Blundell Park Capacity

Saw this question asked earlier on, jokingly on this occasion, but since it's inevitably going to crop up once the season starts and the latest debate on ticketing / ground capacity ensues I thought it would be good to get this out of the way nice and early. To help settle this debate once and for all, I spent 5 minutes banging together a little script to extract the number of seats within each block listed on the club's ticketing site (one minor caveat below).

So, what's the capacity? The answer, give or take no more than 10 seats or so, is 8,874. Breakdown below:

Main Stand - 2,414
Pontoon - 1,808
Lower - 808
Upper - 2,004*
Osmond - 1,840 (551 small section, 1,289 larger section)

The one caveat is that it's hard to get an exact number of seats for block D of the upper; the directors / executive area. For the most part, it's identical to block B, but has a small staircase part of the way through the middle of the block, so I've had to guesstimate this as best as possible based on seat numbers and this image (I make it 256).

So there we have it, more or less the exact current capacity of Blundell Park, and a couple of hundred lower than the official figure. It will be interesting to see how close we can get to that once the season starts. Our biggest crowd last season was 8,414 against Forest, which would equate to just shy of 95% of capacity. Practically speaking, it's going to be difficult to top this for a league game you would think, but you never know what might happen if we start well.

It's been full for those big league games Doncaster / Bradford etc , i think every seat is sold for those games , it's impossible to beat that game against Forrest because everyone is effectively a walk up buying a ticket knowing they would actually be there on the night  (minimal no shows ) . Biggest gate in the league was about 8050  - Do they actually count the Exec box bods in the attendance - because your figure -300 in the exec  and 8400 at the Forrest game nearly matches the capacity .

Quoted from Mappers

It's been full for those big league games Doncaster / Bradford etc , i think every seat is sold for those games , it's impossible to beat that game against Forrest because everyone is effectively a walk up buying a ticket knowing they would actually be there on the night  (minimal no shows ) . Biggest gate in the league was about 8050  - Do they actually count the Exec box bods in the attendance - because your figure -300 in the exec  and 8400 at the Forrest game nearly matches the capacity .

Good question most of those seats are freebies so they might not count them.

BUT

Do they count the ones that pay for the executive boxes. ?

Quoted from Poojah

Saw this question asked earlier on, jokingly on this occasion, but since it's inevitably going to crop up once the season starts and the latest debate on ticketing / ground capacity ensues I thought it would be good to get this out of the way nice and early. To help settle this debate once and for all, I spent 5 minutes banging together a little script to extract the number of seats within each block listed on the club's ticketing site (one minor caveat below).

So, what's the capacity? The answer, give or take no more than 10 seats or so, is 8,874. Breakdown below:

Main Stand - 2,414
Pontoon - 1,808
Lower - 808
Upper - 2,004*
Osmond - 1,840 (551 small section, 1,289 larger section)

The one caveat is that it's hard to get an exact number of seats for block D of the upper; the directors / executive area. For the most part, it's identical to block B, but has a small staircase part of the way through the middle of the block, so I've had to guesstimate this as best as possible based on seat numbers and this image (I make it 256).

So there we have it, more or less the exact current capacity of Blundell Park, and a couple of hundred lower than the official figure. It will be interesting to see how close we can get to that once the season starts. Our biggest crowd last season was 8,414 against Forest, which would equate to just shy of 95% of capacity. Practically speaking, it's going to be difficult to top this for a league game you would think, but you never know what might happen if we start well.

But....what about the internal executive boxes themselves.... And the disabled spaces ? 😉

Quoted from moosey_club

But....what about the internal executive boxes themselves.... And the disabled spaces ? 😉

And what about people like me and no doubt countless others , when the QR code does not work and the turnstile operative says 'just leave it' ? Lol .

If you can't give me the exact number I'm no interested  

So why can't I get a ticket on the system pre-match, only for town to announce a 6000 attendance with photos of loads of empty seats

Quoted from GyMariner

So why can't I get a ticket on the system pre-match, only for town to announce a 6000 attendance with photos of loads of empty seats

Because they announce bums on seats , rather than tickets sold and lot's of season ticket holders did not turn up last season or release their tickets - may well be easier this season with around 500 extra walk up seats available .

We need to start a sweepstake to see who gets closest to the official number........IF.......it is ever revealed.

