QUOTE="catcherintherye, post: 4905559, member: 14968"]A lot of good points there mate. I'd ignore the league cup attendances, across the board they are down. Sides like Stoke get 8k in. Our figures are actually quite competitive.
The reality is, we sell out 37k (approximately our bit of the ground) almost every week with a poor team, in what is now a poor stadium in a poor location. This is with 32k season ticket holders that has been growing year on year. In both of the above figures they are capped so I don't know what the true potential is. The question needs to be how much of an increase will improving each area give us.
When you consider the Spurs game was sold out 3 weeks in advance you get an idea of the demand for the tickets, certainly for 6 games a season being much higher than what it is currently. I'd hazard a guess we could have sold another 10k for Spurs. It's a useful start point to say 40k for poorer games and 50k+ for bigger games.
Lets factor in the other factors. A stadium with better facilities. Lets call this a 10% increase. Lets call the location being central as nominally 5%. Finally the team performance, I have indicated could be as much as 30/35% but to be cautious again lets keep that at a moderate increase of 10%. I think those numbers are reasonable and not overly ambitious, especially given the immediate excitement that exists around the stadium and the quality of location it will have.
We have a 25% increase on numbers given. That roughly speaking (factoring in 3k away fans) gives us 48-50k for less attractive games and upwards of 60-65k for half a dozen league games a season.
In all honesty I don't mind what the capacity is. Anything from 50k-70k have pro's and cons. My ideal would be 60k with a chance to extend as it gives the club something to work towards. However what is more important is sorting out the corporate side of things having got a ground in a fantastic location. Every FTSE 250 company needs to be targeted as well as American and Asian companies. If we had a 60k stadium it should allow us to be creative in getting the next generation of fans in and allow to sell discounted tickets to under 16's for a dozen matches a season. You can't under estimate the importance of ensuring the next generation of young children are Evertonians in the city and having a stadium for some games with 20k+ under 16's would be fantastic.[/QUOTE]
Cheers mate.
Take your point on the League cup. The reason I commented on it, and probably didn't make it clear, is that it is sometimes a barometer of the demand for tickets from none season ticket holders. A good mate of mine is a Man U fan and he used to take his lads to all of the league and FA cup games because they could never get tickets for premier and champions league fixtures. Old Trafford used to sell out for League cup games. Not trying to compare us with Man U like, just making a point.
Hope your estimate of potential attendances in the new stadium is nearer the mark than mine. I'm very much a glass half full type of guy and I still think you're being a wee bit optimistic. Love to be proved wrong though.
Think the club's already done a great job in changing our demographics as I recall reading somewhere that 40% of our season ticket holders are age 23 or under. Agree fully re next generation becoming Everton supporters, and I think we're doing everything we can, but it's an uphill battle. My business partner is a red. He has two son's, both good footballers and the eldest one is at our academy. The dad, despite being a RS STH, slams everything they do as regards youth football, activity in the community and charitable work. But he still takes his two sons to watch them every week, and one of them plays for us FFS. Maybe a shiny new waterfront stadium might make the difference
I also think location rather than size is the more important factor in sponsorships/advertising.
Have to disagree on the stadium size though. I really don't like empty seats and I think it will effect the atmosphere on match days. Be interesting to see how much it would increase the build costs to put an extra 10k on the capacity.
