Of course we need an increase. One of the reasons we don't sell out every match is because we do not have blocks of tickets to sell to tour operators. Virtually every Premier club sells it's spare tickets to tour operators who then sell them as organised football week end breaks.. Before everyone jumps up and down claiming that we don't need tourists have a think what other uses we could find for the otherwise empty seats? I don't care if we have a plastic flasker wearing a jester hat and half and half scarf sat in an otherwise empty seat in west upper or the North Stand, as long as they have paid for it, are stopping over in a hotel in Hull, spending cash, and supporting Hull City. It could also be a way of repositioning the away fans at the KC. Think about it.
We do fill the stadium. Like it will be full this Sunday. And if we had another 5,000 or more seats to sell we would have filled them aswell. And who knows someone who might have bought one of those seats and watched City for the first time might even be tempted to come again.
Salient point. I have no idea how many tourists from abroad City of Culture status will bring us in the near future but some of them may want to experience "British soccer" for the first time whilst they're here. Same reason I think the stadium could do with a good scrub up between now and then.
We average 24,000. A thousand under capacity. With our current pricing there's no way we'll get close to a sell out other then the top 6.
Generally the reason we do not fill it, is when the away end it not fully taken up. For the most part when the away allocation has been taken the place is more or less full.
Current actual capacity is 24,940 and our average this season is 24,035 and that's pulled down by low attendances from some away teams. If we had a 5,000 seat away end, we'd probably fill it against Liverpool, Man City, Everton, Arsenal, Man United, Newcastle and Sunderland, possibly Spurs and a 30k attendance should be achievable for most of those games. For the long term sustainability and growth of the club, we absolutely need a bigger capacity, the sooner it happens, the better.
I know it brings in more money but I really dont like the idea of 5k away fans for the bigger games. I'd rather see a capacity increase mean we can somehow shift the away fans from behind the goal. Give them the whole lower west stand tier towards the north end or something. How big is that? I'd love to see only City behind both goals.
As I said before, i'd be interested how an North/South expansion would actually look. With the sloped roofs, stanchions etc... would it not just seem a bit strange?
I think moving the away fans would absolutely kill the atomosphere. Every away game I've been to where the away fans are positioned away from the main "singing section" has a piss poor atmosphere. I really don't understand this obsession with having home fans behind each goal, it's a ****e view anyway.
Look at any Bundesliga ground, amazing atmosphere and they wouldnt dream of putting away fans behind the goals, thats for the Ultras (these are not Holigans, more extreme supporting fans, with megaphones and massive flags )
I'd stick away fans in E1 and the two/three NE sections closest to E1 - have our singers (*in a safe standing area) either side of them to create a cracking atmosphere. *safe standing - if only !
Agree 100%/ I know of one football party of over 20 people who have been trying to get tickets for the Everton game for weeks, they are travelling from Holland and need to know well in advance, which the club appear unable to tell them. A friend of mine often has trouble getting block bookings for the trips he organises from Holland. Odd seats are no good, these people want block bookings. For the long term sustainability and growth of the club we absolutely need a bigger capacity.
Safe standing is by far the cheapest way of increasing the capacity at the ground, it's time the legislation is changed to allow it to go ahead.
