New Grandstand

[Trojan 67]

Latest update regarding the Grandstand rebuild.

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/tufc/ ... ticle.html

[Trojan 67]

With regard to the above Herald Express story, I've had a think about this and several ifs come to mind :

If the rebuild gets the necessary funding.
If we get promotion to League One.
If attendances improve dramatically.

With a regular home attendance of 3000 - 3500 that would leave room for only 500 - 1000 away supporters.

That particular if would mean a fair few games being all ticket. Start saving now for next season's season ticket.

[Neal]

All good stuff, Interesting but of course you are right, too many "iffs" at the moment so dont get carried away. Could happen but my view is probably not. Prommotion, thats a very big iff, we havnt had our expected points deduction yet, and with that the minimum would be play off position and thats a bit of a lottery, 1 out of the 4 gets it the other 3 dont.

[Trojan 67]

Like one game at a time, one if at a time, eh ?

[basil75]

The new grandstand is a necessity, not a luxury, as we need it to meet football league requirements - one of the problems left to us by our little visit down to the BSP - so I think it has to go ahead, it's just a case of when.

[basil75]

There's also a possibility that our fixture list can be compiled accordingly, given our capacity will dip below league standards for two thirds of the season. I know there's only so much flexibility they can give, but given the mitigating circumstances I don't see why we can't be given home fixtures being slight more skewed towards the end of the season, or at the very least put the biggest home matches, such as Plymouth, down as March dates at the earliest.

We know that fixtures aren't compiled randomly, and they did it for Blackpool at the start of this season, so I can't see why they couldn't.

The initiative is with the club to ask for this and explain why though - so I'd hope they do.

[Trojan 67]

To build a new grandstand AND a team fit for survival in League One AND all during a recession with more financial hardship to follow.

IFs and ANDs aside, it makes one wonder what could be achieved in more stable financial times.

I guess what will be will be and what we'll see we'll see.

[Trojan 67]

Not that I know for sure, but is there not changing facilities across the lane at the school ?

If so (another bleedin if) and suitable arrangements can be made, then that's the expense of temporary changing rooms off the list.

Looking at the bigger picture from a satellite point of view and with the future of the Plainmoor Pool uncertain, what TUFC could do with an influential philanthropist on board. Like move the whole ground toward the Ellacombe End with inbuilt state of the art leisure facilities.

The stumbling block would be EU brown nosers USAT (Unitary Status Authority Torbay) and its insidious agenda to wipe the names of TORQUAY, PAIGNTON and BRIXHAM off the map.

The great thing about being TORQUAY born and bred, and a TUFC supporter, is that TORBAY brainwashing doesn't f*cking wash with me.

Semper Fi . . . oohra !!!

[gullsflyinghigh]

There's also a possibility that our fixture list can be compiled accordingly, given our capacity will dip below league standards for two thirds of the season. I know there's only so much flexibility they can give, but given the mitigating circumstances I don't see why we can't be given home fixtures being slight more skewed towards the end of the season, or at the very least put the biggest home matches, such as Plymouth, down as March dates at the earliest.

We know that fixtures aren't compiled randomly, and they did it for Blackpool at the start of this season, so I can't see why they couldn't.

The initiative is with the club to ask for this and explain why though - so I'd hope they do.

I was thinking the same thing. If we could get Argyle at home at the end of the season then the grandstand, in theory, would be ready.

And I would hope we would get the funding since we need this to be done to meet the FL requirements.

Really want it to go ahead.

[MidDevon]

It is easy to focus on the potential big matches should Torquay be in league 1 next year....it is what we will look forward to.

Top matches could for example be Exeter, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Yeovil, Charlton, Bournemouth, Southampton , Crystal Palace

.....but then you start to struggle to see why Torquay would need more than a 4,000 capacity when they play

Rochdale, Tranmere, Oldham, Chesterfield, Carlisle, Notts County, Colchester, Bury, Hartlepool etc

.....what I suppose I am saying is that no matter who goes up and down, there will only be a handful, perhaps 6 or 7 games which would draw 4,000 plus crowds and even those would not necessarily sell out bar Exeter.

....Trojan 67 makes a good point, but just how many teams would take 500 or more fans for a league 1 match next year?

[Fletch]

League 1 will certainly be tilted towards the north next season as Mid says, although I suspect you can scrub Palace and Soton off his list. I would anticipate about 5 matches next season (should we go up) that would be sell outs. We would probably get more visiting fans in L2 as it looks as though it will be southern biased. To that extent, lets make sure we go up cos it wont affect the gates as much

Looking at a possible L1 next season, it kinda shoots down the theory from quite a few on here that attendances will go up should we get promoted. I reckon our home support (somewhere around 2400 average on a Saturday) will have to jump up at least 5 or 6 hundred to make it viable to survive in L1

[Trojan 67]

We're not there yet, however, if we do get there then gates of 3000 - 3500 will not sustain us and will have to become at least an average of 4500 for the longer term. If we get there and if we push on for a play off place then we will need the full 6000 capacity that the new grandstand would give us.

Don't draw me into Championship football for the very reason we have never been there and also of where are we currently.

[ferrarilover]

Regards attendances, the average attendance in L1 on Saturday March 19th was 7343. This is across 11 perfectly average L1 matches, with a perfectly average Premier League schedule and other perfectly normal parameters, such as weather and local derbies etc. It does include a crowd of 14,000 at Huddersfield and 20,234 at Southampton. Without these overly large freaks disturbing the results, the average across the 9 remaining games was 5171. This is considerably more than double our current average league attendance of 2380. This is, slightly, worrying. The smallest club in L1 are Dagenham and Redbridge, they have an average league attendance this season of 2684. Their average last season, when they were the 5th smallest club in L2, was 2088. This is a 28.5% increase in attendances year on year and would require us to average 3058, an increase of 678 fans every week.

Sorry for the numbers tastic post, but it makes for (dull) interesting reading.

Matt.

[Fletch]

Regards attendances, the average attendance in L1 on Saturday March 19th was 7343. This is across 11 perfectly average L1 matches, with a perfectly average Premier League schedule and other perfectly normal parameters, such as weather and local derbies etc. It does include a crowd of 14,000 at Huddersfield and 20,234 at Southampton. Without these overly large freaks disturbing the results, the average across the 9 remaining games was 5171. This is considerably more than double our current average league attendance of 2380. This is, slightly, worrying. The smallest club in L1 are Dagenham and Redbridge, they have an average league attendance this season of 2684. Their average last season, when they were the 5th smallest club in L2, was 2088. This is a 28.5% increase in attendances year on year and would require us to average 3058, an increase of 678 fans every week.
Sorry for the numbers tastic post, but it makes for (dull) interesting reading.
Matt.

Nice stats geek boy

If you look at the figures, there's 8 teams averaging under 5k this season, including the daggers and the monkey hangers at less than 3k. Rochdale have added a massive 70 onto their average gate since promotion!!
Thats a whole 2%. Im somewhat astounded teams can even survive on those sort of figures but survive they do. Notts County must be wondering what they can do, with a hefty drop in attendance this season despite moving up a league. To be honest, it doesnt bode well for those anticipating a reasonable boost in our figures should we go up =Z

[ferrarilover]

Well, our average is dragged down considerably by Tuesday games, where we get around 800 fewer than for Saturday games. We also get a big chunk more supporters when big guns are in town, so I'd guess we could probably muster the extra 600 or so fans we need for the 28%. plus, we'd get bonus matches with massive away support with the filth and one or two others bringing 1200.

Matt.