Stadium Capacity

[WystonRam]

just over 31000 there last night for a "Sell Out", and other recent sell outs have been well down on the ground capacity of just under 33600. Even allowing for segregation, why is the sell out figure so low compared to what we used to get. 33,289 is the highest league attendance at PPS I believe v Liverpool in 2001.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

6 minutes ago, wyschtonram said:

just over 31000 there last night for a "Sell Out", and other recent sell outs have been well down on the ground capacity of just under 33600. Even allowing for segregation, why is the sell out figure so low compared to what we used to get. 33,289 is the highest league attendance at PPS I believe v Liverpool in 2001.

I noticed that. Tax reasons? There really didn’t look to be too much segregation last night.

[Day]

4 minutes ago, wyschtonram said:

just over 31000 there last night for a "Sell Out", and other recent sell outs have been well down on the ground capacity of just under 33600. Even allowing for segregation, why is the sell out figure so low compared to what we used to get. 33,289 is the highest league attendance at PPS I believe v Liverpool in 2001.

33,378 v Liverpool is the record.

31,379 There last night.

1999 less. I’m guessing it really is just segregation. Back then Liverpool would have been in the South stand with just one line of segregation. 

Last night there was a large segregation down the middle of the East stand plus seats on the front rows in front of the United fans were also netted off with flags on

[SaintRam]

13 minutes ago, wyschtonram said:

just over 31000 there last night for a "Sell Out", and other recent sell outs have been well down onto aground capacity fo just under 33600. Even allowing for segregation, why is the sell to figure so low spared to what we used to get. 33,289 is the highest league attendance at PPS I believe v Liverpool in 2001.

A number of reasons. 

Moving the away fans to the corner increased the amount of seats lost to segregation. The away fans used to be naturally separated by the SW Corner wall.

There've also been lots of incremental changes over the years, I think, mostly I think due to small changes in regulations. Increases to disabled seating, which I assume has occurred, will remove some regular seating capacity; for example. 

Probable rules related to segregation have changed too since 2000.

[angieram]

Just now, David said:

33,378 v Liverpool is the record.

31,379 There last night.

1999 less. I’m guessing it really is just segregation. Back then Liverpool would have been in the South stand with just one line of segregation. 

Last night there was a large segregation down the middle of the East stand plus seats on the front rows in front of the United fans were also netted off with flags on

That central segregation was way over the top. There was only a thin strip between United fans and the South Stand (where you might anticipate a little bother) but to separate a whole block down the halfway line right next to the East Stand pussycats (not even the ones who usually stand near the away fans) is a little bizarre. 

I know that due to partitioning in the concourse they can't open that whole block, but they could have used half of it with the entrances same as those for the first few columns of East Stand fans - we wasted a fair few pounds of income there, I reckon!

[SaintRam]

3 minutes ago, angieram said:

That central segregation was way over the top. There was only a thin strip between United fans and the South Stand (where you might anticipate a little bother) but to separate a whole block down the halfway line right next to the East Stand pussycats (not even the ones who usually stand near the away fans) is a little bizarre. 

I know that due to partitioning in the concourse they can't open that whole block, but they could have used half of it with the entrances same as those for the first few columns of East Stand fans - we wasted a fair few pounds of income there, I reckon!

The increased allocation of cup matches is where moving the away fans from the South Stand hurts the club's pockets. Filling that whole stand for big away turnouts was a far simpler task.

Not that it wasn't a good decision of course; "our" south stand is a much better alternative, but that is the stand the stadium was designed to house away fans in.

[woody01530]

Always thought it strange with these new stadiums, that no home end, kop, was designed in to the build.

Seems a basic to me. Only spurs have done this.

[rammieib]

Must have been 1000 seats blocked off in the East Stand half way line (Not sure why we need such a big segregation).

Must have been 200 seats lost for the original segregation and another 100/200 in the South Stand. So circa 1400 lost due to segregation.

But 33,500 capacity minus 1400 on segregation is 32,100. Attendance was 31,300. I'm lost myself on where the other 800 are?

[Millenniumram]

There were 4000 half fans there

[rammieib]

43 minutes ago, angieram said:

That central segregation was way over the top. There was only a thin strip between United fans and the South Stand (where you might anticipate a little bother) but to separate a whole block down the halfway line right next to the East Stand pussycats (not even the ones who usually stand near the away fans) is a little bizarre. 

