Sir Elton John Stand

possibly, but you end up with a proper Heath Robinson solution which is sub-optimal in many regards. Modern stadia get far more in for far less space. Plus other considerations to modernise, retail, food, leisure etc and consideration for local infrastructure. Have any other sites ever been seriously scoped?

 

You can bet they have but I doubt they'd disclose anything until the last minute .... for genuine business reasons as speculation often leads to more expense.

 

If anything needs to change down there it's the Hospital! A maze of buildings, most of which aren't fit for purpose. That needs to be knocked down and built outside of town. Then we can build a new stadium on its footprint.

 

Perhaps someone can confirm but I heard that the East Stand design was talked about at the fans forum a couple of weeks ago and it can be very easily enlarged if needed. The foundations have been laid for something much bigger (that would figure considering how long they took to do) and there is room enough at the back of the stand for it to expand back closer to the road. I think there is also a possibility that the whole stand can be dismantled easily and a bigger one put in on the current foundations. I think the current stand could be sold and re-erected somewhere else. A 'semi-permanent' stand as it was described some time ago.

 

Correct.

Glyn Evans confirmed this at the fans forum.

 

Got a chance to sit in the East Stand on Saturday. If it happens then very much looking forward to it.

 

Then only small people should be allowed to sit in it to make it look bigger ...

 

Well if the world of romance isn't dead it's certainly in intensive care then ...

 

Nonsense. The Vic is this era's Colosseum. It will be looked back on as the place Italians battled the lions of Englandshire and won mostly, and sometimes drew.

 

aint played milliwatt yet dis year m8

 

When expansion happens, the stand will be dismantled and new upright steels will be put further back and a new stand with a shallower gradient will be built all the way to pitch level. The ground floor will be used by the club and the first floor will be for supporters

 

Interesting. I dont understand why they just didn't build the bigger version and be done. Surely that would cost far less than extending at a later date. If we went up this season it would be have to be pulled apart in the summer anyway. Seems abit too cautious to me be but I guess they didn't want to spend until they've banked the cash from the prem.

 

Why? They could probably add a fair few hundred seats by building rows on the front in between the various staircases. That would take us above 21,000. Previous experience says that's a good amount to have for our first PL year. If we stay up we can then go from there I'd say.

 

Pretty obvious really. 20-21k isn't big enough for any club in the prem. I would guess there are only a few clubs with less than 30k capacity now in the prem and those that have will be looking to move or increase.

 

Ticket income is minimal in the Prem anyway, TV money is the main income. Unless we can put put in corporate boxes and attract the big spenders by putting in decent banqueting facilities in the south west corner, another increase in capacity will not happen in the foreseeable future.

 

and this is the point - if we don't make a conditions based bold correction (i.e. 2 seasons in PL) we'll bungle into more ad-hockery and the Vic will be a building site for the next 15 yrs. We'll add more to the 'temporary' stand, revamp the SW corner, do something with the NE corner and so on - and continue to chase the error forever.

Its a bit like my sisters house in the country - she's been working on it for the past 20 yrs, the amount she's spent on it, she could have rebuilt it 3 times over, it would be bigger, better, modern and fit for purpose, and she wouldn't have lived in a building site for the past 2 decades.

 

Watched the Middlesbrough stadium in TV (well ... in stream). Although the attendance was a more than decent 17K, it was really sad to watch a 35k stadium half empty.
I think it's better to do things gradually. If and when we go up and stay there for a decent number of seasons, solutions will be found.
But I prefer a lively 21k stadium always full in Premier than a sad 35k stadium half empty in Championship, if things were done with too much optimism and "grandeur".

 

pick up the ball and look confused when told it's not our free kick.

 

We didn't sell out the playoff semi final at home. Bit by bit is fine with me.

 

When was the last time you went there ?

 

The simple fact us that the whole 'build it and they will come' vibe doesn't really work with us. We are (as much as some like to forget in this brave new Pozzo world) a small club. Vicarage road is currently too small for us, but only very marginally. Once we have the East Stand fully open it will be an ideal size for the club.

The fan base just isn't that huge. We'd have to establish ourselves as a Premier League club for a good many years before even considering ourselves to have a fan base that warrants big expansion.

 

Yeah all fair points but why would we need to start such a significant expansion this summer if promoted? You said this summer but common sense says wait until we're established in the PL before worrying about bigger expansion.

