Austadiums Forum

Boba Fett wrote:I'm yet to be convinced that the capacity needs to be much more than 25k anyway.

The current capacity is fine. A refurb would be nice.

Big crowds aren't the only way to sure up a club's foundations.

yob wrote:

Boba Fett wrote:I'm yet to be convinced that the capacity needs to be much more than 25k anyway.

The current capacity is fine. A refurb would be nice.

Big crowds aren't the only way to sure up a club's foundations.

They're not the only way, but they help.
A capacity increase is essential. An upgrade of facilities is even more essential.

St James wrote:

yob wrote:

Boba Fett wrote:I'm yet to be convinced that the capacity needs to be much more than 25k anyway.

The current capacity is fine. A refurb would be nice.

Big crowds aren't the only way to sure up a club's foundations.

They're not the only way, but they help.
A capacity increase is essential. An upgrade of facilities is even more essential.

We were all outraged at the small size of the MRS. Over the medium term it proved slightly on the large side. Even though MV were averaging more than the proposed capacity at the time.

Sheffield United is in the 3rd tier of English football - and it's not because they have 4k fewer seats than Tottenham. And Tottenham in turn have nipped at Man U's heels with 40k fewer seats.

One thing that drives the success of clubs is the exclusivity of membership. Don't hop off, you'll wait to get back on. It's a proven model. West Coast and Adelaide Crows have banked it for 25 years.

Just another point- West Coast have fewer no shows from 43,000 ticket sales than the Wanderers do from 20,000. Not to say the Wanderers are bad at it, rather, West Coast's good at it.

It's hard to justify an expansion when 4,000 seats are empty, sell out or not. The absolute best the club can do is 2,000 empty, from current evidence. So, sell 2,000 more seats at the gate. Use pre sale data to ensure you don't oversell. It's done everywhere else - the MCG, Subiaco, airlines.

So my original point wasn't that they need to expand to something bigger right now, more that I can't see the point of closing the door on it.

Wanderers has signed nearly 16k members again and the waiting list has more than doubled so far this season. At the season launch this week the CEO indicated the uptake of ticketed and non ticketed memberships could reach 20k. One of the reasons for the increase in the size of the waiting list is that the club for the first time has introduced a buy back scheme and members on the waiting list have preference in purchasing unallocated seats and seats that are returned to the club for resale by members. In addition to the buy back scheme there is an email ticket transfer scheme where members can send their ticket to whoever they want to on a game by game basis. It is expected that these initiatives will see attendances rise. It will be interesting to see whether demand still exceeds supply as occurred in 12 of the 13 games last season.

Seat resale is the low hanging fruit here. It just seems they're making it harder than it is. Just sell the damn things at the door. You get good data from advance sales, you've got good data on weather, public holidays, etc etc.

On expansion, Pirtek is ripe for temporary seating at each end. And it doesn't take long to erect - we got it up for the final against Melbourne Knights at Hindmarsh back in the NSL days. To say Wanderers couldn't do the same would be a crafted lie. Frankly it's odd that it hasn't been done.

yob wrote:On expansion, Pirtek is ripe for temporary seating at each end. And it doesn't take long to erect - we got it up for the final against Melbourne Knights at Hindmarsh back in the NSL days. To say Wanderers couldn't do the same would be a crafted lie. Frankly it's odd that it hasn't been done.

There are big sound barriers behind each terrace and a scoreboard behind the northern terrace:

Temporary stands are modularised. Hindmarsh had plenty in the way back in the day.

Also the bottom of the stand for spectators need not be the structural bottom. The Adelaide GP temporary seats a prime example. It was actually those very standss used at Hindmarsh.

yob wrote:Temporary stands are modularised. Hindmarsh had plenty in the way back in the day.

Also the bottom of the stand for spectators need not be the structural bottom. The Adelaide GP temporary seats a prime example. It was actually those very standss used at Hindmarsh.

But if you stilt the buggers up so you can clear the sound barriers, you're really only able to do it at the southern end or else you obscure the scoreboard. Adds, what - 1-2k? Hardly seems worth the effort.

They're really no big deal. Schools hire them for their school photos. If you have the demand in the form of a waiting list, then yeah the 200k-400k of revenue over 5 years is worth it.

English football clubs do this sort of thing for actual stadium renovation. Fulham did it almost yearly, each for an extra 1-2k.

It's all well and good to go and buy some Lego and build some temp stands to increase capacity, but the facilities at Parra aren't up to scratch for current crowds. Catering and toilet facilities that seemed modern in 1986, are well past their use by date. As I said earlier, it is these facilities that are in dire need of improvement.

St James wrote:It's all well and good to go and buy some Lego and build some temp stands to increase capacity, but the facilities at Parra aren't up to scratch for current crowds. Catering and toilet facilities that seemed modern in 1986, are well past their use by date. As I said earlier, it is these facilities that are in dire need of improvement.

Well, the catering and toilet facilities for the PLAYERS are getting upgraded. Does that count?

St James wrote:It's all well and good to go and buy some Lego and build some temp stands to increase capacity, but the facilities at Parra aren't up to scratch for current crowds.

The current capacity is fine. A refurb would be nice.

Seem pretty consistent. Not sure why you'd drag lego in to it though.

BTW I thought toilet facilities for league players was some chick's leg in a pub?

yob wrote:BTW I thought toilet facilities for league players was some chick's leg in a pub?

Or if you're Todd Carney, your own mouth.