I think the majority of Swans fans are in favour of increasing Liberty capacity. The chairman has said that tentative research has been made into this. So the right noises are coming from the chairman with regard plans for an academy and increasing capacity and indeed generally planning to grow our club on all fronts. From ticket sales to match day sponsorship , club sponsorship , away travel , within stadium bars & catering and club merchandise, tannoy system, lack of a big screen - some areas we get it right but we could vastly improve in others. The club is making massive progress but with regard to the big picture of increasing capacity do we think that this can materialise in an ambitious timescale? I think we as fans think we've got an ambitious manager (with the magic dust ! )and an ever improving playing/coaching/physio team. Do we Swans fans believe that Messrs Morgan, Jenkins , Dineen , Katzen and company ,(that have steered us brilliantly thus far )have what ut takes to deliver an ambitious Liberty expansion to 27000 to coincide with this majestic chapter in Swans history.A feelgood factor has swept the city and a 21st century regeneration of the city centre will hopefully spring from this . The academy seems to be behind deadlines set . Administration and ownership suggest a red tape minefield - the council's track record on regeneration and major projects is poor. If the council can take 15 years over something deliverable in 2 years they will (Nuff said ) but it would also be great to see some Assembly support for the proud city of Swansea ! Hopefully the Swans could bring in the expertise to fast track such a project by addressing legal and planning issues now.It's surely in the authorities and Ospreys interests to back an ambitious stadium upgrade. With the right will and drive this expansion can take place. But the appropriate planning,legal and regeneration experts (engaged by SCFC) and the city & county of Swansea should be regularly meeting now With a centenary looming next season wouldn't it be appropriate if we were playing that season as our second season in the Premier league with all planning hurdles overcome and with a Liberty stadium expansion soon to take shape.
My personal belief is that they're getting a bit too caught up in the moment. If we finish mid-table and make a few good signings then maybe we should look at stadium size. At the moment (and I'm not being pessimistic), we could still go straight down and I really think the people of Swansea will lose a tiny bit of enthusiasm. A bigger stadium won't help anyone then. My feeling is wait until the premiership is a regular thing. We weren't filling the ground every week last season and I know that lots of people have got 'the bug' now, but I'd bet my left testicle we won't need another 10,000 seats if we weren't successful this season. That said, we're in 10th and I couldn't be happier.
I would add that when (not if ....let's be optimistic) we stay up , the demand for next season will actually be less next season compared to this season. (first season honeymoon and all that). In my opinion , even if we were to establish ourselves as a premier team (How good would that be !), that we would not fill a 25k stadium on a regular basis. I do not think currently any expense on increasing stadium capacity would result in any cost benefit , and would actually be detrimental. I think a full stadium 20k every week is much better atmosphere wise than having 3k or 4k empty seats in a 25k stadium. I would love to be wrong and have 25k jacks support the swans every week , but I don't think the support is there. I acknowledge the wembley attendance and it was fab to be part of that, but let's be realistic. That was 30 years in the making. If we got relegated this season, and managed a play off final the following season , and don't think we would get that attendance again..
To be concise i have absolute faith in The Swans board and absolutely no faith or trust in our back stabbing council
It's 10% of total capacity. An increase of 10,000 seats would still need us to find another 9,000 Jacks every week.
I've never been that enthusiastic about increasing capacity - at least not by a large amount. I certainly wouldn't do it until we've stayed up for a couple of seasons at least. Nothing worse than seeing large areas of empty seats in a stadium, and we don't get that right now. It seems to be forgotten that we are a small City. I don't want to cause a Cardiff/Swansea tiff here but the reason our neighbours up the M4 get bigger crowds is because of demographics. They have around 100,000 extra people within the City and that's why Legoland has a larger capacity. That's just the way it is. Yet even though their crowds are excellent for a Championship side they are running at around 5,000 below capacity and that was noticeable on TV recently. Not having a dig, just using them to illustrate a point. If you look at % of population that attend games, ours is higher than Cardiff but that would change eventually imo if we jumped at increasing stadium capacity. I think we should see where we are in two or three seasons then reassess if necessary. As for the Board, I can't see how anyone can fault them. Great managerial appointment followed by continued success in the best League in the world whilst not breaking the bank. If we lose our battle and get relegated the knives will be out from the usual suspects but at the moment I think most of us believe they've struck the right balance between ambition and being astute financially. If I have any criticism it's in relation to the academy delay which looks as if it isn't entirely our fault anyway. It's crucial to our Club's future imo. Lastly - get some decent big screens!! One or even two decent screens would make a huge difference to the matchday experience and be a fitting addition to a Prem ground. Again, the Board may want to wait to see if we stay up first. Good post.
