Championship 2018-2019

[eamonn]

What's West Ham's record like at their new stadium compared to the few years at Upton Park before?

[garyellis]

You cant take the club forwards if you're worrying about the past. Build it and they will come.

Very much my take on the future
The world of football and its fanbase is very different these days history can only tell you so much.
I have always believed that Aston Villa well run from the top down has potential that as never been realised.

[paul_e]

You cant take the club forwards if you're worrying about the past. Build it and they will come.

Very much my take on the future
The world of football and its fanbase is very different these days history can only tell you so much.
I have always believed that Aston Villa well run from the top down has potential that as never been realised.

Part of the problem at Villa is that our history is so big and important that anything which risks moving from that is seen as terrible so there's a tough balance to strike between modern and traditional. Filling in the corners is a good example, I hate the idea but it would be a fairly simple way to add a couple of thousand extra seats during a renovation of the north stand.

[mr underhill]

that makes sense to me in so much as it's a limited liability in terms of return on capital  - the problem is the whole of that end of the ground needs rebuilding.

[Ads]

You'd need the space behind the north for the footprint of the stand. I'd guess the front of the stand would be several yards back from where it is so it could wrap easily with the Trinity and Witton.

A museum inside any new build would be good.

[robbo1874]

That's the thing with our fanbase which caught Lerner out.

We get "good" attendances regardless of what's going on on the pitch. We're arguably the most loyal fans out there. But even when we're doing well it doesn't get that much better - during our run of 6th place finishes in the Prem we only sold out half a dozen times a season.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if we had a 50k capacity stadium (ie build it and they will come) but it would be a gamble based on our track record.

There was one year under O'Neill (07/08) when we sold out most weeks, and averaged over 40K.

It wasn't most weeks at all and that was the first year we finished 6th. The next two years we finished 6th and our average dropped each season.

GFC could well have had a bearing on that. Our level of support actually surprises me, given the financial hardship faced by so many people in the region. When I first started working, mid-90’s,  I never really gave a second thought about the cost of going to the football. It would likely be a different story in these times.

[Ad@m]

You cant take the club forwards if you're worrying about the past. Build it and they will come.

Which is easy to say when it's not your £200m or whatever it would cost these days.

[Ads]

You cant take the club forwards if you're worrying about the past. Build it and they will come.

Which is easy to say when it's not your £200m or whatever it would cost these days.

You shouldn't buy a club our size without the ambition to drive it forwards.