Wallsendmag

Had an email this afternoon about it saying that if I buy a ticket I'll get priority v Sunderland and that I could watch the England match in the Stack or Shearers afterwards. Got the impression ticket sales aren't going as well as for their previous games at SJP.

I've been on every day for West Ham (constantly refreshing for 15 mins at a time on multiple occasions) as I got a ballot rejection and haven't seen a single ticket come available yet!

We could have sold 60k for Wimbledon at home in the 3rd round of the league cup with the game announced at 1 weeks notice tbf.

Google search says they have currently have 27,000 season ticket holders. They made an extra 1,000 available as they gradually extended from 45k up to 55k with the new tier on the main stand, to the 61k they have now with the Anfield Road expansion.

Funnily enough I was considering Berwick on Saturday. Looks like they're playing in the Cup. Be either there, Gateshead or Percy Main. Can't decide. Berwick the best day out, Gateshead should be the best game, and Percy Main the handiest.

Haha exactly the same as me. Had £30 on them. Good old Bet365 paid me £64.50 back because they went 2-0 up and they ended up not even winning.

Watch any Championship game on TV and then you'll agree with him. There's a reason that the 3 teams relegated from the PL last season were the 3 who'd just came up. Championship is getting weaker every year. Look at the calibre of players (and manager) we had least time we were in it and we just managed to pip Brighton on the final day. Compare that with what's sitting top at the moment and you'll see what I mean.

I think we're simply following what other clubs are doing tbh. When you are getting guaranteed sell out crowds you can generate far more money by selling tickets game by game through memberships than season tickets. For example Anfield holds 61k but they only allow 25k ST holders.

Aye definitely. Fans make a weekend of it up here and it ends up being a bit of a carnival atmosphere whereas it's more of a run of the mill game when it's played in their heartlands.

Think it's a wind up mate

At least it'll be easy to get served at the bar then! Holds 3k and their average gate is around 400. In all seriousness I actually had a season ticket at Thunder for a few years but a mixture of COVID arriving and it clashing with the bairns football on a Sunday meant we had to give them up. Enjoyed it though. Its a good sport to watch.

Apparently Elland Road was rubbish this year. Nothing around it and the stadium is a right dump. People basically went to watch their own team then just went home. Newcastle has always been the choice of the fans and with the Stack there now I expect they'll enjoy it even more. Got to say I've been to a few of the Magic Weekends here and it's always been a fantastic occasion.

They've already beaten that. They went down with 15 points a few years later.

It's an absolutely dross league which appears to get weaker every season. Not one team have impressed me. Sheff Utd look half decent, Leeds go from the sublime to the ridiculous, Sunderland not pleasing on the eye but have been very clinical with their chance conversion rate and West Brom and Burnley are 2 teams who would send you to sleep. I think it'll be a case of the 3 who come up will all go straight back down again, like last season. Gap is getting wider every year.

For the loss of revenue alone whilst SJP is rebuilt, and for the end result (7k cheap seats built on top of the Gallowgate and maybe a slight remodelling of the East Stand) I can't see any logical reason for going down that route.

Yeah but that's not really what I was getting at. People saying ST holders wouldn't be able to go to games but I just can't see how that would be the case. We only have 31k ST holders and the Milburn and Leazes ends alone could comfortably accommodate all them. Anyway, hope it's a theory that's never tested!

But even if we "lost" the entire Gallowgate End that's only 12k seats if you include both corners, and of those 12k seats there's probably 8/9k ST holders so still can't work out why people are saying they wouldn't be able to go whilst the work is being carried out. Surely they'd just be relocated as the capacity would still be around the 40k mark.

Not sure what the reported costs are tbh but over quarter of a century on, and with the spiralling costs of materials and labour I'd expect costs to be far higher anyway. Still unsure as to why some of the 31k ST holders wouldn't be able to go for a year or two.

Not that I'm advocating an extension of the Gallowgate (waste of time and money) but never understood why people think current ST holders would lose their seats whilst said expansion was happening. I had my ST in the Leazes when the L7 expansion happened and none of us lost out seats, same with those in the Milburn Stand. We just got wet when it rained for a season. That infamous Derby being the worst!

Can totally see that POV as well tbf. We could easily double our revenue with a new stadium but that guarantees nothing if the restrictions are still in place. Using Spurs was a good example. However the more you can spend means you do increase your chances of success. My view was based as much on that we are getting left behind by staying at an ever more outdated SJP which means we can't at least maximise our potential. We'll have a near identical capacity to Everton next season. It'll be interesting to compare how much money BM generates for them compared to what SJP does for us given that both stadiums will be sold out for every game.

Definitely. Probably a 6 or 7 minute walk from the Central Station. I've always thought of the Arena being as Central as SJP to be honest.

Expanding would clearly allow us to spend more though. That's just stating the obvious. Man City are going from their original 47k up to 60k. Anfield gone from 45k to 61k. Arsenal and Spurs both moved to massively increase their capacity. Then you've got West Ham who went up to 65k, Man Utd, Villa and Chelsea all looking at their options. Everton have possibly gone too small with 52k imo. But they've all expanded for good reason.

I'd actually say the opposite. Probably not an exaggeration to say a brand new 70/75k stadium could potentially double our matchday revenue with the extra capacity and all the extra corporate offerings it could bring. That would massively help us if PSR rules continue. Tbh I'm coming more and more to the opinion that SJP isn't really fit for purpose anyway as a modern footballing venue. The design is poor, it looks tired and it is too small. For the last quarter of a century our average gate is around 50k and for a lot of that time we've been utterly shite, even a 2nd tier team for 2 of those years. We need something bigger and we need something better, but it needs to be in the city centre.

Obviously that image shows it's slightly less than a mile going south as that takes you across the river but it's a rough guide. Certainly a mile, North, East, West or South as far as the river. Certainly wouldn't like it to be anywhere outside of that circle.

Aye near enough. I mean obviously there's no exact definition and everyone will have their own opinion on it but for me the exact centre of the city is Greys Monument and if you drew a circle around that I'd class anything within a mile radius as being city centre.