We could definitely average 25,000 to 30,000 in the premiership. That will never change. We could get 40,000 for the big games.
All things considered a 25,000 to 30,000 capacity would be OK.
We just need to improve the stadium for the matchday experience. The matchday facilities in the prem were an absolute disgrace. Improve those and if we are doing well too crowds would improve greatly as we improve.
We need to reduce prices of refreshments. Last home game we bought between us 2 bottles of coke and 6 (yes,6) bars of chocolate for £4.80 in Tesco. Had we bought same in FP cost would have been £14. Guess where our money goes each home game? Further lost revenue.
as regards how many tickets we might sell, that would be affected by if Soton are still in the top tier, a lot of top flight ticket sales are to non fans so you sell more if the local opposition are not targeting the same market. ie those turning up to take selfies with man utd in the background, business lunches, prawn sandwiches of all sorts....
(24-03-2022, 04:04 PM)stayinupforever Wrote: [ -> ]We need to reduce prices of refreshments. Last home game we bought between us 2 bottles of coke and 6 (yes,6) bars of chocolate for £4.80 in Tesco. Had we bought same in FP cost would have been £14. Guess where our money goes each home game? Further lost revenue.
Or alternatively you could buy a couple of smoothies and an assortment of fruit and nut snacks. Might cost you a bit more but you would be doing yourselves a massive favour with those blood sugar levels. Now that's long term planning, just like the Eisners prefer.
It's all a bit "whatever" for me.
More interesting than the previous tarting up but still way short of what is possible with means. And let's not forget the Eisners have shedloads of "means". Such "means" can be used to quickly scale up a business and that's how most really wealthy people improve the value of their investment and make more money.
TBH I still cannot get my head around why the Eisners bothered to buy the club and then have failed to use their huge resources to sort the infrastructure properly, and quickly. Any major capital investment on infrastructure would have increased the value of their club (for a potential future sell on) and the revenue streams to it.
Also, I don't get why we as fans are so understanding of our billionaire owner's almost comical desire to go slow & avoid major investment on the ground, which is a completely different business prospect (& plan) to spunking gazillions on players, while banging on about the "long-term". The infrastructure is the long-term. Back pedal on that and you wind up reversing away from the future.
ME is now 80 and he has owned us since he was 75, but how much progress have we really made in that time?
How do we compare with the progress made by say AFC Wimbledon with their new ground? Of all of the comments that could have come Michael Eisner's way after 2017, I'm surprised that "bit-of-a-time-waster" now seems at least plausible.
I don't think anyone of us know the real reason for buying the club except it had potential & it was dirt cheap, to buy. I believe from memory he also looked at Reading but chose Pompey probably as it was cheaper to buy & run.
Reading had a lot more potential than us at the time & were in the Championship but probably looked at the players & Manager's wages & went into melt down!
Wimbledon took 30 years to get back to Plough Lane. Not sure they could have done it much quicker than that though with the challenges they had to overcome.
(25-03-2022, 04:09 PM)mikey393 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think anyone of us know the real reason for buying the club except it had potential & it was dirt cheap, to buy. I believe from memory he also looked at Reading but chose Pompey probably as it was cheaper to buy & run.
Reading had a lot more potential than us at the time & were in the Championship but probably looked at the players & Manager's wages & went into melt down!
Thats quite a ridiculous statement no offence intended. Reading have always been a much smaller club than Pompey and always will be. Any football fan will tell you that. Pompey have a much a bigger following and many more trophies.
Reading have a newer stadium and barely championship status still but they don't have anywhere near the potential Pompey do.
Pompey will always be the much bigger club. Reading are just another MK Dons, a nothing club.
(25-03-2022, 04:44 PM)BlueArmy Wrote: [ -> ] (25-03-2022, 04:09 PM)mikey393 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think anyone of us know the real reason for buying the club except it had potential & it was dirt cheap, to buy. I believe from memory he also looked at Reading but chose Pompey probably as it was cheaper to buy & run.
Reading had a lot more potential than us at the time & were in the Championship but probably looked at the players & Manager's wages & went into melt down!
