New Stadium- How to size it?

[DualityNSNO]

If it's not at least 120k I'll be very disappointed.

And blame Kenwrong.

 

[gorgeousgeorgeEFC]

In an ideal world, we would have the biggest and best stadium on the planet.

However, a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 (with the potential to be expanded at a future date) would probably be sufficient at this stage. I know the capacity of Tottenham's new stadium will be bigger than that, but 60,000 would still put us ahead of the likes of Newcastle and the RS.

And we would probably struggle to fill a stadium on the scale of Old Trafford (76,000) while we're still having no success on the pitch, not that having a few thousand empty seats would be especially detrimental to us.

 

[Callum_efc]

We would be hard pushed to sell 50k. But agree we need space to grow if the team improves. 60k.

 

[James Patrick]

I don't think we could attract the corporate numbers that the RS and united do, but I'm sure with the location of the stadium companies would be attracted to buy into the corporate hospitality as well as the affluent Everton fans. It would be interesting to note, how many applications the club receives regarding the few boxes available at goodison now.
Your right evertonians don't go to the game to be 'wined and dined' but as part of my dissertation at uni, corporate hospitality is were clubs make a real profit. You only have to look at the amount of corporate seating in the RS new main stand. They have spent in excess of 100m to gain an extra 10000 seats. That doesn't look good business sense on paper. But when you factor in the amount of corporate hospitality packages available, it will be apparent in next season's accounts why they spent so much on the stand.

If we have greater corporate facilities we can also undercut other NW clubs and take a bigger share of that market than it is currently possible for us to do. At the same time we are also likely to be taking market share from other clubs. If the price is right there will be a sizeable take-up by Corporates where often it isn't about loyalty to a club as such but more about having access to PL football.

 

[James Patrick]

By way of comparison Sunderland have a capacity of 49k and average 43k or past few seasons watching absolute dross. I think we could comfortably average 50k if fans knew they could get a seat with a view. The increased capacity would allow the club more scope to offer family packages at reasonable prices and capture the support of an even greater share of the city's youth.

 

[gorgeousgeorgeEFC]

We would be hard pushed to sell 50k. But agree we need space to grow if the team improves. 60k.

I'm not so sure Callum.

At the moment we're getting crowds of almost 40,000 pretty much every week, despite the fact that we have a poor team and a stadium in which (according to EFC) 10,000 of the seats have an obstructed view.

 

[Callum_efc]

I'm not so sure Callum.

At the moment we're getting crowds of almost 40,000 pretty much every week, despite the fact that we have a poor team and a stadium in which (according to EFC) 10,000 of the seats have an obstructed view.

we will have to agree to disagree mate.

 

[Trueblue1878]

I understand why some blues are of the opinion that we are not a big enough club to fill a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 or more. After all, we sometimes fail to fill Goodison. However, according to the club's own data, over a quarter of the seats at Goodison have an obstructed view. And a move to a new stadium almost always increases a club's attendances massively.

When Arsenal played at Highbury they almost never had capacity attendances and Highbury only held 39,000 people. Conversely, the Emirates, a stadium with a capacity of 60,000, is almost always full. And West Ham's average attendance has shot up by over 20,000 since their move to the Olympic Stadium.

Fans are much more likely to want to watch their team in a state-of-the-art stadium than in a decrepit stadium that is riddled with obstructed views, like Goodison.

Not sure where you got the figures from for Arsenal at Highbury as they were pretty much sold out every home game for the last ten years before the move.

The official capacity was 38.5k and from 1996-2006 there average was between 37550 - 38150.

It's also been widely reported that in recent seasons the attendance listed (at the Emirates) was given as 60k whereas in reality only 52-57k attended (police figures).

I broadly agree in what you wish for Everton to have but I just think that using Arsenal is probably a bad example.

 

[Big Neville Southall]

Add nice steep intimidating stands and it sounds perfect !!!

Shallow stands behind the goals that are close to the pitch please, steep stands just means everyone sits there in silence.

With shallow stands that are closer to the pitch everyones closer to each other and it gets everyone standing more like a terrace meaning the fans are more likely to make it intimidating.

 

[Ashtonian]

Would we fill 60,000? Genuinely would we be able to fill that number? Even 15k more fans a week? Especially when things are not going too well for us, and we aren't selling the place out?

Nothing worse than not having enough fans in the ground, we can't even sell all our season tickets every summer, so where would the extra 20k fans come from?

 

[Dave Higgs]

It's better to a a stadium that is too big rather than too small.

 

[McMagic]

All these questions must be answered by our leaders Koeman, Kenwright and Moshiri, as these are the men to get us Champions League
qualification. I can see the fat controller going very soon and taking his wedge. Will Moshiri back Koeman, and if he does will Koeman
be the man or will we have to wait another few years. If Koeman proves me wrong and we qualify for Champions League then build a
75,000 seater now and think big.

 

[Muggins]

Your name is how I feel mate

It's all in the name.

Talk to me mate.

 

[joey_macmo]

We would be hard pushed to sell 50k. But agree we need space to grow if the team improves. 60k.

It's all been said before but we sold roughly 38500 home tickets for a Friday night game this year against a crap team like palace as they only took 1 tier.

If you presume that the new stadium would see an increase in corporate seats say 4k that takes us to 42500, add in the full away allocation that takes us 44000 without selling a single extra general admission seat.

Even with the obstructed views and the poor facilities I'd be pretty confident of selling an extra 6k seats this season the way we are going. We are selling out televised games at crap times weeks in advance. That's before you take in the obvious attendance boost that new stadiums always get.

 

[catcherintherye]

Appreciate the comments and kind words. I initially wanted to write a post that looked at what size stadium should we look to have and it ended up increasingly like an evaluation and ultimately a defence of our position in the game.

If I was looking at us impartially I would say there is a unique resilience to the brand. For 20 years we haven't won a trophy yet attendences have held steady. If we can get things right on the pitch, then we stand a good chance of substantially adding to our crowds.