Stadium/houses

[Robbored]

2 minutes ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

Houses have been put up for sale on Ashton Rd over the last few years, purchased....and then gone back on the Market.

That wouldn’t happen if the club had been buying them up one at a time.

There’s a guy on our table at Senior Reds who lives in one of the houses on Ashton Rd.  

He’s  never had an approach from anyone from the club looking to buy his property and nor has anyone else he knows who live in Ashton Rd.

Draw your own conclusions.....

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

8 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

His logic was that if City managed promotion to the Premier League it would be a 27k ish sell out for all home matches.  This would be sufficient as it’s TV, Premier League pay outs and corporate income that counts, not a few extra supporters in the ground. 

Sensible logic. 

If a 26k capacity is sufficient for West Brom in the Premier League then 27k is fine for us. 

A 35k stadium would be lovely if we were able to stay in the top flight and consistently challenge for honours every year but let’s be honest, we’re more likely to end up back in the Championship. A 35k stadium would be totally unnecessary at that point. I also agree that there’s no way we’d fill it for more than a couple of games even if we only had one season in the Prem.

What Id love to see (and I expect it’s been discussed to death on here before) is the Atyeo somehow joined to the Dolman. I think that would finish off the ground lovely.

[BS2 Red]

Maybe we could put tents on top of the Atyeo?

[Bristol Rob]

Be surprised if the benefit on spend is there.

You buy God knows how many houses at 300k, drop another 20 or 30 mill building a stand that might add a few extra thousand seats and some hospitality option and it probably come close to a 30 or 40 million quid investment.

That stand would have to work like a Japanese prisoner of war to pay for itself. And, when you consider the riches of being top flight are 100mil + a season, any revenue it did generate would be chicken feed In the grand scheme of things....

Be interested in reading a case study on it though.

[sticks 1969]

I think people underestimate how big crowds could be if we ever got to the premier league 

how many have you heard say we would go and watch city if they ever got promoted 

we have a huge huge catchment area and football is more popular then ever

ps it grates me when people would want to watch us in the top flight but not now

 

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

34 minutes ago, myol'man said:

Liverpool bought up the houses around Anfield for about a quid each. Houses on Ashton Road would start from around £300k 

And the rest.

Many of them are 4/5 bed and they’re big old houses. Combined with a lovely view out the front and a BS3 postcode they’d fetch a bit more than that.

Also, if you were trying to persuade someone to sell their house to you I doubt they’d settle at the market value. Enough properties in the area already go for more than the advertised price when being sold normally, I know if someone approached me out of the blue and said they want to buy my house I’d say “how much do you want it?” followed by “it’s going to cost you”.

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

4 minutes ago, sticks 1969 said:

I think people underestimate how big crowds could be if we ever got to the premier league 

I think if we did get to the Premier League we’d sell out most, possibly all, matches.

If we didn’t get immediately relegated crowds would naturally drop slightly for the less attractive fixtures.

Any further seasons in the top flight may even see some 19/20k attendances in those same, less attractive fixtures. I’m talking about (and no disrespect to) Burnley, Watford, Brighton...those sort of games.

UNLESS

We were challenging towards the top end of the table, in those seasons and then I suspect the crowds would remain at capacity.

Thats just my opinion though.

[Wolf Island]

21 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

That’s not entirely true. The law has changed and it’s a bit more complicated than it used to be, but those living in the houses behind the Atyeo would have a good case, particularly the  long standing residents 

as it is a change to access previously enjoyed they would have a strong case under current legislation though it would be considered on a case by case basis.

[bcfc01]

20 minutes ago, Robbored said:

There’s a guy on our table at Senior Reds who lives in one of the houses on Ashton Rd.  

He’s  never had an approach from anyone from the club looking to buy his property and nor has anyone else he knows who live in Ashton Rd.

Draw your own conclusions.....

Bloke I know also has one of the houses and gave another to his ex-mrs as a settlement. He owns another further back down the road.

Never had an approach to sell and never would anyway.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

Bloke I know also has one of the houses and gave another to his ex-mrs as a settlement. He owns another further back down the road.

Never had an approach to sell and never would anyway.

The club would never approach - I think they’ll only buy when they’re on market. 

[bcfc01]

2 minutes ago, TomF said:

The club would never approach - I think they’ll only buy when they’re on market. 

It'll never happen.

[reddoh]

35 minutes ago, BS2 Red said:

Maybe we could put tents on top of the Atyeo?

can you imagine how the gas would rip into us a bit like a tent in strong winds

[Trouty84]

Also the other issue is this.