Quoted from Poojah

Saw this question asked earlier on, jokingly on this occasion, but since it's inevitably going to crop up once the season starts and the latest debate on ticketing / ground capacity ensues I thought it would be good to get this out of the way nice and early. To help settle this debate once and for all, I spent 5 minutes banging together a little script to extract the number of seats within each block listed on the club's ticketing site (one minor caveat below).

So, what's the capacity? The answer, give or take no more than 10 seats or so, is 8,874. Breakdown below:

Main Stand - 2,414
Pontoon - 1,808
Lower - 808
Upper - 2,004*
Osmond - 1,840 (551 small section, 1,289 larger section)

The one caveat is that it's hard to get an exact number of seats for block D of the upper; the directors / executive area. For the most part, it's identical to block B, but has a small staircase part of the way through the middle of the block, so I've had to guesstimate this as best as possible based on seat numbers and this image (I make it 256).

So there we have it, more or less the exact current capacity of Blundell Park, and a couple of hundred lower than the official figure. It will be interesting to see how close we can get to that once the season starts. Our biggest crowd last season was 8,414 against Forest, which would equate to just shy of 95% of capacity. Practically speaking, it's going to be difficult to top this for a league game you would think, but you never know what might happen if we start well.

How did you deal with - for example - Block A in the lower, seats G22/3 and E15?  These don't appear to be offered for sale, at least on the Venuetoolbox website.  I think they physically exist.  Could they be set as reserved on the system?  There appear to be other examples dotted about.

Also, did you include seats marked as restricted view?

Quoted from Poojah

Saw this question asked earlier on, jokingly on this occasion, but since it's inevitably going to crop up once the season starts and the latest debate on ticketing / ground capacity ensues I thought it would be good to get this out of the way nice and early. To help settle this debate once and for all, I spent 5 minutes banging together a little script to extract the number of seats within each block listed on the club's ticketing site (one minor caveat below).

So, what's the capacity? The answer, give or take no more than 10 seats or so, is 8,874. Breakdown below:

Main Stand - 2,414
Pontoon - 1,808
Lower - 808
Upper - 2,004*
Osmond - 1,840 (551 small section, 1,289 larger section)

The one caveat is that it's hard to get an exact number of seats for block D of the upper; the directors / executive area. For the most part, it's identical to block B, but has a small staircase part of the way through the middle of the block, so I've had to guesstimate this as best as possible based on seat numbers and this image (I make it 256).

So there we have it, more or less the exact current capacity of Blundell Park, and a couple of hundred lower than the official figure. It will be interesting to see how close we can get to that once the season starts. Our biggest crowd last season was 8,414 against Forest, which would equate to just shy of 95% of capacity. Practically speaking, it's going to be difficult to top this for a league game you would think, but you never know what might happen if we start well.

We have had this discussion before. Towns website gives the following:-

https://gtfc.co.uk/visitors/

Main                 2277
Pontoon           1808
Findus Upper   1982
Findus Lower     826
Osmond          1884

Total                 8777

Wiki quotes     9002

DC stated some months ago of a figure of 9030

So take your pick as to the official capacity, and as pointed out on the above posts does it include executive seating, disabled seating etc.?

So between 8000 and 9000…

Average gate read out in the ground of about 6900 incoming then.

It doesn't matter whether Blundell Park's capacity is 8777, 8874, 9002 or 9030.  It is still 6000 less than the minimum you would want for the Championship.  I don't think the council would give permission for that.

After counting up all the seats on the ticketing site i got:

Pontoon: 1821.
Main Stand:  2422.
Lower Findus: 826.
Uppper Findus:  1712*
Osmond Home Corner. 551.
Osmond Away. 1333.

*All seats in the ground were counted including restricted views..  The only seats not counted were executive block in Upper Findus...  My estimate was 269.

Total for the entire ground was: 8934 which included the executive block.
I did this to satisfy my own curiosity and to get a better picture of our home seat sales...
I wish we would give out our attendance figures based on seat sales rather than who attends. After all its the seat sold that counts and which brings in the money.
If we did that we would have a better idea what seats were available. This would show our attendance figure is much higher and just how few tickets are left and further show how much we need to expand the ground.
Last season there were only odds and sods tickets available for most home matches and non available for familes or groups for most matches... This was in the main due to STH not turning up, but whether they turn up or not the money is still coming in and we most certainly need more seats...

