Plans for the future

I'm all for a new stadium but I do wonder where 16,000 attendances are going to come from. 2019/20 season only 14 clubs out of the 72 in the EFL averaged more than 16,000 gates! and 11 of them were in the championship.

I'm as positive and optimistic as the next but there's no in buying a new Roller if cannot run it. I did like the post about having a full small stadium creates a better atmosphere than a half empty large one.

Quoted from DB

I'm all for a new stadium but I do wonder where 16,000 attendances are going to come from. 2019/20 season only 14 clubs out of the 72 in the EFL averaged more than 16,000 gates! and 11 of them were in the championship.

I'm as positive and optimistic as the next but there's no in buying a new Roller if cannot run it. I did like the post about having a full small stadium creates a better atmosphere than a half empty large one.

This has always made more sense to me, yes we can talk about growth and being optimistic but also being realistic is important too.

I’m not saying build a stadium that only holds 12k, but nothing more than 15k, even then, I’d imagine that it’ll only ever be half full…that’s soul destroying to me. As a player it must be odd, yes the faculties are better for them but half empty must be bizarre…surely they’d rather a smaller ground that’s full more often…

Juve, frosinone, Sassuolo and Atalanta to some extent have all taken this approach…whereas once they’d have built large stadia for little purpose…

Bournemouth took this approach while they were in the lower reaches of the league,  "we never get more than 10,000".

If we climb up the league pyramid, then we start coming up to Yorkshire based teams who will bring several thousand. So we need to have an away end of say 2,500, maybe more. Playing those teams generates interest, so we could realistically get over 10,000, so a ground of 16,000 would end up being nearly full.

When planning a new ground do you look at the potential, or base it on what we are getting now, like Bournemouth did?

Quoted from mimma

Bournemouth took this approach while they were in the lower reaches of the league,  "we never get more than 10,000".

If we climb up the league pyramid, then we start coming up to Yorkshire based teams who will bring several thousand. So we need to have an away end of say 2,500, maybe more. Playing those teams generates interest, so we could realistically get over 10,000, so a ground of 16,000 would end up being nearly full.

When planning a new ground do you look at the potential, or base it on what we are getting now, like Bournemouth did?

Potential.

We don't currently fill BP, most clubs outside of the Premier League don't fill their grounds, but we can still have a great day out whilst having the capacity for thousands more when the need arises. That need will increase over time I am sure. It would also show us in a good light to potential players, and be a fantastic local facility. We are not talking of a white elephant like Darlington, but big enough to cater for all our needs and send a message we are a club on the up.

I don't mind if that is at BP or elsewhere, but no doubt the owners will let us know their intentions as the months go by.

Circa 15k feels about right to me. Allowing for big away followings and cup games without going overboard.
Then it's down to stadium design. One stand needs to be big enough to incorporate a sizable hospitality area underneath - at least 5k. If the upper wings of that stand are empty for the average home game that won't affect the atmosphere or have loads of pitch level empty seats for the players to run out to. 4k in the away end capable of splitting 50:50 and then 2 fairly low stands for the other two, including a safe standing home end that you want pretty full every week.

North East Lincolnshire has an approx population of 160,000.  As a population we're neighboured to the immediate south of us East Lindsey (140,0000) and West Lindsey (100,000)  To the immediate west we've got North Lincolnshire, with just over 170,000.

Fair enough West Lindsey borders the city limits of Lincoln and North Lincolnshire includes Scunthorpe.  But I firmly believe that the Wolds area, the East Coast up to Skeg, as far south as Market Rasen and as far west as Brigg should be GTFC territory.

That's a hell of a lot of people to go at.  I fully appreciate that Lincoln have made inroads into some of these areas and at present both they and Scunthorpe are higher than us in the league ladder.    But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be striving to grab people back and/or recruit new blood.  

5% of NEL is about 8,000.  But NEL is a poor area.  We need more and I wouldn't be too confident about guaranteeing 5% of an area where income is sparse and deprivation is high.  1% of those surrounding areas is about 4,000.   Then you've got exiles from the likes of Leeds, Sheffield, York....

As said earlier, it is a crest of a wave at the minute.  But it doesn't mean we should just sit back and relax.  The experience at BP is clearly an improved one from 18 months ago.  That's a stadium that's falling down with poor facilities.  Why shouldn't we think we can fill a much bigger purpose built stadium that's fit for all purposes?   Already acknowledged that disposable income is tight in NEL, but the more appealing the product is made then the more it becomes the essential way to spend money.  It overtakes nights out, it overtakes cinema trips, it overtakes a Sky TV package....

If we are going to move, I'd hate for us to be limited in 5 years time because we set our bar too low.  

I'm pretty sure we've got the right people in place to make sure any stadium is designed so it still feels atmospheric with 3,000 people in on a cold, dreary November night in a dead rubber of the Europa League Group games. 2029.

how many people have a 4 bedroom house with only 2 bedrooms used or similar?

What ever happened to Fans of the Future ?

Quoted from It Bites

What ever happened to Fans of the Future ?

A certain individual did all he could to destroy the initiative.

When I began watching Town we had gates of up to 26,000
and  never had a problem of parking our bikes.

So what's the problem ?