Three people missing, could've been 5. How many more?

[Spandaubaggie]

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

[fuzzbox]

I would suspect that the club feels why bother?

They're trying to make a profit, not build a legacy, or even a bigger club. The additional revenue from a couple of thousand fans would take ages to repay the money invested in a new stand. Let alone all the hassle it would cause.

By which time the current owners will be long gone, so wouldn't even reap the reward.

Even if they used a loan, there would be far more 'profitable' ways to spend their facility. If they buy a player who gets them in the premiership they would make far more money, far quicker and with less investment. It's riskier, but far more attractive.

In fact, if we get promoted, they may not even have to bother with any of those irritating fans, let alone inviting another 2000 that have to be catered for every couple of weeks. Think of the cost savings and the hassle saved.

Maybe we could just do a ground share with Villa? That would save a fortune. Thinking about it, why not combine all the clubs and call it Midlands United - better still the 'Midland Knights' or something equally sexy, macho and merchandisable. Take out the place name and you could even copyright the name - think of the royalties we'd get! The 'Diashitsu Knights' !!

We'd be big enough never to go down which would make financial modelling much smoother and safer and so increase the value of the club exponentially.

We could even charge more for the tickets now all the local competition has gone. If the old fashioned really must turn up every Saturday at 3pm, or Tuesday at 7.45pm, or Friday at 8pm, or Thursday at 2.45am just after the Chinese New year military parade has finished in Tiananmen square, we could easily triple the price and call it a 'footballing VIP experience'

I'm very excited, there's never been so many great opportunities.

[cornishbaggie]

I find it incredible that anyone still thinks that clubs or football authorities or tv companies give a rats arse about fans.

[Hopalong]

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

Forest are remodeling to a 'world class' 38,000 capacity.  Sooner or later they will get up and could be a force with the commercial income the new stadium will bring in plus the return of all the glory-hunters.

We really should do the Halfords and the Brum/ES/Millenium corners.  But we probably won't in the foreseeable future.  

Frustrating lack of ambition at WBA in this respect.

Jenkins would probably trot out the 'we need to become an established prem club' line again if asked....

---

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

PS, pretty sure there are restricted view tickets remaining in brummie corners - you can see the goals!!

https://wbatickets.co.uk/en-GB/events/wb...d189d&type=

[Spandaubaggie]

I would suspect that the club feels why bother?

They're trying to make a profit, not build a legacy, or even a bigger club. The additional revenue from a couple of thousand fans would take ages to repay the money invested in a new stand. Let alone all the hassle it would cause.

By which time the current owners will be long gone, so wouldn't even reap the reward.

Even if they used a loan, there would be far more 'profitable' ways to spend their facility. If they buy a player who gets them in the premiership they would make far more money, far quicker and with less investment. It's riskier, but far more attractive.

In fact, if we get promoted, they may not even have to bother with any of those irritating fans, let alone inviting another 2000 that have to be catered for every couple of weeks. Think of the cost savings and the hassle saved.

Maybe we could just do a ground share with Villa? That would save a fortune. Thinking about it, why not combine all the clubs and call it Midlands United - better still the 'Midland Knights' or something equally sexy, macho and merchandisable. Take out the place name and you could even copyright the name - think of the royalties we'd get! The 'Diashitsu Knights' !!

We'd be big enough never to go down which would make financial modelling much smoother and safer and so increase the value of the club exponentially.

We could even charge more for the tickets now all the local competition has gone. If the old fashioned really must turn up every Saturday at 3pm, or Tuesday at 7.45pm, or Friday at 8pm, or Thursday at 2.45am just after the Chinese New year military parade has finished in Tiananmen square, we could easily triple the price and call it a 'footballing VIP experience'

I'm very excited, there's never been so many great opportunities.

A very impressive reply fuzzbox. Sadly it's nailed on. What is annoying is the number of other clubs who se building new stadiums and expansion as viable- is it we have the shittest owners, or just the most hard-nosed.

[Spandaubaggie]

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

Forest are remodeling to a 'world class' 38,000 capacity.  Sooner or later they will get up and could be a force with the commercial income the new stadium will bring in plus the return of all the glory-hunters.

We really should do the Halfords and the Brum/ES/Millenium corners.  But we probably won't in the foreseeable future.  

Frustrating lack of ambition at WBA in this respect.

