North Stand Construction Discussion

jrb said:
For 1 match a season against Arsenal. For the rest of the season the Spurs fans in it don’t do it justice. But yes, a comparable stand where the North Stand is now is a must. But how long have we been saying that and still nothing. Even with Pep here, and Haaland coming, the club has reduced capacity at the Etihad, not increased it.
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If we are being honest though would we do it justice? The atmosphere is rubbish at most of our home games
 
jrb said:
We don’t have the plastics like United and Liverpool have. Even Arsenal are suffering from empty seats at the Emirates. Only United and Liverpool can fill their stadiums for most home games. A few empty seats have started to appear at United of late.

What we do have is a solid and expanding hardcore of fans. The vast majority are low to middle income working class fans, with a small percentage of wealthy fans. We’ve also got a slowly growing fan base from outside Manchester. This is evident in PL games, and more so in CL games. We also get a lot of football tourists coming to watch City at weekend home matches

But we’ve lost a lot of local fans through season ticket and match day ticket price increases over the years (here jrb goes again), and through forced relocations inside the stadium on different occasions and throughout the years to make way for new corporate areas and seating. We need to get those fans back for a start. And also attract new local City fans with more cheaper season ticket and match day ticket prices. The games in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, and CL group stages prove cheaper tickets do attract more local fans. Over the last few seasons we have had 50,000+ attendances for early round FA Cup games.

If the club expands the North Stand it has to somehow balance match day income with cheaper season tickets and match day tickets in an effort to attract those City fans that have walked away and City fans who are desperate to watch City, but are priced out at current season ticket and match day ticket prices. If City did that they could fill an expanded North Stand and a 60,000 capacity Etihad.
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bang on the money .

i have been forced to move for corporate , who moves a disabled supporter to behind fans that stand up ffs. i tell them of course to sit the fuck down but shouldn't have to .
only fucking City .

and my lot still want to renew lol.
 
£100 season tickets ! Are people living in fantasyland here ?

City ain’t gonna invest £150m + in a new stand in a hope that it will be populated by fans that stopped going to football 5 years ago and for them to pay an amount for season tickets similar to what is paid by supporters of teams at the lowest level of semi pro football on the league pyramid.

And for amounts much less than what the loyal supporters that have renewed every year pay !

Absolute fantasy !

In case anybody didn’t notice we ripped out 1500 seats last Summer yet its still easy to get an ad hoc ticket for almost every game bar the games against the top 4.

Whether it’s Covid, pricing, lack of atmosphere, style of play, the way we are perceived in the media ( the excuses I’ve read on here ) our attendances have stalled and there is no justification for investing huge resource in a new stand as the recent ripping out of front row seats has proved.

The focus should be in what can be done to improve atmosphere and analysis on those seasoncard holders that don’t attend 10 games a season and get that sorted.

We don’t need more seats no matter how romantic a new one tier stand would be. The current capacity is more than sufficient.
 
I think we missed a trick all those years ago. We should have replicatedthe Kippax back in the day; lower section of East Stand but chose to have an end. Would we fill that with fans who want to sing? Singing section is a bit of a joke. I know the people there do their best but, let's face it, they are often outperformed by the away fans. The main problem over there is the layer 2 people dividing the fans.
 
Prophet of Doom said:
£100 season tickets ! Are people living in fantasyland here ?

City ain’t gonna invest £150m + in a new stand in a hope that it will be populated by fans that stopped going to football 5 years ago and for them to pay an amount for season tickets similar to what is paid by supporters of teams at the lowest level of semi pro football on the league pyramid.

And for amounts much less than what the loyal supporters that have renewed every year pay !

Absolute fantasy !

In case anybody didn’t notice we ripped out 1500 seats last Summer yet its still easy to get an ad hoc ticket for almost every game bar the games against the top 4.

