I would go with 70000 but make sure they have recliner seats, in case we ever get Rafa back. Maybe go with a Middle Eastern Style please log in to view this image
If building a new stadium, 75-80,000. I'd wholeheartedly advocate a move to the Arena site; there's so much scope for urban regeneration and the football club could become a real civic cornerstone.
As long as we keep it as a city centre stadium that is all I really want. I've gone for 70,000 in the poll, but assuming we do have success coming our way then we could probably attract much larger attendances for big games. They have to get the balance right though. Although it is important to maximise attendance levels, I think they also need to make sure the capacity reflects a figure that can be reasonably full for smaller games too. Playing in a partially full stadium would reduce atmosphere and be less intimidating to other teams.
Although plans have been announced to build hundreds of homes on the site, the only stipulation at the moment is that it must be a mixed use site for homes, leisure and business as part of the Forth Yards development plan. They would need to get approval to change the designated usage to build a stadium as that would take up the whole site. They would also need to find an alternative site to build those hundreds of city centre homes as I think that is a statutory obligation. If they want to go big with a new stadium then they are going to need to invest a hell of a lot in infrastructure too. Possible new metro and rail lines to the site as well as a major upgrade of roads to the site and out of the city. There is scope to do all of that though if the pockets are deep enough. All depends how much PIF are willing to spend on external costs as well as the stadium. The Man City group invested millions around the Etihad stadium, so that would be a good sign our new owners may be willing to do that here too.
Build an 80k stadium. But have a floating pitch. Season ticket holders and away fans in the top 5/6 sections. The pitch sits up a level. On big games the pitch can be lowered down to reveal the additional 1/6 15k seats that go on sale to the general public. Good idea. Maybe. Possible: probably not.
The reality is I think this is where the R brothers come in. That’s their speciality isn’t it? They can invest with PIF and develop the area. It could be a large football and entertainment village.
I'd love to see huge investment in the city. To me, that is even more important a possible benefit of the takeover than anything that happens to the football team. Obviously, having a successful team would raise the city's profile further afield, but homes, jobs and infrastructure would outweigh anything that happened on the football pitch and would provide more benefit to the wider area as a whole. The city and area has faced criminal levels of underinvestment for decades.
Absolutely agree and I think this is the actual motivation of the deal. The opportunity for developments in the city in areas as described linked to the rise of the football club is an excellent match. The R brothers are invested in property which is why I think the commercial links are there. That’s how the commercial income grows. PIF want a hub and international presence and the scope is enormous. There is a criminal level of negligence from our own government for the area. Job opportunities would increase. The council would be fully on board. I can see this happening.
Seriously though, an 85,000 seat stadium filled with mad Geordies singing and with the roof on. Wow!! Think of the noise!!!!
No point in moving to a new site if it's not significantly bigger than what St James' Park can be expanded to. I see the developers of Strawberry Place have gone bust, so we could buy that back and expand the Gallowgate and corners. What would that allow - another 8k?, totalling about a 60,000 limit. So if we move I'd suggest an 80,000 capacity. Is that big enough for our legion of new fans from West Cornwall through to North Aberdeen? An added bonus of an 80k stadium is that Man U would take to that with real emotion.
Agree with that. No point in building new unless the new site will deliver significantly more crowd capacity and/or enhance the overall infrastructure with added job opportunities. So might as well target 80k+, plus other amenities. Otherwise just try to enhance SJP up to around 60k+ if possible.
Okay, we’ll get another program seller and build him a little hut to sell from. Then we’ll buy Haaland and Mbappe.
