Stadium Expansion

[Alexander Litvinenko]

No point of expanding unless we become stable in the Premier League, we dont fill the stadium in the Championship so I wouldn't want a half empty stadium instead of a quarter empty one.

not necessarily true imo.if we had extended before this season its certainly the case that we would have been able to sell more tickets for the sell out games, and also make it possible we could have changed the pricing to encourage more people to come.
just having spare capacity will encourage people to come. im sure plenty of people look at the big games, see we are selling out , think ill never get a ticket, and dont bother applying.


and every extra person we get to attend a game is in truth a possible extra future season ticket holder, and family.



im not sure the atmosphere could get anyworse, and if we did get more people in it could imporve.

As well as that, there'd be plenty of scope to offer dirt cheap tickets to kids in order to build the next generation of supporters.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Like we used to do, Kid for a quid etc

[melonhead]

agreed- the only downside is that we would have to put up with chants of "your ground's too big for you" from the opposition fans
which happens anyway
and the atmosphere not being as good cos theres the sqme number of people in a bigger ground.
& from what i remember- we used to occasionally generate atmosphere when we were playing in front of 8-12 thousand at the madstad, so....

[Mr Optimist]

agreed- the only downside is that we would have to put up with chants of "your ground's too big for you" from the opposition fans
which happens anyway
and the atmosphere not being as good cos theres the sqme number of people in a bigger ground.
& from what i remember- we used to occasionally generate atmosphere when we were playing in front of 8-12 thousand at the madstad, so....

The distinct advantage of having 18'000 in a 30,000 seater stadium is if you have a complete helmet near you, instead of having to actually confront them and point out the error of their ways, you can just move to another part of the stand. Bit like in the terrace days.

[melonhead]

im already pining for the championship days when i could run half the length of my row unimpeded by other fans

[Mr Optimist]

im already pining for the championship days when i could run half the length of my row unimpeded by other fans

Maybe do it anyway at the last home game of the season windmilling splolastics as you go. They won't be there next season anyway and you can take out all the season's frustrations out rather than bottling it up over the summer months. Sounds quite cathartic now I think about it.

[melonhead]

IN! for that^^^


watch out B18 row EE!

[Royal With Cheese]

im already pining for the championship days when i could run half the length of my row unimpeded by other fans

I'm pining for Elm Park where you could run the entire length of the South Bank without being impeded by other fans.

[melonhead]

[URZZZZZ]

He said jokingly: “I would be delighted to support this application subject to the club buying some more players during this season.”
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local- ... xt-6029119

[One8Seven1]

Expand by 12,400. Total capacity of approx 36,181 then.

I wonder if the design has changed or are they still planning their Reebok/Emirates style sloping stands.

[ZacNaloen]

36000 is a realistic size for us, we'll be looking to build a new stadium if we ever get to the point where we attract bigger crowds than that. (by that I mean it will take a while)

[One8Seven1]

36000 is a realistic size for us, we'll be looking to build a new stadium if we ever get to the point where we attract bigger crowds than that. (by that I mean it will take a while)

Would we? With the land we own, I would think it more likely we'd see the North Stand knocked down and a new two or three tier stand put in its place. Thoughts like that seem like a dream though, but then I can remember being told by my father and uncles that we'd never move to a new stadium, never fill it, and never play in the Premier League.. Now we're looking to expand to more than 36000 and even look beyond that one day. Hopefully my littens will see that happen.

[ZacNaloen]

I'm not sure the method of construction of the stadium would make it as easy knocking the North Stand down.

We could reinforce the foundations and go up again though.

[floyd__streete]

36000 is a realistic size for us

18,000 yesterday. Plenty of games last season in the Premier League didn't even sell out.

Bet yeah ok, 36,000 is a realistic size for us. If you like.

[ZacNaloen]

As a maximum possible size for our fanbase if we are in the premier league for an extended period?

Yeh I reckon so, considering that is the only instance in which this expansion is going to happen anyway.

[One8Seven1]

36000 is a realistic size for us

18,000 yesterday. Plenty of games last season in the Premier League didn't even sell out.

Bet yeah ok, 36,000 is a realistic size for us. If you like.

For a game that was on Sky. Previous to that we were averaging 20,500. When you look at us in the Premier League, we sell out, and we sell all available 18k season tickets as well. There is plenty of scope to justify expanding to at least 29,000 and then considering the South and North later.

[Nameless]

We'd need to be playing Champions League to need a 36k stadium. even in the first season in the Prem, when we were the nation's darlings, winning games and it was all new and exciting there was no sign that 12,000 people were failing to get tickets each week. With good marketing and an attractive, winning side in the Prem I reckon 30k would do us nicely.

[Royal Ginger]

36000 is a realistic size for us

18,000 yesterday. Plenty of games last season in the Premier League didn't even sell out.

Bet yeah ok, 36,000 is a realistic size for us. If you like.

Last year our average league attendance was 98.76% of capacity. If and when we ever get back to the Premier league there's a shit tonne of cash to be made there, and that's only giving half the south to away fans.

[SLAMMED]

The attendance they announce is calculated on tickets sold though, not how many people are actually at the game.