Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

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Shaelumstash said:
I don't mean to pick on you in particular mate, but I keep seeing this phrase "Build it and they will come".

Do you or anyone else seriously believe this is an actual strategy the club should adopt, or is it said tongue in cheek?

I know the original phrase was used in the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. He was haunted by a ghostly voice that said "build it and they will come" about a baseball stadium in his back garden for ghost baseball players. In the film, he builds it and the ghosts come and play spooky baseball.

I've made numerous points about the extension and the collar site that any development would have to make economic sense. The extension should only be done when demand has caught up with supply, and the collar site should only be developed if we can find a partner with a compelling and unique offer that truly would make the development of international significance.

But I keep seeing this "build it and they will come" phrase with increasing regularity. At first I thought it was a joke, but it is now posted that regularly that I assume some posters must actually believe our owners are stupid enough to just throw tens of millions at a project and hope for the best!

It's just never going to happen. Our owners and executives are far too savvy for that. They will only start another extension or start work on the collar site if the numbers add up. If the project makes economic sense and is viable.

Some people just seem to be waiting for the extra extension so they can tell Liverpool and Arsenal fans we've got a bigger stadium than them, whether is makes economic sense to extend or not. Again, some think we should just throw up any old shit on the collar site, some offices, a hotel, maybe a basketball studium (wtf???!) get a Nando's and Frankie and Benny's in and jobs a good un. It's just not going to happen.

As opposed to "Build it and they will come" the club are quite rightly taking an approach of thoroughly do your research, test the market, and when, and only when there is a compelling case to invest tens of millions of pounds in to new infrastucture projects, go ahead with it when the time is right.
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Good Post - although the pedant in me would point out that 'If you build it, he will come' is the line from Field of Dream.....
 
They built it and they came. We were averaging 45K during the South stand expansion.(I stand corrected on that) This season were at 54K.

Next season Pep will be here, as well as some new players. You can stamp another 54K next season. And for 2 season's after that.

Expanding the North stand needs consideration. Would we fill it constantly, I'm not sure? But given correct pricing, we'd give it a good go. In my opinion we'd average 58K at least, if we expanded the North stand. If that happened, we'd be +12,000 post South stand expansion, when the Etihad capacity was cut to 45K.

As for the Collar site, it won't be cheap to build, but long-term it will make money. Critical to it's success is what it has to offer as a entertainment venue. But if delivered correctly with the right mix of attractions, it could attract 10,000's of People every Week.
 
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