Totally agree with that Beef. I really do hope we don't leave CR, as when I've been to some away grounds, you have to walk quite a distance to find a decent pub and sometimes all you get is the likes of Pizza Express and other similar places on some soulless industrial estate.
I'm not fussed about a move either way. Love Carrow Road but it comes down to use of money for me. If we're better off in a new "off the plan" stadium on the outskirts then fine by me. Carrow Rd can be expanded but if it's harder to do and more costly as a result then no sentimentality from me. We don't have unlimited funds and need to approach increasing capacity in the most efficient way. I would say that I'd be happier with waiting to rename a new stadium rather than changing Carrow rd to the Aviva Arena or similar. JR I seem to remember a rainy Tues night in League1 when Carrow Rd was near capacity for the visit of Plymouth. I think we've got support in depth to warrant another 10k or so realtively easily.
I'd love to see the club's plans to increase capacity to around 35-40K and if if means 'rebranding' CR, then I could accept that. I've been a season ticket holde for the last 5 years and remember the crowd was always in excess of 20K - even in the dark days of league 1 football and my only concern is how the club could manage to increase capacity in the 'close season', but I'm sure McNarly and co are already working on just such a plan.
Hmm, I seem to remember we were the manufacturing 'hub' of the world until the Trade Unions decided they didn't want progress. Remember our car industry ? Remember Norton, Triumph, BSA, motorcycles ? Progress my friend, whether you like it or not, is necessity not choice in all walks of life
No we are a share holder in our stadium and we can extend it if we want but we will have to pay for it. we could even buy the stadium outright or even build our own purpose built stadium. but my point is that its far to early to ever be thinking of doing anything yet as we are like yourselves considered one of the favorites to go back down and until we get in the position of mid table favorites then we wont be classed as an established premiership club and wont be worth the risk of spending millions of pounds that could put our clubs in jeopardy...
As an Ipswich fan I will tread carefully on this topic of stadia and attendance etc. but my biggest gripe with Ipswich under Burley/Sheepshanks regime was the fact we threw all our eggs in and expanded two stands which we couldn't afford and put us into administration. I'm not saying that will happen to you as I'm sure the lessons learnt by the idiotic few are plain to see by most sensible thinking club owners but I have to say, I like Norwich as a city, the ground is in a great location - it makes no sense to be considering moving it unless you are a top 10 Prem/European team as quite honestly the risk is far too great. I hate to mention attendances but if you were to 'stick' and extra 10 thousands seats in would you fill these in the champions if you were to get relegated? I'm sure I'll get the usual barrage of original comments about empty seats etc. but I have a lot of respect for Norwich and the way the club has been run and holding it's own in the Prem, so I see no reason to even think about flinching until you have 4 years under your belt. I would hate to see Houghton get you relegated as that job would have been perfect for Lambert... thats a guy I really can't stand.
Fair comments there (for a binner I agree I feel the club needs to become well established before any large expansions should take place. The stadium is in a very good location and feels part of the city and certainly has character many new builds lack. Access I guess is the main issue with its current location. Gradual increase is certainly the way forward, even very big clubs such as Arsenal have arguably paid the price of ploughing all resources into new stadiums (albeit in the long term it may benefit them). We don't have the financial strength to go spending huge sums just because times are good now. Building a sustainable future should be the aim for all clubs and in its current location a potential increase to 35,000 if required should be pretty adequate and I doubt we could consistently get much more than that. If we stay up for another season or 2 pushing capacity in excess of 30,00 would be beneficial, however relegation would cause crowds to drop a little. Although it has been shown that 26,000 or so could be acquired for championship games. Much better to have a full stadium than a half empty one.
We are ready for and need a 30,000 seater pretty quickly so we don't stagnate. I'd have thought Carrow rd should be able to get to that figure by building the tier on the South Stand. Its our capacity at the moment holding us back a bit, as well as our perception across the country, you start getting 30 + each week and I think we'll get looked at a bit differently by other teams and potential signings. We need to catch up with the likes of Leicester, Forest, Derby, Middlesboro, Wolves, Southampton and Ipswich. Once you start getting 33,000 your getting to a very healthy position. I'd say we are about 10 years away from getting that figure regularly if capacity allowed being in the Championship or Premier League. We are definitely a club ready to expand to 30,000. There could be a downside however, as soon as people know they can get a ticket regardless, would it effect the season ticket sales?
If we stay up this year there will no doubt be some movement on this issue, the rhetoric from the board has always been that after 2 years in the prem we would look at serious expansion. I would be pretty sure the this was related to the debt having to be paid of 2 years after promotion. let's get to the end of the season and see what McNally is saying. Another thing that has been talked about a lot by McNally is a big screen, good idea?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_attendances_of_European_football_clubs I never realised the German teams were so dominant with their attendances, even the small teams are 30-40+ FSV Mainz 05???? -32,000 Koln 40+ I did hear theiradmission fees are very cheap, is this true?
I can't find a source to back this up, and I'm sure I'm not making it up, but isn't next summers plans for expansion to put a few seats in front of the Hotel, but probably only a few rows so people can see the pitch from the windows?
