East stand

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Northstandsinger

Well-known member
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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Wait until all the plans are finalised and submitted. What's another 5 years.

It may be that 3600, includes an extra suite of hospitality boxes, or decent facilities that would have to be sacrificed if there were more seats. It might be a proper press box is required which doesn't have the away fans drowing out the microphones. It might not include the NE corner which will add another 600 seats or whatever.

I would add that without a sustained run in top flight, around 20,000 will generate an atmosphere and not lend itself to "they're here, they're there, they're, they're every fcukingwhere, empty seats, empty seats"

I would hope that there is room to add additional tiers within the design, but I don't know until I see the finalised design.
 
For a start, we barely use 60% of the east due to policing nonsense. And clearly don't want 5-6 k away fans in our stadium at anyone time.

We don't fill it as it is. Other clubs such as Luton/Bournemouth are managing in the PL with smaller stadiums so we'd be fine.

We don't sell out. Or get close to it.
 
SeasideKurt said:
For a start, we barely use 60% of the east due to policing nonsense. And clearly don't want 5-6 k away fans in our stadium at anyone time.

We don't fill it as it is. Other clubs such as Luton/Bournemouth are managing in the PL with smaller stadiums so we'd be fine.

We don't sell out. Or get close to it.
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With a proper stand you can segregate it properly. The reason it’s always empty on the sides is how easily fans in that area can get to each other. A slightly smaller stand might still end up being used more than what we have now
 
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I'm behind the club on this one, if anything they could go way smaller than 3600.

The attendance against Forest with cheap tickets shoes how pitiful our support can be.

There's no point wasting millions of pounds on seats that will rarely if ever be sat in.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
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Heard? Another unfounded rumour?
 
SeasideKurt said:
Give me Bloomfield Road and 17-18k seats with an atmosphere over a 24 thousand seater stadium with 0 atmosphere and 50% full every time.

We're also not lucky enough to get Liverpool at home in the cup regularly like those twats down the road.
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It won't get to 17 or 18k if it was a 3600 stand.
 
If its true then it also depends if it includes a corner or if it includes ability to extend and if its lower due to hospitality or media or a, b or c. So a lot of variables to think about rather than just a headline I've heard it's 3600.
I personally have never thought we've needed a massive capacity. 20,000 odd would be fine and would keep the atmosphere. If we were to go up to the championship 20,000 odd would still be fine and even dare I say it up to the prem, then the capacity and tickets income is small fry compared to other income streams like tv and sponsorship etc.
For me as long as its joined up to the rest and finished then I'm happy.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
Click to expand...
Where is this from? Has there been some news?

The stated figure so far was 4600. Not sure if that's the east or east and corner, if its happening.

The current West stand holds 3684, then add on the hospitality just above the west, it's probably over 4k. If the west had the same seat setup, with seats on the south of the west as it has on the north side, as theres more I think, it would hold over 4200.

So are we really building smaller than the mirror of west stand? It wouldn't even fit within the small stadium design.
 
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Short s
TheLuker said:
I'm behind the club on this one, if anything they could go way smaller than 3600.

The attendance against Forest with cheap tickets shoes how pitiful our support can be.

There's no point wasting millions of pounds on seats that will rarely if ever be sat in.
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Short sighted outlook. If that's the way to look at it then may as well close up shop and build a massive hotel.
 
Of course it has to be bigger than 3600 if you're going to have any ambition. We're averaging 11k as a fairly mediocre side in League One We haven't challenged at Championship level since the Ollie years. 15k limits the scope to increase the fan base in successful times.
There were quite a few on here who were even against a third stand when we were getting 8k crowds. Why do we need a 3rd stand? We soon found out . Even then with a bit of success at 3rd tier level we were selling out and in Karl Oyston's words "we're only locking a c150 out".
To keep the crowds down he increased admission price by 30% the following season to prove his point.
Show some ambition Simon.
 
I haven’t seen anything to suggest this is the case but I’ll still Chuck my two pence in.