For security reasons , changing the away section on a week by week basis, as it would need to do if we were to re-allocate away seats to home fans, would be hugely problematic. The only way this could be done was if the club create say two distinct segregated areas for away fans. Under this scenario if the away club could not fill one of those areas, the second could in theory be re-allocated. However I am unsure if Premier league rules allow this scenario i.e. do we still have to designate 10% of seats even if away club can only sell 5%, and return 5% as unsold. The other problem I see with this is the timing i.e. when does the away clubs stop making the tickets available. If this is right up to the day before the game , this is not enough time to re-allocate , re-orgnaise security requirements , and also re-sell the tickets.
I have never sat in the north bank, but it holds 3,500 , and there are already 1,500 swans fans there so the segregation is already done IMO . And in regards to the stadium it should be expanded as quickly as possible due to hitting while the iron is hot. But I think that it will be done in phases so if we are in a strong position with points in the bag come the new year, then it's likely the first phase will be undertaken.
At Carrow Road when they built the Jarrold Stand it was designed in such a way that if the 2500 seat allocation was not 100% taken then it would still be possible to create a segregation of supporters and allow Home fans to occupy the otherwise empty seats. This was a huge boost to the club in L1 and the Championship as we recorded our highest home attendance in L1 against Hartlepool! Beat the Leeds United attendance by about 100 or so!. In the PL it is not such a worry as the away section of 2,500 seats is normally taken, however no doubt home games to the likes of Wigan (perhaps Swansea as it is a long trip) it could be possible part of the normal away section is taken up by home fans (assuming the PL allow it to happen). Moving on the point raised by the OP - Same as Norwich, far too early to speculate or even wish for it. There are rumours about increasing the capacity at Carrow Road but it is not likely to happen for some years yet. We are optimistic we could fill 30000 - 32000 most weeks based on full grounds week in/week out for the last 2 seasons but of course it could all turn sour if the board and management team make a huge clanger!
Great canary Thai...I think you'll see that Swansea fans will get to Norwich and sell out that allocation. The preverbial 6 pointer and many Swans fans still waiting to see them live in the premiership. Great feelgood factor with the Premiership and I think Swansea's bosses know that the Swans are building support year on year at the Liberty. Phenomenal swans interest around Swansea & South West Wales at the minute. Swansea and the region has a considerable catchment area and the ambition within the Swans directors is great to see.
All credit and much respect if you Swans do fill (or very nearly fill) the away section It is a long old trek on the best of days.
Changing topic....Swansea scouts watched this guy? Jan window perhaps-------> John Verhoek (born 25 March 1989 in Leidschendam) is a Dutch football player who plays for ADO Den Haag on loan from French club Stade Rennais F.C. in Ligue 1. He plays as a striker and joined his current club in January 2011 for a fee of €500k after spending six months with Den Bosch in the Eerste Divisie, the second level of Dutch football.[1] Prior to playing with Den Bosch, Verhoek had stints at ADO Den Haag and Dordrecht.
I think we should expand - with 5K people already known to be wanting season tickets, that does not include the many they are not aware of, not to even mention those that would like to just walk in if they could..... I know lots of people not from Swansea who now have a keen interest in the club,including one of my friends from Newport who has just also bought his son a Swansea kit. I have seen some posts on the boards in the past comparing things back to the 1st Division era, but lets face it, the premier league is a completely different breed these days. There is no premier league club in over 100 miles from here as long as we can stay up, the fan base will continue to grow not shrink imho. I agree with Jager, lets strike whilst the iron's hot, for 2 reasons. 1) People will lose interest if they are unable to get anywhere near seeing a game and 2) If our friends up the road get promoted in the next few seasons then it opens up the options for people to choose where to go and watch premier league football...
Hmmmm....chasing the plastics? Suppose they pay their money like I everyone else but that doesn't mean I like it!
Thing is the plastics as you put it, are the ones who put money into the club the same as the die hard fans, when we moved to the liberty we doubled our support, those 7k extra who came could be deemed plastic then, but are they still now ? Looking at the premier league big sides, do you think that all them attending are die hards ? Of course not, they steal football fans from all over the place and a lot of them attend games because they support these clubs from different areas, was in Cardiff working yesterday with kids wearing utd and Liverpool shirts not bluebirds.
I can remember when the Vetch used to rock.... It always amazed me how they got so many people in, I was sure they couldn't count properly. So today, why not increase the capacity? Give a stadium that could compete for holding Wales games. Why we could even hold Wales rugby games!! Even bigger Music concerts!! More over, when we stay up, even more people can come and watch the Swans. Where is the nearest Premier League Ground? We could draw in people from hundreds of miles, and all our 'plastics'. Think of the income that would produce!!!!!! Its all good for the town, club and businesses'. A 5,000 or 7,000 may be a worthless increase, but lets look at an extension that would be easy to increase in a few years when we get into Europe!! Onwards and Upwards!!! Whatever they decide, the club must be run properly and let's not throw money away stupidly.
