Just be on the Stadium tour. The guys running it were pretty black and white re the North Stand:
".........we are all ready to go and there is nothing stopping us starting......"
"..........the decision to start is entirely down to the Seasoncard waiting list reaching a number that means the extension will essentially sell out........"
"........the club are sensitive about the number of times the ground looks like it is nowhere near full - they are not going to make that worse by having the North Stand with large gaps............."
Was told last
Was told before the South Stand was built the waiting list was over 10k by ticket office, so minus say 7k for that and extra pitch side seats plus it's now in its 2/3 season list must be around at least close to say 6/7k, looks like they won't have about 10k on list again to ensure enough folk take up the option to buy. Would need to get an accurate figure from the clubto see what the actual waiting list is.
Problem with empty seats is season ticket holders not attending a lot of the games, not helped this year by loads of games put on hold re FA Cup and Champions League games clashing with league and rearranged league game dates, think United and West Brom had several provisional dates.
Match day attendances average around 54k according to figures but this includes season ticket holders who don't turn up. Club need a better selling of match day tickets as well, sell out all the seats other than West Stands match day seats first so not sold seats are on the side of main tv cameras and won't be as visible on tv as much the rags already do this.
As others have said the club need to manage the handling of the no shows, or limit the amount of tickets sold off for corporate weekends(which some believe is happening) better before we extend another stand, get a handle on that and then move forward with the north stand. As for the fancy seats they are struggling to fill why not for some games offer to upgrade loyal blues for a small fee(it would be well worth it), at least they are making something extra and can sell the extra seat on... there are time constraints I know but the gamble to leave it until the last minute is not working at present. One season doing a better job of ridding the emptihad bollocks shouldn't be too much to ask before approving a stadium expansion.
One way which some wont like, is penalties for people missing too many games, unless they make an effort to either inform the club in good time to sell the seat for that game or do it themselves and inform the club(the club should allow it, it's not about the money after all its about the clubs image and the people who don't care about that better start caring because it does matter).
What penalties? Price increase on their season card the following season if they pick up too many penalty points, obviously some people don't value the price of one game enough, those who do will be the ones who make sure they sell the seat on... it could be a way to freeze the season card prices for those who do things right.
Target the 20k season ticket holders in the last season at Maine Road who are not season ticket holders now with 'Welcome Home'incentives.
Anecdotally that sounds way off - the 20k lost seasoncard holders. The fans who sat with me in 216 all came from the back of the North Stand and moved en masse together. I moved out of there 2 years ago and hey were all still going. The two guys who I sit next to are both long standing seasoncard holders. I remember reading the reports and accounts a few years ago and one mentioned the churn rate of seasoncard holders and it was extremely low. 1% pa. I think, and whose to say they don't come back in 4-5 years (children etc) I don't really see how half our supporter base has stopped going. In my view it's the same Maine Rd fans plus 15,000 new fans, many whom gave up in a previous era anyway.Target the 20k season ticket holders in the last season at Maine Road who are not season ticket holders now with 'Welcome Home'incentives.
There's no chance we have lost 20k season ticket holders from Maine Road we only had approx 25k!Anecdotally that sounds way off - the 20k lost seasoncard holders. The fans who sat with me in 216 all came from the back of the North Stand and moved en masse together. I moved out of there 2 years ago and hey were all still going. The two guys who I sit next to are both long standing seasoncard holders. I remember reading the reports and accounts a few years ago and one mentioned the churn rate of seasoncard holders and it was extremely low. 1% pa. I think, and whose to say they don't come back in 4-5 years (children etc) I don't really see how half our supporter base has stopped going. In my view it's the same Maine Rd fans plus 15,000 new fans, many whom gave up in a previous era anyway.
Anecdotally that sounds way off - the 20k lost seasoncard holders. The fans who sat with me in 216 all came from the back of the North Stand and moved en masse together. I moved out of there 2 years ago and hey were all still going. The two guys who I sit next to are both long standing seasoncard holders. I remember reading the reports and accounts a few years ago and one mentioned the churn rate of seasoncard holders and it was extremely low. 1% pa. I think, and whose to say they don't come back in 4-5 years (children etc) I don't really see how half our supporter base has stopped going. In my view it's the same Maine Rd fans plus 15,000 new fans, many whom gave up in a previous era anyway.