Temporary stand | Page 5 | Vital Football

Temporary stand

It wasn’t that long ago (NL) when we didn’t even open the SW and I think there were a few games when away supporters were corralled in what was/is the Junior Imps corner?

On Hully’s post, I remember the days of the ‘football violence‘ very well. Going to a game on a Saturday afternoon, keeping a lookout for any opposition gangs on the high street on the way to the ground, standing in the Clanford End and you always knew when it was kicking off as the crowd surged and you could hear the and feel the feet thundering around the stand, see fists and bovver boots flying. There were certain teams you just knew would bring trouble but one of the worst for me was Oldham. I distinctly remember to this day a marauding group of their ‘supporters’ wearing steel-capped boots and carrying weapons and just attacking anyone who looked at them oddly down the High Street. My mate got attacked for no reason but luckily he wasn’t badly hurt. Tribal loyalties - or just sheep 🤬
 
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If we are in the championship I assume the ticket prices will be higher so perhaps a temporary job is ok

Looking on the net there are plenty of places. This one has nice illustrations

https://arenagroup.com/products/seating/

Visualising the gap I reckon you would 300 or so in the gap between the St. Andrews and Stacey west.

Really it’s not that different to the stand built onto the side of the club shop.

It might also be that with CV-19 the cost of purchasing such structures is lower.

Trying to think - I think in the past Newport, MK Dons and Grimsby have used temporary seating. Didn’t feel any less safe then a perm stand.
 
I assume the only way to fund a new ground would involve some LCFC money (sale of Sincil Bank, etc.), grants and significant investment from commercial partners.

I am 100% sure the club would not own the ground outright and might well have only a very small percentage holding.
 
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Probably has to an all seater stadium if we went up to the Championship.

If we dont get promoted couldn't we put a temporary terrace stand in.
Got to be cheaper and you would get more people in.
 

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The payback time for the investment will depend on a 'cost vs revenue over time' calculation. That may change if we get promoted, although I presume the cost won't change much.

The additional seating will only payback if the seat is sold. If that is extra season tickets, then we maximise the occupancy. If it is over-fill for busy games, that will depend on how many times we sell out. You would presume that getting to the Championship will increase the attendance and therefore the number of times the additional seats would be occupied. It may be that the cost of going also increases (although the club may want to keep prices similar in view of disruption to fans since March 2020.

The other aspect to this is maximising the positive affect of this marvellous season and getting as many people in as possible to see games while that feel good factor is still there. How many of us are here because of how much we enjoyed going to a single game, or run of games. I don't believe that following the teams progress in the papers, on the net, or even via iFollow, resonates for a life-time in the same way that seeing the game live does.
 
Probably has to an all seater stadium if we went up to the Championship.

If we dont get promoted couldn't we put a temporary terrace stand in.
Got to be cheaper and you would get more people in.
Safe standing/rail seating is more expensive to install than ordinary seats. Again, we would probably need to be at capacity every week to get a return on the outlay.

I think there may also be a problem with the terms of the grants received for the original seating - the money would have to be returned if we were to remove them.
 
When the Cowley crusade started in 2016 the "new" ground was 10 years away. Well, we are 5 years into that 10 years now and no sign of a new ground (that is not an implied criticism of anybody, btw, just a reflection of the situation). The original plans for the Western Growth Corridor, where it's proposed the stadium will be built, originally had the new ground as one of the first parts of the development to go ahead. The most recent Western Growth Corridor plans, published last year, showed that the area where the stadium will be will be the last part of the plan to be developed. Unless the order of development can be changed, and given the scale of the area to be developed before the possible construction of the new ground, I cannot see anything being built within the next 15 to 20 years given how similar sized developments in Lincoln have proceeded. The County Council has already put in an objection to the City Council's plans which is bound to delay the start of any part of the Western Growth Corridor even further. Goodness knows what effect Covid-19 will have on delaying things.
Back in the mid 1970s and early 1980s the progress of the club was stalled at a critical time in its development by a lack of investment in the playing and managerial staff. The stadium issue may be one that stalls us this time around, through no-ones fault. If we want to build on the gains of the last few years and continue to grow the fan base and maximise revenue then we clearly can't stick with the current status quo. If we have ambitions to be a Championship club then the current Sincil Bank stadium and its capacity is clearly inadequate. However, can we seriously wait another 15 to 20 years to make that leap forward? I don't think so. We have to grasp this once in a lifetime opportunity now and either look to re-develop Sincil Bank or consider a move to another site (no idea where) where we are not at the mercy of the Western Growth Corridor and its protracted saga which has been going on for at last 20 years now to the best of my knowledge. If we don't then we run the risk of being a yo-yo club between the National League and Leagues 1 and 2 for the next 50 years or so (yes, it's nearly that long ago now since the heady GT days).
It is an exceptionally difficult conundrum for Clive, Liam and our other Directors to be faced with and I do not envy them. But one way or another we must take some form of decisive action soon, otherwise this unique opportunity may be lost. We have a far bigger fan base at the moment than we have had for the last 45 years. If we want this to happen we fans will have to play our part, through such things as fund raising, crowd funding initiatives and so on. Better to do it when you have 8 to 10,000 who may contribute, though, than the bad old days of the 1980s when sometimes no more than 1,500 turned up for a match.
 
