Capacity

[bromtom]

Old Trafford Had More Empty Seats Than The Etihad For Their Opening Home Premier League Fixture

The results make for interesting reading.

www.sportbible.com

18th. Sheffield United

Attendance (vs. Crystal Palace) - 30,197

Capacity - 32,702

Bramall Lane was 92.3% full

Our attendance is only 32,125 now so it was actually 93.998443579766536% full, 94% if you're feeling generous.

And I bet 4% of the 6% empty seats are restricted view.

 

[BushBlade]

I know quite a few people who are away on holiday for both the Palace & Leicester matches who otherwise would have come. There must be loads of those.

There is, a lot of them are posting on here telling us where they are.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

We are not Hull though

A redeveloped kop lasts forever signing a player doesn’t

Would you rather sign lys moussett or redevelop the KOP

Both! I really wish fans would stop thinking about balance sheets and the financial prudence of our club and dream a little bit more. We are the punters and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with us dreaming about new super star players and a magnificent stadium for them to play in. It’s for the suits in boardroom to burst our bubble about such matters.
I so much want my club to become stronger, bigger and more successful and I know this won’t happen overnight. But supporting a club isn’t just about roaring them on to success on the pitch, it’s also about pushing them to make decisions off it including improvements to the stadium.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Both! I really wish fans would stop thinking about balance sheets and the financial prudence of our club and dream a little bit more. We are the punters and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with us dreaming about new super star players and a magnificent stadium for them to play in. It’s for the suits in boardroom to burst our bubble about such matters.
I so much want my club to become stronger, bigger and more successful and I know this won’t happen overnight. But supporting a club isn’t just about roaring them on to success on the pitch, it’s also about pushing them to make decisions off it including improvements to the stadium.

To a degree.
In lots of ways, I'd rather be in the Lane as it is now, rather than in a 50k stadium, with 35k fans in it.
I'd also, rather be in a full 32k stadium, in the prem, buying the players we need to continue, than in Championship buying nothing because of super-stadium debt.
Lets evolve and see where we get. In fairness to the club, they have steadily improved the stadium over recent years in a common sense way.

 

[YES Blade]

To a degree.
In lots of ways, I'd rather be in the Lane as it is now, rather than in a 50k stadium, with 35k fans in it.
I'd also, rather be in a full 32k stadium, in the prem, buying the players we need to continue, than in Championship buying nothing because of super-stadium debt.
Lets evolve and see where we get. In fairness to the club, they have steadily improved the stadium over recent years in a common sense way.

I agree with all of that, to me it's why we shouldn't rush into the Kop and South Stand developments, lets face it those plans largely drawn up because McCabe wanted 2018 World Cup matches at the Lane.

We should look at and consider all options, before we do anything. Would it be better to try and build up some cash over a number of years (assuming we stay in the Prem) to a "do a Spurs" on smaller scale? Could we look at building a new Kop and South Stand, but further away from the pitch to allow a new Lane End and John Street to be built? Could we look at buying houses/businesses etc in order to provide more room? (I'm aware some won't be feasible at all, they're just examples)

I just think that those plans were drawn up in 2006/2007 and a lot has changed in that time, so we should at least consider other options being rushing into a development which will be in place for probably 30+ years. I'd hate us to end up building another eyesore like the Kop Corner and that new TV studio and being stuck with it for the rest of my life going to the Lane.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

The women's euros and rugby league world cup will probably limit when we can do any work so i suspect nothing major until they are over with

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Capacity is just over 31,800 (29k home fans)
ST holders is just over 22,000 (7k left for normal tickets)

I think many more people would randomly like to get a one off ST as it works our cheaper etc etc so I'm always surprised when fans say we don't need a bigger capacity? We don't do more STs.

I know we can't afford to improve BDTBL but an extra few thousand would be better for our growing fanbase. Like I said we can only get 31.8k and that's with a full away end so it's a shame we don't have more seats.

Sorry but if Pigs can get bigger crowds for odd games (bigger capacity) then we can...

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

It makes no sense for fans to say we don’t need a bigger capacity if we want to be a Premier League mainstay. The current capacity limits our growth if no matter what we do new fans can’t attend the Lane because it’s pretty much sold out every game. We need at least another 5000 home seats now and see how we go with that.

