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[simplythebest 0]

Even though the interviewer simply asked him about it.

 

For what it's worth I don't think we should ever go down this route unless the demand is clearly there, but either way it's a long way away.

[DUDE 0]

it wont be but it will be filled enough to make it worth the money. just look how *incredible parkhead looks every european match night or on old firm day. i am guessing they rake in over £3m from every full house. that is big big money. we need to match them and we need to be every bit as ambitious as them.

 

*from an outsider and pundits point of view, not mine!

 

Good on yer to add that last bit.

[calscot 0]

While history could be different if instead of spending on the likes of Flo and introducing novel ways of paying them, we'd invested in enlarging a stadium that was for the only time in our history, perpetually packed to the rafters.

 

However, we are where we are now and the size of the stadium is probably about right for our needs. A larger stadium means larger running costs and there are few times we'd be using the extra capacity.

 

Even if we averaged extra 5000 season ticket holders, that only equates to about £2m every year in income, buoyed up by a bit more for Celtic games and top European games. I think that would be a lot less net, when maintenance and running costs are deducted. So it's a very long term return on the investment even if you take for granted the uptake is guaranteed.

 

To add 10k would be a lot more than building a 10k stadium due to the engineering difficulties of the scale of the build and to my guess would be well over £30m.

 

Imagine we spent that money and then still only averaged £47k a game? At 92% capacity, there is already space for more so the lack of capacity is unlikely to be discouraging people where as when we were 98% full, the 2% was mostly from segregation but also many people would not turn up on the day on the expectation of being unable to get a ticket. In our the scenario the risk is that the investment in empty seats would be more of a financial drain.

 

I'd love a 65k stadium that gets an average of 60k a game but I'm not sure if that is ultimately realistic without transferring to a more exciting league like the Premiership or a European one.

[kuznetsov 0]

At today's prices, a stadium expansion to increase the Ibrox capacity above 60k would cost well over 20 million, so there's practically zero chance of it happening and no point in keeping harping on about it.

 

i will keep on harping about it until it happens thank you very much! we need it. unless of course you are happy playing second fiddle to celtic.

Edited January 25, 2013 by kuznetsov

[kuznetsov 0]

We needed it 15 years ago. If only Murray had the foresight in the good times to speculate, we might not have ended up in this mess. Imagine the millions we wasted on Flo and Ball etc put towards expansion. In our current situation, and climate, it's just another soundbite to get the support excited. It's truly shocking just how far we have let them slip away from us. I fear they will take some catching now, in every department.

 

completely agree mate.

[kuznetsov 0]

strange how celtic make a 60000 seater stadium work and yet our fans dont think we could but the same fans still claim we are the biggest club in scotland. maybe 15 years ago we were, not now and unless we do increase we will forever be seen as being second best in scotland. we cannot financially compete with them, even when we were winning spl titles and playing in european finals.

[kuznetsov 0]

At today's prices, a stadium expansion to increase the Ibrox capacity above 60k would cost well over 20 million, so there's practically zero chance of it happening and no point in keeping harping on about it.

 

new stadiums can be built for 20m albeit smaller ones. i doubt it would cost so much for an expansion tbh.

[craig 5,199]

it wont be but it will be filled enough to make it worth the money. just look how *incredible parkhead looks every european match night or on old firm day. i am guessing they rake in over £3m from every full house. that is big big money. we need to match them and we need to be every bit as ambitious as them.

 

*from an outsider and pundits point of view, not mine!

 

But you cant look at the 3 million number as a "eye-catching number". The real number is the differential between Parkhead and CP. Currently the difference in capacity is 9,273 and at 30 quid a pop that is about 275k additional ticket money per full house.

 

They would get us twice a year, say 3 if you include an annual cup game - so their extra revenue would be approximately 1 million if you factor in merchandising at about 33% of ticket sales, which I think is generous. Euro nights, sure, they would also get those, so normally another 1 million (3 CL games) - but this is also dependent, obviously, on them making the CL. Now, lets not forget that this is REVENUE which wont equate to profit, there would be additional expenses of having more seating.

 

I am not disputing that we could be doing with the largest ground in the country but, right now, it isnt one which necessarily makes financial sense in terms of what profits it would bring. As Zappa said, to build an extension would probably cost upwards of 20 million - so you are looking at potentially 20 years worth of the additional revenue to pay for it... and longer if you look at profits.

 

We also must remember that when we were in the SPL the ONLY time we filled Ibrox was for OF & Euro games - it wasnt needed to have a larger stadium more than 5 times a season. We are filling the ground in part due to the ST prices being lower, part due to the novelty of seeing the journey back to the top and, probably, partly due to defiance

 

I also wonder how much additional expense CFC currently have in terms of policing, stewarding etc given the green seat brigade are in serious attendance ?

 

I would love us to have the largest stadium in the country, but I dont necessarily see it right now as being a financially astute move. But..... if we had owners with a real long-term perspective then it should be looked at - but as we know CG is only looking at retirement in a few years so does he really have a true long term perspective ?

[Zappa 0]

I'll tell you what though... If Charles Green and our mysterious new owners were willing to fire the whole £20m from the IPO into a stadium expansion and refurbishment plan I think that would be a VERY interesting and welcome concept! Something tells me that they wouldn't want to spend all of that cash on the long term future of the club though which ties in with Craig's question about long term perspective.

[DUDE 0]

But you cant look at the 3 million number as a "eye-catching number". The real number is the differential between Parkhead and CP. Currently the difference in capacity is 9,273 and at 30 quid a pop that is about 275k additional ticket money per full house.

 

They would get us twice a year, say 3 if you include an annual cup game - so their extra revenue would be approximately 1 million if you factor in merchandising at about 33% of ticket sales, which I think is generous. Euro nights, sure, they would also get those, so normally another 1 million (3 CL games) - but this is also dependent, obviously, on them making the CL. Now, lets not forget that this is REVENUE which wont equate to profit, there would be additional expenses of having more seating.

 

I am not disputing that we could be doing with the largest ground in the country but, right now, it isnt one which necessarily makes financial sense in terms of what profits it would bring. As Zappa said, to build an extension would probably cost upwards of 20 million - so you are looking at potentially 20 years worth of the additional revenue to pay for it... and longer if you look at profits.

 

We also must remember that when we were in the SPL the ONLY time we filled Ibrox was for OF & Euro games - it wasnt needed to have a larger stadium more than 5 times a season. We are filling the ground in part due to the ST prices being lower, part due to the novelty of seeing the journey back to the top and, probably, partly due to defiance

 

I also wonder how much additional expense CFC currently have in terms of policing, stewarding etc given the green seat brigade are in serious attendance ?

 

I would love us to have the largest stadium in the country, but I dont necessarily see it right now as being a financially astute move. But..... if we had owners with a real long-term perspective then it should be looked at - but as we know CG is only looking at retirement in a few years so does he really have a true long term perspective ?

 

Absolutely spot on mate.