Following on from the stadium debate on the Ipswich match thread I thought it is something worthy of its own discussion :-
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kk_white wrote:
Selby White wrote:Absolutely think long term and work towards a 60k plus stadium. West Stand should be redeveloped first in my eyes...
Would we fill 60K? Just wondering, because a jam packed 50K would be better than a glut of empty seats. Wonder how many disappointed fans cant get tix when full house signs are up?
After Bates redeveloped the East Stand by putting 25 executive boxes in, we lost 2,500 seats. That means current capacity is quoted as 38K. Is that correct though?
Think somewhere around 38k is correct but we lose around 4k for away fans along with segregation, at the Burton match they only had about 350 fans leaving a large section empty.
Why I said long term and believe that's the sort of size stadium we need to get anywhere near the top. Its a good debate what size stadium we could fill on a regular basis. I'm assuming 60k is calculating us in the Prem and would suggest in the region of 5k away fans along with around 2k empty seats for segregation. That means 53k Leeds fans to fill it and we are now comfortably selling 34k for Saturday championship games against teams that aren't big crowd pullers. Could we sell another 19k tickets when the big boys of the Prem come to town ?"
We currently have a capacity in the region of 38k but due to the away area its only around 34k for home fans (we have 20k season ticket holders).
How could we redevelop ER ?
What capacity should we aim at ?
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
Good points Selby. I wonder have any other stadiums done anything inventive re segregation. As you mentioned, we'd have approx 2k empty seats for this. I know seats are a natural obstruction to slow down any invading fans, but surely someone has come up with a better idea if these seats will always be empty?
"An astonishing number of people despise Leeds United or what Leeds United stand for. But this club was never made for them." - Phil Hay
Well I've been watching leeds for 50 years and in that time we've been in second division approx 22/50 and counting. So something to bear in mind perhaps
All Ken Bates wanted was a corporate image. So I'd get rid of the boxes in the south stand I'm not sure what extra seating we could get but that's probably the cheap option to increase capacity. Also the Cheesewedge needs to be for away fans far too many seats are now empty in the west stand.
Let's walk before we start running lads there's a long way to go we have to get up in to the premier First But for me in the future id take down the West stand and build a mirror image of the East stand it's also possible to put a extra tier on top off the kop as there land at the back off it But for now put the away fans in the wedge that gives the West stand and all the seats in there back to Leeds fans after all how many away teams fans will fill that area ???
Dubleeds wrote:Well I've been watching leeds for 50 years and in that time we've been in second division approx 22/50 and counting. So something to bear in mind perhaps
I mean to bear in mind in terms of capacity, etc. We're not exactly an ever present Spurs, Manure, etc in top division.
Agree re putting away fans in cheesewedge and developing West stand to look something similar to East but think 50K would be better idea than 60 K esp if we go down again and again.
90 miles a hour wrote:Let's walk before we start running lads there's a long way to go we have to get up in to the premier First But for me in the future id take down the West stand and build a mirror image of the East stand it's also possible to put a extra tier on top off the kop as there land at the back off it But for now put the away fans in the wedge that gives the West stand and all the seats in there back to Leeds fans after all how many away teams fans will fill that area ???
This
Exactly what I was thinking, especially given how recently the East stand was rebuilt.
I'm a big fan of corners in football stadia.
I don't mean the in-swingers (fnaar) but those pizza wedge sections of the ground. They keep the atmosphere in, the wind out and also enable us to shove away fans somewhere easy to manager if not many of them turn up.
Rebuild the West.
Double the tiers on the two kops.
Fill in the gaps.
But as 90 says, there's absolutely no need to even be thinking about this yet.
90 miles a hour wrote:Let's walk before we start running lads there's a long way to go we have to get up in to the premier First But for me in the future id take down the West stand and build a mirror image of the East stand it's also possible to put a extra tier on top off the kop as there land at the back off it But for now put the away fans in the wedge that gives the West stand and all the seats in there back to Leeds fans after all how many away teams fans will fill that area ???
This
Exactly what I was thinking, especially given how recently the East stand was rebuilt.
I'm a big fan of corners in football stadia.
I don't mean the in-swingers (fnaar) but those pizza wedge sections of the ground. They keep the atmosphere in, the wind out and also enable us to shove away fans somewhere easy to manager if not many of them turn up.
Rebuild the West.
Double the tiers on the two kops.
Fill in the gaps.
But as 90 says, there's absolutely no need to even be thinking about this yet.
Giddy kipper badges at the ready !
That's it sorted I'll get the drawing dun at the architects tomorrow and tell paddy and mick to start next May