 

[Wapping Blade]

It makes no sense for fans to say we don’t need a bigger capacity if we want to be a Premier League mainstay. The current capacity limits our growth if no matter what we do new fans can’t attend the Lane because it’s pretty much sold out every game. We need at least another 5000 home seats now and see how we go with that.

Agreed but they need to be decent seats, I think a lot of what holds us back is the shite seats remaining for the more casual fans.

 

[Keef Chedwyn]

Makes me absolutely piss myself when people go on about making the ground bigger.
It's exactly the right size for when everyone wants to go, and that's including a few cheeky Liverpool or Man United fans in the home end when we play them.
If we can't sell 32,000 for an FA Cup semi final then we don't need more than 32,000 capacity for other games.

 

[bladesmanluke]

Makes me absolutely piss myself when people go on about making the ground bigger.
It's exactly the right size for when everyone wants to go, and that's including a few cheeky Liverpool or Man United fans in the home end when we play them.
If we can't sell 32,000 for an FA Cup semi final then we don't need more than 32,000 capacity for other games.

I'm sorry, but you're talking absolute bollocks here. We've just averaged nearly 29k in the Championship

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Makes me absolutely piss myself when people go on about making the ground bigger.
It's exactly the right size for when everyone wants to go, and that's including a few cheeky Liverpool or Man United fans in the home end when we play them.
If we can't sell 32,000 for an FA Cup semi final then we don't need more than 32,000 capacity for other games.

Selling whatever we sold against Man City in a FA Cup semi final has nothing whatsoever with how many seats we need as a top flight club.

If it were left to the likes of you we would have a capacity of about twenty thousand because there was a time not so long ago that’s all we averaged in the top flight.

How many times could we have sold 35000 plus in our recent stint in the Premier League against the likes of Arsenal and Man U, therefore increasing our average gate?

 

[nopigfansintown]

The same sentiment said the Westfield corner and Kop corner wasn't needed, and that it was unnecessary to put Blades on the Bramall Lane upper.

United's home following has increased to the extent we are more or less filling three more stands in the second tier. This is despite the terrible facilities on the Kop and the barely acceptable stuff on some other stands. Also a large amount of restricted and semi restricted seats.More than pretty much any Champ/Prem ground I'd hazard.

Season ticket restrictions. Last time in the Prem a mate, a long time season ticket holder, missed the renewal deadline. He waited for them to go back on sale and was told they all went in the first spell.

The most expensive matchday tickets sell out on the regular. Get ont Kop!

Several stands have joke facilities for 2023. There's a clientele out there that view such things with an importance that many fans (myself included) don't. Football has moved on. If you don't think this is the case look at the exponential growth that clubs that have new grounds/ improved facilities have seen. Again, look at which stands are basically sold out for every Prem/Champ game.

Hospitality offering. See above. A lot of potential here. Not just with Blades but also Prem visitors/events and football tourists in the Prem.

 

[Wapping Blade]

Makes me absolutely piss myself when people go on about making the ground bigger.
It's exactly the right size for when everyone wants to go, and that's including a few cheeky Liverpool or Man United fans in the home end when we play them.
If we can't sell 32,000 for an FA Cup semi final then we don't need more than 32,000 capacity for other games.

As my point earlier, we need more better seats with better facilities.

 

[originaltrueblade]

In an ideal world with a rich owner...The Kop developments and the South Stand Second tier would be just the job

 

[Pedro Verde]

As my point earlier, we need more better seats with better facilities.

We do but we also need to make it easier for the casual fan to be able to buy a ticket to grow our fan base
One of the reasons we didnt sell out at Wembley was because of the appalling way they sold the tickets

 

[Wapping Blade]

We do but we also need to make it easier for the casual fan to be able to buy a ticket to grow our fan base
One of the reasons we didnt sell out at Wembley was because of the appalling way they sold the tickets

Yes, but part of that is the limited capacity with a lot of shite seats so the good tickets are rationed.

 

[ancientblade]

weve too many restricted view seats for a start plus 1970s facilities on the kop i think 32k is ok for the fanbase weve got on top of that although weve got fantastic pricing for season tickets matchday pricing is still too high for fans who for one reason or another can only get to a set number of games a season will actually be very interesting to see how much we charge our fans for matchday tickets next season with the premier league capping away tickets at max £30

 

[S64 Blade]

We increased our average gates by at least 4,000 each time we’ve been promoted to the top flight. It’s impossible for us to do this next season.

