Our Grounds too big for us!

[j_grainger10]

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9915096/which-stadiums-were-closest-to-capacity-in-england-last-season

 

We only use 28% of our capacity Which puts us in the bottom 10 of seats filled in the top 4 divisons. Time to downsize?

[MattW]

The cost to downsize would be far too expensive. Ideally yes to a more compact, better viewing positioned ground but it won't happen.

[Beza]

Would be bottom if the Lorne Street was finished off.

[tsproston]

Who cares?

[robf]

Two blog posts I've written on the ground debate. May be of interest to some:

 

This one is about the Lorne St stand being over-priced and over ambitious:

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/site/2015/05/should-vale-park-have-been-completed-last-century/

 

This one is about whether it is the right time to seek a new ground or not:

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/site/2015/06/is-the-time-right-or-wrong-to-look-into-a-new-vale-ground/

[ArtyTheValiant]

Here we go again! Good Job we had this ground for the Burton and Northampton matches when we got promoted otherwise a lot of people would have been standing outside the ground And I bet Bournemouth wished they had got a bigger ground now as well! Come the day the Vale are back in the Championship, when most away teams will be bringing over 2-3K in the Midland Derbies virtually every week, where will the Vale fans go in this little ground that some Vale fans want??

[valiant_593]

Not all this again. No it isn't time to downsize. It's time we produced some decent football and start filling the stadium!!

[j_grainger10]

Is 18,947 still Vale's capacity I'm sure I read somewhere it's less than that now? (could be wrong I often am). I know Stoke's is innacurate as the current capacity after segregation is 27,500 so we were actually at 98.47% not 94.67%.

 

One thing it does highlight is that Vale commercial's time have pretty much got got carte blanche to go out and lure the next generation of Vale fans. With so many empty seats surely the club should be reaching out more to local schools, the new band of Eastern European migrants, the British-Asian community up the road in places like Cobridge and giving tickets away to try and entice them to come back? For me it should be the clubs priority along with a bigger and better Family Stand to make the matchday experience for families a lot better.....

 

I made this point a week or so ago. The club aren’t doing enough in my opinion to attract new fans. I saw an article in the Sentinel where Jack Butland was at a school and the club had clearly handed everyone free shirts. I don’t actually think we can compete with that and I seriously think our attendances will decrease more and more with Stoke getting more successful.

When Stoke are sending out future England goalkeepers giving away free merchandise then there isn’t much we can do to keep up.

[Howjy04]

Here we go again! Good Job we had this ground for the Burton and Northampton matches when we got promoted otherwise a lot of people would have been standing outside the ground And I bet Bournemouth wished they had got a bigger ground now as well! Come the day the Vale are back in the Championship, when most away teams will be bringing over 2-3K in the Midland Derbies virtually every week, where will the Vale fans go in this little ground that some Vale fans want??

 

We'll have to give up the main stand to the away fans.A bit like some people want Crewe to do.Proper footie ground is VP.

[Howjy04]

I made this point a week or so ago. The club aren’t doing enough in my opinion to attract new fans. I saw an article in the Sentinel where Jack Butland was at a school and the club had clearly handed everyone free shirts. I don’t actually think we can compete with that and I seriously think our attendances will decrease more and more with Stoke getting more successful.

When Stoke are sending out future England goalkeepers giving away free merchandise then there isn’t much we can do to keep up.

Adam Yates has been to Seabridge School.

[j_grainger10]

Not all this again. No it isn't time to downsize. It's time we produced some decent football and start filling the stadium!!

 

We don’t have the fan base to fill the stadium and never will. Someone just mentioned the Burton and Northampton games but there still would have been 6-8 thousand empty seats.

I’m not suggesting we need a new stadium I’m just highlighting the article and the fact we have a stadium that is only a quarter full on Saturday afternoons.

[ArtyTheValiant]

We don’t have the fan base to fill the stadium and never will. Someone just mentioned the Burton and Northampton games but there still would have been 6-8 thousand empty seats.

I’m not suggesting we need a new stadium I’m just highlighting the article and the fact we have a stadium that is only a quarter full on Saturday afternoons.

 

And again, when the Vale get back in the Championship?

[j_grainger10]

And again, when the Vale get back in the Championship?

 

Even in the Championship I cant see us getting over 10-12k very often.

[Regal Beagle]

Maybe we should build a new ground of 3,300 and only let season ticket holders in.

 

It's only fair.

[butt lane vale fan]

God no!!!!!! If fans want watch a club with no ambition, no hope and a garden shed for a ground they should go watch ruddy Crewe. :D

We have the seats, so the clubs marketing dept should be out there dragging people in kicking and screaming if they have too, not a case of "oh we only have 5000 regulars, we'll make do with them and shut the rest of the ground down"

I want ambition, not a ****** tinpot attitude at our club.