I don't agree that if we want to compete regularly at the top of L1 or try to become a stable member of the Championship that we need to move stadium.

If we can increase capacity at Sincil Bank to something around 15,000 in the next 5 years then I think that can sustain the type of levels we would get from home fans and large away followings. Obviously increasing the ground capacity would only be a necessity if the demand was there for it, ie if we get promoted and managed to stay there for a couple of seasons.

Teams like Burnley, Fulham, QPR Bournemouth, Watford and Millwall all have relatively small ground capacities compared to other clubs in the Championship and Premier League yet they have all become stable members of the Championship at a minimum with most of those clubs having spent a good chunk of the last decade in the Premier League.
 
I don't agree that if we want to compete regularly at the top of L1 or try to become a stable member of the Championship that we need to move stadium.

If we can increase capacity at Sincil Bank to something around 15,000 in the next 5 years then I think that can sustain the type of levels we would get from home fans and large away followings. Obviously increasing the ground capacity would only be a necessity if the demand was there for it, ie if we get promoted and managed to stay there for a couple of seasons.

Teams like Burnley, Fulham, QPR Bournemouth, Watford and Millwall all have relatively small ground capacities compared to other clubs in the Championship and Premier League yet they have all become stable members of the Championship at a minimum with most of those clubs having spent a good chunk of the last decade in the Premier League.
I'm not saying we have to move if we are to become an established Championship club. I am saying that we need to make a decision just what we are going to do. If that is to stay at Sincil Bank then we need to progress that and get on with it. If we are to move away then we can't rely on the Western Growth corridor plan, unless there is a significant change in the priority of which parts of it are built on first. If that doesn't happen and the club is set on a move then it may have to start looking elsewhere and do that soon before the present impetus is lost.
 
I would say the problem is quite simple. To redevelop SB to a fully modern stadium would cost multi millions. To move to a new stadium would cost multi millions.

We currently don't have multi millions and every financial leash is being desperately strained to punch way above our weight on the pitch. If we made it to The Championship our financial gulf becomes several fold more.

The board are doing incredibly to even be contemplating the temporary stand and remaining committed to obtaining funding for The SW development in the current climate.

Unless there is massive new investment, the debate about a new ground or fully modern SB is moot and will always be 10 years away. As I get older I have less 10 years away to worry about so I'll be quite happy to live in the moment and enjoy the football :grinning:
 
ground schemes of the fairly recent past didn’t get far because we were a L2, or NL team. New investment - possibly even massive - becomes more probable as a top 6 L1/potential championship team
 
Just to put the price of any stadium into consideration
York City’s LNER Community stadium cost £40million with an 8000 capacity
Now they may be site specific additional costing within that but £40 million for 8000 seats!
 
I would say the problem is quite simple. To redevelop SB to a fully modern stadium would cost multi millions. To move to a new stadium would cost multi millions.

We currently don't have multi millions and every financial leash is being desperately strained to punch way above our weight on the pitch. If we made it to The Championship our financial gulf becomes several fold more.

The board are doing incredibly to even be contemplating the temporary stand and remaining committed to obtaining funding for The SW development in the current climate.

Unless there is massive new investment, the debate about a new ground or fully modern SB is moot and will always be 10 years away. As I get older I have less 10 years away to worry about so I'll be quite happy to live in the moment and enjoy the football :grinning:


To quote you
"To redevelop SB to a fully modern stadium would cost multi millions....."but not get a full return on investment.

"To move to a new stadium would cost multi millions.... " but will have more opportunity to get a better return on investment.
 
Safe standing/rail seating is more expensive to install than ordinary seats. Again, we would probably need to be at capacity every week to get a return on the outlay.

I think there may also be a problem with the terms of the grants received for the original seating - the money would have to be returned if we were to remove them.

Oh ok. I didnt realise that you had to have the rail seating as opposed to just having a good old fashioned terrace.
 
Just to put the price of any stadium into consideration
York City’s LNER Community stadium cost £40million with an 8000 capacity
Now they may be site specific additional costing within that but £40 million for 8000 seats!

Got to say really liked the design of the new Scunny stadium.
Another that never materialised.
Rumoured to have cost £30 million if it had been built.
 

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