Granted the Etihad probably isn't as cheap to expand as say a ground that was specifically desgined to do so like a Cardiff City or Stadium MK where the roof is/was already higher to leave space for an extra tier, but it appears it costed them around 60 million to add an extra 7000 seats = a cost per seat of £8571.
That's getting on for 50% extra to add at a later date than Dan Meis has indicated the stadium can be built for in the first place.
The problem with allowing for easy expansion is you most likely end up with an identikit stadium. Although saying that with the rumours that there will be nods to Goodison it may be a 4 stand stadium that we can fill in the corners at somepoint.
I would also note that due to the guarantor situation unless the cash to expand is paid up front there may be little will within the council/city to risk more finance and the fact that later in Everton terms has always meant never.
We should be building the maximum we can now up to the point the fit and finish is still of a high standard. Obviously there would be little point building a 70k stadium but say if at 65k the sums regarding total cost and the repayments were in the expected zone and it was still top class, we should go for that. (If that calculation happens to top out at 58k then fair enough)
I do not want the marketing department to have an easy life, more seats just means they need to work harder to shift them.
Everyone at the club from here on in should be striving to be the best as per Southalls comments in his chat with Adam.
