season ticket sales (26 Viewers)

[clint van damme]

You can’t buy two season tickets together. I’d say that’s sold out.

I dont think weve sold out our season tickets though.
And we keep tickets back for the walk up, they don't sell out every week.
No ones extending a ground for a team that sells out 2 or 3 times a season.

 

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[SkyB]

It can absolutely be extended. The issue will be the cost and the amount of disruption it causes.

We need to go through some good followed by bad and consistently sell out. No point adding 8k seats after 3 years in the prem only for us to be relegated and go back to 27k attendances.

Look at our neighbours down the 69, their expansion has grinded to halt after last seasons attendances not selling out. Ticket prices didn't help, mind, often look at £60+ to watch them knowing they'd get hammered.

 

[hill83]

Cardiff's was the same as ours to start with so that's something to think about.

I can’t decide if that looks absolutely ridiculous or not

 

[TomRad85]

I can’t decide if that looks absolutely ridiculous or not

View attachment 44467

I like the extra tier, from a design point of view i think it would look better if it like curved around a bit and you'd get more seats too...

 

[AOM]

I like the extra tier, from a design point of view i think it would look better if it like curved around a bit and you'd get more seats too...

View attachment 44468

Yeah I like that design too. Think mainly because the bowl designs so many teams have are boring and it gives it a bit more character

 

[Broken Hearted Sky Blue]

Considering we’ve basically sold out STs it’s too small now.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

We're not filling a 50-60k stadium

 

[Liquid Gold]

Can we just put a wrap around the outside of the bowl so it doesn’t look like scaffolding please

 

[bigfatronssba]

We're not filling a 50-60k stadium

Birmingham seem to think they can, and they're no better supported than us

 

[SkyBluePower]

I like the extra tier, from a design point of view i think it would look better if it like curved around a bit and you'd get more seats too...

View attachment 44468

They don’t even open that tier do they?

 

[Covcraig@bury]

Get rid of the press boxes and move them to the balcony. That would give us another 2 thousand seats

 

[TomRad85]

They don’t even open that tier do they?

Not at the moment as their crowds don't warrant it, but that wasn't the question was it?

 

[Captain Dart]

Expansion is a pipe dream, it won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[SkyBluePower]

Not at the moment as their crowds don't warrant it, but that wasn't the question was it?

Well it certainly is if people are thinking we should already be adding capacity to the CBS- a ground we don’t even have the rights to expand as we don’t own it.

 

[TomRad85]

Well it certainly is if people are thinking we should already be adding capacity to the CBS- a ground we don’t even have the rights to expand as we don’t own it.

Ok

 

[Martw]

Well it certainly is if people are thinking we should already be adding capacity to the CBS- a ground we don’t even have the rights to expand as we don’t own it.

It’s more about the possibility not a direct belief it must happen given the ownership structure

 

[edgy]

Get rid of the press boxes and move them to the balcony. That would give us another 2 thousand seats

I agree that press box is a waste of space, but it would only generate another 200 seats or so.

 

[shmmeee]

What would have to be done if we were promoted? I know the floodlights were one would we need new media stuff like gantries and studios too?

 

[chiefdave]

What would have to be done if we were promoted? I know the floodlights were one would we need new media stuff like gantries and studios too?

Floodlights went out to tender in February so are possibly being done ready for this season.

Can't imagine there's too much that needs doing in terms of gantries and a studio. You could probably stick a permanent studio where the gym was when the ground first opened or in one the boxes, or on the balcony nobody is allowed to use! We've had Commonwealth and Olympic events in the stadium bowl, PL requirements can't be that much above those events.

 

[edgy]

What would have to be done if we were promoted? I know the floodlights were one would we need new media stuff like gantries and studios too?

Think if we did need permanent studios then this area is probably easy enough to convert. It houses the media team and police gaffers at the moment I think. It's all office space internally.

 

[chiefdave]

Google seems to suggest there's not actually much that needs doing.

There must be positions in the stands for UK TV commentary, overseas TV commentary and radio commentary. Well we already have radio commentary and games on Sky so we can't be far off there. The other requirement is appropriate positions for cameras and interviews. That seems pretty open ended.

Then we need 40 seats with desktops for media which is the same requirement as the Championship.

Thinking about it there's only one game a week isn't there where Sky broadcast the pre & post game from a studio at the ground. The Sunday 4pm game. Given that's the biggest game of the week how often would that be us even if we were promoted?

 

[CovRes]

Think if we did need permanent studios then this area is probably easy enough to convert. It houses the media team and police gaffers at the moment I think. It's all office space internally.

View attachment 44472

I think the bit that was the gym is now the sensory room. Doug could be be hard nosed and have that converted, but it would not be good PR.
At a lot of grounds the "studio" is an executive box. We have plenty of them.

 

[SBT]

I agree that press box is a waste of space, but it would only generate another 200 seats or so.

I like the press boxes where they are, it has a reassuringly old school look about it. One of the only non-standard things about the arena bowl itself too.