If it is true, it really is poor from the club. I honestly think building a grandstand with a decent capacity (8k-ish) would be a great start in trying to grow the club and give the town something to be proud of. Even though we won’t fill it regularly initially, it’s ready for the future. The problem is, if we were to somehow become a successful championship club and then suddenly decide we need to expand, it’ll cost more in the long term to build a smaller stand now and subsequently expand in future. Not only that, a bigger stadium could be used out of season for things like concerts etc. Multi-purpose stadiums are the way to go.

That being said, it’s just a rumour as far as I’m concerned so I won’t stress about it until it’s actually confirmed.
 
Who cares we don’t sell out now and we didn’t when we were back in the championship. We aren’t some massive club that some people seem to think we are a 15-16k stadium would work fine and in the eventuality that we ever do become half decent id rather see 15-16k 95% full than 20-22k 75% full
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
Blackburn, Nobbers, Wigan, all play in front of half empty stadiums these days and have shocking atmospheres why would we want to follow suit in building something much bigger that’s simply not needed?
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Is anyone asking for something that big or just a decent amount?

The stadium was only full in the North vs forest and Bolton, almost empty elsewhere and the atmosphere was great. We have an empty section each game and it makes no difference.

So it's not right to say the atmosphere would be worse if we had a decent sized east.
 
clappers said:
With a proper stand you can segregate it properly. The reason it’s always empty on the sides is how easily fans in that area can get to each other. A slightly smaller stand might still end up being used more than what we have now
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So why isn't the cricket field stand at Burnley half closed?.
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
Click to expand...
What's the population of Brighton and Hove? How many other big clubs are in a 30 mile radius of them?

Brighton isn't a good comparison
 
I'd be ok with this, bottom line is we don't need more. Would much rather have a Championship proof ground 80% full.
 
onlyonepool said:
Of course it has to be bigger than 3600 if you're going to have any ambition. We're averaging 11k as a fairly mediocre side in League One We haven't challenged at Championship level since the Ollie years. 15k limits the scope to increase the fan base in successful times.
There were quite a few on here who were even against a third stand when we were getting 8k crowds. Why do we need a 3rd stand? We soon found out . Even then with a bit of success at 3rd tier level we were selling out and in Karl Oyston's words "we're only locking a c150 out".
To keep the crowds down he increased admission price by 30% the following season to prove his point.
Show some ambition Simon.
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Exactly, we're only a good season away from having quite a few more attending, or even this season, a handful of wins away.

If in the playoffs or higher we could fill the 3 sides in spill into the east even in league 1.

A bit of success and / or a low price strategy, with growth and we could be close to maxing out, depending on what we give away fans.

You are also building for years in the future.

If we needed more expansion it's too late by the time you need it, you then have to close a stand whilst it happens, turning away fans when you need them to attend most. You have to be able to take advantage when the demand comes.

If you get people through the door they are more likely to return again.

Which is also why covid cost us a lot when we last went up.

Having fans in attendance for a sell out playoff game and Wembley is huge, or even if were going for the autos, it attracts the casuals, gets them registered on the system for previous purchase games, plus for marketing and also some are likely to attend again after an experience like that.

Well likely grow again if and when we go up.
 
Brighton always have had decent support back to the days of the old Goldstone Ground.
Only when they were a nomad club playing at the likes of Gillingham affected support.

A capacity of 15/16K is about right.
 
TheLuker said:
I'm behind the club on this one, if anything they could go way smaller than 3600.

The attendance against Forest with cheap tickets shoes how pitiful our support can be.

There's no point wasting millions of pounds on seats that will rarely if ever be sat in.
Click to expand...
As said before, you don't use that game alone as a yardstick for future potential, given there were tons of other factors involved.

We're getting more in league 1 than before and could only be a handful of wins away from getting far more in even this season. You build for the bigger occasions and the future.
 
TheLuker said:
I'm behind the club on this one, if anything they could go way smaller than 3600.

The attendance against Forest with cheap tickets shoes how pitiful our support can be.

There's no point wasting millions of pounds on seats that will rarely if ever be sat in.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure you can read much into an attendance for an unattractive F.A. Cup Tie to be honest. I can only speak for myself, but I eitehr want to attend a game or I don't... I couldn't give a crap if the tickets were free. The marketing t our club is so shyte in any case, I doubt most people in Blackpool even knew about the game.

