Attendance Yesterday

Quoted from lukeo

I think IF the club are selling out each week then the buy back scheme should be something along the lines of if you give your seat up and someone pays to use it your account is credited £5 each time. So say I missed 10 games I have £50 to spend either online or on my next season ticket

Funny you should say that.

The real test for me is one that we probably can't quantify.  

If we had 100% of views that were completely unrestricted, would we be selling out and have people effectively knocking on the door trying to get in.

I can't shift away from the thought that whatever percentage of seats are considerably restricted should be counted in the capacity, from the viewpoint of what we can and would aspire to sell.

Again, it will never really have any substance behind the thought but it has to be a deterrent to someone who's thinking on a Saturday morning that they might rock up to BP and get a walk-up ticket knowing it's going to be with a excrement view.

The number of empty seats on Saturday was a little disappointing to be honest, but expected.  I know of a few ST holders who have got them knowing they'll miss a fair few games, but they either got caught up in the excitement or the fear of then missing out.  It's also peak holiday season, add that to the usual 10% no-show rate and it's expected.

But I'm in full agreement with jamesgtfc here, one of the priorities for the club should be about having an incentive led and easy to use sell-back scheme.  Gifting your ticket back isn't enough.  Whilst it's a nice gesture and I'm sure some will do it, most probably won't.  It's not in their interest.  Something like a £5 discount, hell even a free drinks voucher, will encourage people to do it.  Of course it has to be dependent on that ticket actually getting re-sold.  The club still make an additional profit on the resold ticket, the ST holder gets something back, the walk-up fan gets a decent view, more bums on seats.  Everyone wins.

If we then get to the point where the number of empty seats (not taking into account the excrement views) is reduced, then I think there needs to be a further conversation about what we do to increase capacity options.   This summer I've been very adamant that we need to get increased capacity options there, i.e. the temp seats in the corner.  Saturday made me realise that it's probably the next step.  The first step is maximising the occupancy of the decent seats we've got.  

Quoted from diehardmariner

The real test for me is one that we probably can't quantify.  

If we had 100% of views that were completely unrestricted, would we be selling out and have people effectively knocking on the door trying to get in.

I can't shift away from the thought that whatever percentage of seats are considerably restricted should be counted in the capacity, from the viewpoint of what we can and would aspire to sell.

Again, it will never really have any substance behind the thought but it has to be a deterrent to someone who's thinking on a Saturday morning that they might rock up to BP and get a walk-up ticket knowing it's going to be with a excrement view.

The number of empty seats on Saturday was a little disappointing to be honest, but expected.  I know of a few ST holders who have got them knowing they'll miss a fair few games, but they either got caught up in the excitement or the fear of then missing out.  It's also peak holiday season, add that to the usual 10% no-show rate and it's expected.

But I'm in full agreement with jamesgtfc here, one of the priorities for the club should be about having an incentive led and easy to use sell-back scheme.  Gifting your ticket back isn't enough.  Whilst it's a nice gesture and I'm sure some will do it, most probably won't.  It's not in their interest.  Something like a £5 discount, hell even a free drinks voucher, will encourage people to do it.  Of course it has to be dependent on that ticket actually getting re-sold.  The club still make an additional profit on the resold ticket, the ST holder gets something back, the walk-up fan gets a decent view, more bums on seats.  Everyone wins.

If we then get to the point where the number of empty seats (not taking into account the excrement views) is reduced, then I think there needs to be a further conversation about what we do to increase capacity options.   This summer I've been very adamant that we need to get increased capacity options there, i.e. the temp seats in the corner.  Saturday made me realise that it's probably the next step.  The first step is maximising the occupancy of the decent seats we've got.  

I’d tend to agree, if we consistently sellout the unrestricted view seats, even during those grim winter months then perhaps we need to look at expansion.

Is it worth putting them in now and creating a habit for people? Probably but the people running our club are sensible business people and won’t just intercourse about. It’ll be carefully planned, after all, putting in temporary seats for them to sit empty is futile.

Not for a second doubting their business acumen.  They're clearly quite analytical and will look at the numbers in great detail.

