Micky

Really, you think? I was convinced it was just an oversight.

That will just have been an 'oversight' on thier part. Had Joe Soap made the same error, it might have been construed as theft, fraud, misuse of public funds or whatever. But believe me, simply an oversight in this case.

Apology accepted and many thanks for the reports mate.

Well done - John and Milton, all rolled into one - great shout.

Yep, maybe so - but not right now. When we reach the premiership, establish ourselfs, maintain our status, have significant numbers of fans on the waiting list, and qualifiy for or nearly qualify for the CL. Next year you think - or in 5 -10 years time.

I wasn't aware of that, I thought that the sell on fee of UP was going to the council as a down payment and lease terms were also then payable. Talk about getting in on the cheap. Win win situation I guess - although I'm still sceptical to see whether they can fill it and the sort of atmosphere it generates. If they don't get promoted this season it could cause all sorts of problems.

Far, far too many presumptions - first you presume that we have massive numbers of fans waiting to attend games, now you make the presumption that the owner will foot the bill. Nobody actually knows the level of financial backing that the Liebherr family are willing to commit to, so it's more than a little speculative to make such suggestions.

I didn't say that they were going to get it for free - and yes it will cost them a great deal of money. But it will still be heavily discounted due to the fact that it was built by the council for the games and one of the main prerequisites of the deal is that it must remain a multi - functional/purpose stadium. West Ham's business position and ours, bear no similarities whatsoever.

Sorry, but absolutely not, not a real world precedent at all. West Ham are inheriting a stadium which will no doubt be quite heavily discounted. I would be surprised if they can consistantly fill it - therefore discounted seats would be much easier to justify. We are inheriting nothing - each individual seat has to have a bum on it every game for 10 years to make it worthwhile.

Not being funny mate - but that would scare the shyte out of me. It may not be a prerequisite, but let's be honest - it's a damn good indicator for this particular project - no? We have a 10k waiting list, and have had for the last 5 years - shall we expand - maybe. We don't and never have had a waiting list for the last 5 years - shall we expand - let's do a little research and then decide. It's not as though you're talking about throwing an extra bedroom in the loft here, your talking major expansion - there has to be some viability to the plan.

Personally I think that the club will have already carried out some form of market research on this anyway. I'm assuming that we don't have a waiting list for season tickets (although I could be wrong), but I would imagine negative calls to the booking office and people failing to obtain tickets on line are logged, at the very least. Hopefully that would give at least some indication of the market that they are currently failing to cater for. People keep posting figures of those that are in the ground, and then assuming that there are thousands who have failed to get in. If we expanded to 40k we would need to increase numbers by 20 percent, surely if that is the shortfall now, it would have been noted by the club, media and fans themselves. Not only that - but that extra 20 percent would have to be hardcore, every home game fans and not JCL's. Maybe they are there, if they are then they are keeping fairly quiet right now. Expanding on the back of what we currently get, and assuming the constant demand will be there is a fairly risky strategy I would think.

Not sure, but as Kraken has pointed out the interest hasn't been taken into account and if the club were to be relegated anytime within that period (which is a possibility), it would have serious ramifications all round. So all in all, again it equates to a massive gamble really.

Good point, well presented - best not go to *quick quid or wonga dot com for this one then...! *see thread in lounge for interest rates.

When you look at the figures like that it is quite sobering - so the 'break even' point would probably be some 8 - 10 years down the line, supposing they sold out the extra capacity on a permanent basis?

Nooooo, I don't want it locked - but I think that you've probably answered your own question! Perhaps rename it to List of footballers whose christian name is John, and it'll run for pages... much more fun...!!!

This isn't going to be a very long thread is it...!

Bad year for the 'Arrows', but they are an iconic part of the Royal Air Force and I hope that they go on. The pilots that represent them know the dangers, and I don't think that any would want to see the team wound up. RIP Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham.

Based upon what you have quoted there, I think that the expansion takes them more or less to where we are now though. So phase 3 is probably only going to happen once they have concise evidence that there are well over 45K regularly trying to get into the stadium. I'm not against expansion - but continually quoting figures of what teams are currently getting is not going to convince me of anything. Quote figures of those standing outside, waiting to get in.

This is my fear - I just don't see that you can host that many different events that are going to draw the crowds. I actually don't think that the 'multi-functional' ideas for the Olympic Stadium will last long either. By all means 'test the water', but don't go expanding until you've proved your customer base is banging at the door.

Yes - but what sort of 'areana' events are they planning in hosting? A concert - a stage, speedway - a track, and so on and so forth. It's not quite so simplistic as we have a venue - I'm just not convinced of the viabliltiy of the staging or the fact that the events will prove popular and thus lucrative.

We've done this before mate. It's not about the number of people who were in the stadium at any one point in time. It's about the number of people who were not able to get in. I have never seen any evidence of fans complaining in large numbers because they were not able to get into the stadium or the supply was stripping demand. Do we have a season ticket waiting list - how many fans have registered and are waiting to buy? Without the justifiable potential growth figures - expansion really is not an option.

Going back to the original subject, I think it's somewhat short sighted to expand a stadium with the view to hosting non football events. As others have stated - setting such events up normally requires an awful lot of planning, coordination and changing in the dynamics of the stadium. Couple that with the obvious wear and degradation of the playing area, which obviously poses yet more problems. Also, how many viable 'arena' events do you need to come up with in order to make your money back - as Kraken stated - most such venues will only be licenced to and restricted to holding a certain number of such events. I think a good indicator will be the new Olympic Stadium. As I understand it once (if) WHU take ownership of it - it is to be a community stadium and hold multiple events other than football. Situated in London there should be no shortage of punters, but it remains to be seen: How many non footballing events will the stadium host and will they be successful? Will it have a detrimental effect on (what I suppose) it's primary purpose of hosting football matches? For me, I really don't think expansion for other arena events is really viable. Time will tell.

Absolutely raging that there was no mention whatsoever about X Factor....

In this day and age I don't see a problem with letting criminals and terrorists enter the UK. We really don't want to impinge upon thier human rights now, do we?

Jesus Chrisssstttttt mate - have you not read the 'We're fixing the bog' thread over on POL...!!!!