Whether it’s Covid, pricing, lack of atmosphere, style of play, the way we are perceived in the media ( the excuses I’ve read on here ) our attendances have stalled and there is no justification for investing huge resource in a new stand as the recent ripping out of front row seats has proved.

The focus should be in what can be done to improve atmosphere and analysis on those seasoncard holders that don’t attend 10 games a season and get that sorted.

We don’t need more seats no matter how romantic a new one tier stand would be. The current capacity is more than sufficient.
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Your post contains a lot of hard headed (& unwelcome to many) home truths.

Another reason I don’t see any huge expansion of the North Stand combined with low SC prices is based on what happened when SS3 opened. Thousands of supporters in more expensive areas of the stadium (me included) took the opportunity to relocate to SS3 and that left thousands of expensive SCs for the club to shift. I was paying over £700 in ES3 and my new seat cost £380 when SS3 opened. So if the NS was expanded the club has a choice to make. They can offer the new seats to existing SC holders and again be left with thousands of expensive seats to sell or they don’t allow relocations and only ‘new’ supporters can buy them. The first option makes no sense financially and the second could result in lots of pissed off SC holders bailing out.

There has to be a sound business case to spend a huge amount on any expansion and I’m not seeing it.
 
Invisible Man's Bandage said:
Your post contains a lot of hard headed (& unwelcome to many) home truths.

Another reason I don’t see any huge expansion of the North Stand combined with low SC prices is based on what happened when SS3 opened. Thousands of supporters in more expensive areas of the stadium (me included) took the opportunity to relocate to SS3 and that left thousands of expensive SCs for the club to shift. I was paying over £700 in ES3 and my new seat cost £380 when SS3 opened. So if the NS was expanded the club has a choice to make. They can offer the new seats to existing SC holders and again be left with thousands of expensive seats to sell or they don’t allow relocations and only ‘new’ supporters can buy them. The first option makes no sense financially and the second could result in lots of pissed off SC holders bailing out.

There has to be a sound business case to spend a huge amount on any expansion and I’m not seeing it.
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The club will have gone through the data after the SS3 expansion and probably realised a north stand expansion isn’t worth it. Like you said, them cheap tickets will get snapped from people relocating. I feel like the club are in a bit of tricky situation with the fans at the minute. Rumblings of fans being upset about the continuous season ticket price increases, driving long timers away but also on the other hand plenty of tourists are starting to turn up to games. They have to find the right balance.
 
Invisible Man's Bandage said:
Your post contains a lot of hard headed (& unwelcome to many) home truths.

Another reason I don’t see any huge expansion of the North Stand combined with low SC prices is based on what happened when SS3 opened. Thousands of supporters in more expensive areas of the stadium (me included) took the opportunity to relocate to SS3 and that left thousands of expensive SCs for the club to shift. I was paying over £700 in ES3 and my new seat cost £380 when SS3 opened. So if the NS was expanded the club has a choice to make. They can offer the new seats to existing SC holders and again be left with thousands of expensive seats to sell or they don’t allow relocations and only ‘new’ supporters can buy them. The first option makes no sense financially and the second could result in lots of pissed off SC holders bailing out.

There has to be a sound business case to spend a huge amount on any expansion and I’m not seeing it.
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I think you are right. We know the fanbase is there if tickets are cheaper. But you can't allow those without current SC to take priority over existing SC holders. 10,000 seats at £350 or 5,000 at £700. Same money. Maybe more in revenue from food/drink but still it's a major reason why the club have probably held off expanding the North Stand. They can't have those paying £700 moving to cheaper tickets because they can't be replaced.

The only thing they could do is create a new improved family stand where family or adult and a kid deals were offered and have it as a major family oriented part of the ground with new and improved facilities for kids. That's not going to address atmosphere but might be the best balance and might get more people coming along. Still, any game outside the usual weekend kick offs will see plenty stay at home because of routine for the kids. And atmosphere-wise we'll still be complaining. The South Stand doesn't cut it. But a single tier will only work if every ticket is cheap and it will then lead to empty seats elsewhere and an overall reduction in revenue I'd expect.