Thats quite a ridiculous statement no offence intended. Reading have always been a much smaller club than Pompey and always will be. Any football fan will tell you that. Pompey have a much a bigger following and many more trophies.
Reading have a newer stadium and barely championship status still but they don't have anywhere near the potential Pompey do.
Pompey will always be the much bigger club. Reading are just another MK Dons, a nothing club.
also similar to MK as if they build a big away end they can often fill it due to good transport links to all the London Clubs at least. A nice little earner
just rewatched the video. The differences to be in place behind the stands look massive. And the video of pinch points really make clear why H&S wanted them changed. All of the new outlets should massively increase the potential income form fans, I suppose that depends on whether the club or a contractor takes the profit? Once this is all in place we should have a ground ready for the team to move up a level, fingers crossed. Its only taken these owners five years compared to a whole lot of nothing since El Tel
We will still need an increase in capacity Hammie. If we are doing well at the top in any league we will be looking at least at 25k plus at least.
(24-03-2022, 02:48 PM)BlueArmy Wrote: [ -> ]We could definitely average 25,000 to 30,000 in the premiership. That will never change. We could get 40,000 for the big games.
All things considered a 25,000 to 30,000 capacity would be OK.
We just need to improve the stadium for the matchday experience. The matchday facilities in the prem were an absolute disgrace. Improve those and if we are doing well too crowds would improve greatly as we improve.
The crowds increase if the team is doing well, always have, always will.
Match day ‘facilities’ have very little impact on crowd numbers because most people go for the football, not the facilities.
I agree that a capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 would suit us just fine.
There must be a record somewhere, but I feel that many more women attend now than did in our era Gaff.
And experience tells me that they do like a bit of comfort.
and we badly need to attract and keep children coming along, several comments online this season of young supporters asking NOT TO GO
I really like the look of the fan zone at places such as Plymouth. Apart from anything else the club want some of the prematch spend to improve the team. It also reduces the last minute rush to get in
Women do prefer not to queue for an hour for a toilet too.
On top of all that. If we served a burger like they did at MK (as compared to our limp burnt offering) I'd buy one every game and queue up at the outside hatcheries at other times too!
I think that children will always supports who their family supports.
Me and my brothers started supporting and attending Pompey games because my dad has always been a Pompey fan.
Pompey definitely need a capacity of 25k to 30k.
Of course neutrals will generally go and watch teams doing well, whatever the league.
If Pompey were top of league one right now, we could be selling 25,000 in this league.
Pompey will always have a good fanbase but we need a bigger stadium to allow more fans to attend.
I really hope the club in the next few years continues building above 20,000 capacity because 20,000 won't be enough when we get in the championship, especially if we are doing well.
(27-03-2022, 09:27 AM)Isaac Hunt Wrote: [ -> ]There must be a record somewhere, but I feel that many more women attend now than did in our era Gaff.
And experience tells me that they do like a bit of comfort.
I take your point about more women going Isaac.
However, in the last few years I’ve taken a couple of my nieces to their first game (they were never interested when they were very young) and they were much more interested in the atmosphere than the comfort.
The same is true of most of the girlfriends I’ve taken over the years. The only ones for whom comfort was a priority were the ones who didn’t really like football and only attended because I was going.
Football isn’t like other forms of entertainment, it is much more about the passion than the surroundings.
Having said that, women are far more concerned about the toilet facilities than men are and I think more could be done in that regard.
I want a decent stadium of course, but I’m far more concerned with capacity and ability to generate an atmosphere than the quality of the catering and the toilet facilities. We really don’t want a prawn sandwich type ground, the experience would be much diminished if we went down that road.
Somewhere along the line the "build it and they will come" philosophy seems to have missed Portsea island despite it holding true with almost every other club around. Thinking back can you possibly believe that scum & Brighton could build and then fill 30k stadiums?
With that, who could possibly believe that if Pompey did the same we couldn't fill the stadium? Wembley and parades suggest that we still have a greater pull and catchment area.
