Inevitably, you have to pay for the things you use in life: if we were provided with a 30,000 seater, we'd be paying the rent for a lot of empty seats. This would of course have been no different if PAFC still owned the ground: there would be a cost to pay per seat somewhere along the line. I seem to remember having a similar discussion a while back: somebody said that the existing new structures had the ability to be extended if the need ever arose. I don't know if that's true but I'd like to.... One thing that amazes me is that nearly the whole of the Barn Park End is left empty, usually to accommodate just a couple of hundred away fans at best. Would it really be necessary to leave such a big gap if there was pressure on space?
It does seem ludicrous to me that the club keep the whole of the Barn Park End for visiting supporters,(ok with present crowds not a problem) at times no more than a hundred turn up for a mid-week game. To be honest I have no idea how many can be accomodated in this area.......2/3/4 thousand at a guess.....I'm sure someone can tell me. This adds weight to the argument for a bigger than 17/18000 capacity For arguments sake, that would leave only room for 13/14000 home supporters for a big attraction cup tie (premiership club for instance) that would draw non-regulars. Ok a premier club would bring quite a few supporters I expect......but other than that would they squeeze the area for home supporters to use as well ? Recently at Wimbledon (Kingstonians ground) the whole of one side was away standing.....plus a quarter of one end behind a goal for seating for Argyle's visit. They divided the home and away sitting fans with a strip of plastic netting down one row of seats, top to bottom......the type you might use on a vegetable patch.....with two rather laid back stewards standing at the top overseeing it all......if there had been any problems what would the FL have done regarding security for this match, that was a mid-week match......I cannot remember seeing any police around either.