I agree with you on a lot of the stuff you post, but you are completely off the mark with this one. The ground capacity is absolutely key to supporting the growth of a fanbase and it has been a limiting factor for years at Blackpool (hence why attendances have never grown in recent years).

We need to show some proper ambition... There's huge potential to significantly increase attendances at Bloomfield Road
 
Northstandsinger said:
Heard the new east stand will only hold 3600 if true the lack of ambition is so disappointing and underwhelming, the temp east holds
Over 5k, to replace it with a tiny tinpot stand is embarrassing and so short sighted putting us the same bracket as teams like Doncaster and rotherham. How are we meant to grow as a club ?
I remember 20 years ago when Brighton used to get 3k fans at an athletics track then they built a state of the art stadium and now they’re getting over 30k
Is 18/20k really unreasonable if we sustained ourselves as a championship club and could give away fans 4K like blackburn,wigan and Preston do leaving 14/16k seats for home fans.
Where is the ambition, it stinks of little Blackpool and it’s not good enough.
Click to expand...
We barely sold out when we got to the PL, 18/20k is not really realistic. I'd rather a smaller stadium, full to the brim with a ferocious atmosphere, than one of these soulless half empty bowls some clubs have these days, just because we want to be "ambitious". Spend the money on the training ground instead (if it ever happens).
 
Decreasing our capacity does seem a shot in the foot and isn't great from a PR perspective if Sadler and the board are trying to present themselves as being progressive for the club. Reducing the capacity is quite literally the opposite of progressive on the face of it.

That being said, I've never felt we needed a 20k stadium. I felt the new East should take us to a functional 18k (we're at around a functional 15 - 16k going off the Preston game in 2021).

If you give an away team 4k that still leaves room for 14k home fan with a usable 18k capacity, if you give an away team the typically 2k that is room for 16k home fans. That in my opinion is room for growth, an improvement whilst not leaving acres of empty space like the likes of PNE and Blackburn have every week.

15.5k home fans was our biggest home attendance in 40/50 years wasn't it? That was in spectacular circumstances as well. Getting that sort of attendance of home fans every week would be on the back of a sustained period of success, 18k still allows for that.
 
At least people will have a new excuse not to go.

“I can’t get tickets” has been a favourite of plastic Mancs and Scousers for decades.
 
GazMadinesChickenCurry said:
We barely sold out when we got to the PL, 18/20k is not really realistic. I'd rather a smaller stadium, full to the brim with a ferocious atmosphere, than one of these soulless half empty bowls some clubs have these days, just because we want to be "ambitious". Spend the money on the training ground instead (if it ever happens).
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We gave away fans 2000 in the Prem, 1800 to Man U, if we'd had the potential the Nobbers can give away fans we'd have averaged around 20k in the Prem instead of the 16k we did.
 
Lot's of people on here used to point to the fact we couldn't fill the 2 sides we had pre 2010 as why a third and fourth stand were not required. It's missing the point. Building bigger capacity means bigger potential.

That said, I'm more concerned with finishing the ground, making it look good (exterior) and assurances that capacity can and will be extended in the future as and when required.

Also, please... ...no more hospitality boxes...
 
seasideone said:
Just me and the Mrs and the occasional visitor - so I bought a nine bedroom house in case we have a big party one day.

Couldn’t afford to eat, buy anything or go anywhere mind!

Hated the emptiness of the place, made it feel like it had no soul.
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Then you found some new friends, children came home for a bit and you were struggling for room especially at the regular big parties you had. Thank god you didn't settle for that 2 bedroom bungalow.
 
PNENIL said:
It's got to be 20 k capacity or close.
Some of the replies on here though. Talk about lack of ambition. We've got a L1 team at the moment and that matches some of the replies.
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Fine and dandy that but who's paying for it?

What's the difference in cost keeping at our current capacity and taking it up to 20k?

Sadler pre COVID had a figure he mentioned how much the infrastructure was going to cost that's way gone now and can't happen for that money.

So us fans might have ambition for a bigger stadium but has our owner?
 
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