(27-03-2022, 11:47 AM)SW4Blue Wrote: [ -> ]Somewhere along the line the "build it and they will come" philosophy seems to have missed Portsea island despite it holding true with almost every other club around. Thinking back can you possibly believe that scum & Brighton could build and then fill 30k stadiums?
With that, who could possibly believe that if Pompey did the same we couldn't fill the stadium? Wembley and parades suggest that we still have a greater pull and catchment area.
I agree, but redeveloping fratton to 25k to 30k is the way to go as opposed to moving stadium. Most people seem to be of this opinion. Our capacity will improve greatly in the near future.
(27-03-2022, 11:39 AM)exgaffer Wrote: [ -> ] (27-03-2022, 09:27 AM)Isaac Hunt Wrote: [ -> ]There must be a record somewhere, but I feel that many more women attend now than did in our era Gaff.
And experience tells me that they do like a bit of comfort.
I take your point about more women going Isaac.
However, in the last few years I’ve taken a couple of my nieces to their first game (they were never interested when they were very young) and they were much more interested in the atmosphere than the comfort.
The same is true of most of the girlfriends I’ve taken over the years. The only ones for whom comfort was a priority were the ones who didn’t really like football and only attended because I was going.
Football isn’t like other forms of entertainment, it is much more about the passion than the surroundings.
Having said that, women are far more concerned about the toilet facilities than men are and I think more could be done in that regard.
I want a decent stadium of course, but I’m far more concerned with capacity and ability to generate an atmosphere than the quality of the catering and the toilet facilities. We really don’t want a prawn sandwich type ground, the experience would be much diminished if we went down that road.
Well I think that prawn sandwiches would be served in the boxes behind glass and wouldn`t necessarily affect the atmosphere.
And we should have boxes...good income but where ?
(25-03-2022, 04:44 PM)BlueArmy Wrote: [ -> ] (25-03-2022, 04:09 PM)mikey393 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think anyone of us know the real reason for buying the club except it had potential & it was dirt cheap, to buy. I believe from memory he also looked at Reading but chose Pompey probably as it was cheaper to buy & run.
Reading had a lot more potential than us at the time & were in the Championship but probably looked at the players & Manager's wages & went into melt down!
Thats quite a ridiculous statement no offence intended. Reading have always been a much smaller club than Pompey and always will be. Any football fan will tell you that. Pompey have a much a bigger following and many more trophies.
Reading have a newer stadium and barely championship status still but they don't have anywhere near the potential Pompey do.
Pompey will always be the much bigger club. Reading are just another MK Dons, a nothing club.
None taken, but looking at recent history they're doing better than us in a higher division. The facts speak for themselves. Reading has a much better infrastruture with U/18 & U/23 teams also Paul Ince currently as manager. They've had a 6 point deduction which doesn't help but look lik ethey can survivre this season.
We are No longer a big club most on here agree with that now. Under the current owner I can't see that changing either.
Pompey has a lot more long term potential under the right ownership but currently we are just treading water. It's just potential until a new owner turns it into reality.
(27-03-2022, 02:28 PM)mikey393 Wrote: [ -> ] (25-03-2022, 04:44 PM)BlueArmy Wrote: [ -> ] (25-03-2022, 04:09 PM)mikey393 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think anyone of us know the real reason for buying the club except it had potential & it was dirt cheap, to buy. I believe from memory he also looked at Reading but chose Pompey probably as it was cheaper to buy & run.
Reading had a lot more potential than us at the time & were in the Championship but probably looked at the players & Manager's wages & went into melt down!
Thats quite a ridiculous statement no offence intended. Reading have always been a much smaller club than Pompey and always will be. Any football fan will tell you that. Pompey have a much a bigger following and many more trophies.
Reading have a newer stadium and barely championship status still but they don't have anywhere near the potential Pompey do.
Pompey will always be the much bigger club. Reading are just another MK Dons, a nothing club.
None taken, but looking at recent history they're doing better than us in a higher division. The facts speak for themselves. Reading has a much better infrastruture with U/18 & U/23 teams also Paul Ince currently as manager. They've had a 6 point deduction which doesn't help but look lik ethey can survivre this season.