 

Exactly. Where's the fire? We've been in the top flight three times and still we can't sell out now. It's just ego wanting us to expand further atm.

 

I don't think it will be a matter of staying in the Premier League for a few seasons either. If someone can find stats to correct me then fair enough, but I'm sure Bolton and Wigan's attendances dropped after a period of time of scrapping for survival. We'd have to give great value and/or do well like Swansea, Southampton. It's hard to gauge whether I'm right or wrong with a Watford fan base as we've only been in the BPL for a single season each time.

 

I think we live in very different times now. If we get promoted and have a good few seasons in the Prem, if we offer entertaining football at a price much lower than the London clubs, I feel that our attendances could be the highest they've ever been. When the Croxley rail link is finished, our transport links will be even better. Correct me if I'm wrong but our highest average attendance is around 19500 and this can definitely be increased in this day of Premier League media hype.

 

I know you can't really compare as like for like but back in the eighties, when we had a team playing in a top flight that wasn't anywhere near as dominated by the big five as it is now, we very rarely sold out. I know we could pack more in back in the day but after the initial excitement of reaching the top flight, finishing second and getting to a cup final, the interest started to wane. by the time we'd been there for four seasons, crowds were dwindling.

I think the new capacity, whatever that will be (circa 22,000), is perfect for us. Yes, we will get new supporters coming along, some to watch the big boys, some to add support to our cause. If we were to get relegated, which is extremely possible - a lot of the new breed of fan will find something else to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Also with the staggered kick-offs that the Premier League brings with it will have an impact on attendances. Well done Pozzo's, you've got this just about perfect.

 

I see everything is ready on the pitch for the open training session for the Junior Hornets this morning.

 

An updated picture every 15 mins.... be just like watching the stream from last Saturdays game

 

Watford has bit of a problem with estimating future capacity demand because of its history. It wasn't that long ago we were filling Vicarage Rd with 28,000 against the likes of Arsenal.
There are "smaller" clubs with far bigger ambitions and stadiums. The thousands of floating football fan will turn up to watch a Premier League match, all of a sudden as a season ticket holder, friends ask you "can you get me a few tickets". Watford is no different to any other club in that respect. If the whole match day experience is a good one for these fans they will be back again. If you stick 'em down by the bins in the corner flag with a sh!t view because the stands not big enough to they won't come back. If you build a stand just for die hard fans you are losing a massive amount of money when Man.Utd come to town.
If your ground only holds 21,000 there are no big pay days.
The "build it and they will come" is working at smaller clubs like MKDongs, so I don't see why that it couldn't work for WFC.

 

Reading was a small third-tier club until they established themselves in the top two divisions and built a better ground. It can be done. But not often. And maybe we're too near to the big boys to make it happen. I always hoped that when Highbury was a three-sided ground, and later when prices rocketed to pay for their move to the Emirates, those who couldn't get a seat or were priced out would come to Watford. But they didn't.

 

But MK Dons have a very large catchment area. The estimated population of Milton Keynes is over 200k where Watford is approximately 90k. Plus Watford have more competition from nearby clubs, particularly the London clubs.

I think the new stand is just about right. Given that the club have stated that the capacity of the new stand could relatively easily be increased, there's no point in building a huge stand now.

 

It's not really. Their stadium is absolutely marvelous, the best new build I have visited, the seats, concourses etc, all of high quality but they are still in league 1 and thus attendances are still far below capacity and only go up when large opposition teams like Sheffield United and Coventry bring big followings. In 2008 the average home attendance there was 10k (half of capacity). Last season it was 8k (with an expanded 30k stadium). They are now getting 7,700 with the Coventry home game getting 10k, where most of the fans were Cov! This is despite players like Dele Ali.

 

What is a 'big pay day' Suppose we had an extra 5000 seats; sold at an average of £20 (taking concessions into account) that's £100k per game. Which teams would fill it ? Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, QPR and West Ham, plus United, Citeh and maybe Liverpool.

£800k. How much would a significantly larger stand cost? Probably£6-10m extra. So we are looking at 8-10 years to recoup the costs. I'd rather have a packed and hostile Vic every week.

 

But if that stand has executive boxes that are filled every game, you make that up in 2 seasons.

 

Executive boxes should be a possibility in the current new stand. What else is that big black area at the back for?