The best games for atmosphere outside the title clashes or derbies have been when seats were cheap. The Hamburg UEFA cup game was incredible and tickets were £5 or a kid and £20 for an adult iirc. Bluemoon was echoing around the whole stadium, it was incredible that day. Certainly no issue of noise absorbing roof or away fans being in the wrong place. Everyone was bang up for it and singing the classic songs everyone knows.

I'm sure there is more the club could do to help atmosphere without a new stand or cheaper tickets, and it's a problem at a lot of grounds. Anfield is often quiet, OT the same and Spurs is too.
 
supercity88 said:
I think you are right. We know the fanbase is there if tickets are cheaper. But you can't allow those without current SC to take priority over existing SC holders. 10,000 seats at £350 or 5,000 at £700. Same money. Maybe more in revenue from food/drink but still it's a major reason why the club have probably held off expanding the North Stand. They can't have those paying £700 moving to cheaper tickets because they can't be replaced.

The only thing they could do is create a new improved family stand where family or adult and a kid deals were offered and have it as a major family oriented part of the ground with new and improved facilities for kids. That's not going to address atmosphere but might be the best balance and might get more people coming along. Still, any game outside the usual weekend kick offs will see plenty stay at home because of routine for the kids. And atmosphere-wise we'll still be complaining. The South Stand doesn't cut it. But a single tier will only work if every ticket is cheap and it will then lead to empty seats elsewhere and an overall reduction in revenue I'd expect.

The best games for atmosphere outside the title clashes or derbies have been when seats were cheap. The Hamburg UEFA cup game was incredible and tickets were £5 or a kid and £20 for an adult iirc. Bluemoon was echoing around the whole stadium, it was incredible that day. Certainly no issue of noise absorbing roof or away fans being in the wrong place. Everyone was bang up for it and singing the classic songs everyone knows.

I'm sure there is more the club could do to help atmosphere without a new stand or cheaper tickets, and it's a problem at a lot of grounds. Anfield is often quiet, OT the same and Spurs is too.
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we can barely fill the family stand as it is. Lots of people in there don’t have kids either.

I think that would be an awful decision and leave one half the ground half empty most weeks. Home end or half empty extended family stand…
 
i think every season the chances of expansion get less and less ( regardless as to what people say at the club ), all over uk tickets demand is lowering.

I think they are waiting to see how attendances go to dictate the alteration they make. As it is the north stand is an eyesore compared to the rest of the stadium, they will want to match it up but no point banging the capacity to 65k. Might as well modernise and have 58k or 60k
 
Move the families from that stand to another area of the ground, lets see how much better the seats are filled in the North stand doing it that way before any talks of a capacity increase.

Personally I'd rather see the other stands in the ground actually get a name behind it. I mean the south stand for a few years was called the key103 stand
 
Prophet of Doom said:
£100 season tickets ! Are people living in fantasyland here ?

City ain’t gonna invest £150m + in a new stand in a hope that it will be populated by fans that stopped going to football 5 years ago and for them to pay an amount for season tickets similar to what is paid by supporters of teams at the lowest level of semi pro football on the league pyramid.

And for amounts much less than what the loyal supporters that have renewed every year pay !

Absolute fantasy !

In case anybody didn’t notice we ripped out 1500 seats last Summer yet its still easy to get an ad hoc ticket for almost every game bar the games against the top 4.

Whether it’s Covid, pricing, lack of atmosphere, style of play, the way we are perceived in the media ( the excuses I’ve read on here ) our attendances have stalled and there is no justification for investing huge resource in a new stand as the recent ripping out of front row seats has proved.

The focus should be in what can be done to improve atmosphere and analysis on those seasoncard holders that don’t attend 10 games a season and get that sorted.

