What's the plan with Leeds' stadium next season?

[Scubby]

I see they are now demolishing the main stand that must have taken 13-14k out of the capacity. What are Leeds plans next season? Are they really going to play in front of 8-9k just in order to stay there? The season kicks off in like 14/15 weeks?

Not that it won't be fantastic when it is built however.

[fieldofclothofgold]

I have read that they are going to play a few games at ER if the Temporary stand at the north stand side is not ready . The north temporary stand if ready will keep the capacity at 13k

[Scubby]

11 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

I have read that they are going to play a few games at ER if the Temporary stand at the north stand side is not ready . The north temporary stand if ready will keep the capacity at 13k

Temporary stand in February and March sounds fun 

[silcoates]

26 minutes ago, Scubby said:

I see they are now demolishing the main stand that must have taken 13-14k out of the capacity. What are Leeds plans next season? Are they really going to play in front of 8-9k just in order to stay there? The season kicks off in like 14/15 weeks?

Not that it won't be fantastic when it is built however.

Since when did they ever get 14000 in the main stand.i suppose you mean north and south.? 

[Mattrhino]

Yep should be playing at ER but we will be hoping and praying that south stand is half done and put up a temporary stand in the north. Looking at our lowest attendance figures in over a decade instead of trying to find new fans using a larger stadium until at least one of the stands is fully ready.

[West Leeds Riviera]

I don't think there's any plan to play home games elsewhere. I think the South Stand terracing will be completed first and open sometime around the start of the season. Temporary changing facilities will be located in the SS. 

The North stand will have a temporary stand and will be built around that. I think the total capacity will be around 11-12K

[Scubby]

37 minutes ago, silcoates said:

Since when did they ever get 14000 in the main stand.i suppose you mean north and south.? 

Yep they have flattened 2 stands in the last couple of months with a combined capacity of around 13-14k

[Scubby]

23 minutes ago, West Leeds Riviera said:

I don't think there's any plan to play home games elsewhere. I think the South Stand terracing will be completed first and open sometime around the start of the season. Temporary changing facilities will be located in the SS. 

The North stand will have a temporary stand and will be built around that. I think the total capacity will be around 11-12K

Potentially Leeds could have eclipsed their 2017 average with a season at Elland Road - maybe pushing 16-20k. A lot of fans from other clubs may also have enjoyed a change of scenery and brought more to a one off season game at ER. The marketing around the homecoming could also have catapulted season ticket sales. Missed opportunity I think.

At least 2-3k fans are going to get out of the habit of going to games instead of 5k new fans getting into the habit of going to games at ER.

[West Leeds Riviera]

3 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Potentially Leeds could have eclipsed their 2017 average with a season at Elland Road - maybe pushing 16-20k. A lot of fans from other clubs may also have enjoyed a change of scenery and brought more to a one off season game at ER. The marketing around the homecoming could also have catapulted season ticket sales. Missed opportunity I think.

At least 2-3k fans are going to get out of the habit of going to games instead of 5k new fans getting into the habit of going to games at ER.

It all costs money. At Headingley Leeds get all the money from tickets, merchandise and food and drink. They won't get all that at ER. 

Theyd rather operate at a limited capacity of 11K than lose money playing somewhere else 

[Scubby]

Just now, West Leeds Riviera said:

It all costs money. At Headingley Leeds get all the money from tickets, merchandise and food and drink. They won't get all that at ER. 

Theyd rather operate at a limited capacity of 11K than lose money playing somewhere else 

If they get 2-3k more season ticket holders for the next 10 years (through introducing new fans at ER) it will more than pay for the inconvenience IMO. The situation now will mean some regulars will get out of the habit of going I would imagine.

[Scubby]

Just now, scotchy1 said:

they also have 3 times the capacity at Elland Road giving them far greater economies of scale.

Indeed they could potentially get a number of 20-25k crowds to games such as Cas, Hull and Wigan at home. Novelty factor alone for those visiting fans.

[West Leeds Riviera]

4 minutes ago, Scubby said:

If they get 2-3k more season ticket holders for the next 10 years (through introducing new fans at ER) it will more than pay for the inconvenience IMO. The situation now will mean some regulars will get out of the habit of going I would imagine.

I'm not sure how playing at ER will introduce more fans. A lot of people from Wakefield/ Cas area support LUFC so your not introducing the sport or the club to a new audience. 

I don't think people will get out of the habit of going, a lot of students go to games with the ground being in Headingley so there's always potential of bringing in new fans that way and the fact their the most successful RL team in the past 10-20 years

[West Leeds Riviera]

6 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

they also have 3 times the capacity at Elland Road giving them far greater economies of scale.

Headingley has a capacity of 21,000 but they don't get 20K at every game. ER has a capacity of 38K I think but they'll probs only average 15K

[West Leeds Riviera]

18 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

But while the redevelopment work is going on that capacity will be 11/12k.