Sometimes you have to test something out to see the impact though.  I've no idea how much it costs to get temporary seating in, wouldn't even like to hazard a guess.  I'm just not convinced that anyone who walks up as a casual fan, misses half the game because the roof/police box/a massive pillar is in the way is likely to return soon.  Equally so, when it's November and pissing it down, if given the option to you sit exposed to the elements with a decent view or prefer a roof over your head and guessing what's happening at the other end?

Quoted from diehardmariner

Not for a second doubting their business acumen.  They're clearly quite analytical and will look at the numbers in great detail.

Sometimes you have to test something out to see the impact though.  I've no idea how much it costs to get temporary seating in, wouldn't even like to hazard a guess.  I'm just not convinced that anyone who walks up as a casual fan, misses half the game because the roof/police box/a massive pillar is in the way is likely to return soon.  Equally so, when it's November and pissing it down, if given the option to you sit exposed to the elements with a decent view or prefer a roof over your head and guessing what's happening at the other end?

I'm sure you can get a temporary structure with a roof on. I saw on Twitter the other week that there needs to be a 19ft gap or something like that for evacuation both sides of the ground which means the green seats we had previously wouldn't be suitable but something needs doing.

I think it's Bristol Rovers who had basically a big marquee with some seats underneath it in one of their corners.

In fact going back to the early 2000's I remember going there and the away end was not much more than that.

Quoted from ginnywings

Funny you should say that.

?

I think their priority was to get the club on ship shape first while completely getting rid of the cancer that was here before.

I completely expect the board once honest John has gone will be looking at investment for a new ground, they probably have something long term in the pipelines.
These sort of business guys don’t go round spouting of plans until something is pretty much set in concrete.

They aren’t stupid and will know the benefits of a new ground .

Quoted from monkeyboy

I think their priority was to get the club on ship shape first while completely getting rid of the cancer that was here before.

I completely expect the board once honest John has gone will be looking at investment for a new ground, they probably have something long term in the pipelines.
These sort of business guys don’t go round spouting of plans until something is pretty much set in concrete.

They aren’t stupid and will know the benefits of a new ground .

Yeah, but I built an ace 60,000 seater stadium on LMA Manager 2003 on the Playstation so y'know...

There's a massive part of me that just wants to sit back and enjoy what's happening.  Almost smug in the confidence that we're in such good hands and 1878 are genuinely the best people we could ever imagine in charge of this club of ours.  

But I've become engrained in this culture of second guessing everything that the club has done.  It's nothing personal or even to doubt what 1878 have done, are doing and will do here.  It's just a bloody horrible habit to shake.

Capacity is an obvious argument for the need for a new stadium, but not necessarily the main one. Throughout the club’s history our gates have been undulating, responding to peaks and troughs on the pitch as well as characters in the boardroom. We are experiencing something of a purple patch right now which provides some useful insight into what’s possible, but I’m not sure it is wise to make decisions which will define the club for the next 100 years based on the patterns of the last 3 months.

It is, however, the facilities or lack thereof which is the fundamental issue for me. Blundell Park makes precious little revenue outside of those 23 league plus cup match days a season, and even on those days fails to maximise the amount generated from each person passing through the turnstiles.

Modern, forward-thinking stadiums do a much better job at that, with swathes of corporate and premium spaces (whether you like it or not) and much easier access to food and drink once inside the ground. If you can grow attendances by 20% - 30%, justify an increase in ticket prices by 10% -  20% on account of enhanced facilities, and increase the amount spent on average per person in the ground by 50% then the compound impact of that is quite profound.

The club has done virtually all it can on that front within the limitations of BP, and that has given us an idea of how well it can work.

Beyond that, clubs need to generate income outside of match days, something BP does not. I do not know the current level of demand for such things in NE Lincs but I can only imagine there would be a reasonable degree of demand for wedding and conferencing facilities, hotel rooms, educational facilities, sporting facilities, a gymnasium, bars and restaurants - and that’s all off the top of my head.

This is the direction the club needs to go in at some point or other if it is to trying break free from the shackles of the past. That’s not to suggest it’s easily deliverable - it very well is not. But is that what the club needs? Absolutely.