New Kings Park Stadium

SF|1899 said:
Whilst the prospect of a new stadium is fantastic, I feel like the proposed capacity is slightly underwhelming. Given the local population (half a million across Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch) and the growing fanbase, surely you'd look at 20k-25k seats?
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Completely agree, don't want to be looking a gift horse in the mouth we'd be going from the 65th biggest capacity to the 52nd (according to Wikipedia).

If you ignore fellow outliers Luton, we'd go from being the smallest ground in the Premier League to the smallest ground in the Premier League or the smallest ground in the Championship to the 3rd smallest ground in the Championship.

4k more seats is better than no new seats and I'm sure the extra stuff will be excellent but with ambitions to match Brighton who are selling out 31k every week it does seem short sighted. Assuming that we achieve Europe in 2028 then we'll be moving into a brand new stadium that is already too small.

I fear that we'll add 4k new seats but also another 10k people wanting to buy them.
 
Any expansion is welcome and the prospect of a new stadium with modern facilities is to be celebrated. But agree with the general view that if we're going to the effort of planning and building from scratch, only going to 18.5k seems to sell ourselves short, and will only partially alleviate the issue of those currently shut out. Just another couple thousand would do so much more. Maybe there can be expansion potential.

Mind you, I wouldn't be surprised if BCP have already had a say in the capacity figure.
 
DJ said:
So an updated version of the previous back of a beer mat maths…

18,500 seater, 1,850 for the away fans, 3,330 for hospitality. Would see 13,320 “normal home fan” seats.

Current situation, is 11,100 seater. 1,200 for away fans, 666 for hospitality. Sees about 9,200 “normal home fan” seats.

So an increase of 4,120 for the “normal fan”?

So while the decrease from 20,000 might seem underwhelming, the impact on the normal home match day capacity isn’t dramatically different.
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3300 for hospitality! There were times when that used to be not far off the total gate!
 
Not sure if Foley is just 'testing the water' to gauge any reaction or has already decided 18,500 is the final capacity, but that is thoroughly underwhelming. I'm sure any new stadium will be an improvement on what we currently have, but this is the once in a lifetime opportunity to get AFCB set up properly forever and, from a fans perspective, it just feels like he is aiming low.
That final sentence in the quote from Foley has been my concern all along. The Americans have little or zero interest in enabling our support base to grow through getting a decent number of new fans into a stadium to watch their team; instead, its all about hospitality and shiny new restaurants with mugs paying £300 for a meal with a free programme thrown in. I think the kids walking around BCP with their AFCB tops are still going to find it hard to get tickets and/or will just be priced out of buying them.
 
First and foremost, this news is great... Regardless of capacity, it's fantastic news to hear things are actually underway, plans are being made and one would assume architects and designs have been approved (to a degree)...

Now on to the capacity... Whilst I agree that we'd all love a slightly bigger capacity, I feel that 18-19k hits the nail on the head of where we are right now... 4000 extra home seats is actually quite a lot when you consider it's an extra 50% than what we have now... and would certainly test the water on demand...

As SDD has mentioned there could be several reasons as to why we've gone low, and one might be that that is all BCP have allowed within the park... initially...

A quick read up on the AMEX shows you that BHA opened their new ground with just shy of 21k (so not miles away from us and they do have better levels of support), however, it was less than 6 months after opening that they applied to increase it's capacity, and it's kept increasing over the last decade...

I wouldn't get too hung up about the initial capacity. With a football club that has never sustained large attendances, it's prudent to tread carefully and get it right... Not build a massive white elephant and see it only 70% full each week.

Bill's interviews at 11am on TS and Alex Crook and also on BBC sounds with Kris temple could shed some more light...
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
First and foremost, this news is great... Regardless of capacity, it's fantastic news to hear things are actually underway, plans are being made and one would assume architects and designs have been approved (to a degree)...

Now on to the capacity... Whilst I agree that we'd all love a slightly bigger capacity, I feel that 18-19k hits the nail on the head of where we are right now... 4000 extra home seats is actually quite a lot when you consider it's an extra 50% than what we have now... and would certainly test the water on demand...

As SDD has mentioned there could be several reasons as to why we've gone low, and one might be that that is all BCP have allowed within the park... initially...

A quick read up on the AMEX shows you that BHA opened their new ground with just shy of 21k (so not miles away from us and they do have better levels of support), however, it was less than 6 months after opening that they applied to increase it's capacity, and it's kept increasing over the last decade...

I wouldn't get too hung up about the initial capacity. With a football club that has never sustained large attendances, it's prudent to tread carefully and get it right... Not build a massive white elephant and see it only 70% full each week.

Bill's interviews at 11am on TS and Alex Crook and also on BBC sounds with Kris temple could shed some more light...
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Good post, well framed :)

And yes, no-ones mentioned the proper progress being good news.

Ii know some are a little 'ill believe it when I see/sat in it' but I have little date Foley is the real and will actually deliver this. Which is monumental achievement.

And in Kings Park too. Imagine weird it'd be if it wad build out towards Ringwood or someone closer to home.