Can you just knock down a row of period Victorian houses whether you own them or not?

[RedorDead BCFC]

At the moment getting 27k is a rarity, in the Prem it would become more frequent. But how much of that,  would be down to big away support. 

If we were to extend the Atyeo where would the away support be housed? Can’t see it in any of the other three due to segregation on the concourse let let alone the stands. 

 

[BS2 Red]

4 minutes ago, reddoh said:

can you imagine how the gas would rip into us a bit like a tent in strong winds

After tents on the roof we will install screens on every seat that show nothing but Babestation.

[slartibartfast]

1 hour ago, downendcity said:

Should make for a homely concourse.

Bit like entry to Luton's !

[A Horse With No Name]

1 hour ago, myol'man said:

Liverpool bought up the houses around Anfield for about a quid each. Houses on Ashton Road would start from around £300k 

Except for the very last one which would be worth 10 million

[Ohbasso]

5 minutes ago, RedorDead BCFC said:

At the moment getting 27k is a rarity, in the Prem it would become more frequent. But how much would f that would be due to away support. 

If we were to extend the Atyeo where would the away support be housed? Can’t see it in any of the other three due to segregation on the concourse let let alone the stands. 

 

Atyeo end of the Dolman would be the only viable option and would be easy to segregate inside and in the stand, the tricky bit would be getting the away fans in and out whilst the building works ongoing, I guess that they’d build the corner after the rest of the stand had been built. 

[1960maaan]

1 hour ago, myol'man said:

Liverpool bought up the houses around Anfield for about a quid each. Houses on Ashton Road would start from around £300k 

There were 2 houses on the market middle /end of last year, £650,000 each.

 

19 minutes ago, Trouty84 said:

Also the other issue is this.

Can you just knock down a row of period Victorian houses whether you own them or not?

They're not 'listed' so don't see why not

 

This story comes up so often. My Brother in Law was down for the Preston game, he sat 5/6 rows behind us for the first half, by the time he came and sat by us , the people he had sat by had told him the full story of us owning most houses and the plan to build. Even in the pub Tuesday, a mate told me SL owned all but one. Don't believe it for one minute.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Trouty84 said:

Also the other issue is this.

Can you just knock down a row of period Victorian houses whether you own them or not?

Some of them are not exactly good condition. You’d probably get a few of the local councillors kicking off. And Pip obviously because well - development 

[ChippenhamRed]

1 hour ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

Sensible logic. 

If a 26k capacity is sufficient for West Brom in the Premier League then 27k is fine for us. 

A 35k stadium would be lovely if we were able to stay in the top flight and consistently challenge for honours every year but let’s be honest, we’re more likely to end up back in the Championship. A 35k stadium would be totally unnecessary at that point. I also agree that there’s no way we’d fill it for more than a couple of games even if we only had one season in the Prem.

What Id love to see (and I expect it’s been discussed to death on here before) is the Atyeo somehow joined to the Dolman. I think that would finish off the ground lovely.

West Brom have other clubs of comparable size nearby (Birmingham, Villa, Wolves and to a lesser extent Walsall), they’ve been playing PL football for a good while (on and off) and the midlands as a whole is used to watching the Premier League.

We are the only club of our size in a region with zero history of Premier League football. The novelty value alone would be huge. It would open up an entirely new demographic.

If we’re capable of taking 45,000 people two hours away for a noddy cup final against Walsall, I’m absolutely convinced we could command crowds of 35-40k for the big games in the top division. On that basis I think 27k would be wholly inadequate.

I’m also less convinced we would end up back in the Championship quickly. Watford, Burnley, Bournemouth, Brighton, Palace have established themselves and I see no reason to think we couldn’t do the same. Even Huddersfield survived their first season.

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

17 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

If we’re capable of taking 45,000 people two hours away for a noddy cup final against Walsall, I’m absolutely convinced we could command crowds of 35-40k for the big games in the top division. On that basis I think 27k would be wholly inadequate.

I’m also less convinced we would end up back in the Championship quickly. Watford, Burnley, Bournemouth, Brighton, Palace have established themselves and I see no reason to think we couldn’t do the same. Even Huddersfield survived their first season.

42k, but yes I understand your point. However, of the 42k who went to Wembley for a one off final there’s a certain amount who I’m not convinced would bother with an AG league fixture against Leicester (for example). I think we are capable of attracting 35k for a League fixture against Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal but not so much against Bournemouth, Burnley or Huddersfield.

