Small ground for loyal fans latest

[MassDebater]

Is this shit still going? After all these years? It’s like I’ve never been away.

I honestly don’t understand why some are so passionate/upset that it isn’t going to happen.

It’s not as if anyone can’t get a ticket (unless left until the 11th hour).

Besides, Jenkins has spoken so no point dreaming. It ain’t comin’

When it's pissing down on me and SpandauJunior tomorrow at the front of the east stand at eye level with Pereira's boots I'll be fed up. Good to see you've resurfaced Mark.

You could easily have phoned back up and asked to switch to 2 seats in the Smethwick...they're well covered.

Also, I think it shouldn't be allowed to bring brand new purpose built stadiums into this, they're a totally different kettle of fish, or do you expansionists want us to move home? It's probably easier to build a new ground and increase capacity than it is expand a current ground.

I'd be up for the corner full ins, assuming pricing was sensible...and if it added another 2.5k seats, I honestly don't think we need more. If that could be done for say £7m then I'd say do that, as that is far less risk of potentially killing the club than £20m++ on Halfords would be.

[GMBaggie]

I raise you the example of Brighton. I used to go with mates to the Withdean, even Gillingham, and the core fanbase was pretty small.
A bit of casino money & a capacity stadium (which can still get bigger yet) enabled them to really stretch out to the community, provide an entertaining day out for kids and families (apart from the team itself imo), free buses from around the areas etc. Is that Ambition?

If we had a decent ticketing system we’d fill the ground;
eg season ticket holders who know they can’t make a game cannot easily resell/recycle their tickets. Last year I tried to offer mine for free to local fans who were struggling with dosh & it was hopeless. Paper tickets allowed me to do this. I had to look at my empty seats on TV
eg get the tickets on general sale earlier (how the guys who fly in from Scandinavia get their tickets and flights beats me) & stop Sky from playing around with fixture uncertainty

It’s basic marketing surely. Listen to the fans, and wannabe fans, never assume you know it all.

P.s. try buying a ticket then collecting it from the ticket office, you have to arrive early, you get frisked like a criminal, no-one smiles, the collection machines don’t work, so you have to queue up to be interrogated

A bit of casino money? Bloom has pumped the best part of £100m of his own money into that club and continues to do so... so much so that they were in serious FFFP shit prior to getting up.

They also have only Crawley as a league club within 50 miles, and a huge (and wealthy) catchment area of potential “followers” to pull from. 

The engagement work they’ve done with the local community in providing cheap/subsidised transport is excellent, however the match day experience is sterile as fuck.

I’ve been to BHA twice due to having a very good friend living there who is a Liverpool fan turned BHA ST holder. He has actively said he won’t renew if they go down, and his dad, who has never had any interest in football until they got promoted and is also a STH is the same. First time I attended I stayed at his place and travelled in with him, and the second I went with a group of Albion fans for the Cup game.

Home fans travelled in by coach which drove round the various Surrey towns before dropping them at the ground an hour before kickoff, where the choice was overpriced fish and chips or to hang around the concourse. We then had to leave 5 mins from the end so the coach can get out of the car park before the traffic.

The second time I traveled in by train. We were crushed into a pen by Brighton station where we waited for 20 mins to get to the ground and then waited in the pissing rain for the best part of 45 mins to get back - despite staying for a pint at the after game bar.

I completely agree that we could and should do a lot more to improve the match day experience when it comes to attracting new fans, but having sat in both the home and away ends of a new build stadium with 10,000 fair weather success hunting Premier league followers I’d sooner we stayed how we are.

Also..... we’re hardly stuck in the middle of nowhere... you can drink in Brum and be in the stadium in about 20 minutes or there’s plenty of pubs within a 15 min walk of the ground!

---

Well said that man.

The biggest problem we have is our present owners and people who run the club appear to have no inclination to do this.
The evidence to have reasonable expansion of the ground is there irrespective of all the naysayers. Something that appears to be no where near happening for a while at least mind.

can someone point me to where this evidence exists?
I’ve asked several times for someone to provide an example of when a non-bankrolled club has increased its capacity without moving to a new stadium and increased its level of success.

The point I was trying to make is the evidence is there with other clubs that our average gates could realistically increase with a bigger capacity especially if we had a extended run in the Prem.  Not sure how that can be disputed and with some better football who know's where we'll end up. We've always varied with our gates, even back in the 70's we'd go from 17/18,000 against the like of Boro to 35,000 - 40,0000 against Man u, Villa etc. 
The point is we'll never get the likes of 30,000 gates again if our current capacity doesn't support it.
I really don't get what all the negativity is with all this? 
It's all a moot point mind as our present stewardship have no desire to pursuit this route.

