Potential New Ground

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unification said:
Putting aside whether we eventually move or don’t, capacity has to be taken seriously. For all the love for The Manor, we’re on average a better supported club now than we were in Headington. Football has evolved to be a more professional, family-oriented form of entertainment and that’s persuaded more people to go from a wider range of backgrounds. That should be embraced and I think the commercial aim to be presenting ourselves as ‘Oxfordshire United’ is the west go of going about it. We can attract the wider county to games now which I don’t think was so possible at The Manor.

12.5k is enough at our present level. A 15k stadium in the Championship would be sufficient and, in the realms of fantasy with a benevolent sugar daddy funding us to the PL, a 20k stadium would be the limit. Half empty stadiums are miserable places to watch games and a tighter, more compact and filled ground will always create a better experience – see Kenilworth Road v Stadium: MK for example.

Let’s not pretend something we’re not. We’re not ever going to be a Liverpool or Manchester United and that doesn’t bother me. I’m not following Oxford for the endless flow of trophies (I think I would have cottoned on that they’re not that great at acquiring them a long time ago!). I’m in it for following my hometown club, getting to go to games with mates who also follow them and every now and again enjoying one of their moments in the limelight. We’re no bigger than a Bournemouth or Brentford but both have made strides to establish themselves outside of the third tier and we can with the right management and a fair wind do the same, but there’s no need to overstretch ourselves nor jettison what makes Oxford United special.
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Fwiw I agree with most of your post but hedge a bit on capacity. If you look back at one or two of my previous posts I have said that if we were to build again from scratch why piff around building another 15k stadium when something akin to those country M4 cousin's 24k capacity is the least we should be looking ahead at. I have said that build costs are considered fairly miniscule to build a 15k to a 24k stadium as the land mass is relatively the same space it's just you are going up and it's generally mostly concrete and steel. Increasing (as is Oxfordshire's population) the stadium at a later date if yes please we do actually improve our status even further will cost a lot more further down the line and this would be subject to all the usual OCC planning and regulations shenanigans.
Let's just do it the once if it is to ever happen. And as for shuffling around in a stadium only half full then ask the Millwall's, Preston's, Sheffield Wednesday's and date I say it the Reading's of this world if they would like their stadium demolished and built to suit their today's average league attendance? However, the poster is probably correct in saying that statistics at the moment suggest a 15k capacity is perhaps enough but intelligence and data state that oufc are starting to collectively improve home attendances with the product on and off the pitch which is after all what the whole debate is about. In talking to many oufc supporters over the last few years most are in the same camp that if and it is a if we could claim a championship place for next season this would see the kassam like it's never been seen before. The place will be stretched for 75% of the season and I'll say this now if we were in a smart 21to 24k stadium nobody would say a word as it would be comfortably dealt with. As for newly built 15k stadium it would however be extremely tight with clubs of a larger status looking to bring more than a normal away day crowd. The club by having a larger capacity especially with Oxford being in a favourable position in the UK would benefit in thousands more revenue rather than going cap in hand to OCC a year or two later with a planning application to increase the capacity all at a huge cost to the club and of course at an inconvenience to the supporters whist work was in progress. I cannot see any crowds lower than 10k next season if we get promoted and this is in a ground that apparently most fans hate. So tell me if hypothetically we had a spanking new ground ready for next season in the championship what do you think our average would be then especially with all new singing and dancing facilities that most of our apparent stayaways have been craving for. Over the years of supporting this club especially at the kassam I have heard loads of stayaways use this facility grumble as their excuse so I'm expecting shed loads of stayaways to come back on the arrival of a new home.....

As an ol' geezer I have seen first hand elm bloody park with 2 to 3 k in its cranky old ground but on arrival of a new bowl of custard (the madejski) their fan's never once shouted out in true David Brent style ooh it's too big. They for all the gut wrenching actually said bollox to us and the scum and stuck two fingers up and said we are now the Billy big bolloxs of this triangular cheese section of the country. Please oufc fans don't suppress our club anymore and as Karl has said- start thinking a lot bigger. We are in my eyes and always have been a real football club with real top supporters throughout my 50 year association with oufc and don't keep thinking of ifs and maybes- let's if we get the chance to built again do it properly first time around. Measure twice and cut once.

Also as an aside away from football for years we have failed to attract the top solo artists and band's that this county has deserved and by building an arena/stadium of a deserving capacity this would I believe lead to this being a thing of the past and bring to the club huge new revenue streams.

Coyy's.
 
The fact we sold 36,000 for a jpt final v Barnsley and people are doubting we’d have half that with the right marketed ticketing in the championship is baffling. Also take in to account most away followings would be 1500-3000. Our aim to be honest should fall in line with Reading FC and they have a 24k stadia.
 
carefreeoufc said:
Without wishing to go too far off on a tangent I do find the ‘hopeless transport links’ argument that gets used for our current stadium to be a little over the top.

