Capacity?

[Fonda]

I believe the attendance yesterday was 5,666? This has been quoted as being 4 or 500 short of capacity (the old capacity being 6,100). Did the ground capacity not go up when the bench was opened though? Which means we were actually much shorter of a full-house yesterday?

[taunton_gull]

Strange one, I'm pretty sure someone has messed up somewhere. I was interested to know with the new stand what the current capacity is - I'm sure it would be somewhere around the 6,500 mark - to have a crowd of 5,666 for a game which was apparently 'sold out' doesn't seem right. It appears there were lots of mixed messages - a guy behind me said he had to buy from a tout to get in on the pop-side - yet I also heard there were a few hundred unsold tickets for the pop in the office. There were gaps on the bench and in the family stand, the pop was also far from full given how squashed I've felt in there for past games. I know there will have been season ticket holders who didn't attend but there definitely could have been a few hundred more in the ground at least. What a shame people supporting the gulls may have been locked out at the expense of idiots from Rovers who got in the home end. The club will have to learn from this with Pompey et al visiting next season.

[vinny]

I got in the popside at around 2.30.....a guy in his fifty's tried paying by cash, only to be told, `sorry` game sold out. I was amazed by this as on OS it said there was plenty of tickets available for the popside.

Who knows what our capacity is, 6100 or 6500, which ever way, yesterdays attendance was well short of capacity. Plenty of room in the Pop, plenty of seats unoccupied in the Bench and family stand, as well as the Rovers section of the Bench.

I can only assume someone made the call, maybe on safety reasons, being so many Rovers fans in and around the ground.

[Fonda]

Actually turning people away, when there was room in the ground? Staggering even by our own standards.

Having Rovers fans all over the ground can be defended on purely financial grounds. But then turning our own paying customers away kind of weakens that argument.

[Rach]

official capacity is 6,200. However this includes 134 seats for segregation in the bench and wheelchair spaces.

[Plymgull]

Andrew Candy already answered this in the "joke police" thread.

To quote a little bit of what he said...

"Why were there some empty seats?-a number of season ticket holders and people who bought tickets in advance did not turn up.
What is the capacity of the ground?-the capacity of the ground is normally 6,200 ( this includes press, directors, wheelchair users etc) but for safety reasons it was agreed with SAG that the capacity for the Popside would be reduced so the overall capacity yesterday was 5,970"

[Fonda]

Have we lost space elsewhere then? Pretty sure when the Bench was under construction, the suggestion was it would improve capacity (up to somewhere around 6,750 if memory serves me correctly)?

[CP Gull]

I must admit that the lower than expected "capacity" is of some concern. Of course, in the vast majority of cases, our sub 6000 (which appears to have been the case on Saturday) will be more than adequate but I would suggest that next season sees the potential for several 6000+ gates with the likes of Portsmouth and (possibly a resurgent) Plymouth as well as the likes of Exeter and Bristol Rovers too. I would suggest that all of these fixtures have the potential for more of the same issues experienced on Saturday and the club will need to make sure they get it right.

It does feel a bit of a shame that having, to all intents and purposes, completed the redevelopment of the ground that we seem to have left ourselves a little short in terms of capacity. There may be certain steps that the club can take to improve things without any extra development, but if the club are serious about getting promoted and establishing themselves as a League 1 side then a sub 6000 capacity seems a little low in my opinion. That said, I don't think we would need much more but certainly 6500-7000 would make more sense I feel.

[wivelgull]

Also, there would be far bigger gates if there was a 'resurgent' United!

[Fonda]

We must have an official, quoted ground capacity somewhere? I don't understand our need to be vague on even the most definite things?

[DTG]

Andrew Candy already answered this in the "joke police" thread.

To quote a little bit of what he said...

"Why were there some empty seats?-a number of season ticket holders and people who bought tickets in advance did not turn up.
What is the capacity of the ground?-the capacity of the ground is normally 6,200 ( this includes press, directors, wheelchair users etc) but for safety reasons it was agreed with SAG that the capacity for the Popside would be reduced so the overall capacity yesterday was 5,970"

I am a bit puzzled as to why the SAG (whatever that stands for?) would feel the need to reduce the Capacity of the Pop for this game. Do they cover the lost revenue? If the capacity of the Pop has already been assessed by these non-job hicks are they saying they got it wrong? maybe they should slap a few more yellow lines down for good measure. It's time these hi-viz twunts were told to go and get a proper job and not sponge off the footballing public and the taxpayer!

[taxilady]

http://www.footballgroundguide.com gives it as 6,500. Out-of -date then!
Maybe the Popside capacity was reduced to allow room for all the police to get in to form a segregation wall?

[Dave]

The empty seats were mainly down to season tickets holders not taking up their seats, however the reduced capacity was around 5,900 if I read correctly and there were not that many empty seats not sure what happened really.

One thing I do know, stood in my normal place near the half way line on the popside expecting to be squashed in, and that was not the case it was no more packed around that area than normal.

[Rach]

We must have an official, quoted ground capacity somewhere? I don't understand our need to be vague on even the most definite things?

see my post above, official capacity 6,200.

[Fonda]

Ok cheers. So, despite the Bench being twice the size of the old Grandstand, the capacity has barely changed. How curious.