 

[stay_up_skyblues]

I think the bit that was the gym is now the sensory room. Doug could be be hard nosed and have that converted, but it would not be good PR.
At a lot of grounds the "studio" is an executive box. We have plenty of them.

We used the sensory room last season and it was a box. The furthest one on the left. So presumably it is a hotel room same as all the others the rest of the time.

 

[bigfatronssba]

I'm going to make a bold claim here, and that is we've sold the most season tickets in the Championship.

We've sold around 23.5k

Just had a look at what other teams have sold.

Sheffield Wednesday 16k
Middlesbrough 17k
Derby 21k
Leicester 22.5k
Sheff Utd 22k
Ipswich 20k
Birmingham 20k
Norwich 20k

Only one of the well supported clubs that I can't find a number for is Southampton, however they were reporting two weeks ago that they had 1k left, and they're still on sale now. Given that their cap must be fairly similar to ours, they can't have sold anymore than us.


Just to compare us to other Midlands clubs:

Villa 33k
WBA 20k
Wolves 22.5k
Forest 20k

 

[Nuskyblue]

They don’t even open that tier do they?

No, same as Hull

 

[theferret]

Re expansion, not that it's on the cards, but we could easily add 3-4K by simply lowering the pitch and adding 3 or 4 rows at the front. Fans closer to the pitch too. Much lower cost that adding an upper tier. Would probably need to build out a bit to increase concourse space though. Not a problem for now I guess.

 

[eyesee]

If we were seriously looking at a 60K stadium would we be better off looking at a new stadium rather than expanding this one. To double the capacity would be a huge, and expensive, job that would see tens of thousands of seats out of use at any one time potentially for several years.

Add in that the infrastructure is already struggling to cope with 30K is it just a non-starter.

Of course then you're back to the old question of where you put a new 60K stadium.

it's not just about bums on seats. where would all the extra people park? or how would they get to and from the stadium?
adding even 10k to the capacity makes getting in and out even more of a problem.

a multi-storey car park the other side of the a444 is an option, and i don't know why they don't do that anyway. it would just need a much wider bridge over the road to get people in and out.
relatively cheap to build, and could be a real earner.

 

[wingy]

it's not just about bums on seats. where would all the extra people park? or how would they get to and from the stadium?
adding even 10k to the capacity makes getting in and out even more of a problem.

a multi-storey car park the other side of the a444 is an option, and i don't know why they don't do that anyway. it would just need a much wider bridge over the road to get people in and out.
relatively cheap to build, and could be a real earner.

Think we're going to need a multi storey!

 

[Potbellypig]

I'm going to make a bold claim here, and that is we've sold the most season tickets in the Championship.

We've sold around 23.5k

Just had a look at what other teams have sold.

Sheffield Wednesday 16k
Middlesbrough 17k
Derby 21k
Leicester 22.5k
Sheff Utd 22k
Ipswich 20k
Birmingham 20k
Norwich 20k

Only one of the well supported clubs that I can't find a number for is Southampton, however they were reporting two weeks ago that they had 1k left, and they're still on sale now. Given that their cap must be fairly similar to ours, they can't have sold anymore than us.


Just to compare us to other Midlands clubs:

Villa 33k
WBA 20k
Wolves 22.5k
Forest 20k

That raw numbers look good but does that take into account clubs that hit their max and have a waiting list. I'm sure I read Birmingham fans saying they had about 2 million on a waiting list, for example. Derby, Ipswich and Norwich might have hit their max?

 

[bigfatronssba]

That raw numbers look good but does that take into account clubs that hit their max and have a waiting list. I'm sure I read Birmingham fans saying they had about 2 million on a waiting list, for example. Derby, Ipswich and Norwich might have hit their max?

Yes that is the case, but for Birmingham, Norwich, and Ipswich its because their grounds are smaller. We'd have hit our max and would now have a waiting list if the CBS was the size of their grounds.

Derby still have tickets on sale so they haven't reached their cap yet (which I imagine is similar to our cap)

 

[eyesee]

Think we're going to need a multi storey!

what's the alternative?
something needs to happen. it's nightmare getting anywhere near the ground on match days at the moment.

 

[shmmeee]

That raw numbers look good but does that take into account clubs that hit their max and have a waiting list. I'm sure I read Birmingham fans saying they had about 2 million on a waiting list, for example. Derby, Ipswich and Norwich might have hit their max?

We’ve still sold more than them. Sure if they had a bigger stadium maybe we wouldn’t but if we had a bigger stadium maybe we would. But in the real world today we sold more.

 

[theferret]

Can we just put a wrap around the outside of the bowl so it doesn’t look like scaffolding please

Yep. Actually quite a lot you could do with it because of the minimal design. Build out and up and completely change the look. The AI effort below is a bit ambitious, couldn't happen with current ownership, stadium or club, but it's a nice thought.

 

[theferret]

Yes, I'm playing with AI a bit too much tonight, but this is apparently a 39,000 capacity CBS, achieved by adding 7 additional rows and lowering the pitch.