Our home is staying where, I assume, most want it. Thst is a massive plus, and peace of mind imo...(haven't slept properly in years, worrying about it... ;))

I reckon council are on board with tbe proposal... they went to some kind of consultation with them didn't they. So likely agreed behind the scenes.

No doubt we'll get some push back from thst Kings Park committee and the malcontents who are part of it, but I'm confident they'll be swept aside like a couple of stray leaves on your car bonnet.

They may keep future expansion on quiet side, to minimze antics, push back from that committee.
 
RobTrent said:
Disappointingly smalll increase but it’s not my money.

Does rather make a mockery of all the fiddling with the points system though.
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Playing Devil's advocate... let's say that 18.5k is 100% Bill's doing and that is what he believes is the good [starting] point to go in at...

How do we know "all the fiddling of the points system" isn't the reason behind this figure... Maybe their experiment has made them think demand isn't quite what we all think it could be/is...? ;)
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
First and foremost, this news is great... Regardless of capacity, it's fantastic news to hear things are actually underway, plans are being made and one would assume architects and designs have been approved (to a degree)...

Now on to the capacity... Whilst I agree that we'd all love a slightly bigger capacity, I feel that 18-19k hits the nail on the head of where we are right now... 4000 extra home seats is actually quite a lot when you consider it's an extra 50% than what we have now... and would certainly test the water on demand...

As SDD has mentioned there could be several reasons as to why we've gone low, and one might be that that is all BCP have allowed within the park... initially...

A quick read up on the AMEX shows you that BHA opened their new ground with just shy of 21k (so not miles away from us and they do have better levels of support), however, it was less than 6 months after opening that they applied to increase it's capacity, and it's kept increasing over the last decade...

I wouldn't get too hung up about the initial capacity. With a football club that has never sustained large attendances, it's prudent to tread carefully and get it right... Not build a massive white elephant and see it only 70% full each week.

Bill's interviews at 11am on TS and Alex Crook and also on BBC sounds with Kris temple could shed some more light...
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So yeah as mentioned in my previous post something is infinity better than nothing.

To make the Brighton comparison fair, they had something close to 9k capacity at the Withdean and sold on average about 6k to getting about 20k out of 21k in the Amex, in the Championship. It was extended to about 32k within 2 years of opening with attendances around 26k in the Championship.

I know it's against the spirit of your comment about our attendances but didn't we get something like 30k for the Man Utd match back in the day?

For a ground to be 70% empty it would need to be near 40k and would require that no new home or away fans attend.
 
DJ said:
On the Solent interview, Foley mentions the 18,500 is expandable with a south stand capable of having a second tier which would increase capacity to 22,000.
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Oooh - first indication of potential orientation of the new ground. Sounds like we’ll be the first club to rotate their stadium twice!
 
In his Solent interview Bill states that the new stadium can easily be expanded to 22000 seats through the addition of an extra tier on one of the stands ( he said south stand but then admitted that he wasn't quite sure which one ).

So 18500 seats is definitely a provisional size with expansion very much planned, should demand be confirmed.

Sounds sensible to me.
 
So on TS, they mentioned 18.5k with expansion to 21-22k "being enough..." It seems that for now, 22k is the point that we're at, and I mist admit, although I appear to be alone in this... I think that that would be a good number.

I'm not comparing us to anyone, to looking at how big we'd be in the pyramid, I'm looking at it for us and I think 22k would be more than enough to see it full and mostly full, most of the time...
 
thegazzyb said:
In his Solent interview Bill states that the new stadium can easily be expanded to 22000 seats through the addition of an extra tier on one of the stands ( he said south stand but then admitted that he wasn't quite sure which one ).

So 18500 seats is definitely a provisional size with expansion very much planned, should demand be confirmed.

Sounds sensible to me.
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Ah ignore my post above then!
 
yoof said:
Oooh - first indication of potential orientation of the new ground. Sounds like we’ll be the first club to rotate their stadium twice!
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I think you’re probably right. Those numbers for a second tier does sound more likely to be a stand along the length of the pitch rather than behind the goal.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
So on TS, they mentioned 18.5k with expansion to 21-22k "being enough..." It seems that for now, 22k is the point that we're at, and I mist admit, although I appear to be alone in this... I think that that would be a good number.

I'm not comparing us to anyone, to looking at how big we'd be in the pyramid, I'm looking at it for us and I think 22k would be more than enough to see it full and mostly full, most of the time...
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They'll quickly recognise if ticket availability becomes an issue and they'd be mad not to address it.

So I'd rather start small, have the stadium largely full with a great atmosphere and then go for expansion as soon as ticket availability becomes a problem ( to the extent that it is now ).

If we then go on to sell out a 22k stadium with fans still being unable to get tickets, then I'm sure that further expansion would be considered.

From the very beginning Bill has said that he wants to change the fan demographic, less old geezers, more youngsters. So having home tickets readily available is a key part of that.

Hopefully from 2027 onwards, the days of wanting to go to the odd game but struggling to find a ticket at short notice will be over.
 
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