We’ve just averaged just under 29k in the championship (with the kop closed for match day sales for more than half the season).

Saying we don’t need to think about expanding the ground to capitalise on our success is backwards.

How we fund it, of course, is another matter entirely…

 

[Houston_Blade]

Makes me absolutely piss myself when people go on about making the ground bigger.
It's exactly the right size for when everyone wants to go, and that's including a few cheeky Liverpool or Man United fans in the home end when we play them.
If we can't sell 32,000 for an FA Cup semi final then we don't need more than 32,000 capacity for other games.

You’ll get pelters for that viewpoint off the deluded few who think we’d be getting 40k if it was big enough.

Not a chance in my opinion. Improve the kop but the ground is fine at 32k.

 

[Keen Blade]

There are about 6 priorities ahead of the ground when it comes to funding.

 

[Keen Blade]

There is no better view for casual fans
than BLUT and yet it was nowhere near sold out until the kop restrictions happened - let's see what happens to those restrictions at the start of next season.
Don't forget , the PL income is about £150m and the total gate income from a full season is very insignificant in comparison - so there is no business case to invest in the ground at the expense of our chances of staying up.
Until we get a rich owner or otherwise steady our finances , don't expect a penny to be spent on the ground - it just doesn't make fiscal sense.

 

[S64 Blade]

You’ll get pelters for that viewpoint off the deluded few who think we’d be getting 40k if it was big enough.

Not a chance in my opinion. Improve the kop but the ground is fine at 32k.

We’ll never get 40k if it’s not big enough.

I don’t think it needs to be a case of 32k and then straight up to 40k.

The kop expansion IIRC would have added around 3k extra seats.

A less than 10% increase in the capacity of a ground that last season was around 90% full, on average, isn’t being unrealistic when factoring in potential growth.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

You’ll get pelters for that viewpoint off the deluded few who think we’d be getting 40k if it was big enough.

Not a chance in my opinion. Improve the kop but the ground is fine at 32k.

Haven’t seen anybody suggesting 40k plus, only that we could do with a few extra seats for home fans, which would then in turn allow for more away fans in the upper tier.

Its not deluded to think we could fill 35-37000 when we are currently getting 29000 in the Championship and are limited to about 30500 average in the Premier League.

I just don’t get why anyone thinks we can’t average a few more when in the Premier League, we pretty much sell out every match despite the ticketing restrictions we impose on those who wish to get a ticket but are not allowed to.

 

[Kizmet]

We could build a standing area at the back of the kop

 

[Gimli]

There is no better view for casual fans
than BLUT and yet it was nowhere near sold out until the kop restrictions happened - let's see what happens to those restrictions at the start of next season.
Don't forget , the PL income is about £150m and the total gate income from a full season is very insignificant in comparison - so there is no business case to invest in the ground at the expense of our chances of staying up.
Until we get a rich owner or otherwise steady our finances , don't expect a penny to be spent on the ground - it just doesn't make fiscal sense.

I don’t agree that gate income is ‘very insignificant’.

Television income is of course the biggest source of revenue but Matchday income will still be in the millions for us next year.

 

[originaltrueblade]

You’ll get pelters for that viewpoint off the deluded few who think we’d be getting 40k if it was big enough.

Not a chance in my opinion. Improve the kop but the ground is fine at 32k.

West Ham the shammers average gate just over 30,000 not always filled moved into bigger stadium 60,000
Sunderland another example just saying

 

[haich1889]

Latest figure I've seen is around 32607 but this is from last season, some fans lost seats this season due to press/corporate so would love to know what the syp/premier have come to a conclusion on.

South Yorkshire police will no doubt insist on their usual 50 yards segregation between fans so expect capacity below 30 000.

Why is it every where else in the country regardless who the teams are, segregation is a line of stewards but in Sheffield we close half the ground??

 

[Kizmet]

If you dont move forwards you go backwards

 

[nopigfansintown]

We’ll never get 40k if it’s not big enough.

I don’t think it needs to be a case of 32k and then straight up to 40k.

The kop expansion IIRC would have added around 3k extra seats.

A less than 10% increase in the capacity of a ground that last season was around 90% full, on average, isn’t being unrealistic when factoring in potential growth.

It's a myth that United couldn't head towards those numbers. For a start you can give the whole of the Lane end to away fans like we used too, including some of those that are now not sold due to segregation. Then where would you put the home fans that used to sit there?