Jenkins would probably trot out the 'we need to become an established prem club' line again if asked....

---

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

PS, pretty sure there are restricted view tickets remaining in brummie corners - you can see the goals!!

https://wbatickets.co.uk/en-GB/events/wb...d189d&type=

What's the point of restricted view? Just pull the bloody seats out!

[wba13]

Can’t understand why it’s the clubs fault that fans who now want to go to the match and sit together, say they can’t get tickets. The restricted view tickets are fine you can see most of the play and all of the goals also it’s not the clubs fault some fans leave it till the last minute before deciding to go. Now I know some fans have other commitments so have to make a last minute choice, but think of it this way we have a reduced capacity this season and still don’t sell out so why make the ground bigger . If we sold out most matches maybe it would make the owners sit up and take notice, but this will never happen while some of you moan that you cannot get tickets when it’s not a sell out.

[Hopalong]

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

Forest are remodeling to a 'world class' 38,000 capacity.  Sooner or later they will get up and could be a force with the commercial income the new stadium will bring in plus the return of all the glory-hunters.

We really should do the Halfords and the Brum/ES/Millenium corners.  But we probably won't in the foreseeable future.  

Frustrating lack of ambition at WBA in this respect.

Jenkins would probably trot out the 'we need to become an established prem club' line again if asked....

---

I only found out for sure I could go to the game yesterday. However, I could only get 2 tickets, after calling back in the afternoon, and getting lucky due to a cancellation.
Unfortunately, I had 3 other people who fancied coming, but they can't as the seating arrangement isn't there- one parent, with two kids.
Now, I know the capacity thing comes up regularly, especially when we are doing well, but as CIM said in a post, tongue in cheek, that we love reducing capacity at Albion.
Back in the early 2000s, we could get just shy of 28,000 in the ground. Now a decade or so later, we are hard pressed to get 2,000 less due to the lack of seats and availability for groups of people to sit together.
In this time there have been countless clubs that have expanded their stadium- clubs with a far smaller fan base. There are now around 30 clubs with bigger grounds.
Of course it looks crap in the fallow times having rows of empty seats, but how we've continued this merciless path to reducing, making it harder to actually buy into the experience of visiting the Hawthorns, in a decade which has been relatively successful is mind boggling- incredibly small minded.
I do think for a club of our standing a ground holding 30,000 shouldn't be too much to ask, which is the same as Blues, Stoke, Forest and would still keep us under the top 20 grounds.
To think, in the 70s I remember the Hawthorns being earmarked as a potential venue for FA Cup semi final replays, which never transpired, when we could hold 42,000.
I know it's a common moan, as much so as the weather, but bloody hell it is frustrating.

PS, pretty sure there are restricted view tickets remaining in brummie corners - you can see the goals!!

https://wbatickets.co.uk/en-GB/events/wb...d189d&type=

What's the point of restricted view? Just pull the bloody seats out!

There's 3 in the lower Woodman pretty more directly in front of each other...

https://wbatickets.co.uk/en-GB/events/wb...cbd31&type=

[fuzzbox]

Sadly, the only easy 'commercial' way to increase the capacity is for the owners to sell it to a separate company who then develop it and lease it back to us.

That way, the owners get a profit on the sale and just pay a lease per year on a bigger stadium. It makes no financial sense in the long term, but it does if you are a shareholder in the short term. Even more if your also the shareholder of the separate property development company

If some of the other owners have done that, I think I'd rather stick with what we've got. I really think some of them are going to get in deep trouble soon. Give it twenty years and I can see housing estates built over bulldozed stadiums where once grand old teams played, but could no longer afford their rent.

[chasetownbaggie]

They're trying to make a profit, not build a legacy, or even a bigger club. The additional revenue from a couple of thousand fans would take ages to repay the money invested in a new stand. Let alone all the hassle it would cause.

By which time the current owners will be long gone, so wouldn't even reap the reward.

If that was the case, why would clubs further down the ladder re-develop stands? I'm not an accountant but isn't the ground considered an asset of the business and therefore improving that asset increases the value of the club and the owners get some of their money back by selling it at a higher price?

For the record, I've missed a couple of games in the past because of the scenario described in the OP. Some will guffaw at this but the fact is, the club lost a bit of revenue. Yes, probably amounted to no more than £100 I don't think any business can be dismissive of customers, no matter how small the money involved.