Sort of! Not sure if it's gone down or up, the club have said nowt these last few seasons regarding this list, so hence the '?', unless of course anyone has some up to date info?...................
What the figure is now is irrelevant as we know that there are thousands of potential fans out there who cant get a ST or even tickets for games and a substantial expansion is what would make the club complete.
The stadium was a grant and 20,000 was the maximum grant available. We were a league one side and could barely fill it then. There were always surplus tickets and i still think the stadium is big enough i never have trouble getting a ticket off the Internet ( unless its a top 4 side and that is because of all the local people who support them) I can remember my friend who was born in Swansea but supported Man U would get on a coach laid on here and go to Old Trafford for every home game he even goes into the away end at the liberty and supports them now.
The word "potential" , means thats something which isn't set in stone . 30,000 seats imo would be more than enough we are a small Club in a deprived part of Wales , the law of averages dictates we will at some point in the future be relegated and without any signs that the yanks are putting money in rather than taking out of the Club I don't think this is the right time .
You may be right Dai but I think the Council has looked to keep hold of the Liberty over the last six years in favour of renegotiating the rent and getting a piece of the Swans TV money. In my view they've never wanted to sell the Liberty at all. If they did want to then why block proposal to buy and expand the stadium made by the previous owners. All I recall are the councils objections to the sale and expansion through their arguments that The Liberty is a community Asset, it belongs to the people of Swansea or, what will happen with the Ospreys? and quoting objections to the sale and expansion of the stadium from businesses complaining that any expansion would have a negative impact on footfall at the Morfa retail park and their profits. It's only since the Swans won promotion to the prem that the council changed their tone. Before then the Liberty was a jewel in their crown and a community oriented initiative taken by a forward thinking and caring council. Swans get promoted then all of a sudden the councils tone changed and they started to act like the Swans were ripping them off. They began to whinge and moan about the peppercorn rent the Swans were paying them but they negotiated, accepted and agreed the deal and signed off on it as a great council initiative. Its only since our promotion that the council has wanted out of the deal they signed off on and this is why they have continually blocked any attempt by the previous owners to buy the Liberty. At all times the council has clung onto the old deal and used it as a means to get into the bank account of the Swans by demanding a share in the Swans profits by through charging exorbitant rents. If the new owners do get to buy the stadium, which I doubt, then we have to ask why now? where have the councils objections gone? what's changed? who stands to profit?
The original plans were for a 25k all seated stadium. It got changed at a later date for one...too keep the cost down. And two because of the division we were in at the time. And three the stadium needed to turn 90 degrees to the first proposed plans..I personally was working at the vetch in a voluntary capacity and I remember going on a fact finder trip to white rock with other volunteers where we were shown the plans and the site and were given a lecture by an engineer.....It was a great day out I remember and very interesting....
I seem to remember that the stadium was originally for a 25000 seater, and there was an issue with the cost or grant system, and Cardiff making the decision to downgrade to 20,000. I remember Jager getting quite annoyed by the Cardiff bureaucrats at the time.....................
This should have been done 5 years ago as we would be up and running by now.. I'm hoping that our owners will make things happen and we start building asap. This city needs a bigger stadium for all sorts of events including international football from time to time. The Ospreys are happy to pay £1m a year even though they have the same lease as us and are entitled to play there and we should keep our partnership of ground sharing with our rugby brothers anyway ...it works well....I cant wait until the plans and time scale are revealed.
How does that work then , Cardiff built a shiny new stand them promptly closed it , I wonder why ?. could it be that their gates dropped like a stone once they went down and back to they normal attendance figures .
You don't have to close the ground to expand. Your suggestion to play Premiership football at St Helens was laughable though and shows the level of your thinking about football matters.
Just curious as to how many games have sold out to home fans this season. Have they all, I am sure they haven't, may well be wrong. Can some one explain the logic of needing to increase our capacity if we go down, when our crowds will decrease and expenditure in maintaining a bigger ground will increase. I am sure someone must be able to tell me why?
