Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

[Yates]

Ok so the club spends £50m building the new stand.

It sells 6000 tickets at £299.

That's revenue of £1,749,000 a season.

After V.A.T is deducted it's £1,435,200

So using a simple calculation, not allowing for inflation or interest, it would take 35 years before the club made a single penny from the investment.

It doesn't really sound like the deal of the century to me.

Forget how big Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham's stadiums are, let them worry about that. If theirs are 3 or 4 thousand seats bigger, is it going to make us slip behind in to oblivion? Of course not.

I'm sure we'll only expand when it makes viable commercial sense, and that's how it should be.

How much is made through match day food, drink and programme sales? Would 6000 extra fans make any significant headway there?

 

[Keeper!]

So you think Nike will just donate us an extra few million because we've got a slightly bigger stadium? Or do you think it was written in to the original contract?

I appreciate the club is used as a marketing vehicle for Abu Dhabi and they want nothing but the best. The problem is mate, at the moment we have thousands of season ticket holders who don't bother to turn up to half a dozen games a season, leaving huge swathes of empty seats.

This gets widely reported in the press as our fans being apathetic and plastic. I'm sure that doesn't play too well in Abu Dhabi.

If we increased the capacity by a further 6k at current rates of demand it's likely that this problem will only increase further. So far from an expansion painting Abu Dhabi in a positive light, it could actually have the reverse affect.

I don't care how the press report on us personally. But I think looking objectively, the expansion doesn't make financial sense. It doesn't make PR sense. And the only reason people are calling for it is because they don't like the idea of Liverpool, West Ham, Spurs and Chelsea having a bigger stadium than us.

Now let's hope Guardiola completely re-invigorates the club, we play attacking, exciting football, score loads of goals, we become every kid's favourite team and we go on to win loads of trophies and we sell out every game. If that happens, it might be time to look at expanding, but personally I don't think now is the right time.

I see 100'0s of empty seats nearly everytime I see Bara play in the Camp Nou, but I never here it said against them.

Stop worrying about what the media say about us.

 

[mac]

The lobsidedness and roof supports in the corner disturb me - I like Symmetry and balance in a stadium. That's why I loved Maine Road so much.

The original plans for Maine rd were very good with the Kippax roof to match the Main stand and the Platt lane to match the North stand. How it turned out was a shitty mess.

 

[Keeper!]

The original plans for Maine rd were very good with the Kippax roof to match the Main stand and the Platt lane to match the North stand. How it turned out was a shitty mess.

That's very true.

I had Francis Lee's blue print of how he originally wanted to redevelop Maine Road and it looked fantastic.

In saying that, leaving Maine Road and going to the Etihad was the making of us.

 

[Fat Chance]

Is the shroud affair wrapped around the metal protrusion on the south stand fascia..the final look....

 

[JGL07]

Ok so the club spends £50m building the new stand.

It sells 6000 tickets at £299.

That's revenue of £1,749,000 a season.

After V.A.T is deducted it's £1,435,200

So using a simple calculation, not allowing for inflation or interest, it would take 35 years before the club made a single penny from the investment.

It doesn't really sound like the deal of the century to me.

Forget how big Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham's stadiums are, let them worry about that. If theirs are 3 or 4 thousand seats bigger, is it going to make us slip behind in to oblivion? Of course not.

I'm sure we'll only expand when it makes viable commercial sense, and that's how it should be.

£50 million on a stand accommodating 6,000 people? You are probably rather too high. It works out at £8,333 per seat. It would be normally around be £3,500 to £4,000 per seat. At £4,000 per seat the capital cost would be £24 million.

Secondly who says that the season tickets will be sold at £299 per person for evermore? There are also cup matches to take into account. On the South Stand only a small proportion were sold at £299, most were sold at a higher price. An extra 6,000 seats would mean a lot more people buying food and drinks inside and outside the stadium.

However let's go with a revenue of £1,500,000 per annum. So a revenue stream of £1.5 million per annum over the next thirty years discounted to present value at 5% discount rate gives a present value of just over £23 million. So it is not far off breaking even before you take account of inflation enabling prices to be increased. My seat in the corner of the Colin Bell Stand and the North Stand costs £600 for Platinum. 45 years ago I was paying £15 for a North Stand season ticket at Maine Road. Remember that inflation will not affect capital costs but will increase revenue considerably.

Of course you are right, expansion does not make commercial sense by itself. Had we stuck at 44,000 capacity, there would have been scope to increase season ticket and walk up prices considerably while still filling the stadium. Chelsea have been doing that for years as have Spurs and Liverpool. Expansion means that season ticket prices have to be kept low. That is rather short-sighted as stadium capacity matters when striking commercial deals. That is why Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea are all expanding or building new stadia.

Expansion will come when they think it can be filled simple as that. It's only been one season since an extra 6,000 seats were added. They have generally been filled apart from League Cup matches and low profile European games.

 

[Shaelumstash]

I see 100'0s of empty seats nearly everytime I see Bara play in the Camp Nou, but I never here it said against them.

Stop worrying about what the media say about us.

Did you read my full post mate?

I'm guessing you missed this line:

"I don't care how the press report on us personally."

 

[mac]

That's very true.

I had Francis Lee's blue print of how he originally wanted to redevelop Maine Road and it looked fantastic.

In saying that, leaving Maine Road and going to the Etihad was the making of us.[/QUOTE
The original plans I saw were from the Swales era I think about 84. The plans were in a program but it wasn't a first team program. My memory is crap though.

 

[prof-taf]

Are we not part of the development of 6000 new homes in the area. That is surely a driver for expansion. We need some way of blocking off 3rd level when we know gate is low. Perhaps season tickets on a cup scheme get a seat for league and a seat for cups (carling cup) so the stadium is full on level 1 and 2

 

[waspish]

That's very true.

I had Francis Lee's blue print of how he originally wanted to redevelop Maine Road and it looked fantastic.

In saying that, leaving Maine Road and going to the Etihad was the making of us.

Yeah it did but when finished it would only hold 44k back then it would seem decent now its around 16k not big enough