We don’t need more seats no matter how romantic a new one tier stand would be. The current capacity is more than sufficient.
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I’ve not had chance to go back over the thread since my last post, but who posted about £100 season tickets? That will never happen.

But 10,000, £300 season tickets in a new single tier North Stand is doable if Khaldoon and Soriano sign it off. If? Obviously the prices of season tickets for other parts of the Etihad would have to be looked at. This is where it get’s tricky for City as they don’t want other parts of the stadium empty because fans have moved to the expanded North Stand due to the availability of cheaper season tickets.

There’s no point in expanding the North stand if the season ticket prices are going to be the same as they currently are, because City won’t shift those season tickets. There will just be more empty seats in the expanded North Stand. It’s a hard balancing act, but City have to find a solution if they want to grown the match going (local) City fan base, and fill an expanded Etihad.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
I disagree. With the 10,000 applications (with about 9,500 of them left disappointed) the club had for the £250 season tickets in SSL3 when it first opened, if we priced a new proper vocal stand properly, we’d piss the selling out part of it.

I know loads of Blues who’d come back to our support if City said “all season tickets in this new stand are capped at £350 with individual matchday tickets capped at £35 for ten years” that would be the most attended stand in the stadium. You could build it for 16,500 and it’d be no problem to fill.

You only have to see when away fans return Level 3 tickets and they go on sale to City fans at the away price of £30 and see how they’re snapped up, to see what our fanbase is all about.

The execs at our club have failed to understand our fanbase throughout their time here. But it’s glaringly obvious so I’ve no idea how they’re missing it.
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You need to apply to be an exec.
 
Here’s an idea, of sorts.

I would offer current season ticket holders the chance to move to a new expanded North stand first. Just for arguments sake via £400 season tickets. If all those season tickets sell out I would offer season tickets to citizen card holders at £400 each, for two seasons. I would then offer season tickets to City fans who have given their season tickets up for whatever reason over the last few years, and new City fans who aren’t season ticket holders or citizen card holders for £350 for 1 season, then rising to £400 the following season, just to get them into the ground and hooked.

Unfortunately there will always be a percentage of season ticket holders who will want to stay where they are without a price reduction. Namely me next season, even though I was close to going ‘plonk me anywhere’ next season.

That up there is just an idea. Don’t shout me down. :-) In truth there isn’t a simple, perfect, or fair solution to expanding the Etihad for the final time, and keeping every match going City fan happy with fair season ticket prices for current season ticket holders and new season ticket holders.
 
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trevorriley said:
i think every season the chances of expansion get less and less ( regardless as to what people say at the club ), all over uk tickets demand is lowering.

I think they are waiting to see how attendances go to dictate the alteration they make. As it is the north stand is an eyesore compared to the rest of the stadium, they will want to match it up but no point banging the capacity to 65k. Might as well modernise and have 58k or 60k
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There is no point putting in extra seats when there is no demand.

Nothing for us to be embarrassed about. The ground is the right size for us and we need to put all efforts into making sure every seat is taken for most games and think of ideas to improve atmosphere.
 
Prophet of Doom said:
There is no point putting in extra seats when there is no demand.

Nothing for us to be embarrassed about. The ground is the right size for us and we need to put all efforts into making sure every seat is taken for most games and think of ideas to improve atmosphere.
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There is demand, but not at £60+ for an adult match ticket.

The early rounds of the cup competitions where City have sold out via affordable match tickets shows there is demand for tickets if the ticket prices are affordable. Those cup matches bring whole families to the matches, something you don’t see at the PL games.
 
so i have renewed on gold instead of platinum . total cost for 4 tickets £1280. (cost for 3 was £1620). my plan now is to buy the seat directly in front so no **** can stand up in front of me. hope the seat counters don't mind lol.
parking will still be shit, VAR will still cheat and Pep will rotate in cup finals but my family will be happy.
off now to buy my grandson an overpriced striped shirt with the wrong number on.

thanks City.
 
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