Parking spaces around the ground and in the estate are good, regular buses from the city centre and train station stop a short walk from the ground, a taxi is approximately £7 from the city centre, it’s not far from the M40 nor the ring road round to the A34 and so on.

Unless we move to the city centre I’d struggle to suggest other areas in Oxfordshire where we’d find much better transport links.
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Agree with this but shame there isn’t a bus that goes non stop from train station / town centre to Blackbird Leys - with all the stops it is a bit painful.
 
carefreeoufc said:
Unless we move to the city centre I’d struggle to suggest other areas in Oxfordshire where we’d find much better transport links.
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The only obvious place is Water Eaton (I agree nowhere near as good car park spaces- assuming that Park and Ride is kept for bus users), but the train links are excellent and it's only a 25 minute walk/ quick bus ride to the City Centre.
You could probably even get from Didcot train station in an hour and unlike at the Kassam the train station is on a main line ( even if the train line to the Science Park is opened up)
Agree with your overall point that for road links there are not many better options.
 
One stat that we may be interested in is the change in Brighton's average attendances when they moved stadium.

In the 2010-2011 season they were in League One and won the league, after four consecutive seasons at that level. They averaged 7.3k. The capacity of the stadium was 8,850. They only started selling matches out towards the end of the season when it was clear they were a competing at the top of the league.

In the 2011-2012 season they played in the second tier for the first time since the early 90s and it was their first season in their new Falmer Stadium. They finished 10th in the league and averaged 20k. The stadium holds just over 30k.

The following season they averaged 26k. They averaged 28k in the season they got promoted to the top division and now sell out essentially every match in the league.
 
36.000 went to Wembley but where are they now? i don't think you can use that as defined data of potential support as for most that's just a day out and even using the current average attendance that's still some 80% missing and they don't all stay away because of Kassam or the league we are in.

I would also suggest it may be a good idea to concentrate on how you will fill the home areas rather than just thinking that with a bigger capacity you'll get 2-3.000 away fans as even with a 20.000 stadium that's still some 17 or 18k and i personally don't see the Championship clubs having that appeal . Of those currently in the Championship there may be 10 that could fill the away end at a stretch and that's without even thinking about performance on the pitch.

You also have to keep in mind that those making decision on a new ground are the current investors and there's no Guarantee that they'll want to keep financing a football club once they've got income from the other outlets. Even if they did or some other sugar daddy pops along there is still a very thin line between reasonable crowds and another half filled stadium or worse.

i'll put my tin hat on :)
 
Foley said:
The only obvious place is Water Eaton (I agree nowhere near as good car park spaces- assuming that Park and Ride is kept for bus users), but the train links are excellent and it's only a 25 minute walk/ quick bus ride to the City Centre.
You could probably even get from Didcot train station in an hour and unlike at the Kassam the train station is on a main line ( even if the train line to the Science Park is opened up)
Agree with your overall point that for road links there are not many better options.
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True! I don’t know the area well enough but are there many pubs within walking distance of Water Eaton? As it stands pubs in Littlemore, Sandford and Blackbird Leys are all within walking distance of the ground.

Something that’s been a point of grievance has been the lack of decent watering holes close to the Kassam. Does this improve at Water Eaton or is it a case of building purpose built bars within the ground.
 
Foley said:
The only obvious place is Water Eaton (I agree nowhere near as good car park spaces- assuming that Park and Ride is kept for bus users), but the train links are excellent and it's only a 25 minute walk/ quick bus ride to the City Centre.
You could probably even get from Didcot train station in an hour and unlike at the Kassam the train station is on a main line ( even if the train line to the Science Park is opened up)
Agree with your overall point that for road links there are not many better options.
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think it would take more than 25 minutes to walk to the city centre??
 
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AbbeyOx said:
think it would take more than 25 minutes to walk to the city centre??
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No chance. Its 3.3 miles from the ashmolean to water Eaton. That would take most people atleast 50 minutes at walking pace.
 
carefreeoufc said:
Something that’s been a point of grievance has been the lack of decent watering holes close to the Kassam. Does this improve at Water Eaton or is it a case of building purpose built bars within the ground.
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Can't remember any pubs near Water Eaton. Quite a long walk to the centre of Kidlington, The Turnpike in Yarnton, The Plough near Wolvercote or Summertown.
 
Barbadosyellow said:
Can't remember any pubs near Water Eaton. Quite a long walk to the centre of Kidlington, The Turnpike in Yarnton, The Plough near Wolvercote or Summertown.
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No pubs near Keepmoat at Doncaster but they had an excellent supporters bar which I suspect only opens for matches and the odd private function so they keep all the revenues.
 
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