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Post by timberwolf on Jun 22, 2021 10:26:09 GMT
if and its a big if we ever reach the championship and larger a capacity we get will really be for away fans from the well supported clubs in the north and midlands. how many sell outs did we actually have back in the days of second tier football anyway. take city out of it and there cannot have been many. we obviously would increase the number of home fans but not by the numbers a lot of us expect. is it really cost effective building something more than a 15,000 capacity and for me thats pushing it. Depends on whether you aspire to be Bournemouth or Barnsley. its far easier to become a bournemouth than a barnsley and far easier to be the latter than it is for County. like it or not there are two of the top teams in the country on our doorstep who get free media coverage we can only dream of. we live in an age where fans want instant success. even a championship club on the doorstep is not going to appeal to everyone. you can have all the asperations you like but they all need to be tempered by the realities of the situation. |
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Post by tgttiw on Jun 22, 2021 11:09:11 GMT
Depends on whether you aspire to be Bournemouth or Barnsley. its far easier to become a bournemouth than a barnsley and far easier to be the latter than it is for County. like it or not there are two of the top teams in the country on our doorstep who get free media coverage we can only dream of. we live in an age where fans want instant success. even a championship club on the doorstep is not going to appeal to everyone. you can have all the asperations you like but they all need to be tempered by the realities of the situation. Take your point timber but notlob Wigan and in the 90s Oldham have all done well in the shadow of the big 2. So there's no reason why we can't grow to that size. Just hope city don't continue to flood the market with cheap tickets that is unfair! |
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Post by timberwolf on Jun 22, 2021 11:23:12 GMT
its far easier to become a bournemouth than a barnsley and far easier to be the latter than it is for County. like it or not there are two of the top teams in the country on our doorstep who get free media coverage we can only dream of. we live in an age where fans want instant success. even a championship club on the doorstep is not going to appeal to everyone. you can have all the asperations you like but they all need to be tempered by the realities of the situation. Take your point timber but notlob Wigan and in the 90s Oldham have all done well in the shadow of the big 2. So there's no reason why we can't grow to that size. Just hope city don't continue to flood the market with cheap tickets that is unfair! yes, but where are they now. nearly back where they started and in the shit financially now. football is just a business and although it might sound a bit simplistic all businesses have a size where they usually prosper. grow too quickly or not grow at all can both have serious consequences for them. quite possibly if both these athletics had stayed in division 1 they might have been a more financially stable outfits. bury would still be possibly with us if they had still been mid table division 2 and macc if they had stayed non league. |
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Post by herbiedumplings on Jun 22, 2021 11:24:55 GMT
its far easier to become a bournemouth than a barnsley and far easier to be the latter than it is for County. like it or not there are two of the top teams in the country on our doorstep who get free media coverage we can only dream of. we live in an age where fans want instant success. even a championship club on the doorstep is not going to appeal to everyone. you can have all the asperations you like but they all need to be tempered by the realities of the situation. Take your point timber but notlob Wigan and in the 90s Oldham have all done well in the shadow of the big 2. So there's no reason why we can't grow to that size. Just hope city don't continue to flood the market with cheap tickets that is unfair! Perhaps this is why - despite the target he’s been set - Wilson told the S*n that he considered League One football to be “sustainable” for County, implying Championship football wasn’t? How full does The Macron (or whatever it’s called these days) get for instance? More bums on seats means more income of course, but how much bigger an overhead is a big, half-empty stand to a smaller, full one? |
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3330
Contributor
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Post by 3330 on Jun 22, 2021 11:34:58 GMT
We will always have a 1st division size cult following its the eb and flow of success that has brought us bigger gates.... nothing suggests that will ever change so to add a few thousand on the capacity with stand redevelopments would in my opinion be better...i love EP when its full...i think that would only happen on big game days and if we got to the Championship ..but looking forward to the journey
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Post by edinburghhatter on Jun 22, 2021 11:36:51 GMT
But stands can be tapered slightly to fit sites! They don't all have to be rectangular.
The current Pop side seats (the dark blue roof) hold 2400. Just looking at the area taken up by the toilet/refreshment block (light blue roof) and the alfresco "concourse" I think it's reasonable to say there's room for an upper tier - possibly overhanging the lower one slightly - which would easily seat at least 3,500. Which would take the current EP capacity of 10,800 up to 14,300. Add in at least 800 by extending at each end of the Main stand and you're just over the 15,000 mark.
That's a bit more than 10-12,000! And yes, I do think the higher figure (15,000 minimum) is what the club should ultimately be aiming for. But it'll cost a lot just to get there, so I'd settle for small sensibly-paced increments.
And as I've said before, none of this involves doing anything more at the Railway end, however desirable that may be. But if the land did suddenly become available, I guess you'd be looking at a potential increase of maybe 3,000 at that end. 
You talk about posts being fantasy and then you suggest without irony, adding a tier onto an outdated, crumbling, restricted view stand as if that’s both feasible and doable. The whole stand would need to be flattened and replaced with a big, new improved stand with modern day income generating facilities in-line with progressing as a club. The talk of filling in part of the reservoir is not fantasy at all, it would enable for the first time ever to be able to have full access around the ground, including say for a large car park for coaches and others extending the CE car park around into what would be a vast space behind any new development. It’s called thinking bigger, which coincides with the owners 7 year plan. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough: I was merely suggesting that adding a tier above and behind the current Pop side seating deck was quite feasible, and trying to put some realistic numbers on it. Everything else in the current stand (the roof, all the concourse facilities etc) would've course go. Not sure how that's ironically adding to an "outdated, crumbling restricted view stand", but there you go...
