I remember that game, we won 3-0, keeper went to put his foot ontop of the ball to stop it and he missed it
I posted about Stadium Expansion on the Ipswich board not so long ago, so to shorten what I said there: If I was in charge, I'd either put the money aside, or even start, the building of a 4000 seat upper-tier on the Jarold, which I believe the foundations, etc are in place for. The entire Jarrold as it is cost £9.2m, so I can't see a top tier costing more than £5-6m tops. Get that built ASAP and bring capacity to 31,000 ish. Short term we can shift the away fans up there, pack out all the current stands with city fans, and as much of that new tier as possible. For now I'd keep all tickets casual, not increase the number of season tickets. Some rough maths suggests a 4000 increase in capacity would bring in £1.5m a season, so if we got relegated the expansion would be paid off before parachute payments ended. Longer term we'd have to look to the City stand, with an estimated redevelopment cost of £15m for a 12000 capacity stand (I can't find the link for that now, but I believe that's from Bowkett). The city stand only holds about 4000 right now, so if in the intervening years we haven't increased the number of ST's, we'd be able to house all the current City stand ST holders in the Jarrold (Upper or Lower) whilst the new stand was built over 16-18 months or so. Whilst for one season we'd have a lopsided, weird looking ground, we'd have the same capacity, and I'm sure we could find some clever materials that reflect sound back into the ground to cover the development work with. After that season, we've got a 39,000 capacity stadium, at a cost of around £20m. We'll have also not altered the ground too much, so hopefully the atmosphere will be similar, particularly if we make sure we pack out the current stands first, and use the "upper Jarold" for away fans and any "surplus" fans if we're not at capacity. That way even if we only get 33,000+away support, we'd have the same, if not better, atmosphere that we do now. An extra 6000 fans shouldn't be impossible, particularly for the big games, and if it proves a little high then we'd adjust ticket prices accordingly. McNally seems to have learnt from the Spurs cup game, so fingers crossed that would happen.
If we have 2000+ already on the waiting list(its not free i beleive its fifty quid?)i know there are people not on it who would buy season tickets,so with 22k already sold i think 27-8 could be possible.Remember the average game price works out far cheaper on a season ticket and they allow you to spread payments and all making it quite viable.
What really is our maximum expectancy? It sounds like 25K season tickets, 3K casual so probably 3K away support so 31K is saturation point. That would be covered by a tier on the City Stand. They would be higher priced tickets as the lady who showed us around the ground said many of the occupants of that stand wanted upgraded facilities which Delia has told them will cost them in increased prices. That would leave the Jarrold should we need it if things go through the roof attendances wise.
I would favor the 4000 increase via the new upper tier and then see how that goes. A lot depends on whether the new TV money is going to be sustainable in future, as that has tended to make attendances less important, but moving above 30,000 would certainly affect how we're seen in the PL, IMO.
I would love a slightly bigger stadium and i think 32k would be about right but I think we need to be looking at this after next season. All available money should be going on the playing squad this year and ensuring we can keep in the PL for as long as possible. If we do that then expansion will come in the not too distant future. Does anyone know if we will be squeezing in anymore seats like we have the last few summers?
