Season tickets sold out

[Socrates]

Compared to them, especially Spuds we get superb value for money. Spurs are one of the most expensive bunch of failures in the Prem.
The problem we have is our need to close a huge deficit.

As I delved around those Deloitte figures, that was the most obvious area for financial improvement.

£197.5m is a bogus starting figure John, one that should only be used by clueless rags who we should blow down every time. Contained massive one off adjustments and write offs we wanted to get into the accounts before FFP and did not represent an accurate P and L for the trading period.

[Ted Hughes]

Imo, the expansion is most likely to be done as part of the development around the ground. We surely can't build that, then start taking the roof off the ground; it wouldn't make sense ?

I don't know how far they want to go with the development nearby but it's not impossible to imagine the structure of the ground becoming part of it if they think it's worth doing.

I would imagine that the way to do it would be: try to build the waiting list to a genuine 15/20,000 then expand the ground & sell season tickets to all of them. Hence 56,000 season ticket holders, 15,000 or so seats available to members. Instantly you would have crowd averages similar to rags.

This is why we need to keep bringing in one or two top players for the next year or two imo, even if it upsets Platini. Once we get those fans in, we've cracked it.

[john@staustell]

Anyone who suggests there isn't the demand - or rather wouldn't be by the time it is built - is living in some sort of negative cloud cuckoo land. Remember the RAGs got around 40,000 before their successful period, down around 32,000-34,000 occasionally for the duff games. Arsenal could never match us in the 70s after their double win. Any sustained period at the top and we will easily be getting 70,000+.

The lack of any announcement seems to remove the once-touted option of just filling in the top ends as a first stage, as that capacity would be almost redundant in the 2 years it took to build.

So you have to go back 4 years to a statement by the Sheik saying they wanted City to be the biggest club in the world in every manner. When it comes it will be pretty mega, and maybe another year will go by to let the groundswell of demand grow and grow.

Second half of last season I could only get tickets on open sale in the end above the aways, not my usual level 3. I doubt we'll be able to get anything for the league on open sale this season.

[john68]

Socs,
I appreciate that Jon, but even taking that exceptional figure of 34.4m away and considering the allowed 19m shortfall, we are still around 145m adrift. Looking at continually rising running costs etc will also shove that figure upwards.

My point was that we have dramatically increased our media and commercial earnings whilst our matchday revenues have remained pretty static. I appreciate our owners have been extremely generous with ticket pricing but it is an areas that they need to look at.

We are massively behind our competitors and our ground capacity is a MUST for action soon.

[Yffi_88]

If everyone just 'budges up' a little bit i'm sure we could hold out for a few more seasons.

It was a shame when we had european games this season and the third tiers were closed and i can only imagine how empty it would feel with a 60k capacity.

A full 60k would be a beautiful sight though, which i believe we COULD consistently acheive, but only with another 3-4 years of winning things. We'd fill it for big games now (i'd like to think).

If they have anything about them - which i think they do - they'll have looked at demand for this years season tickets and will have gauged the potential for sales.

Finally - does anyone know if money raised from concerts goes to the club or the council (or wherever?) as the capacity for those would also increase!

[Socrates]

We have what is effectively leasehold ownership of the ground, all revenues from any events go to the club not the council. The council just get there annual payment as income whatever.

[Yffi_88]

We have what is effectively leasehold ownership of the ground, all revenues from any events go to the club not the council. The council just get there annual payment as income whatever.

A few big concerts wouldn't go amiss then. Wouldnt mind finding out how much we made from events last year.

[Beeks]

We have what is effectively leasehold ownership of the ground, all revenues from any events go to the club not the council. The council just get there annual payment as income whatever.

Yep...used to be they got a percentage...Now they just get a flat fee

[Socrates]

We have what is effectively leasehold ownership of the ground, all revenues from any events go to the club not the council. The council just get there annual payment as income whatever.

Yep...used to be they got a percentage...Now they just get a flat fee

A change clearly made with expansion in mind.

[Yffi_88]

I think something that may be a factor - correct me if i'm wrong, i havent looked into this in any depth - will be the financial impact leading up to the introduction of FFP if any parts of the stadium need to be closed off whilst work commences.

I'm assuming they'd have to cancel a summers' worth of events and cram all the work into a few months.

Possible?

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

If everyone just 'budges up' a little bit i'm sure we could hold out for a few more seasons.