Quoted from White_shorts

It doesn't matter whether Blundell Park's capacity is 8777, 8874, 9002 or 9030.  It is still 6000 less than the minimum you would want for the Championship.  I don't think the council would give permission for that.

Well, working on the numbers you think are right, we’ve got at least two seasons to convince them…plenty of time…

Quoted from White_shorts

It doesn't matter whether Blundell Park's capacity is 8777, 8874, 9002 or 9030.  It is still 6000 less than the minimum you would want for the Championship.  I don't think the council would give permission for that.

I'm not so sure , I like the Rotherham stadium much more than the Doncaster , MK Dons or to the extreme Darlington .

Trying to keep it an intimidating atmosphere in a stadium that's not half (at best) full most the of the time would be my preference - 11 or 12k is about right for us I think in terms of capacity with around 2.5k away tickets available ; you could argue In the Champ or even league 1 there would be teams that could bring 5k + to increase income but you are then taking away the home advantage - last season for 5 games I think away fans outnumbered home fans at that MK dons stadium .

If it's possible to do that at BP and improve commercial revenue , with keeping a touch of the traditional element with a modern twist I would be much more for that than a souless ikea type stadium , I actually think a lot of fans of other teams would rather have a ground like BP than be in there identikit arenas .

Back in 1995 when the stadium was converted to all seater and for years after the figure always quoted was 8,750.

In the official league handbook it is listed as 9,052. Which I am guessing is the stands + the box seats total number

Some are in debate on Twitter space about BP capacity saying it's 9 odd k - I'm going to refer to this for official capacity saying The Fishies counted the seats

FFS, not again!

Didn't Alan Shearer, plus I can't remember who, sit in every seat in Wembley Stadium?

Maybe we could ask him nicely to do the same at BP, and keep a count.

With a bit of foresight and planning, we could give him a signed photo of Justin Whittle as a 'thank you'....

The capacity is 8400 .
Without a revamp we won't see a gate above that in BP.

Might have missed this but on Saturday do we know if Donny have sold 100% of their allocation?

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Might have missed this but on Saturday do we know if Donny have sold 100% of their allocation?

They have yes ,whatever that is 1180 or something ?

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Might have missed this but on Saturday do we know if Donny have sold 100% of their allocation?

Yeah they've sold out. Read that there's no trains though, so might well end up being a few no shows.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

The capacity is 8400 .
Without a revamp we won't see a gate above that in BP.

Yeah that's what I thought , some are sure it's 9000+ ; no chance

Quoted from 1mickylyons

The capacity is 8400 .
Without a revamp we won't see a gate above that in BP.

Absolutely.

1200 away capacity of that so about 7200 home seats available in total.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Might have missed this but on Saturday do we know if Donny have sold 100% of their allocation?

Thanks Mappers & SOC

I was under the impression that Stockport sold their entire allocation, but less than 900 turned up. Do we have a source for the Donny sell out?

Quoted from DB

I was under the impression that Stockport sold their entire allocation, but less than 900 turned up. Do we have a source for the Donny sell out?

The trains were knackered for the Stockport fans aswell  , they didn't sell out but did 1100 i think .

Quoted from DB

I was under the impression that Stockport sold their entire allocation, but less than 900 turned up. Do we have a source for the Donny sell out?

They  have taken them off sale on  their website,all gone .

Stockport did not sell out.

My neighbour ,a Donny season tkt holder is coming with his Son and told me a couple of wks ago they had sold out ! Whatever you gave them have gone

Quoted from toontown

Absolutely.

1200 away capacity of that so about 7200 home seats available in total.

After all this time you would have thought counting the seats equals capacity. I'm still none the wiser, and why  GTFC doesn't make an official statement to stop this perennial discussion I do not know.

They have, haven’t they? Was stated at one of the fans forums or during an interview probably a year back.

Not like the old days is it..when no systems in place and a row on Main Stand not gone through ‘system’ for years and money not into club. *allegedly

Quoted from ska face

They have, haven’t they? Was stated at one of the fans forums or during an interview probably a year back.

Trouble is the answer was bollox .The Forest game proved that so the capacity is 8400 not 9k they quote.

Quoted from Son of Cod

Yeah they've sold out. Read that there's no trains though, so might well end up being a few no shows.

Rail replacement busses from Donny to Scunny. Trains as normal from and to Scunny. I’m on a bus now - no Donny on it but maybe a bit early for them.