The Madstad and increasing capacity

[anR]

If we extended the stadium this closed season, and then got relegated, we would have a half empty stadium in the championship, and it would be a waste.

But with all this talk of renaming stands, this would be the perfect scenario to rename the whole place as the 'Stadium of Shite'.

No, it's Sunderland who play at the Stadium of Shite

It was an homage to Sunderland. Stadium of Light, a 40k stadium that's usually mostly empty. That's what we'd rapidly become, especially back in the Championship!

[shadesrwrf]

You sure? Ipswich, Burnley to name two towns that may argue that.

HAHA

Burnley's smaller than Wokingham!

Offical 2001 cencus stats:

Wokingham 150,257
Burnley 89,542

Ipswich is quite a big town though it's population over the last 20 years has actually been falling!

However, Reading's urban sprawl has increased it's size over disproportionately over the last 30 years.

Reading is the biggest town in the UK. The census only counts it's unitary borough of course, meaning the figure of about 140'000 is reported. When i nfact it's closer to 250'000 people or more as the town continues to expand.

Rob-Royal I was thinking the exact same thing the other day. It's amazing what Reading is going through at the minute:

- Expansion of RFC, premiership, maybe stadium expansion
- Kennet island
- station road development
- new green park station
- expansion of reading central
- also new buildings seem to be going up everywhere at the minute
- crossrail

Absolutely - these are very exciting times for the area and the future looks very promising for housing, employment, expansion/growth and better transport links in & around the town. It's got to have a positive knock on affect to the club.....

PMSL You are are Robert Wilson MP and I claim my £5.

[Rob-Royal]

You sure? Ipswich, Burnley to name two towns that may argue that.

HAHA

Burnley's smaller than Wokingham!

Offical 2001 cencus stats:

Wokingham 150,257
Burnley 89,542

Ipswich is quite a big town though it's population over the last 20 years has actually been falling!

However, Reading's urban sprawl has increased it's size over disproportionately over the last 30 years.

Reading is the biggest town in the UK. The census only counts it's unitary borough of course, meaning the figure of about 140'000 is reported. When i nfact it's closer to 250'000 people or more as the town continues to expand.

Rob-Royal I was thinking the exact same thing the other day. It's amazing what Reading is going through at the minute:

- Expansion of RFC, premiership, maybe stadium expansion
- Kennet island
- station road development
- new green park station
- expansion of reading central
- also new buildings seem to be going up everywhere at the minute
- crossrail

Absolutely - these are very exciting times for the area and the future looks very promising for housing, employment, expansion/growth and better transport links in & around the town. It's got to have a positive knock on affect to the club.....

PMSL You are are Robert Wilson MP and I claim my £5.

In English?

[Ascension]

Jay you really should stop setting yourself up for getting murked.

Oh -

CopeLOLOLed Streets

[KC Royal]

I do actually agree with the original poster. I think if we'd increased it to 30k we would have been able to fill it for most games, but I do think that would have been premature, particularly with the financial situation currently. I thought that we were definately increasing it in our 2nd season in the Prem?

It would be a shame if it didnt happen, but I can't see it ever being 40k unless we establish ourselves as a top 6 club. Also as someone else said any increase would be a complete waste of money in the championship, as it probably would be no more than half full. I reckon a lot of new season ticket holders would cut their losses if we got relegated with the current ticket prices

[Reading Abbey]

Expanding the stadium is a million miles off. Our problem is, we think we're bigger than we are!

[premiership_bound]

If we cannot sell out for our first ever game at in the Prem*, we will never get the stadium expanded.


* as at the time of writing

[West Stand Man]

There is no way that the town of Wokingham has a population of 150k, I could be persuaded to believe that Wokingham Unitary Authority (the old Wokingham District) has a population of that amount - and that includes Woodley and Earley.

Similarly, the Borough of Reading has a pretty small population, but if you add in the immediate surrounding conurbation that makes it one of the biggest 'towns' in the country.

[SpaceCruiser]

If we cannot sell out for our first ever game at in the Prem*, we will never get the stadium expanded.


* as at the time of writing

Why should that prevent the stadium expansion? Surely if the average attendance for this season is more than 22K then we would have reasonable grounds to build an expansion?

[Reading Abbey]

If we cannot sell out for our first ever game at in the Prem*, we will never get the stadium expanded.


* as at the time of writing

Why should that prevent the stadium expansion? Surely if the average attendance for this season is more than 22K then we would have reasonable grounds to build an expansion?

If you're funding it then yes. First, we need to stay up, and secondly, we need to get a good 23,500 average, surely? Having over 2000 empty seats at games would make it hard to justify an expansion IMO.

[KC Royal]

I wouldnt justify no expansion based on the Boro match not selling out as a lot of fans maybe on holiday. I'm not sure we'd need to sell out for every game either as didnt the club say it was a certain percentage of the capacity that was the deciding factor? Also we didnt fill the stadium for a large number of games before Xmas last season and demand has exceeded supply for STs this season. I guess it depends on the long term viewpoint as well though. I doubt it would happen if we're in a long relegation battle because there wouldnt be any guarantee that we wouldnt be in the Championship in 2 years. Also I guess any expansion would depend on any prospective new owners in the future.