decades away?

 

[Weststander]

….and getting away from most of those will, like now, be as bad, or worse than getting away from the Amex.

I hope net worth £23.5b Jim Ratcliffe doesn’t manage to get the public purse to provide for their improved link.

 

[dazzer6666]

see post #92

Plus I opened with a comment about us, to preempt any reply wrongly assuming that I was ungrateful to TB in settling at 31,800 or 32,500 with the NS Shelf. We’ll only be able to cater for far bigger crowds who stay until final whistle with a radical improvement in public transport to/from Falmer. Decades away?

Won’t ever happen. Not worth the investment for 20 or so days a year. Even if it did the mentality of those who leave early wouldn’t change anyway. A ‘significant investment’ might mean someone getting home an hour after the game ends instead of 90 mins ? They’ll still leave on 85 mins to get home in 45 mins as BGT or Catchphrase is more important to them than a Baleba match-winning screamer.

 

[Weststander]

Won’t ever happen. Not worth the investment for 20 or so days a year. Even if it did the mentality of those who leave early wouldn’t change anyway. A ‘significant investment’ might mean someone getting home an hour after the game ends instead of 90 mins ? They’ll still leave on 85 mins to get home in 45 mins as BGT or Catchphrase is more important to them than a Baleba match-winning screamer.

So glad I was still there, top 10 in going mad in celebrating a goal. Cycling changed it for me, watch entire games, relax.

Do you think what you describe varies by club? Arsenal, Albion, Manure, Selhurst, Villa steadily empty when not winning from 75 minutes. Some other stadia ,.. people visibly always seem to stay.

 

[worthingseagull123]

With mighty Leeds anouncing an increase in Elland road’s capacity .Can we compete in the longer term with clubs with larger grounds and revenue streams. Web

With mighty Leeds anouncing an increase in Elland road’s capacity .Can we compete in the longer term with clubs with larger grounds and revenue streams.

Bournemouth managing ok

 

[Hugo Rune]

This new video offers a good update on future projects in England.

 

[dazzer6666]

So glad I was still there, top 10 in going mad in celebrating a goal. Cycling changed it for me, watch entire games, relax.

Do you think what you describe varies by club? Arsenal, Albion, Manure, Selhurst, Villa steadily empty when not winning from 75 minutes. Some other stadia ,.. people visibly always seem to stay.

I‘m lucky that I don’t have to worry about getting there or home quickly so don’t need to compromise/rush.

Not hugely….all clubs have early leavers, obviously the number mostly depends on the state of the game…….all those you mention take at least as long to get away from as the Amex. Can’t think of many that stay full/nearly full until the final whistle.