Ground development

[Terrace Angel]

If the club retains league one status, are there any plans to develop?
The side terrace being the obvious area.
Would look great with a roof even seats above the terracing..

[Phoenix Shrimp 2017]

I think the consensus is that the land immediately behind the BW is now owned by Tyson Fury making development problematical.

Directors have also stated that unless the attendance is close to capacity on a regular basis there are no plans to increase capacity.

My own thoughts are that one way to increase capacity would be to extend the main Grandstand into the corners thereby adding extra seating. However the cost of building nowadays may well make this a non starter and we also have other priorities such as finding our own training facilities.

[redrobo]

As much as I would like to see the Berlin Wall developed for me the priority has to be a new training facility.

Not sure if the BoD are in consultations with Tyson but the areas that he owns that I think include the current unused artificial playing areas could with some investment and reconfiguration be made into a purpose made training area very similar to the one at AFC Fylde.

It seems such a waste of the existing facility that is under used if used at all and maybe by negotiation with Tyson who it is rumoured could be on an extend sailing trip with his family in the Med may be agreeable to the club developing the under used area.

[RedRedWine]

For me the obvious area of the ground to develop, if there is to be any, is the away end.

Away sellouts this season:

Bolton
Wigan
Sunderland
Sheff Wednesday

All of the above would probably have bought an additional 1,000 fans if they were able to, costing the club around £100k. Stanley can accommodate 500 more visiting fans than we can.

[KenH]

The away end needs to have the terracing built at the front to mirror the home end (and wall behind moved into car park to give the space required). That would mean we could reduce the seating area to just block A, making block B available for home supporters. So, we'd end up with greater capacity for both home and away fans.

[BerlinWaller]

The away end is the obvious choice, I don't understand how it ever came to be. The design is shocking and invites crowd trouble every time we have a decent away following.

[Keith]

The away end is the obvious choice, I don't understand how it ever came to be. The design is shocking and invites crowd trouble every time we have a decent away following.

The lack of space behind the stand is an accident waiting to happen.

[redrobo]

For me the obvious area of the ground to develop, if there is to be any, is the away end.

Away sellouts this season:

Bolton
Wigan
Sunderland
Sheff Wednesday

All of the above would probably have bought an additional 1,000 fans if they were able to, costing the club around £100k. Stanley can accommodate 500 more visiting fans than we can.

....and what would the cost be just to increase the capacity for the 4 teams you highlighted....assuming that we stay in EFL1 for the long term

For me it makes no financial sense to extend just for an extra 1000 when the club badly needs its own training area BUT I do accept that a training area would be costly.

However I do agree that the back of that stand is an accident waiting to happen and the sooner the planned re-working of the rear parimeter wall is completed the better.

[Gone_Shrimping]

As much as I would like to see the Berlin Wall developed for me the priority has to be a new training facility.

Not sure if the BoD are in consultations with Tyson but the areas that he owns that I think include the current unused artificial playing areas could with some investment and reconfiguration be made into a purpose made training area very similar to the one at AFC Fylde.

It seems such a waste of the existing facility that is under used if used at all and maybe by negotiation with Tyson who it is rumoured could be on an extend sailing trip with his family in the Med may be agreeable to the club developing the under used area.

I am not clear about this. Do we not use Lancaster University for training now ?

I noticed on the gates of the College of Further Education that there is a Morecambe FC badge.

[redrobo]

I think that the ground conditions at the Uni over winter have been found to be unsuitable so the club has reverted back to the College. There was also a feeling that being based all the time at the club was better for team togetherness rather than being split up ie in changing areas at the Uni.

It may well be that pre season is based at the Uni because of its extra facilities...

For me we need to have one base all the time and until we can find some suitable land (or strike a deal with Tyson) then the Uni / College is the only option.

It was felt that the Uni was a selling point for new players but that was the view of Judas. DA may have his own thoughts which is now of greater significance.

[Wild Bill]

I am sure the BoD are looking at various options but sadly there are no easy/cheap ones.

I think initially they will look to widen the concourse at the back of the away end and get the capacity back to 1400. It's currently restricted to 1100 due to the space. Depending on how wide they can make it, there may be scope for extra terracing or seating at the front.

The lack of seats for home fans is a big issue. They could erect a fence to free up a couple of hundred seats for segregation but probably need more capacity than this. We used to give away fans only one block but there were issues with home and away fans sharing the same concourse. Adding wings in the corners might be an option but would be expensive.

I'd like to see a second tier of seats adding over the top of the Berlin Wall, but space is really limited. Maybe 600-700 tops, so with some work on the away end you might get our capacity up to 6500-7000.

