Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

[FanchesterCity]

Season tickets don't really matter too much, it's ultimately about how many tickets we sell across the entire course of a season.
Ultimately 'day trippers' are more profitable than season ticket holders - since they tend to spend more, but season ticket holders give a nice baseline figure for a club to work with.

The North Stand is clearly on City's mind, as it's been envisaged and planned for. That's the goal - to have the north stand full too.
As soon as City are confident they can fill it, they will.

Quite a few City fans though are (arguably) a bit optimistic about how easily we could fill it. It's just not that easy to find another 15K regular supporters. Of course there are 15K armchair supporters around Manchester alone, but persuading them to part with hard earned money and physically attend is another matter. It's not a slight on our fan base, it's simply the reality of persuading 15K supporters to attend isn't easy. We're talking 25-30% growth and that's a lot.

 

[RichardDunneOwnGoal]

Still non the wiser here.

Some say the new screens will go into the new stand, some say they won't, some say that the existing screens will be relocated to the new stand once the North Stand expansion begins?

Clear as mud.

 

[CITY FOR LIFE]

Good post and very valid points.

 

[dawlish dave]

£23!!! bugger, you must be an old man or 16. I'm up to £46 a game now in 201.

Less of the "old" sonny, I am very old so lets have some respect.

 

[cibaman]

Season tickets don't really matter too much, it's ultimately about how many tickets we sell across the entire course of a season.
Ultimately 'day trippers' are more profitable than season ticket holders - since they tend to spend more, but season ticket holders give a nice baseline figure for a club to work with.

The North Stand is clearly on City's mind, as it's been envisaged and planned for. That's the goal - to have the north stand full too.
As soon as City are confident they can fill it, they will.

Quite a few City fans though are (arguably) a bit optimistic about how easily we could fill it. It's just not that easy to find another 15K regular supporters. Of course there are 15K armchair supporters around Manchester alone, but persuading them to part with hard earned money and physically attend is another matter. It's not a slight on our fan base, it's simply the reality of persuading 15K supporters to attend isn't easy. We're talking 25-30% growth and that's a lot.

Isnt it really about getting those fans that currently go to 5 or 6 games a season to attend 8 or 9 games, those that currently go 8 or 9 teams a season to turn up 10 or 12 times. Those that go 13 or 14 times to buy seasoncards? And a few thousand newbies or returnees as well. Incremental increases in attendance rather than 10,000+ new fans

 

[FanchesterCity]

Yes of course, but I'd say there's a fair few season ticket holders who are attending less games now (I'm one of them). With the increased prices, I'm stopping cup games. So City aren't just having to get existing fans to attend more, they're having to encourage us to keep attending as we used to.

I wouldn't like to say I'm typical, but I certainly know I'm not alone amongst some season ticket holders who are cutting back on costs by ditching cup games.

Whichever way you look at it - 'new fans' vs 'getting more from existing ones', it's still a 30% increase City are aiming for, and that's not easy either way.

I think it's possible, but the pricing is key. If FFP does eventually get the boot, then maybe, just maybe, City might be able to do something with the pricing. If they get that right, they'll fill it, but recent price rises (for many) can never help.

 

[DiscoSteve]

Still non the wiser here.

Some say the new screens will go into the new stand, some say they won't, some say that the existing screens will be relocated to the new stand once the North Stand expansion begins?

Clear as mud.

Moving one would at least balance the stadium up so that everyone can see one - north stand first tier are a bit shagged at the mo

 

[Chippy_boy]

Season tickets don't really matter too much, it's ultimately about how many tickets we sell across the entire course of a season.
Ultimately 'day trippers' are more profitable than season ticket holders - since they tend to spend more, but season ticket holders give a nice baseline figure for a club to work with.

The North Stand is clearly on City's mind, as it's been envisaged and planned for. That's the goal - to have the north stand full too.
As soon as City are confident they can fill it, they will.

Quite a few City fans though are (arguably) a bit optimistic about how easily we could fill it. It's just not that easy to find another 15K regular supporters. Of course there are 15K armchair supporters around Manchester alone, but persuading them to part with hard earned money and physically attend is another matter. It's not a slight on our fan base, it's simply the reality of persuading 15K supporters to attend isn't easy. We're talking 25-30% growth and that's a lot.

A normal business would have to look at the development cost of a new north stand vs the likely return, but we are not a normal business. The stadium development costs are excluded from FFP anyway, and our owner has enough capital to be able to fund the development and take a very long term view. So unless you are obsessed about full stadiums per se, does it matter if we have 60,000 one week and "only" 48,000 the next? Better to build it ASAP in my view and have 60,000+ at least some of the time rather that not build it and never have 60,000+

 

[FanchesterCity]

A normal business would have to look at the development cost of a new north stand vs the likely return, but we are not a normal business. The stadium development costs are excluded from FFP anyway, and our owner has enough capital to be able to fund the development and take a very long term view. So unless you are obsessed about full stadiums per se, does it matter if we have 60,000 one week and "only" 48,000 the next? Better to build it ASAP in my view and have 60,000+ at least some of the time rather that not build it and never have 60,000+

If that were the case though, you'd expect us to press on right away - so one assumes any delay in the NS is so we can assess the demand?

That said, there are other good reasons to delay it - i.e. to discover the teething problems in the SS, then avoid them in the NS, which if we pressed ahead immediately, we'd miss out on.
There are pros and cons though - if we pressed on right away, hopefully we'd manage to keep many of the same engineers and possibly be a little more productive second time around too.

It's true we could toss 100m at an extension that only brings in 5m a year extra, but I do think City will be mindful of too many empty seats. The PR from it wouldn't be great, and regardless of it truly mattering to the business, I think it would reflect badly on the project. A full stand becomes a visual success story, an empty one will portrayed as a white elephant. If we can avoid that, I think we will.

 

[thegingerwig]

Were you told this on your visit when the photos got done?

Yes, I asked the Man City project manager. He said no decision had been made as yet on when to extend the north stand. There are only 2,000 people left on the waiting list. This is a mix of those who currently can't afford to pay the extra and those who only want a £299 season ticket.