Liverpool FC Forum

[The Manhattan Project]

Will LFC be able to fill an 80,000 seater stadium?

[112-1077774096]

I am sure the club knows how many applications they get for tickets that they have to refuse, this doesnt take into account the people who go to the ticket office for general sale after they are sold out

[LFCNUTTER]

arsenals old ground used to hold 38k they now have an extra 22k seats at the emirates, this generates an extra £1m in revenue every home game.With Liverpool if the were to put in an extra 37k extra seats that would generate an extra £1.75m extra revenue every home game

[puroresu]

Will LFC be able to fill an 80,000 seater stadium?

I dont think every game would be sold out.

[Anfield rapper]

Out of interest how much is a season ticket anyway? I've never ever given it much thought because i knew i would never be able to get one. Thats another thing to bare in mind i suppose their may be 50,000 on the waiting list but who's to say that if they were available there wouldn't be even more people interested in buying them.

[stmichael]

It's always dangerous to become greedy when it comes to questions like this. Today we have a capacity of some 45.000, and fills the stadium more or less every game. Infact, the demand is so big, and the availability for tickets are so limited, that when people apply for a fan card, they tick the "do you want to apply for a season ticket"-box while they're at it. What's the problem in getting a season ticket when the demand for tickets are at this level? You can always sell it when you're not able to go yourself. Therefore we have a 50.000 large waiting list. But, as previously said, most of them are already at the game. It's not like we can increase the capasity by 50.000 and think we'll fill the stadium every time.

If we build a 60.000 stadium, we will most likely still be able to fill it most of the times (at least now, when we have a good team). But will the waiting list for a season ticket still be, lets say 30.000? Will the availability for tickets still be extremely limited, like it is today? I don't think so, even though we will sell out most of the games.

What happens then, if we increase to 80.000? Well, first of all there will be an over capacity for many games. Tickets to "ordinary" games that earlier were sold out a week before kick off will now be available on match day. The psychological effect of knowing that "if I don't get my tickets early, I won't get the at all" will disappear, and people will wait until the match day before they decide whether or not they ware going to the match. I read an article on this a few moths back, an article based on a study of large events like this (sorry, can't find the link now. It was in a paper and I don't know if it ever was on the www). The study concluded that if you had a potential of averaging 65.000, you would benefit from building a 60.000 stadium instead of a 70.000 stadium, simply because of the before metioned psychological effect the fact you can expect a sell out, and therefore go to greater lengths to get a ticket. The average will actually be higher with a 60k stadium, due to your "every day" games, even though your "big games" will sell all 70k tickets.

The last point to make is that being in a 80k stadium with 60k sold tickets is nothing like being in a 60k stadium with 60k sold tickets. You're not having many empty seats before you get the "not many in here today" feeling. And that feeling is an athmosphere-wrecker that no stadium design in the world can compensate for.

[Big Niall]

Why not build a 60,000 seater and leave potential for another 20,000. If we sell out 60k often, then add another 5k etc.

[LFCNUTTER]

Why not build a 60,000 seater and leave potential for another 20,000. If we sell out 60k often, then add another 5k etc.

The cost of building the extra 20k seats now would be considerably less than adding an extra 20k at a later date.We have to build this 80k stadium now.If the mancs can sell 76k every week, why cant we.Imagine the great european nights with 80k raising the roof. I get goose bumps just thinking about it

[woof woof !]

Excellent article on the pro's and cons of a new stadium for LFC  here


Having digested it I'm rethinking my support for a 70,000 seater ,if I read it right , the article suggests even 60,000 would not be filled except on Euro nights . 

[LFCNUTTER]

Yes but by the sounds of this fella he been in the anti stadium lobby from day 1.
12-14k on the season ticket waiting list ?. isnt it closer to 30-40k

[woof woof !]

He's certainly anti-move from Anfield , I personally don't have the numbers but if this fella's figures are correct (and he seems to have done his homework) even a 60,000 seater (never mind a 70,000) could find itself only two thirds full on most match days .

[puroresu]

Its all about supply and demand.  A capacity of 45,000 means there will be a larger season ticket list and a higher demand for match tickets as seats are so limited.

I think 70,000 would be more than enough as I am not 100% certain this would sell out every home game.  I can see why people are saying build a stadium bigger than Utd but why?  Like it or not Utd have a bigger fanbase than us. 

On the surface it looks like we would easily fill 80,000 as there are so many fans who cant go but in reality I dont think it would happen.

[Anfield rapper]

Parry has been quoted today saying all this about 80k is rubbish. The article went on to say that the owners are looking to increase the capacity to 65k and be able to increase to 80k in the future if required. I think this is sensible. I think we would only fill an 80k stadium maybe 2 or 3 times a season. And the affect of having spare seats on the atmoshphere of the stadium would be terrible. I think we should build a 60k stadium which i think we would fill most games and then look at ways to increase the capacity in the future if its required which hopefully it will be. The mancs have done it well to be fair. They have slowly increased the size of their stadium as and when it is required. This means that there is always more demand for the seats than they have available and they are at about the exact number of seats they need.

[ivor_the_injun]

Food for thought - Arsenal got 38,000 in for an FA Youth Cup tie last night, and bear in mind that this was on the same night their first team had a Prem match at Villa. This is roughly the capacity of their old ground, let's not forget.

They only had the lower tiers open, ticket prices were cheap for kids, and they absolutely packed them in. That's the key. If a sizeable number of tickets are affordable for families, there'll be absolutely no problems filling an 80,000 seater. Even if our current capacity doubled and ticket prices were halved, the revenue would still be substantially increased due to the increased amount of food/drink, programmes etc sold.

[woof woof !]

Food for thought - Arsenal got 38,000 in for an FA Youth Cup tie last night, and bear in mind that this was on the same night their first team had a Prem match at Villa. This is roughly the capacity of their old ground, let's not forget.

They only had the lower tiers open, ticket prices were cheap for kids, and they absolutely packed them in. That's the key. If a sizeable number of tickets are affordable for families, there'll be absolutely no problems filling an 80,000 seater. Even if our current capacity doubled and ticket prices were halved, the revenue would still be substantially increased due to the increased amount of food/drink, programmes etc sold.

London has seven and a half million inhabitants (2005 census)
(hence Arsenals ability to draw a large crowd)

Liverpool has nine hundred and thirty seven thousand (2005 census)

To suggest that even with "affordable" ticket prices " we'd have no problem filling an 80,000 seater stadium " is optimism at it's most extreme .