Failing this, maybe demolish the home end and build something bigger and better. Can't see this happening though unless we sustain 4500+ crowds in the long term.

[RedRedWine]

The lack of seats for home fans is a big issue.

The 'problem' is not a lack of seats - there's hundreds unoccupied each home game in the home areas (and there will be free ones this Saturday)..... its the utilisation of pre-purchased seats through the season ticket holders regularly not attending, particularly kids ones (£20 for the current season).

Obviously there's been a change in the season ticket pricing structure for this category, to deter people buying cheap kids ST on the off chance a parent or relative might take them to a game or two. Whilst this change perhaps unfairly penalises kids and their guardians that have attended for the majority of games, but its striking just how empty the family area appears for 'sell-outs' and the stats the club published to justify the price increase supports that. I agree with the clubs stance, even though it does not impact me.

I think the club should come up with an exchange programme for the seated area. Yes this would be a bit of administration for perhaps not much financial reward - but the club has additional staff in place now to manage this type of thing, a dedicated ticket office manager for example. Such a programme may even add some value to people considering purchasing a season ticket in this area of the ground.

[Wild Bill]

I think to be fair, if you buy a season ticket, then the seat is sold. It's then your prerogative to attend or not. The same will be happening on the terraces but it is more noticeable in the stand.

I suspect the club are including all tickets sold in official attendances, so we are possibly averaging a good few hundred less every week.

The club could utilise unused seats if they offered a small incentive to give up for resale but I still believe we need a lot more seating capacity to entice new or fair weather fans who, in the main would prefer a seat.

[KenH]

The lack of seats for home fans is a big issue.

Personally, I think they made a mistake last Summer when they changed the long standing pricing of the seated stand. The cheap/free kiddie tickets were previously only in the E block, with higher pricing in the C blocks. But they changed that and made all seats the same price and the £20 kids seats available throughout, even in the centre C block.

We should revert back to differential pricing, with children's tickets only available in the E block to turn it back into the "family" block, and get back to a higher price for the red C block seats with a return to giving access to the hospitality (for buying drinks and toilets etc). It's been clear that the toilets/catering in between the D and E blocks is ridiculously busy and congested, not helped by people who'd previously go into the hospitality can't do that anymore.

It's a good start by increasing the price of the child tickets, but even at £75, there's going to be a lot of empty seats because of grandparents etc buying STs for grandchildren they take rarely, perhaps even moreso now that seats are like hen's teeth and people are finding they can't get tickets on occasions when they want to go along with a ST holder.

As for the away end, we need to find ways of converting block B to home supporters, as it's crazy to have empty/covered seats in block B when no seats available to home fans. Perhaps they need to do a bit of minor remodelling in the corner to create a separate turnstyle and portable loos/refreshment stand for block A, leaving the existing concourse for Block B only.

[vvm]

Priorities are probably make the area behind the away end a bit bigger, I think this means more of the away allocation could be shifted here and some of the seated block can be returned to the home fans?

Agree that some kind of exchange if a season ticket holder can't make it would involve some admin from the club but surely this must be cheaper than any kind of stadium expansion.

It's not worth breaking the bank on expansions when we only look like we might sell out 4 or 5 games a season though. If we can remain successful then things like this will come in the future.

[Wild Bill]

Yes, I can't see any major changes in the near future, but a few hundred more seats for home fans and more standing for away are fairly straight forward improvements. Lets see

[KenH]

It's not worth breaking the bank on expansions when we only look like we might sell out 4 or 5 games a season though.

The thing is, though, that the home end seats have sold out in pretty much all home games this season, so it's not just 4/5 games where people can't get a seated ticket, it's all games. Yes, I know that there've been standing tickets available, but they're no use to people with mobility/standing issues or people who just want to be in the same area as their friends/family. When you have this problem with literally every home game, then something does need doing, especially when there are empty seats, not just in the home end, but also the away end and the ones covered by netting. Reconfiguring the away end seating and doing something about the cheap barely used child seats is a hell of a lot cheaper than talking about new stands.

[BerlinWaller]

Reading comments like "there aren't enough seats in the home stand" blows my mind.

[Freez]

Was just thinking the same, it’s only two season ago we were considering 2000 a decent crowd.

[Potted Shrimp]

Also bear in mind that League one is all still new and exciting which has contributed to the large crowds, just compare attendances in the first year or two in league two - to the attendances in our last few years in league two.

I would only develop the ground if we were to get into the Championship for more than a season.