St. James Park - Championship Ground

[SEA Grecian]

Surely this discussion is about realising a situation where we’re not thinking LG2 is our natural destination after a period of success, but making LG1 our default position with the odd period at championship level.
No one is denying the barriers to City growing the club, but selling out 5 home games in a row is a financial bleddy disaster for a business the size of ECFC and worthy IMO of a response from the club.
The moment we pat ourselves on the back and say everything is rosy and do nothing, we’re going backwards.

The club are giving a financial update at the fan's forum on Thursday. Could be a good opportunity to raise the issue then if it's not already covered in the update.

 

[tavyred]

What about if it cost us £5m to sell 500 more tickets?

It’s not difficult to understand our predicament and I know you do, but to claim selling the ground out is a “financial disaster” is about as hyperbolic as saying, I don’t know, and I’m picking a topic at random here, that Brexit was a success for Britain

I’m not going to labour the point Fred as I’m sure you understand it, but if we do reach a point where ‘sell outs’ are the norm and we end up losing out on much needed matchday income because of it, it will be deemed (and already is IMO) a ‘financial disaster’© for a business like ECFC where growing the fanbase is the holy grail.
As an aside, I hope it’s not escaped your attention that our current success on the pitch has coincided with Brexit. The sunlit uplands are here!

 

[Red Bill]

I’m not going to labour the point Fred as I’m sure you understand it, but if we do reach a point where ‘sell outs’ are the norm and we end up losing out on much needed matchday income because of it, it will be deemed (and already is IMO) a ‘financial disaster’© for a business like ECFC where growing the fanbase is the holy grail.
As an aside, I hope it’s not escaped your attention that our current success on the pitch has coincided with Brexit. The sunlit uplands are here!

Whilst i understand what you're saying Tavy, you have to calculate whether the extra revenue generated from the additional capacity will be enough to recover more than the outlay required to provide that additional capacity. Because if it isnt then we would actually be worse off.
I would love it if we could build a bigger and better stand at the st james road end and fill in the corners where possible, but before we did any of that we would have to be pretty certain that we could fill those seats, something that at present we we have no idea about, and i don't think that until we have a sustained period where we establish ourselves as a L1 club, we will not be able to gauge. So for now that should be our target and to achieve that, we need to keep off field costs down so we can invest in the team as much as possible.

 

[Antony Moxey]

It can’t be that hard to build a tunnel over the railway line and build the other half of our Stanno stand. There is a tunnel on that train line to Exmouth about 500 yards down. I’m no engineer but it can’t be that hard to build a tunnel or find a solution in this day and age surely.

It's not the engineering that's the problem, it's Network Rail. The costs involved regarding indemnities, insurances etc are eyewatering, simply because it involves building near or over a railway line. The actual building work itself would be a fairly simple task.

 

[Hants_red]

It's not the engineering that's the problem, it's Network Rail. The costs involved regarding indemnities, insurances etc are eyewatering, simply because it involves building near or over a railway line. The actual building work itself would be a fairly simple task.

Since the collapse of an area built over the line near Milton Keynes a few years back, Network Rail won't allow such builds now.

 

[tom_ecfc]

Just buy up everything behind the Selco, flatten the feckin lot, build a **** off big stand with shops and some parking fronting onto Old Tivvy Road. As I keep saying, simple.

No parking and players meet at the training ground a bus it in. Coach approaches OTR met with ecfc fans, red flares and smoke bombs! No?

 

[John William]

Since the collapse of an area built over the line near Milton Keynes a few years back, Network Rail won't allow such builds now.

Gerrards Cross, 2005. A cut and cover tunnel being built so a supermarket could be built above it started to collapse. It took 5 years to remedy.

Network Rail wouldn't even countenance a relatively small extension on a cantilever above their land (the own the Jungle Path but we have access rights over it).

Zero chance at SJP.

 

[Boyo]

And how many millions would it cost to increase the capacity to accommodate an extra couple of thousand a couple of times a year?

No one knows, and that's why I would like the Club to review and consider options.

 

[DJG.ECFC]

I think I disagree. Looking at the dire financial state of English club rugby, I think the SP option could be a distinct possibility in the future.
Who’s to say that the Chiefs potential financial meltdown doesn’t mirror ours of the past and they find that the City Council ends up buying their ground as they bought ours in the 90’s.
In that scenario everything is up for discussion in my view.

I agree, If we ever did reach the champ and managed to stay there then surely ground sharing at sandy park would be a viable option even if on a temporary basis. Bristol city amongst others ground share with the egg chasers so I’d imagine it’s possible for us aswell especially if financial difficulties hit the chiefs.

 

[grecian-near-hell]

I agree, If we ever did reach the champ and managed to stay there then surely ground sharing at sandy park would be a viable option even if on a temporary basis. Bristol city amongst others ground share with the egg chasers so I’d imagine it’s possible for us aswell especially if financial difficulties hit the chiefs.

Who owns Sandy Park - the Chiefs, Tony Rowe or a Council?