Can someone then tell me how is this new stadium going to benefit the club financially if the capacity is only going to increase by 10k? Whereas I would have thought that if they really want the club to compete it should have been at least 55-60k capacity ...
If (and that's a big if) we can fill an extra 10,000 seats at £30 a shot we would get £300,000 more per game, multiply this by any extra games Europe could bring us and that could be a substantial increase in revenue. 10,000 seats also = 10,000 more punters buying pies, pints, memorabilia, etc... and the place will be designed to milk as much as possible fromthe fans, unlike goodison.
Expandability is also designed into stadium nowadays so if we did need an increase in capacity from 50,000 to say 60,000 this would be simpler than at Goodison. We woudl also own a bigger footprint than goodison meaning any expansion doesnt need the demolition of houses, compulsaory purchase orders, drawn out planning procedures.
I think the board are trying to bring us the best they can without getting us into enormous debt...which in my eyes is living within your menas rather than getting into the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt that Arsenal, Man Ure and the Red Sh*te are getting themselves into.
As a run on from this we will be much more attractive to investors than an old 'past it's best' stadium with a constant stay or move scenario hanging over it.
My heart says no to the move, but my head says yes as financially we will not get better than this deal - definitely not in the City.
In Liverpool City it would cost at least £50m for the land (free at proposed site), we have no assistance (£50m from Tesco) and we would have long drawn out planning procedure. Thus we would be £100 million down.
Stay at Goodison and we cannot sell the land that she sits on (approx £50m) - thus staying at Goodison would mean us being £150m down.
Financially it's a no brainer.....i just hope long term the move doesnt isolate EFC fans and erode the fanbase...but i suppose that depends on success more than where you put your ground.
