A few notes here

While I agree it is not time to massively increase the capacity (I would be ok with 30k if it were cheap and easy), you don't wait until you have zero empty seats before increasing. If you do that, you're already losing money.

It's about scaling. You can have a lot more growth potential if you're just a few percentage beneath the capacity. There are many more reasons for a few empty seats than inability to fill it. The weather, the opponent, holiday seasons, recent results, non season ticket holders who will only go if they can find seats together for their group etc etc. And all those factors are very volatile.

Discussion above suggests we are at least about 92% capacity when we have been playing some s**t on and off for a couple of years. That tells me that if the funds are there it's good to increase capacity (build it and they will come), but not so full that we should increase at a high risk or cost. A stadium which is between 92 and 99% full each week does NOT suggest demand does not outstrip supply. There is a lot of silent demand - those who are put off by previous experience of sell outs and just don't try any more.

Secondly, this is a business decision. No business is going to care with regard to capacity if season ticket holders are going to turn up or not. Those seats are already sold. From a football sense, a few hundred missing season ticket holders aren't going to make a massive difference. If it gets to 4 or 5 thousand and you're in a 50k stadium with 8k fans then yes, it's going to feel empty and soulless.

Posted By: Legacy Fan on May 5th 2024 at 23:16:26

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