A Thought On Stadium Expansion

[Roger Ringpiece]

Which would be the same for future seasons as well as the past ones that have clearly not come close to being full on average since the first season. As someone else said, it's bizarre that the average for a season we only guaranteed our Premier League safety with 2 weeks of the season to go is 900 higher than our most successful season in over 30 years.

These are the average Premier League attendances for the stadium, amazing that in our first season there we did better averages than last season. Suggests that our fanbase is rather static that we're still in a similar place with no real demand for extra seats.

2010–11 - 45,949 (96.2% capacity)
2009–10 - 45,512 (95.4% capacity)
2008–09 - 42,900 (89.9% capacity)
2007–08 - 42,126 (88.3% capacity)
2006–07 - 39,997 (83.8% capacity) <-- Pearce effect
2005–06 - 42,856 (89.8% capacity)
2004–05 - 45,192 (94.7% capacity)
2003–04 - 46,834 (98.1% capacity)

You have to remember that some away support only fill the lower tier, sometimes not evan that, which reduces attendances considerably

 

[Irwell]

My view on Newcastle is their catchment area is significant, ther is only one team to support, for us even Liverpool is only 30 miles away. Their promotion back at the first attempt was crucial or their "fans" would have deserted them in droves.

Greater Manchester has around three times the population of Tyneside and a higher population than the entire North East region... Their catchment area isn't all that big really.

 

[BlueAnorak]

The torsion ring pulled taught by cables to the four pillars at the corners of the ground supports a lot of the weight of the roof. The rest is held in place by suspension cables from the pylons atop the 8 circular walkways. As such the weight of the roof redirected through the back of the stand structure is minimal. It would therefore not take too much effort to remove the roof at one end put a third tier on and put a new roof on. The issue is the increased attendance generated at both ends would only be around 9,600 (8 blocks at each end with around 600 in each block) increasing capacity to around 58,100.
Note: Only 8 blocks could be added at each end in this way as the corners of the ground would have to be open as they are now for lighting and ventilation reasons.

To do this you remove the roof at one end during an close-season, build during the season and put a new roof on during the following close-season. The club would lose revenue from one dining room for a season and the back rows of the 2nd tear (up to around 2000 would have to be relocated).

The work wouldn't be as expensive as some have suggested but is the limited extra capacity achieved worth the effort?

The cheapest way to increase capacity however would be to resurface the concrete slopes with less space between rows. We have an extra 2-3 inches of leg-room compared with most clubs in the Prem and if this was reduced in one tier all the way round, I reckon we would get an extra 5000 in the ground as it is.

The alternative would be to build 4 massive towers outside the ground at the corners of the ground and put a new roof on this structure (as per the San Siro). Maybe even with a closable roof. This would be a separate structure to the Stadium and would allow more extension room at each end - with even an eventual 4th tier possible. This could boost ground capacity to 70k or even 80k.

If I was the club, with the wealth they have, then I'd do the later as it gives them so many more options. I think it more likely that a combination of the first two options will happen however.

Costs could be separated from UEFA FFP as costs could be incurred by a third party building the extensions and renting the extension back to us.

 

[pauls]

thats the point, there are only 3 teams if you include Middlesbrough 30odd miles away to support, City have competition from many other teams, even Stoke is around 30 miles away given the greater "population".