Agree totally.
If our capacity was 30,000 there would be games where we would either sell out or get 28-29,000.
We would still get games where there would be 21-22,000 but the average would be higher than 24,000.
Ultimately it would then allow us to grow the support gradually over a period of time.
That of course would depend on us being (relatively) successful.
And if we weren't and went back to crowds of c16,000 does it maamtter if those 16,000 are in a 26,000 stadium or a 30,000 stadium.
If that happened and then we 'came back' we would already have the larger stadium to cope with the demand.

[Spandaubaggie]

I raise you the example of Brighton. I used to go with mates to the Withdean, even Gillingham, and the core fanbase was pretty small.
A bit of casino money & a capacity stadium (which can still get bigger yet) enabled them to really stretch out to the community, provide an entertaining day out for kids and families (apart from the team itself imo), free buses from around the areas etc. Is that Ambition?

If we had a decent ticketing system we’d fill the ground;
eg season ticket holders who know they can’t make a game cannot easily resell/recycle their tickets. Last year I tried to offer mine for free to local fans who were struggling with dosh & it was hopeless. Paper tickets allowed me to do this. I had to look at my empty seats on TV
eg get the tickets on general sale earlier (how the guys who fly in from Scandinavia get their tickets and flights beats me) & stop Sky from playing around with fixture uncertainty

It’s basic marketing surely. Listen to the fans, and wannabe fans, never assume you know it all.

P.s. try buying a ticket then collecting it from the ticket office, you have to arrive early, you get frisked like a criminal, no-one smiles, the collection machines don’t work, so you have to queue up to be interrogated

A bit of casino money? Bloom has pumped the best part of £100m of his own money into that club and continues to do so... so much so that they were in serious FFFP shit prior to getting up.

They also have only Crawley as a league club within 50 miles, and a huge (and wealthy) catchment area of potential “followers” to pull from. 

The engagement work they’ve done with the local community in providing cheap/subsidised transport is excellent, however the match day experience is sterile as fuck.

I’ve been to BHA twice due to having a very good friend living there who is a Liverpool fan turned BHA ST holder. He has actively said he won’t renew if they go down, and his dad, who has never had any interest in football until they got promoted and is also a STH is the same. First time I attended I stayed at his place and travelled in with him, and the second I went with a group of Albion fans for the Cup game.

Home fans travelled in by coach which drove round the various Surrey towns before dropping them at the ground an hour before kickoff, where the choice was overpriced fish and chips or to hang around the concourse. We then had to leave 5 mins from the end so the coach can get out of the car park before the traffic.

The second time I traveled in by train. We were crushed into a pen by Brighton station where we waited for 20 mins to get to the ground and then waited in the pissing rain for the best part of 45 mins to get back - despite staying for a pint at the after game bar.

I completely agree that we could and should do a lot more to improve the match day experience when it comes to attracting new fans, but having sat in both the home and away ends of a new build stadium with 10,000 fair weather success hunting Premier league followers I’d sooner we stayed how we are.

Also..... we’re hardly stuck in the middle of nowhere... you can drink in Brum and be in the stadium in about 20 minutes or there’s plenty of pubs within a 15 min walk of the ground!

---

Well said that man.

The biggest problem we have is our present owners and people who run the club appear to have no inclination to do this.
The evidence to have reasonable expansion of the ground is there irrespective of all the naysayers. Something that appears to be no where near happening for a while at least mind.

can someone point me to where this evidence exists?
I’ve asked several times for someone to provide an example of when a non-bankrolled club has increased its capacity without moving to a new stadium and increased its level of success.

The point I was trying to make is the evidence is there with other clubs that our average gates could realistically increase with a bigger capacity especially if we had a extended run in the Prem.  Not sure how that can be disputed and with some better football who know's where we'll end up. We've always varied with our gates, even back in the 70's we'd go from 17/18,000 against the like of Boro to 35,000 - 40,0000 against Man u, Villa etc. 
The point is we'll never get the likes of 30,000 gates again if our current capacity doesn't support it.
I really don't get what all the negativity is with all this? 
It's all a moot point mind as our present stewardship have no desire to pursuit this route.

Agree totally.
If our capacity was 30,000 there would be games where we would either sell out or get 28-29,000.
We would still get games where there would be 21-22,000 but the average would be higher than 24,000.
Ultimately it would then allow us to grow the support gradually over a period of time.
That of course would depend on us being (relatively) successful.
And if we weren't and went back to crowds of c16,000 does it maamtter if those 16,000 are in a 26,000 stadium or a 30,000 stadium.
If that happened and then we 'came back' we would already have the larger stadium to cope with the demand.

