yea, apologies for posting your post on our board for a few giggles mate. please log in to view this image
i would rather be sensible with this and not think we are bigger than we actually are, someone mentioned 40k at wembley well every club that goes to wembley attracts plastic fans that go for a day out and the occasion but wont go to the liberty for any other matches,.i would rather go down the road of around 25k seater with a hotel and acadamy and that would be plenty for a city our size,,35,000 is way way over the top as we are not that big, like someone said at some point we will get relegated and what happens then. its better to be sensible than over doing things because of where we are now, anyway we cant do anything without the ospreys on board and they would never go for a 35,000 seater in a million years but an increase to 25,000 + hotel would benefit them also....anyway its a few years down the line anyway...
I tend to agree Dai. 25-30,000 max for me. Our 'fans' will disappear if that fateful day ever comes and it'll just be one of those sad grounds that hark back to the glory days. Keep it medium sized and fill it every week if you can, I say.
It depends on how much it's gonna cost, if for example it costs £14m for 30k and £15m for 35k it's a no brainer, you get one opportunity at the expansion in our stadium. I really think the Ospreys will be pulling out of the stadium like the Blues are trying with Cardiff stadium, they will go to the knoll or St Helen's I think.
Leave at 20,000 seats & spend the money on the academy & on state of the art training facilities so the first team have a fighting chance against the richer clubs now & later .
The money is going to be spent on the academy in any case, leaving it at 20k is frankly daft, a premier league club cannot survive on that, there must be expansion both in our stadium and fan base if we are going to be serious about being a football club we must go forward. I just hope that if a larger expansion is planned we must be more of a football club to the fans, a drop in price would be a fantastic gesture to those fans missing out, and those who are paying a huge amount now.
When we ( and we will ) eventually get relegated we'll see whose ideas were daft when half a 30,000 seat stadium is empty
Why be negative about this ? We are in the premier league now, if we are going to make it a success we must expand, looking at other small clubs up here like stoke and norwich who have bigger stadiums than us, and have in fact increased their footfall we must follow suit. If we do get relegated at some point in the future so be it, look at the saints they have a new stadium, its not a huge city and Swansea has many parallels , but they have a stadium that holds about 33k , they will be in the premier league next season, so even though they have gone down, there is always the chance to go back up.
Money from seat sales means less in the Premier league for small clubs because you get money when you arrive , money from seat sales means the world to small clubs in the Championship . I doubt very much if we will attract more than 20,000 when in the Championship . Like I said before , we had less than 13 ,000 for some games in the Championship last season . Spending wisely towards players & their training is much more important , to me , than putting in seats for fair weather , premier league fans . Not being negative , I'm as positive about this club as most , but I'm realistic also . Have to agree to disagree .
It's not just the extra people buying tickets, it's the whole thing, those people coming to games spend more money and make the club more successful as a whole, we are no man utd with massive incomes coming from the sale of stuff across the globe. We are a small club who's only real income comes from local fans, yes tv money gives us a huge increase in income, but having income from our fans is real important, also it allows us to expand our fan base, we can't do that if no sod can get a ticket ever, we will in fact lose even more fans to the man utd's and liverpool's , if we don't expand it will restrict us massively.
agree cracker we would pay a hefty penalty if or when we get relegated with a 30-35k god forbid seater stadium, most of us know from experiance we would never fill the stadium in a month of sundays but once it is built then the overheads and up keep must be paid reguardless of the attendance, dont be fooled about our attendance now because we will be pushing to get 25k every home game as it is, not all our home games have been maximum attendance as it is so where are we are going to get 30-35,000 fans to fill it every home game is a mystery and will never happen except for an odd game and that just not justify such an expansion, 25k is ample with a state of the art hotel and a new training ground and even more important an academy...
So dai if they build it they will not come ? and abition is not critical ? I agree the academy is paramount for the future of our club and the hotel idea seems a good move too.
So having a first class football team established in the Prem, could not attract 30,000 support from South West Wales? Sorry lads but if that's your view of the welsh support then you are wrong, there is definitely the appetite for Premiership football in Wales, and not only that, but supporting one of the best passing sides in the UK, your saying we will not get a full house? I think some of you on here are missing the bigger picture, and need to rethink your views!................. please log in to view this image Build it, and they will come! From: Bridgend Port Talbot Neath Glyn Neath Aberdare Skewen Morriston Swansea Llanelli Crosshands Ammanford Carmarthen Haverfordwest Pembroke And what about the Valleys, and there are many other places I have not mentioned. We have a football team for the first time in a long time, Wales can be proud of, and I'm sure they will come!.........
Me neither, but I'll go with your expertise in the twrch's!......................... please log in to view this image
dragon we dont fill the stadium for every match as it is, we are a few thousand short with some games so how the hell are we going to fill a 30-35,000 stadium, we are not going to play man utd/city, chelsea every home game are we. you seem to be under the impression that we are bigger than we really are. its a big decision and has to be right for everyone and not just us at the end of the day and it has to be made to pay its way. A 25,000 stadium with a swans owned hotel and the state of the art training ground would suffice and even more important in my view is getting our acadamy up and running so we dont lose anymore talent to other clubs, they can learn the swansea way from us from the beginning of their footballing career. we have to get our priorities right first and not go overboard with over reaction ideas just because we are on a good run. keep the cost down to a sensible level and increase productivity for the long run....
Dai, the stadium is sold out every game for home fans (we are down on capacity if the away fans dont use up their full allocation), plus we have a waiting list of 5000 for season tickets, bet theres loads more want them too but havent bothered adding their name to list as no point. Our existing capacity is approx 16,000 season ticket holders 2,000 match day tickets 2,000 away fans a 30k stadium would be 24,000 season tickets 3,000 match day tickets 3,000 away fans with our 16,000 existing season ticket holders plus the 5,000 on the waiting list we only have to sell another 3,000 and the ground will be pretty much sold out every game (cant see us not selling 3,000 match day tickets per game)
you have to look at the big picture, we will go on a bad run one day as that is what football is all about, we are no man utd/city and never will be but we are a medium size club that can attract medium size crowds for the size of the city and outskirts,....God forbid if it all goes pear shape and we end up with a 30-35,000 seater that we cant fill, what sort of atmosphere would that be, you see it all the time on the tv where whole sections of the terraces are empty and i for one would rather fill the ground with 25,000 ardent fans than cater for fans who will only come for the big games......we are 20,500 capacity at the moment and an extra 5,000 would be enough at this early stage of our premiership adventure, football is so unpredictable as we have shown this season when we were everybody's choice for certain relegation. by going overboard at this early stage could find us with a big white elephant on our back that we cant shift.......we should go at a steady pace at this time and get our priorities right. say we are doing well in 5 years time then maybe we can either buy the liberty or even build our own stadium that can cater for 30-35,000 fans. who knows but we must walk before we can run in the early building programme of establishing our selves a club that can sustain failure if god forbid it all goes wrong.....