It was a shame when we had european games this season and the third tiers were closed and i can only imagine how empty it would feel with a 60k capacity.

A full 60k would be a beautiful sight though, which i believe we COULD consistently acheive, but only with another 3-4 years of winning things. We'd fill it for big games now (i'd like to think).

If they have anything about them - which i think they do - they'll have looked at demand for this years season tickets and will have gauged the potential for sales.

Finally - does anyone know if money raised from concerts goes to the club or the council (or wherever?) as the capacity for those would also increase!

We could have sold 80k+ for QPR and Filth games. And there were a few that could have sold out 60k. the Spurs/Chelsea/Arse games spring to mind

[john68]

I read somewhere that extending the upper tier around the ground would increase the capacity to around 60,000. If true and considering we are already pushing towards 50,000, in the longer term, that would seem to be insufficient for our needs.
Our domestic rivals Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool have all made noises about new grounds to increase their capacities to well above our present one.

According to the 2010/11 season's attendance figures, we lag a long way behind the top 5 supported European clubs, who attract around 70,000 or above. There are 6 clubs around 50,000 - 60,000 who we should be able to overtake in the next few seasons and at present we are stuck in a group of 11 clubs between 45,000 - 50,000, all of whom we would consider ourselves better than.

BARCA.........+79,000
DORTMUND...+79,000
THE RAGS.....+75,000
MADRID........+71,000
BAYERN........+69,000

SCHALKE.......+61,000
ARSENAL.......+60,000
INTER...........+59,000
HAMBURG......+54,000
MILAN...........+53,000
MARSEILLES....+51,000

We sit in the next group...Celtic...49,000, Koln...48,000, Newcastle...48,000, Frankfurt...47,000, Ajax...47,000, Kaiserslautern...46,00, Berlin...46,000, City 46,000, Napoli, Rangers and Munchengladbach, all around 45,000 and Hannover...44,000.

[Beeks]

I think i've mentioned this before but a mate of mine in construction of this scale says that it would probably cost more to build a third tier than knock it down and start again

[Goaters 103]

Not surprising they all sold out quick, as we've just won the league and 2 trophies in 2 seasons.

Typically in recent years its been shown that City have a hardcore of about 36-38k who will go come what may - see Stuart Pearce era - and the rest tend to add on for big games or if the club is successful, then drop off if it isnt a glamorous game (see FA Cup attendances from 2010/11) or the team isnt doing too well. Naturally everyone wants to go now because the team is very good, playing great football and well worth the effort. However, if for any reason we dropped back into the mid-table sludge the crowds would fall back too. In short, everyone loves a winner and our gates and spurt of interest demonstrate that.

Cut back 4 years to the start of the Hughes era at City and anyone could get a season ticket, and the gate for our first home game of the year against West Ham, Kompany's debut, was a rather paltry 36,635 - this was the last game before the takeover and life at City has been on an upward curve ever since. Now its very difficult to get in the ground and Season Cards are like golden tickets - success brings more fans to the table - if we maintain our stay in the top 4, then ground expansion is definately on the agenda

[lets all have a disco]

Quick question where the fook would we play if they knocked the ground down and started again?


SWAMP IS NOT AN OPTION.

[Yffi_88]

Quick question where the fook would we play if they knocked the ground down and started again?

SWAMP IS NOT AN OPTION.

I can imagine 60k blues inside old Trafford singing "we're not really here!".

[john68]

Quick question where the fook would we play if they knocked the ground down and started again?


SWAMP IS NOT AN OPTION.

TBH Kiers, there ain't many options out there mate and nowt locally.

[Moonchesteri]

Quick question where the fook would we play if they knocked the ground down and started again?


SWAMP IS NOT AN OPTION.

Ugh. even thought of that is dirty.

[lets all have a disco]

Quick question where the fook would we play if they knocked the ground down and started again?


SWAMP IS NOT AN OPTION.

TBH Kiers, there ain't many options out there mate and nowt locally.

If we rented that fucking place for a season we would be shiiittttttttt.
Plus it would increase their coffers,what about a reduced allocation at the Reebok for a season or two?

[Chinners]

Surely we'd just do the same as when we left Maine Road, stay in the Etihad until any new stadium is finished .... it's not like the club haven't just bought shed loads of land so the current stadium could in effect become the reserves home ground, the best reserve home ground in the world .... ever