German Imp
Vital Football Hero
Conversion of parts of the ground to standing(sector of coop plus Stacey West to standing room only) would be a good move and minimal cost to upstream the revenues and capacity.
Furthermore the space between the Selenity and Stacey West is totally under utilised plus add in the repositioning of the tv gantries and all these changes would give additional revenue/capacity.
I`m sure we could also knock up a few extra khazis and handbasins over the summer period to cope with the extra numbers attending.
Crowd numbers have moved ahead rapidly and the infrastructure is not keeping apace with demand.(2500 to 10,000)..up 300%
Quite simply a minor low cost solution could accommodate a further 2000 fans which would be a good economic move for the club and enable our current fan base to be retained plus cope with the increased numbers of away fans attending the Bank next season in league 1 Portsmouth/Bolton/Doncaster/Scunthorpe/Peterborough/Ipswich/Charlton/
Coventry etc.........Millwall..?
Doing little to increase the capacity creates a few issues
Allocating 10% of tickets(efl requirement) to the away fans prohibits casual home fans access to attend a match when you are operating at the margin of capacity.
Next season it is possible some visiting sides could take more than 2000 tickets if we could make them available but,we won`t deliver that in the current set up and the revenue is gone forever plus plenty of home fans other than season tickets holders will get slowly disillusioned over lack of access to games through ticket restraints.(they are the long term future)
If we could only come up with an increased capacity of 2000 for next season that would be a realistic approach to coping with the current demand of our own fans(granting higher number of season tickets+good revenue)) plus those of extra visiting supporters.
I`m not sold on the idea of doing very little on the capacity issue,as it`s upstream revenues we need and the options are limited, playing/staff costs are rising and the new ground pipe dreams are a long way off.
I`m sure Clive Nates has a rabbit he will pull out of the hat,he is a top banana and will employ the the right heads for the solution to the capacity problem.
PS:....... yes i have got my season ticket for 2019/2020.
You make some interesting and valid points Devon. Although doing things piecemeal to accommodate more home fans in the short term will potentially cost more long term. Bearing in mind capital costs all Sincil Bank needs is a stand similar to the Co-Op in capacity. Easy said than done, where will the money come from (grants) and can the build start towards the end of one season in time for the new season, doubt it. In addition, the Cowley factor needs to be considered, how long will they be around ? Once they leave believe me there will be no capacity issues.
Finally, I am also of the opinion that with potential further economic down turn a new ground is pie in the sky.