27k is a good capacity, one we would undoubtedly sell out for home games in the first season of a Premiership stay but also practical when the novelty wears off or we end up back in the Championship.

And on your second point, we may not end up back in the Championship in the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd season. However I personally feel we are more likely to end up back in the 2nd tier than join the ranks of the Liverpool’s, Chelsea’s and Man Utd’s of this country. That’s not me being negative, just realistic. On that basis I genuinely don’t think we need 35k however I would love to be proved wrong one day.

[General Zod]

Crazy.  If those houses are worth £300k plus it confirms my thoughts that the world has gone mad and I’m glad I no longer live in Bristol 

[zippycar]

According to the excellent Harry Dolman book the club used to own a lot of the houses and had to sell them off in hard times 

Don't have my copy to hand at moment but think this was in the 30's

[JasonM88]

4 hours ago, Trouty84 said:

Also the other issue is this.

Can you just knock down a row of period Victorian houses whether you own them or not?

To put it simply, yes, if it wished to do so. 

[sticks 1969]

I think overall ground capacity is only part of the issue 

i think the ground is fantastic and the extra money the outlets in the concourse bring in prematch must have 10 fold the old ground 

but would be lovely to have the whole ground as one and the  atayo integrated into one big bowl. I think it would look truly amazing.and bring the capacity up to about 30 k

[Port Said Red]

4 hours ago, JasonM88 said:

To put it simply, yes, if it wished to do so. 

Especially as new residences on Winterstoke road are part of the expansion plans. It will still not happen though, they may do some further tarting up to make it feel more incorporated, but I think the timing a complete rebuild is very difficult. With the crowds we are getting now, losing the dedicated away end will make life difficult in the short term.

[ChippenhamRed]

9 hours ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

42k, but yes I understand your point. However, of the 42k who went to Wembley for a one off final there’s a certain amount who I’m not convinced would bother with an AG league fixture against Leicester (for example). I think we are capable of attracting 35k for a League fixture against Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal but not so much against Bournemouth, Burnley or Huddersfield.

27k is a good capacity, one we would undoubtedly sell out for home games in the first season of a Premiership stay but also practical when the novelty wears off or we end up back in the Championship.

And on your second point, we may not end up back in the Championship in the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd season. However I personally feel we are more likely to end up back in the 2nd tier than join the ranks of the Liverpool’s, Chelsea’s and Man Utd’s of this country. That’s not me being negative, just realistic. On that basis I genuinely don’t think we need 35k however I would love to be proved wrong one day.

Fair comments and a good debate. My personal feeling is that the ideal capacity would be one that near-enough meets demand for the big games without it looking empty for the lesser ones. I still think 27k would often be insufficient - 35k would be about right.

One other thing I would say is that I really think there is great potential for this club to grow with Premier League football in a way that others wouldn’t. It’s remarkable to think that after 25 years of the Premier League the entire South-West of the country has never seen it (unless you count Swindon in 93-94). If we were to make it, we would stand head and shoulders above everyone other club in the region. It could well tempt a lot of those armchair supporters away from their Sky Sports subscriptions.

[robin_unreliant]

While we may be able to attract crowds of 35k+ for really big games, I can imagine the council objecting due to the traffic congestion and parking issues.

It's bad enough now. Rather than try to help with the public transport infrastructure they would probably just try to block it. 

Can't help remembering my last visit to Brighton's ground. Dedicated train station a few minutes walk away. Masses of buses with free travel if you have a match ticket. Try comparing that to the numpty council in Bristol.

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

1 hour ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Fair comments and a good debate. My personal feeling is that the ideal capacity would be one that near-enough meets demand for the big games without it looking empty for the lesser ones. I still think 27k would often be insufficient - 35k would be about right.

Agree with this. That’s the ideal situation, to have a stadium that is suitable for the biggest possible games we can play but doesn’t look half empty when we have crowds of 20k.

If we can sustain top flight football in the way Stoke did from 2008 onwards I think we can build the fanbase to the point where 35k is a perfectly reasonable capacity. Mid table Premiership football would undoubtedly boost our crowds with fair weather (or new) fans from around the region. But I do think we need that period of top flight stability for a number of years.

2 or 3 relegation threatened seasons would still see large crowds but we need those fans to hang around when/if we get relegated.

Like you said though, if Watford, Burnley and others can compete in the top flight then why not us? This season and last season has given me real hope that we’re not actually that far off getting everything right.