Stadium Expansion

So it sounds like from the forum, an initial 4000 seat extension on the SEJ to take capacity up to 25K then 5k on the GT to get 30k.
I think this will make the Rookery and Vic Rd stands look tiny when finished. I wonder when they will start?

 

At the At Our Place, Dux said the focus was on increased capacity in the SEJ &, interestingly, GT stands.

Surely unlikely to be doing this medium term whilst simultaneously planning a new site.

Stevo, sterling work!

Our garden would accommodate a 6 yard box. Please feel free to factor that into your ever more ambitious plans for the New Vic.

 

Would be nice for them, Clarence Park is outdated and hard to renovate. I think Hemel Hempstead Town as well don't have the best of grounds. Also would Boreham Wood's ground make the criteria for League 2 if they get promoted?

 

Agreed.. the next phase will be an expensive one and i can't see them going through with it if relocation plans are in the offing.


Btw i do requests.. and yes i have too much time on my hands. So if anyone wants to see the Vic in Tiananmen Square or on the moon im happy to oblige.

 

Would be intrigued to see it covering parts of central Bedfordshire.

 

Stevo, with your skills it would be great to see what a 30K Vic would look like. Basically doubling the size of the SEJ and GT with 2 new roofs. I guess SEJ would be 1 tier and GT 3 tiers.
The GT would have to hang over part of the car park in the hospital.

 

Thought i would mirror the iconic GT roof..







Guess you'll be wanting internal renderings though. This was something i did yonks ago.. obviously before the SEJ stand arrived. Perhaps i should do an update on this.

 

Hope I'm not asking too much, but a fully rendered view from Row J, seat 39, in the EJS, in September at about 4pm would be good as my brother would like to know if the sun will still be in his eyes.
Thanks.

 

I remember this one from before. Unfortunately, I think the "iconic" roof will be replaced with something more substantial.

 

What’s the point of building a 30,000 capacity stadium, at Vicarage Road or elsewhere, when it would only be filled with tourists etc. when we play Liverpool or Man U? In the past the ground would at least be rammed for big cup ties but that doesn’t apply now, sadly. We’re told there’s a big season ticket waiting list but we don’t see those people filling the empty seats when we play Stoke, Burnley and the like.

I hope the club is looking at ways to develop the level of our home support. This means either attracting people who haven’t previously gone to football (unlikely), or pinching either actual or potential fans from neighbouring clubs principally Arsenal, Spurs, QPR, Brentford and maybe even L*t*n. This might mean a big marketing push backed up by some attractive and creative ticket pricing.

 

Or eliminate concessions. Make every seat full price adult ST or £30 (even that seems horrendous but admittedly it was a long time ago I was shocked at the hike from £2 to £3).

Before anybody says but where are the future fans coming from, we have had cheap as chips Family stand concessions since God was in grade school and still we can't fill the Vic.

 

There are no other clubs in the Home Counties, north of the Thames in the top two tiers of English football. We have to look away from London to grow our fanbase, towards places such as Slough, Wycombe, MK and the other towns and cities of Hertfordshire. MK Dons are about to slide into League 2, when we have the capacity, offer season tickets which include return travel from MK to Watford Junction. Also, clubs like Norwich seems to bus fans in from considerable distances. Don't underestimate the attraction of PL football - priced correctly and with at least a moderate level of success - we could fill a 25/30,000 stadium. I don't mind tourists either (just keep them out of the Rookery )

 

But we do sell out the Vic though.. technically speaking, All our crowds this season are within the the 20,000- 20,500 range and given away number fluctuations & other factors that's as good as selling out every game. Last two seasons have been similar.

Our problem lies not with ticket sales but with season ticket no shows.. and that's true of all clubs these days (See Arsenal)


On the subject of football tourists.. this only upsets football fans. The clubs dont give a fig where people are coming from as long as the money rolls in.

 

Dont think i posted the one with both stands extended before.. just the GT.

The iconic roof of the GT stand is pretty substantial. Should that stand ever be extended it's possible the roof will be rebuilt differently.. it'll be a real shame if it ever comes to that.
At one time the club put out renderings with a similar barrelled roof on a new East stand. Would be great if this could be done with a SEJ stand redevelopment.

Afraid i only have a poor quality pic of it but you can see the idea..




Then there was this earlier effort, which was interesting with that middle section..

 

Build it and they'll come. Tourist fans are the future. They spend far more than your average die hard. 30k could be the minimum requirement for the Premier League in the future anyway.

 

There was gonna be a gold and silver section in those with individual tv screens.

 

Is that West Ham, Burnley or Villa we're scoring against?

If it's Burnley, it may be an idea to keep that - just to remind us how it's done.

 

I basically agree with you but I’m sure you appreciate that there are many, many Arsenal and, to a lesser extent, Spurs fans in Hertfordshire and other Home Counties. These are the ones, or at least their children, that we need to ‘turn’ to grow a larger genuine Watford fan base.

 

Hard to tell but i think those renderings came out around 2001 so i'd say Burnley as they were in our league then, not that that means anything really.

Btw Carlo Pignatelli who is mentioned as our official suit supplier there is of course a fashion designer.. but did he also design the stand i wonder?

 

I wouldnt mind a few more black seats.. especially in the upper GT where the colour pattern is reminiscent of lego bricks.

 

You need to look at where your current fans are from and what their demographic is, if you want to quickly grow your fan base. First rule of marketing. Know who your customers are and find more of the same. You can't compare us with Norwich. It's a regional capital, basically if it don't happen in Norwich it doesn't happen in Norfolk and most of Suffolk. The fan base is more than the people who attend home matches. That's the audience. Arsenal have a 60,000 seater stadium, yet an unofficial platform Arsenal Fans TV has 750,000 subscribers. I think Charlton grew an attending fan base from North Kent (much to Gillinghams annoyance) when they were in the top tier. Not sure how many got the bug and have stuck with it. growing the fanbase as is a multi faceted strategy, and the club will be happy building an online audience and merchandising audience as much as an attending fanbase.

 

It might mean winning more games.

 

Cities of Hertfordshire!

WGC, I suppose.

 

By my calculations if a plastic seat cost 30 quid, and we have 20k to change to black, it would cost 5 billion to change them all. For the sake of the ego and pride of a few fans thats not a good deal.. And yellow makes the vic look like our ground.

 

I like your maths. But at least we'd be getting our stadium back. Or we could spend it on the NHS.

 

£5bn? Are you a Procurement Manager in the NHS?

 

I rate this plan. Several vics dotted around and a Rota for home games. Would really make us unique.

 

Dear Hornpete, I’ve got a job going in my credit control. If you could recalculate my debtors in a similar fashion, you’d make me very happy.
Do darker seats fade quicker, if so, all black would look shabby fairly quickly

 

If we had clear seats, stewards would be able to better detect incidents like that lad at Sunderland having a wee/poo in his seat.

Plus they wouldn't fade.

 

and make the groundsman's job a whole lot easier.. its a winner! Perhaps we could also have a mobile Vic? Just move it around when we get fed up with the view.

 

I'm not sure I like the idea of non-fading poo on my seat.

 

We could play 4 or 5 home games at once and then have a rest

 

Holebas is a fashion designer too - although looking at his designs, it's fortunate he wasn't around back then.