St James' Park

[Tiresias]

Are we sure it's not down to some infrastructure related issues like concerns of another 10k people getting to the ground from the police or something. Sounds a bit daft maybe

[SteV]

1 minute ago, midds said:

I don't disagree but I think that's cancelled out by the people who would love to go but currently don't bother with the ballot as the prospect of an 80% failure isn't worth my time or effort. The demand to see this team is huge, the opposition is largely irrelevant. Hundreds of thousands of people just want to see NUFC play football against someone

They do right now, I agree, but I think that’s 

 

a) because it’s so hard to get a ticket (outside of being clued up about resale) and getting a ticket for any game is a really big deal for many at present

 

b) we’re on the upward part of the journey - we’ve won one (magical, magnificent) league cup, will the excitement and the buzz still be same for our fourth one, to go with our 3 league titles, 2 FA Cups, and a CL?

 

Personally, I’m not opposed to them going bigger than ~65k, but I can at least see why they might be reluctant.

[bobbydazzla]

10 minutes ago, midds said:

I don't disagree but I think that's cancelled out by the people who would love to go but currently don't bother with the ballot as the prospect of an 80% failure isn't worth my time or effort. The demand to see this team is huge, the opposition is largely irrelevant. Hundreds of thousands of people just want to see NUFC play football against someone

Exactly this, met a 60+ aged woman down the boozer earlier who used to go all the time when tickets were easy to come by, said she’d only been able to get to one game in 2 years because she never wins the ballot and doesn’t know how to do resale

 

She’s now given up on even applying for the ballot  

 

We won’t have a second date, but I found her insight interesting  

 

 

Edited Sunday at 19:11 by bobbydazzla

[midds]

2 minutes ago, SteV said:

They do right now, I agree, but I think that’s 

 

a) because it’s so hard to get a ticket (outside of being clued up about resale) and getting a ticket for any game is a really big deal for many at present

 

b) we’re on the upward part of the journey - we’ve won one (magical, magnificent) league cup, will the excitement and the buzz still be same for our fourth one, to go with our 3 league titles, 2 FA Cups, and a CL?

 

Personally, I’m not opposed to them going bigger than ~65k, but I can at least see why they might be reluctant.

Yep. It'll go exponentially ballistic mate  

[Danh1]

Re the capacity, I don’t think that yesterday should be taken into consideration. Similarly, the long queues for the resale for Man United. 
 

We don’t have access to see how many people are applying in ballots, how many people are using the resale function, both in terms of selling and buying. For this reason, I’m going to trust that whatever the capacity is, it’ll be well worked out. 
 

If it is 65k, then I do hope that there is an option to increase down the line at not a large cost. 

[midds]

4 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

Exactly this, met a 60+ aged woman down the boozer earlier who used to go all the time when tickets were easy to come by, said she’d only been able to get to one game in 2 years because she never wins the ballot and doesn’t know how to do resale

 

She’s now given up on even applying for the ballot  

 

We won’t have a second date, but I found her insight interesting  

 

 

 

Bet you still got her number though you absolute fucking rascal 

[Keegans Export]

14 minutes ago, SteV said:

The reason they seem to want to err on the lower side of capacity, is because availability stifles demand. 
 

At the minute, you’ve got ballot success rate at something like 20%, probably less, which results in a lot of members applying for every single game, regardless of opposition, because they know how hard it is to get into any game.

 

If you build a big mega, super-duper, monster stadium, that makes it a lot easier to win a ballot, the theory will be that demand will drop off because people can be more choosy about what to apply for because there isn’t overarching threat of never getting to a game.

Money also plays a part.

 

If you're only getting tickets 1 in every 5 goes then that's manageable, but if that 20% goes up to 60% and you've got tickets for two of the last three games, maybe you can't justify the outlay if you're successful in the fourth ballot and don't bother? 

 

I've said before but we also have to look way beyond the immediate future. Nobody knows what the next 10 years will look like - either we'll push on and be challenging for titles and playing regularly in the CL, we'll stay roughly where we are now, or we'll drop off. There's an argument that any of those outcomes could reduce demand to varying degrees.

[SteV]

1 minute ago, midds said:

Yep. It'll go exponentially ballistic mate  

I’d love to think so too.

 

It’s not my billion and half quid getting thrown into this mind…

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Had a parcel to drop off so I drove to the InPost locker at SJP for no reason at all

 

[David Edgar]

20 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

Are we sure it's not down to some infrastructure related issues like concerns of another 10k people getting to the ground from the police or something. Sounds a bit daft maybe

 

Could be some deep cost v benefit calculations finding 65k to be the optimum. 

[Wallsendmag]

39 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Money also plays a part.

 

If you're only getting tickets 1 in every 5 goes then that's manageable, but if that 20% goes up to 60% and you've got tickets for two of the last three games, maybe you can't justify the outlay if you're successful in the fourth ballot and don't bother? 

