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St. James Park - Championship Ground

SEA Grecian

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Forest green fans can pay on the day going by their twitter. There should have been a cut off point and any remaining unsold tickets go to us
If we'd predicted earlier that the home ends were going to sell out than we presumably would have made some arrangements to get City fans in the away end as we did against Barrow. However, I don't think anyone saw this sell-out coming.
 

Pete Martin (CTID)

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Another home sell-out, this time against bottom team FGR. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️
This has the potential to become a thorny issue for those at the club who’s job it is to grow the club and realise its full potential.
On the face of it a bun fight for tickets every home game is a success story, but it also highlights a new problem that perhaps we are outgrowing our beloved SJP as it is currently configured.
Exeter and the surrounding areas are growing population wise and it may become an almost dereliction of duty if there aren’t discussions at the club where all options aren’t discussed.
I can see a situation in the close season where to escape the aforementioned bun fight for tickets we sell a very large amount of season tickets and the problem is heightened further next season. I know someone who bought a ST for the BB and has missed a good half a dozen home games. All lost income.
The club acknowledging yesterday that they tried to sell home fans tickets for the away end against FGR, but couldn’t manage it, speaks volumes.
Time for an updated Drivers-Jonas report?
My money would be on it coming to similar conclusions. As someone who, at the time, was one of the Trust representatives on the Drivers Jonas 'panel', I recall particularly one of the sites being looked at was the old County Showground/Eastern Fields. From memory, a 5,000 seat stadium there was costed at £7 million, and that was in 2006-2007.

I don't blame supporters for having these dreams, but the practical reality is different. Applying for planning permission, in itself, is a lengthy, tedious, complicated and expensive process. We could be riding high in League One at the start of the process and falling back down by the time any PP is granted, with attendances falling off again. The bottom line is that a new stadium with a bigger capacity than SJP would be eye-wateringly expensive.

Another thought......what if the EFL/Premier League allow/agree (as has apparently been discussed) to EFL matches being shown on iFollow on Saturdays at 3pm (remember, non-Saturday matches - even at home - already are). Yes, many people would still want to be at SJP (myself included, whilst I still can), but the elderly, infirm, those who can't be arsed etc. would have less incentive to actually come to a live match if they could sit at home and watch. In that situation, a packed out SJP would be a more attractive watch as a streamed game than a sparsely filled bigger stadium.
 

SaintJames

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I'm in broad agreement with Pete and as another trustee at the time involved in the Drivers Jonas process the report was extensive in looking at all possible sites for relocation. Eastern Fields was mentioned as was a vague possibility around the freight depot around Stoke Hill iirc. However, realistically there weren't any feasible options in Exeter nearly 20 years ago and there certainly wont be now. Any site in East Devon would almost certainly be dismissed in less than 10 seconds by East Devon DC they wat any conceivable land within 5 miles of Exeter to be utilised for housing so that they dont have to build unduly in the 'crown jewels' of Sidmouth and Budleigh and can dump their housing allocation in the greater Exeter area. It would take an expansion of devolution with Exeter granted unitary status and a redraw of local government boundaries to make building outside of Exeter even a remote possibility. Even then the new Exeter would have the same housing needs. Of course SJP could be traded for a site but I think the City Council would much prefer a ground share with the Chiefs rather than the millions a new stadium complex would cost. Frankly, if we ended up with a Colchester type out of town stadium would that be seen as progress? I would however say that an extensive architectural report looking at the options of expanding SJP is a must. Each stand needs to be looked at in detail to explore what options if any there are to increase capacity and at what cost.
 

tom_ecfc

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Away clubs are entitled to 10% of capacity.
Any cut off arrangement has to be agreed by both clubs.
We cannot dictate to the away club in terms of entitlement.
I always thought the 10% figure was just for cup matches? Interesting!
 

tom_ecfc

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What approx. cost would a new out of town stadium cost?
 

SaintJames

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What approx. cost would a new out of town stadium cost?
£10-15M
 

Hants_red

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What approx. cost would a new out of town stadium cost?
£3k a seat?
 

SaintJames

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£3k a seat?
cheap stadium that!
 

manc grecian

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following through
Seated stand on top of the away terrace would be good. Students can do one if they complain.


Filling in the corners around the away end seems the most feasible but no way we could afford that under our current ownership
 

Red Bill

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Dec 9, 2011
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I always thought the 10% figure was just for cup matches? Interesting!
I may be wrong but I think cup matches are 15%
 
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