It will,and where the away fans are won't matter a jot! West Ham friend of mine saying it's their worst nightmare fixture to start the season.
Unless promoted clubs start to buck the trend the PL will become a bigger farce than it already is ... ... clubs like Brentford and Fulham aren't protected from relegation, we just have to fight and keep fighting.
Getting promoted isn’t always the death sentence that’s expected, granted it’s a bloody struggle, but I’m putting my faith in Speakman to unearth a few gems.
Not until we are selling out season after season I'd even consider extending, average last year was only 40k
It'll be interesting to see how the atmosphere is in the NW Upper. I'm guessing our supporters, in there, will be those who like to 'pay on the gate' ... ... hopefully they'll create some atmosphere with the away fans.
Totally agree amazing support but you don't extend when your only regularly filling 80% Need to sell out season tickets year in year out
For a guess any extension would be hospitality focused, it gives a much bigger return for the outlay. If corporate is constantly over subscribed I reckon the club would seriously consider extending the east stand. Unfortunately for us normal ticket holders the club make for more from corporate than from us. Saying that if we even got halfway close to being a sustained premier league outfit on the verge of Europe the demand for tickets would be huge
That's fair enough but there is a conundrum concealed therein. Let's say the current capacity is 45,000 including away fans. That means for the games people on the verge of supporting us want to go to ... they can't. That's because they'll choose to attend when we're playing Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Newcastle, etc. Those games will be totally sold out and there'll be 6/7/8000 who can't get a ticket. They won't be going alone so may have a mate, a husband, a couple of kids. Because they couldn't get tickets for Man Utd they probably won't make the effort for Brentford or Burnley. But if you extend the stadium you can instantaneously give the away support another 1000 places. Times that by £30 and that's another half a million by the time you've copped the catering money, etc. Add another 3,000 to the average 'home gate', over the season, and that's a million quid. Add a few more million for concerts, internationals, rugby, etc and the work is paid for. Every 'sell out' is great but it's also money thrown away because you're turning people away ... ... those people may have come back, brought a mate, bought a SC and a load of merchandising. It's all about the money and we either get with it or we'll fall behind ... in my opinion.