Yeah but my point was before redevelopment the capacity was 20K but they averaged 15K. Just because ER has a capacity of 38K didn't mean they'll get 20K+ every week

[West Leeds Riviera]

29 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

But that would be the point of using Elland Road, its increased capacity increasing economies of scale allowing a focus on volume.

I.E. selling 15k at £15 per ticket will get you £225k. Lowering the ticket prices etc at headingley selling out at say £10 a ticket will only get you  £200K, But at Elland Road you can sell 38k tickets at £6 per ticket will bring in £228k.

And how much of that do LUFC get? As well as drink sales etc..

[Old Frightful]

3 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

I have read that they are going to play a few games at ER 

Bloody hell, we might actually win an away game in Leeds for once.

[redjonn]

57 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

But that would be the point of using Elland Road, its increased capacity increasing economies of scale allowing a focus on volume.

I.E. selling 15k at £15 per ticket will get you £225k. Lowering the ticket prices etc at headingley selling out at say £10 a ticket will only get you  £200K, But at Elland Road you can sell 38k tickets at £6 per ticket will bring in £228k.

Remember that Leeds biggest revenue is the commercial and hospitality monies, non of which they will get if at Elland Road.   They still have the hospitality venues to use at Headingley.  

The commercial hospitality will either be seated in the Carnegie Stand or temp north stand. Only a last resort to move to Elland Road.  Of course the sponsorship and advertisements will I assume be unaffected if at Headingley.

The gate monies is behind the Commercial/hospitality and Sky monies so factor that into your costing.

[johnh1]

31 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Bloody hell, we might actually win an away game in Leeds for once.

Surely they will still get away with forward passes at ER.

[PeterTunks]

What's the obsession with having loads of empty seats at RL games? 12k in Headingley is better than 15k rattling around Elland Road. Only the South Stand regularly sold out at Headingley, even the semi had seats on sale on the day of the game. I think I've seen the Carnegie seats full only a handful of times. If people would rather watch on TV than buy an expensive seat at Headingley, there's no reason to think they'd flock to ER for a league game. Probably get under 10k at ER for a Thursday night game

The club is going to struggle to get the few thousand displaced Southstanders back once the downsizing is complete and the atmosphere destroyed. I suspect they'll have to make the Carnegie seats unreserved and £20 to accommodate those few thousand people who used to stand on the South Stand but had no season ticket. Otherwise they'll just have to hope the increase in prices compensates for the loss of fans

 

[redjonn]

Just now, scotchy1 said:

There is far more commercial and hospitality capacity at Elland Road than at Headingley. As i say, a failure of ambition.

There would also be the added benefit of not having to implement the temporary solutions, shortening the build time and gettin properly up and running earlier. This on top of an opportunity of attracting new supporters.

But as somebody said earlier, who gets the money or we should say the profit. 

I also assume they ain't idiots at Headingley and will have looked at the costs and potential profit/loss. Plus I would assume their marketing department may have given an indication of how many extra fans they may be able gain by going to ER, etc etc

or we just assume they ain't got that capability.

[redjonn]

2 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I dont think they are idiots, i think they are, as i have said before, fat and happy. I dont think they have any incentive to push themselves or be ambitious.

The rewards of going out and selling out elland road are there, and they are obvious and they are clearly much much greater than staying at headingley playing in front of the worst crowds for decades, but there is little incentive at the moment for the club to make that jump. They are happy ticking over, being at the top of SL and making a couple of hundred K a year in front of 15k. If they make a loss this year, meh.

I disagree.... but I think we have both made our differing points...

[West Leeds Riviera]

53 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Doesnt really matter, it was simply an example to show the economies of scale.

The maths obviously works because we were going to play the WCC there.

The WCC is a one off game though where they'd likely get a capacity crowd. Otherwise you've got 11 home games where you'll likely get 15K. Thens there's organising games in the 8s when the football season starts. 

So staying at Headingley means they keep all the profit from ticket/food + drinks/ hospitality and merchandise sales and don't have to rearrange games to suit LUFC

[West Leeds Riviera]

16 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

The rewards of going out and selling out elland road are there, and they are obvious and they are clearly much much greater than staying at headingley playing in front of the worst crowds for decades, but there is little incentive at the moment for the club to make that jump. They are happy ticking over, being at the top of SL and making a couple of hundred K a year in front of 15k. If they make a loss this year, meh.

They're not going to sell out ER though. If they do get 35+K there for however many home games they get why would they:

a) move back to Headingley and 

b)not be selling out Headingley every week?

[West Leeds Riviera]

2 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

And get far lower crowds. And delay the completion of the building work.

They average 15K and will get 11-12K next season so it won't be too bad

 

[West Leeds Riviera]

7 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

So a roughly between 20 and 30 percent fall in attendances and meh.

As I said, a failure of ambition.

Well at the end of the day it's all about money and the club don't want to lose revenue they can easily generate at Headingley