Fact is the size of the stadium does have some correlation with the perception of the club. Our capacity isn’t awful, but it smacks of lack of ambition. Growth requires risk. However, in an area where there’s 4 clubs of a relatively similar standing, we will have less wriggle room for the casual fan who can turn into a fanatic in time. 
As I said at the start of the post I accept we won’t expand any time soon but the willingness of so many to buy into the small time Albion mantra is what alarms me. I’m proud of Albion’s history and I want us to look the part and show ambition.

[Squid]

We don't look like Little Albion on the pitch, we currently look absolutely glorious.

[keef]

we are a small club that has consistently over achieved in our history thats why we are special

[Spandaubaggie]

we are  a small club that has consistently over achieved in our history thats why we are special

It’s about boundaries. Call ourselves a Black Country club and play on the little town of West Brom. However, we are partially in the second biggest city in the Uk in a big conurbation. 
We are not a small club any more than Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Southampton etc who have all won stuff in the last 50 years unlike us. 
There’s 12 or so bigger clubs than us. We are part of about 20 battling to be part of the elite. Leicester are the same. Look at them.

[keef]

we are  a small club that has consistently over achieved in our history thats why we are special

It’s about boundaries. Call ourselves a Black Country club and play on the little town of West Brom. However, we are partially in the second biggest city in the Uk in a big conurbation. 
We are not a small club any more than Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Southampton etc who have all won stuff in the last 50 years unlike us. 
There’s 12 or so bigger clubs than us. We are part of about 20 battling to be part of the elite. Leicester are the same. Look at them.

i would rather be us than a massive club like villa that have underachived

[Spandaubaggie]

we are  a small club that has consistently over achieved in our history thats why we are special

It’s about boundaries. Call ourselves a Black Country club and play on the little town of West Brom. However, we are partially in the second biggest city in the Uk in a big conurbation. 
We are not a small club any more than Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Southampton etc who have all won stuff in the last 50 years unlike us. 
There’s 12 or so bigger clubs than us. We are part of about 20 battling to be part of the elite. Leicester are the same. Look at them.

i would rather be us than a massive club like villa that have underachived

Whether Villa or Albion it’s about supporting your club from your area. I love being an Albion fan, but want the best for us. I don’t adhere to overachieving as it’s incredibly subjective. 
Underachieving Villa have done far better than us in the past 50 years, but look at the 50 before where we started as Champions of England.
Do you want us regressing and seeing ourselves as minnows? Seems many do.
The Albion of 1970 were seen very differently, at a time Villa were languishing in Div 3!
Little Albion know your place!

[keef]

we are  a small club that has consistently over achieved in our history thats why we are special

It’s about boundaries. Call ourselves a Black Country club and play on the little town of West Brom. However, we are partially in the second biggest city in the Uk in a big conurbation. 
We are not a small club any more than Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Southampton etc who have all won stuff in the last 50 years unlike us. 
There’s 12 or so bigger clubs than us. We are part of about 20 battling to be part of the elite. Leicester are the same. Look at them.

i would rather be us than a massive club like villa that have underachived

Whether Villa or Albion it’s about supporting your club from your area. I love being an Albion fan, but want the best for us. I don’t adhere to overachieving as it’s incredibly subjective. 
Underachieving Villa have done far better than us in the past 50 years, but look at the 50 before where we started as Champions of England.
Do you want us regressing and seeing ourselves as minnows? Seems many do.
The Albion of 1970 were seen very differently, at a time Villa were languishing in Div 3!
Little Albion know your place!

[fuzzbox]

One of the advantages of having a lot of spare tickets is that it forces the club to try and do something with them. Villa frequently give free kids tickets away. Wolves are constantly dreaming up new initiatives to try and sell more tickets. What's the incentive for our marketing team? They seem to just concentrate on corporate sponsorship. Not great for the growth of our fanbase.

Season ticket holders are the lifeblood of a club. But how are you going to get new ones?

How are you going to get new supporters if you make it hard to see a game? A new 'fan' isn't going to go all in and buy a season ticket straight away. They're going to buy a one-off ticket. Okay, there's plenty of tickets to see, say, Millwall or a 5th round fa cup game, but which potential new fan is going to choose that as their first game? They're going to want to see us against Leeds, Notts F etc. That's how they get hooked. 

I suppose you can expect them to know when a games tickets get released a few weeks before and then phone up the ticket office on the first day of release and wait in a queue, but I'm guessing many won't know that's what they should do or just won't bother. Especially when they can just turn up somewhere else on the day...

I know the 'armchair fans' get a rough ride on here, but their money is as good as anybody's. Why make it hard for them to come? As a 'fan' who is already partly interested why not try and fully convert them by making it easier for them to give the club their money? You never know, they might trade up to season ticket holders once the bug comes back and bites them!

Ultimately, it's hypothetical, our owner has never given any indication that we are a long term part of his empire. That means the chances of him going through the effort and risk of building something that even if it pays off will only start being profitable in 5 /10 years time - long after he's gone - seems unlikely.