We are No longer a big club most on here agree with that now. Under the current owner I can't see that changing either.
Pompey has a lot more long term potential under the right ownership but currently we are just treading water. It's just potential until a new owner turns it into reality.
To be fair a lot of smaller clubs have a better infrastructure than Pompey but it looks like that is changing. Albeit slower than we'd like.
We now own our own training ground, and we are improving fp ready for sometime in the near future a redeveloped North stand to include the lower tier.
We'd all love it to happen instantly but the Eisners are developing the club slowly. I have faith in them.
Pompey in my mind and a lot of peoples mind will always be a big club with a great fanbase and history, and at the very least we will always be a bigger club than the likes of Reading, Bristol City etc.
We have great potential and I am sure that in time we will realise that with the Eisners. These things just don't happen overnight.
I listened to the exec's comments at the start of the month. He specifically replied with a new top North bringing capacity to @25K with room to fill in the corners being part of the new plan. That would seem enough. Especially if we remember that prem prices doubled the ST cost the last time we were there.
How many of those with a family row of STs sitting empty on many non Saturday games could maintain that expense in the Prem with very few Saturday pm kick offs at all. ??
Pompey remain a much bigger club than either scum or Brighton - traditionally our capacity was 50% higher than scum's and even allowing for Pompey's relative economic decline, we still have the potential to exceed their capacity by at least 25%........ meaning a 40k Fratton Park should be viable...... eventually!
Of course, it'll take a long time to redevelop FP and the long-term key to reaching 40k surely has to involve turning the ground around by 90 degrees........ and talk of the electricity sub station ruling that ambition out is nonsense...... it'll cost a handful of million to sort out which is peanuts in the overall scheme of things if we take a long-term view!
(27-03-2022, 08:37 PM)Pompey_in_Derby Wrote: [ -> ]Pompey remain a much bigger club than either scum or Brighton - traditionally our capacity was 50% higher than scum's and even allowing for Pompey's relative economic decline, we still have the potential to exceed their capacity by at least 25%........ meaning a 40k Fratton Park should be viable...... eventually!
Of course, it'll take a long time to redevelop FP and the long-term key to reaching 40k surely has to involve turning the ground around by 90 degrees........ and talk of the electricity sub station ruling that ambition out is nonsense...... it'll cost a handful of million to sort out which is peanuts in the overall scheme of things if we take a long-term view!
Now that's the sort of vision stuff I like to see.
I did a piece of work a while ago that looked at what was euphemistically called "Greater Pompey" which went from bandit country in the West, up to north of Petersfield, across to Midhurst and then down to the coast beyond Bognor. That is the club's natural catchment area and with a suitable capacity there is the opportunity to target schools and families across the area to get them to come to their club and the City.
Vision plus some "means", that is all that is needed.
The Eisners have the "means", but.....
(27-03-2022, 10:24 PM)SW4Blue Wrote: [ -> ] (27-03-2022, 08:37 PM)Pompey_in_Derby Wrote: [ -> ]Pompey remain a much bigger club than either scum or Brighton - traditionally our capacity was 50% higher than scum's and even allowing for Pompey's relative economic decline, we still have the potential to exceed their capacity by at least 25%........ meaning a 40k Fratton Park should be viable...... eventually!
Of course, it'll take a long time to redevelop FP and the long-term key to reaching 40k surely has to involve turning the ground around by 90 degrees........ and talk of the electricity sub station ruling that ambition out is nonsense...... it'll cost a handful of million to sort out which is peanuts in the overall scheme of things if we take a long-term view!
Now that's the sort of vision stuff I like to see.
I did a piece of work a while ago that looked at what was euphemistically called "Greater Pompey" which went from bandit country in the West, up to north of Petersfield, across to Midhurst and then down to the coast beyond Bognor. That is the club's natural catchment area and with a suitable capacity there is the opportunity to target schools and families across the area to get them to come to their club and the City.
Vision plus some "means", that is all that is needed.
The Eisners have the "means", but.....
I know quite a few pompey fans that come from those areas. They will always be Pompey areas.
More will come to games from those areas when we start doing well. That's how football fans are usually.