Club are looking to increase the capacity to 30k or move away if you believe what the Mayor has to say. http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/ne...out-of-borough-if-it-does-not-expand/?ref=rss Always a risk for clubs like ours that if we did go down then we wouldn't need such a big ground but guess the club have to think positive.
They say it is about creating a more intimidating atmosphere and fortress Vicarage Road rather than purely about money. Hmmmm - I wonder?
Well as I say we have only just starting getting 20k since being in the Premier league - I'd worry if we went down the crowds would dip again.
That's a very cynical view I agree entirely but I guess they can't really say it too bluntly. It can work though - the Kop was unreal last night.
The Vic will end up the biggest cut and shut ever!! I doubt it will work, we don´t have enough fans. There are too many other attractive teams around.
Who wants a stadium that is plastic and out of town? I for one not, lose your roots and that's it. Me old man made me drink a can in the graveyard before games, we can´t lose that, can we now? We´ve got good training facilities. We are never going to fill a bigger stadium, maybe develop it where it is. Invest it in the team. I know dream big and all, but have some reality and connection with fans please.
Just where is the expansion scheme at? Well we know that the club are looking at two schemes, one to increase capacity to 25,000 and one to 30,000. We also know that that they have been looking at it for a couple of years. As far as I remember the SEJ stand was designed to have another tier put on it, the steelwork certainly looked large enough. The only problem I can see with that is loss of light for the houses across Occupation Road. My guess would be that it would create the 25,000 seater stadium. The expansion of the GT stand can only go upwards and that could be a problem as the existing is not designed for increased loading. Could we fill a larger stadium, and I think we could. Whenever I look at how many seats are available for a game it is maybe a dozen or so. We see empty seats, but they have been sold to ST holders. Every game we have been over 20,000 and the SEJ stand was only built when attendances reached 15,000. Traffic is a problem, but part of the plan seems to be a multi-storey car park behind the ground which would bring more of the cars into Watford from that end rather than via the ring road. This whole scheme is not only about extra seating but traffic management for the town that already has a chronic problem.
I wonder what happened the plan linking us up with the hospital staff accommodation. A multi-story would be of benefit to the hospital too.
Size and an intimidating atmosphere are not things which always go together - if a crowd of 20,000 is quiet then an extra 10,000 is not going to make any difference. Compare the atmosphere at Portsmouth, Burnley or Stoke to the library atmosphere of Arsenal. The Pozzo's are presumably thinking that becoming a big status club involves having a big stadium - part of the image. The increase in match day revenues will be a plus, but the idea that it will, necessarily, be louder is an illusion.
Couldn't agree more - a move to an out of town stadium would seriously sever my emotional connection to the club.
Cardiff is the ‘benchmark’ for this one. Don’t think the top tier they added to one side is ever used apart from internationals. Having said that, they may be on their way back up and I guess it will be full again.
Given the mess that Mayor Thornhill has made of the town centre in the last few years, who likes going there before/after a match anymore? I though that part of the changes to the rail/underground were to do with improving access to the ground. I think that, for now, this is a non-story given that we have no idea how the council will look after the elections next month.
Trouble is many more people would come if they knew they could get in...... and we need to generate a fan base that can grow....
I was thinking we need a settled side first really - one that is more consistent/less injury prone etc!
I think we will need to increase the capacity soon - apparently there are 3k on the season ticket waiting list. Most games must be near-sell outs, but many ST holders don't come for one reason or another... But all this is dependent on staying a PL team. Assuming we stay up this season, then the owners probably think we are now an established Prem team - but the squad obviously needs further investment. If you look at who's potentially coming up and who's stayed up this season, the promotion teams are automatic picks to go straight back down anymore, so we can't just assume we are fully-established. I agree with the comments above too - I think the increase in capacity should also be party dependent on better transport links, with the Met-line extension. The roads can't really handle extra people coming into the town, so need to offer much better alternatives.