If we had built a 40k stadium and had been filling it during our time in the prem we might be in a much better position now, and perhaps not in this division, have we missed an opportunity here?
To fill a 40K stadium would have taken a successful Charlton side to fill it. Rolling over 0-4 at home to Man U every season is not a successful side Razil ! :-)
Seriously though, We simply don't have enough fans to fill a stadium that big.
If we had two seasons with a capacity of 40,000 and sold out every game (ticket price of £30 average) then we would have only made £14.8m (only on ticket sales) over the two seasons.
Is that really a big figure in the grand scheme of things today?
[quote][cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]If we had built a 40k stadium and had been filling it during our time in the prem we might be in a much better position now, and perhaps not in this division, have we missed an opportunity here?[/quote]
I can't see it, possibly we'd be in an even worse position.
Extending the Valley would have taken up a considerable amount of money, and/or would have left the club with a very heavy mortgage and money over the last couple of years has been hard to find for players and their wages. If that money had gone on the stadium rather than the squad then we'd have been in a weaker position both financilally and playing squad wise.
Charlton's approach has been spot on, extending capacity while ramping up the marketing activity in order to find the fans and the season ticket holders to fill those seats at good money. There'd be no point having a 35-40K capacity and then selling tickets cheaply to fill it, or have them go empty. The two have to be carefully matched.
we stalled on the building programme, which may have meant our fortunes could have been different.. premier league status would have aided in building support.
[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]we stalled on the building programme, which may have meant our fortunes could have been different.. premier league status would have aided in building support.
Chicken and egg. You could have built the East Stand at £15m to £20m and added 4k more seats plus some very lucrative boxes but you would need to be filling that on a regular basis over a number of years to repay the mortgage. Personally I think that is the way forward but borrowing that much money is hard when you are out of the Prem as banks see you as a higher risk and difficult to do in the Prem when the pressure is to buy players to keep you there. We could always put up our ST and match day prices to pay for it and how popular would that be!
With only the Scunthorpe game to go on it seems that the fan base it still there and a successful season may still help us to expand it.
but if we did attract "new" fans then they would be blamed for all the clubs ills being "prem fans" and "Johnny come latelys"
the incremental method proved successful, and should have been continued in my view. I thought i was about 1million per 1k, where does the 12m come from?
[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]the incremental method proved successful, and should have been continued in my view. I thought i was about 1million per 1k, where does the 12m come from?
Increased price of steel (blame the olympics and boom in Chinese economy) and extra cost of building above an existing structure eg MY seat.
I don't know many Charlton fans who don't have a ST - I really don't think we have a wide fan base to support a much bigger stadium, and as soon as ST holders start deciding to go on a match by match basis we are in trouble.
If we had two seasons with a capacity of 40,000 and sold out every game (ticket price of £30 average) then we would have only made £14.8m (only on ticket sales) over the two seasons.
Is that really a big figure in the grand scheme of things today?
Except we wouldn't, and the average price would be much lower as we market ourselves to floating people on the family club flag, so the additional people from somewhere would probably of been around 50% U16's.
exactly AFKA - and i havent even taken into account the cost of the project.
The only clubs that make money are Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid and very maybe Arsenal who all have global brands - thats what makes them a lot of the money, not bums on seats.
[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]we stalled on the building programme, which may have meant our fortunes could have been different.. premier league status would have aided in building support.
Chicken and egg. You could have built the East Stand at £15m to £20m and added 4k more seats plus some very lucrative boxes but you would need to be filling that on a regular basis over a number of years to repay the mortgage. Personally I think that is the way forward but borrowing that much money is hard when you are out of the Prem as banks see you as a higher risk and difficult to do in the Prem when the pressure is to buy players to keep you there. We could always put up our ST and match day prices to pay for it and how popular would that be!
With only the Scunthorpe game to go on it seems that the fan base it still there and a successful season may still help us to expand it.
but if we did attract "new" fans then they would be blamed for all the clubs ills being "prem fans" and "Johnny come latelys"
Perhaps the answer was to attract some new investors ........before you go down rather than now that you have gone down.
I think the board were hoping they could sustain the premiership run, and build with it - hence no sale before relegation, shame I like the friendly board we have now, end of an era methinks.
Comments
Seriously though, We simply don't have enough fans to fill a stadium that big.
If we had two seasons with a capacity of 40,000 and sold out every game (ticket price of £30 average) then we would have only made £14.8m (only on ticket sales) over the two seasons.
Is that really a big figure in the grand scheme of things today?
I can't see it, possibly we'd be in an even worse position.
Extending the Valley would have taken up a considerable amount of money, and/or would have left the club with a very heavy mortgage and money over the last couple of years has been hard to find for players and their wages. If that money had gone on the stadium rather than the squad then we'd have been in a weaker position both financilally and playing squad wise.
Charlton's approach has been spot on, extending capacity while ramping up the marketing activity in order to find the fans and the season ticket holders to fill those seats at good money. There'd be no point having a 35-40K capacity and then selling tickets cheaply to fill it, or have them go empty. The two have to be carefully matched.
Chicken and egg. You could have built the East Stand at £15m to £20m and added 4k more seats plus some very lucrative boxes but you would need to be filling that on a regular basis over a number of years to repay the mortgage. Personally I think that is the way forward but borrowing that much money is hard when you are out of the Prem as banks see you as a higher risk and difficult to do in the Prem when the pressure is to buy players to keep you there. We could always put up our ST and match day prices to pay for it and how popular would that be!
With only the Scunthorpe game to go on it seems that the fan base it still there and a successful season may still help us to expand it.
but if we did attract "new" fans then they would be blamed for all the clubs ills being "prem fans" and "Johnny come latelys"
Increased price of steel (blame the olympics and boom in Chinese economy) and extra cost of building above an existing structure eg MY seat.
Except we wouldn't, and the average price would be much lower as we market ourselves to floating people on the family club flag, so the additional people from somewhere would probably of been around 50% U16's.
The only clubs that make money are Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid and very maybe Arsenal who all have global brands - thats what makes them a lot of the money, not bums on seats.
Because there is no "south stand" at the Valley.
I'd rather be a small club that could be bigger than a club stretching itself.
Does anyone remember when we had no ground???
Evidently no one does remember.
We must all be Johnny-come-lately's........
;-)
Perhaps the answer was to attract some new investors ........before you go down rather than now that you have gone down.