 

I've said before but we also have to look way beyond the immediate future. Nobody knows what the next 10 years will look like - either we'll push on and be challenging for titles and playing regularly in the CL, we'll stay roughly where we are now, or we'll drop off. There's an argument that any of those outcomes could reduce demand to varying degrees.

 

We could sell 65k every week now easily. If the owners are looking at a future where that might not be the case I'd be concerned tbh.

[Sibierski]

12 hours ago, WilliamPS said:

Has it gone to the Saudi overlords for approval and that’s the wait?

 

Given the cost I guess it’s squeaky bum time for them, are they ready to drop serious cash, knowing even in the best case it won’t start to generate a return for 5 years. Plus a training ground too.

I don’t think they will be building a stadium for the profit, it will be to have a significant infrastructure project within a major UK city. Then the continued regeneration from oversees money that comes with it that will appeal to any UK government, that’s the ongoing profit for PIF.

[Dr Venkman]

22 hours ago, LFEE said:

Would love to hear the thoughts of those thinking 65K would be the right size for the potential new ground after yesterday.

 

Don’t underestimate the potential of this club. Price it sensibly, build it and they will come.

I think it’s a little more complex than town was really busy so we need a bigger stadium. Just to give some anecdotal evidence I was right by the town moor for 3 hours waiting for the bus and I’d say roughly 20% of people around joined in with our singing. It didn’t feel like there were many match going fans there. I then stood at the town moor and listened to a bloke next to me explaining who everyone was to his mate. ‘That’s Eddie Howe’.

[junkhead]

The club have very extensive weekly data on ticket demand, ballot participations, age groups, trends etc.. so there's no doubt that the final figure would be carefully considered. I guess there will be a lot more hospitality options, I think there's actual demand for it.

[LFEE]

1 hour ago, Dr Venkman said:

I think it’s a little more complex than town was really busy so we need a bigger stadium. Just to give some anecdotal evidence I was right by the town moor for 3 hours waiting for the bus and I’d say roughly 20% of people around joined in with our singing. It didn’t feel like there were many match going fans there. I then stood at the town moor and listened to a bloke next to me explaining who everyone was to his mate. ‘That’s Eddie Howe’.

Well I think everyone knows that. What you’ve went on to describe though as potential fans that can be targeted and after Saturday might actually fancy going to the odd game and it might also be the case of lapsed fans who might want to return after rediscovering some pride Saturday.

 

My point is it was the perfect demonstration of the size of people with some sort of interest or potential interest. Even if it’s kids who were only 5 years old in awe.

 

This stadium is for the next 100 years and multiple decades. Newcastle is a hotbed of football and should always aiming to be having one of the biggest stadiums in the UK. Not one at a size that already feels modest if correct leaving absolutely no room for growth whilst over clubs are already wishing they’d went bigger when they had the chance of a new start.

[Whitley mag]

Not that it should be a primary concern to us as fans but isn’t there a minimum UEFA requirement for a 70k capacity to hold a CL final etc.

 

I’d imagine PIF would be quite keen for their shiny new stadium to be able to host the biggest fixtures to showcase it.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:55 by Whitley mag

[Kilcline]

19 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Not that it should be a primary concern to us as fans but isn’t there a minimum UEFA requirement for a 70k capacity to hold a CL final etc.

 

I’d imagine PIF would be quite keen for their shiny new stadium to be able to host the biggest fixtures to showcase it.

 

 

 

I think it's 60k, which is at least partially why Man City are extending again, plus stuff about hotel capacity in the city and some other infrastructure bits I believe 

[Bellis80]

Champions League final is at Wembley so often because it makes so much money being in London. Can’t see them going anywhere else in England.

[WilliamPS]

Yes, heard Wembley is the most profitable stadium in Europe to hold an event in for the hosts, that’s why UEFA love it so much; £££. That might change now the Bernabeu and Nou Camp are being revamped.

 

Presumably that’s both due to its 90k capacity but also the volume of corporate built into it

[Slim]

5 hours ago, Bellis80 said:

Champions League final is at Wembley so often because it makes so much money being in London. Can’t see them going anywhere else in England.

 🤔 

 

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/27/fifa-broke-own-human-rights-rules-world-cup-hosts

 

https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/saudi-arabia-secures-2034-world-cup-amid-allegations-of-fifa-corruption/

 

[gjohnson]

20 hours ago, bobbydazzla said:

Exactly this, met a 60+ aged woman down the boozer earlier who used to go all the time when tickets were easy to come by, said she’d only been able to get to one game in 2 years because she never wins the ballot and doesn’t know how to do resale

 

She’s now given up on even applying for the ballot  

 

We won’t have a second date, but I found her insight interesting  

 

 

 

This ballot thing is why I've stopped trying...if try to  go i simply can't not take my son. Getting 1 seat is difficult enough let alone 2...also stops making alternative plans on the off chance we might get seats