I know that due to partitioning in the concourse they can't open that whole block, but they could have used half of it with the entrances same as those for the first few columns of East Stand fans - we wasted a fair few pounds of income there, I reckon!

Spot on. I bet it didn't look good on TV either.

[Rich84]

It wasn't just the segregation running up the stand, there was netting over half a dozen rows all along the front of the extra away fan section to prevent pitch encroachment, the normal away fan section has a low metal barrier which doesn't lose seating allocation. 

The centre section was way over the top though. 

[Gaspode]

Pretty sure they now have to report the number of fans that actually attend rather than the number of tickets sold which would also have an impact on the quoted figure....

[tinman]

They lose seats in the back of the west stand too to make room for tv cameras around the 18yard box. 

[admira]

The official website states ' boasts a capacity of 33,597 seats'

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/pride-park-stadium

 

[Duracell]

1 hour ago, woody01530 said:

Always thought it strange with these new stadiums, that no home end, kop, was designed in to the build.

Seems a basic to me. Only spurs have done this.

It's incredible how uninspiring the 1990s-2000s new builds were - literally just seats around the pitch. The only criteria seemed to be a.) no pillars obscuring the view, b.) filled in corners and c.) acceptable toilets. The rest was just done as basically as possible. So frustrating - the 1990s idea of progress has left a lot of clubs with technically better stadiums with none of the magic their old ones had.

You're right to praise Spurs, it's a great new ground. Imagine if Pride Park was designed with that much creativity.

[Uptherams]

34 minutes ago, Duracell said:

It's incredible how uninspiring the 1990s-2000s new builds were - literally just seats around the pitch. The only criteria seemed to be a.) no pillars obscuring the view, b.) filled in corners and c.) acceptable toilets. The rest was just done as basically as possible. So frustrating - the 1990s idea of progress has left a lot of clubs with technically better stadiums with none of the magic their old ones had.

You're right to praise Spurs, it's a great new ground. Imagine if Pride Park was designed with that much creativity.

I look forward to seeing official plans for converting the stadium. I imagine that converting the stadium to an arena will have future expansion in mind. Therefore the roof will be raised to match the main stand before a roof that spans the pitch is installed and also before another 10,000 seats are added at a much later date. 

I don't think all the seats will be added at once either. So the concrete rows will be in put in place, with the initial capacity expansion. But only say half of the 15 new rows will get seats added to them and the back concrete covered in netting and fan flags. 

With the conversion to an arena, i imagine the East stand concourse expansion will take place. 

[Wolfie]

1 hour ago, admira said:

The official website states ' boasts a capacity of 33,597 seats'

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/pride-park-stadium

 

Aaah but that's including Bristol Street Motors just down the road. Hundreds of SEAT's there.

[ossieram]

4 hours ago, angieram said:

That central segregation was way over the top. There was only a thin strip between United fans and the South Stand (where you might anticipate a little bother) but to separate a whole block down the halfway line right next to the East Stand pussycats (not even the ones who usually stand near the away fans) is a little bizarre. 

The netting between the South stand and the away fans is only narrow, but there is also a buffer zone between the netting and the south stand that makes the area wider.

All the tickets might have sold, but there were quite a few empty seats in the away end at the very top of the East stand, we saw quite a few empty yellow seats up there.

[We'll be back in 81]

2 hours ago, Uptherams said:

I look forward to seeing official plans for converting the stadium. I imagine that converting the stadium to an arena will have future expansion in mind. Therefore the roof will be raised to match the main stand before a roof that spans the pitch is installed and also before another 10,000 seats are added at a much later date. 

I don't think all the seats will be added at once either. So the concrete rows will be in put in place, with the initial capacity expansion. But only say half of the 15 new rows will get seats added to them and the back concrete covered in netting and fan flags. 

With the conversion to an arena, i imagine the East stand concourse expansion will take place. 

I believe the concrete foundations for the pillars are already in place for expansion around the horse shoe which would accommodate an extra 6500 seats.

[Uptherams]

46 minutes ago, hiltonram said:

I believe the concrete foundations for the pillars are already in place for expansion around the horse shoe which would accommodate an extra 6500 seats.

Yes they are ??. What i mean is the actual concrete rows. If i remember correctly, lifting up the roof to match the main stand, allows for 15 additional rows, which takes the capacity up to 44,000.