And yes, in an ideal world I agree you'd flatten the existing seating deck too, and so free up (some) more usable space underneath. But given that the original terrace was re-profiled when it was seated, maybe the benefits of total demolition versus the cost of simply building a retaining wall at the back of the existing deck might not be quite so great: I don't know the answer to that one... just that it won't be my money that would be getting spent on the project! |
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Post by Stranded Hatter on Jun 22, 2021 11:40:54 GMT
There’s no practical reason why we can’t build over part of the reservoir without impacting its water capacity. Christ if they can build over the Mersey we can build over a small part of a reservoir. Is the water capacity of the reservoir an issue at all? As far as I know the reservoirs were built for Sykes' Bleach Works which are long gone and the one nearest EP is only used for fishing these days. No idea, I was more making the point that if it was it still shouldn’t be an obstacle for us. |
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Post by gibbo on Jun 22, 2021 11:54:40 GMT
.i love EP when its full...i think that would only happen on big game days and if we got to the Championship ..but looking forward to the journey And it was rarely full in the Championship days, so not convinced that would change even if we got back there. |
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Post by Stranded Hatter on Jun 22, 2021 12:19:43 GMT
Is the water capacity of the reservoir an issue at all? As far as I know the reservoirs were built for Sykes' Bleach Works which are long gone and the one nearest EP is only used for fishing these days. Some of the suggestions put forward in this thread are verging on pure over-the-top fantasy... we're not trying to build another Wembley! It's all too easy to spend other people's money for them.
If anything new ever gets built behind the Pop side, there'd be absolutely no need to go anywhere near the reservoir! There's enough land within the EP boundary fence for anything County would need. The further back you go, the more any structure and the associated land would cost.
IMHO, we should be talking about tidying up the current facilities at EP, and enhancing/replacing them where necessary and feasible. Which will almost certainly result in a modest increase in capacity... but also (and equally importantly) in much better facilities and a more comfortable experience for fans. Which includes away fans: their money is surely as welcome to the club as ours. And oddly enough, despite the facts that County don't actually own EP at present, and the RE land question remains an issue, the refurbishment programme under Mark Stott's ownership that has started within the last year seems to be delivering just those sorts of off-field improvement...
I mean yeah, this thread is people discussing what the ideal EP would look like, of course it’s fantasy. |
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Post by Stranded Hatter on Jun 22, 2021 12:24:10 GMT
Some thoughtful contributions, thanks; the only thing I would add regarding any Pop Side development is that even at its current modest height, in winter the lack of any sun on that side of the pitch is often a problem compared to the other side. Even though we’ve done exceptionally well to get a number of games on last season, the quality of the surface on that side was sometimes not great. No doubt something could be done to alleviate any problem in this area if there is any development, but as I say, it’s always quite noticeably the worst part of the pitch as it is. The quality of the ‘grass’ (I’m learning the new lingo) is likely to be a priority for the foreseeable future. I think whatever happens corporate will have to be a big consideration. We have a property developer as chairman. He's just built some thumping great big student halls in Leeds (Woodhouse Lane) If you know Leeds. Stockport is trying to get people to move to the town centre based on the speed at which one can get to Manchester by train. I can imagine a joint development with housing somewhere in stockport Town centre. Putting things in like bars, gyms and restaurants would then make sense for putting coffers into the club 24/7 and improved corporate would take us to the next level. I love ep, some of my happiest moments in the last 25 years have been in ep. However I'm probably in the minority to say I wouldn't be opposed to such a move. There’s nowhere in the town centre of Stockport that would hold a ground big enough. It’s either stay at EP or move to a worse location. |
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Post by desmond on Jun 22, 2021 14:06:42 GMT
Been past the ground today and no sign of any painting going on on the Red girder in the CE.
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Post by bristolhatter on Jun 22, 2021 14:24:24 GMT
The key to any redevelopment is ensuring non match day revenue is increased. This will help to make the club more self sufficient and even if Stott walks away, we have the ability to generate revenue. Decent food and drink throughout a match day would definitely help, although this may detract from revenue in Edgeley pubs etc.
Think I've raised this before but Lancs CCC have done a great job of redeveloping their stadium from a revenue perspective, they've got a big hospitality venue (the Point) and a hotel on site raising revenue 365 days a year (ignoring Covid). They also recognise that they only need extra capacity for a short period in summer for T20s and International matches. Therefore although unsightly, they construct a temporary stand for 8-10 weeks in the summer and the remainder of the year, the space is used for football car parking/space for concert stage etc. Whilst this type of solution is probably not the way forward for us (Kassam comes to mind), we do need to ensure that we don't just think about capacity but how we can maximise revenue from the space. I think this is something that our current owner particularly is more than qualified to achieve. It would be great if EP could become a space that the community use 365 days a year, not just from a revenue perspective but also to give the County bug to more locals
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Post by Nik on Jun 22, 2021 15:06:29 GMT
Confirmed that all Cheadle End seats are being replaced
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Post by m14hatter on Jun 22, 2021 15:10:54 GMT
Really good news and sounds like there’s a load more work going on to help the pitch as well.
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Post by Durango95 on Jun 22, 2021 15:21:05 GMT
Love to see this! We've been starved so bad from being skint or having terrible people 'running' the club that this is extremely heartwarming and exciting to see! Fair play all involved. The CE will effectively be brand new again.  |
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