Corner infill debate....

[NMTD 0]

Dear Mr Doncaster

The answer to your question is simple.

If we go up build it - if we don''t - don''t.

Financial returns from the Premiership will make funding £2.5m an irrelevance in the grand scheme of things through secured borrowing even if we are only ''up'' for 1 year.

On your forecast that it will only generate £500,000 (assuming we could build it in time) per season in the premier :-

a) 1000 people already on the waiting list - cost of adult season ticket post May 2nd - £360 = £360,000

b) 800 at ''new premier pricing'' (guessing) £450 - total £360,000. If sold on casual basis would raise more.

c) Average spend per fan in club shop/catering etc £40 (conservative) per season = £72,000.

d) Assuming only 1 home cup game with average seat price at £15 = £27,000

e) Sporsorship / executive boxes / other revenues = ??

Total - likely to be in region of £800-850,000 = £440 - £470 per seat per season

Admittedly I have not factored in OAP''s and under 21''s but majority of fans will pay the adult price. Your forecast of £500,000 = £277 per seat which seems very conservative.
I hope this helps the decision making process

If I can be of any further assistance please get in touch.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I really can''t imagine us being in the Prem and not having that corner filled in. I know it''s a lot of money to spend, but the ends justifies the means. The demand for tickets will be through the roof anyway. And besides, a bloody great gaping hole would just look stupid!

[MadDan 0]

You are looking at gross figures. Not sure if there is a VAT liability on tickets. Non ticket spend is also gross.

The stand will need stewarding and insurance.

Doncaster is right to highlight the ups and downs of this development. It does keep fans up to scratch and stops much of the bad feeling that arises through miss (or lack of)of information.

The concern the club is expressing is that were we not to be achieving sellouts for wahtever reason this development would be a drain on the resources.

Good point but given that it should last for at least a couple of decades lets get it done know.

Would better serve as an away section. If so then at least designed so that it could be multi level occupancy ie when a club has only a few hundred away fans the rest of the seats can be safely let to home fans.

ps when is Mr Doncaster going to allow random away fans into the directors box.

[no1canary 0]

i too think that the away fans should be put in the new corner infill ( if it gets built!). why let them take up a good part of our new stand and take good seats.

[PH 0]

Mad Dan. Have you had a reply from Mr Doncaster regarding your letter? Presumably not, as I have not either.

But yes good question. Presumably he will be greeting opposing fans with open arms on Sunday? It is all a bit of friendly banter after all !!

[birminghamcanary 0]

what about the £6m from the land? I know the new stand cost £8m but that was nearly finished when the £6m deal went thru so those finances must have been in place! Definitely think its worth it! When was the last time we weren''t sold out for a home game?

The longer they wait, the higher the builder''s costs (and other costs) will be in relation to the income from football! We can''t leave it how it is, cos we''re losing a lot of the atmosphere, its freezing and we need a bigger capacity!!

Is the hotel going ahead?

[John Boubepo 0]

So the income from the corner infill will be 500k while in the prem but only 100k if we return to Div 1?? - if we get relegated, assuming we will be pushing for promotion and will still be getting full houses, this can mean only one thing!!!! - ticket prices will drop to one fifth of their premiership price, so instead of paying £25 for a ticket in the prem, it''s only going to be £5 back in Div 1, mmmmmmmmmmmmm I don''t think so!!

We all know you are going to build it Mr D, after all the cost of building a temporary stand only to pay for it to be knocked down and the real stand built at a later date just doesn''t make any economical sense.

Worry ye not Mr D we will all give you a pat on the back when you build it, you don''t have to stretch the story!! but I like the cut of your jib all the same!!

[Temp the Revelator 0]

Everyone seems to be ignoring a couple of facts on this thread.

Fact 1: Away fans in the infill. Sounds like a good idea in theory, but if you read again Doncaster''s quotes, we need to accommodate the Disabled section within the infill, as that is where the old one was, and we are currently without an acceptable level of disabled access - as mentioned in a previous thread. As such, not sure it''s a good idea to put away fans there as well.

Fact 2: The £6m raised with the sale of land was spent before we received it, in clearing a large chunk of the £15m securitisation loan we received in order to build the new stand. The sale of the land was a condition of the loan in the first place.

However, I do find it very refreshing that we are able to debate this issue with as many of the facts as we have. What a difference a decade makes!

[MadDan 0]

The one difference is the fans attitude now. Without wishing to open old wounds we had an awful lot of uninformed idiots hanging around the club before.

Many of these simpletons tagged along with the European games and were at a complete loss as to contractual obligation''s, payments and any grasp of football finance.

My only fear is that we will have hoovered up another load this time and the first difficult patch we hit in the premiership we''ll be met by a barrage of abuse and discontent.

Much as I welcome our return to the ''big time'' something in me regrets the loss of the intimacy and kinship of being with fellow canaries on cold Tuesday nights in Port Vale.

The knowledge that it was only the long journey that stood between you and watching your club. Not some random ticket allocation. Being the odd one out at work for having got back in at some unearthly hour after a fruitless cross country drive.

Now I''m lost amongst a sea of yellow and green. Just as the daffodils are out everywhere so are lapsed City fans.............errrrrrr welcome back. I think.

[birminghamcanary 0]

Agree completely mate!! good to see a lot of supprot as long as they stay!! Am worried that people will disappear if we go up and it starts going wrong!! can see why it could be a risk to build the infill but don''t think we can leave it how it is!!!