North Stand

[WheatleyRover]

For my understanding the original design images showed the East Stand as a two tier stand, had a floating roof. Then went for a cheaper build, I'm sure the sign outside the ground when it was being built where the xp school now is said it was expandable to 20k.

[DRFC_AjA]

Surely any expansion should be increasing the South Stand higher, not with a tier but just straight up. Give it a few years and we'll have our own red version of Dortmund's yellow wall 

[DonnyBazR0ver]

For my understanding the original design images showed the East Stand as a two tier stand, had a floating roof. Then went for a cheaper build, I'm sure the sign outside the ground when it was being built where the xp school now is said it was expandable to 20k.

The pins are a myth. There's no hidden footings beyond the current permiter.

The design which was very much similar to the KC stadium, would indeed have had two tiers on one side, with scope to add a second tier on the opposite side.

Unfortunately, due to delays including 'Greater crested newt gate', the costs for steel had risen significantly, so the choice was to either go back to the council cabinet to seek approval for the additional costs (Not certain that would have been approved) or take the original budget and compromise on the build, so we ended up going back to the architects to redesign to what we have now. I think the original capacity was around 18,500 with scope to increase to around 21,000.

The footings for the current stadium are different to what the original would have been, so no provision was made for expansion. Yes, we could expand it, but like anything else, it's at what cost.

Being totally honest, hindsight has proven the stadium we ended up with has suited us better with more modest capacity whilst still giving us access to other showcase matches and events.

[Chris Black come back]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

[Campsall rover]

Our section of the North stand is fully sold out as of about 40 mins ago.

Don’t know how much segregation there is but it should be over 14.000 gate. Possibly 14.500 assuming Crewe have sold all their 1.589 seats, which they may not have?

[Campsall rover]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I always thought these “pins” were a myth, whatever they are

You either know or you don't...

[BillyStubbsTears]

Seriously, the whole "pins" thing was a laugh years ago.

If it ever came to it, it would be relatively easy to put a second tier above and behind any of the existing stands. The columns at the back of the existing seating area would then be taking a much higher load than now. If sufficient capacity was built into those columns when the ground was first built, it would be very easy. If that allowance hadn't been made, it would be a bit trickier, but still quite doable. That's miles away from being needed though. We'd have to be an established top half Championship side before it even can on the agenda.

[Chris Black come back]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

[Nudga]

#safestanding

[Silkscarf]

#safestanding

But it’s not clear cut as to whether safe standing increases capacity. Yes, it hopefully would do, but not necessarily. It certainly doesn’t mean just take out seats, have some nice rails but have free for all terracing like the ‘80s.

[Nudga]

Have we sold blocks N41 and N40?

[IDM]

an average is just that - there will be times when we get above average gates.  We've had 14000 plus several times, so even if the average is just over 10K, there is evidence we can exceed 12K, just not every week.

[TonySoprano]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

08/09 was 11964

[Nudga]

#safestanding

But it’s not clear cut as to whether safe standing increases capacity. Yes, it hopefully would do, but not necessarily.

But it would generate a real buzz and atmosphere and be the place where most people want to go.
I hate sitting down to watch football and very rarely do but safe standing would give a more authentic terracing vibe that us oldies used to have.

[Butchers Red]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:


The world has changed a lot since then - unquestionably more and more people are disillusioned by top level football, Sky etc,etc.

You only have to look at attendances across League 1,2 and now National leagues to see this - and our own recent run has seen an increase in our gates I haven't seen since the sixties when they all said - "Rovers only need 3 wins to get 10,000 "

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

[TonySoprano]

It does feel a bit different this time for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, and it's not just because we're doing well.

There seems to be a genuine ground swell of interest in the club across the city.

I feel were going to see attendances increasing quite regularly.

Whether that justifies expanding the stadium, time will tell.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Our section of the North stand is fully sold out as of about 40 mins ago.

Don’t know how much segregation there is but it should be over 14.000 gate. Possibly 14.500 assuming Crewe have sold all their 1.589 seats, which they may not have?

Ok Let's try and work this out. Max capacity is 14978 I think.

We lose a couple of hundred in the South to facilitate unreserved seating.

We lose a chunk for segregation.

Crewe are in an area of the North that can accommodate @ 2,200 so that's 600 empty although some of that might be the buffer zone for segregation. Call it 300 for segregation then plus the other block with the seat backs missing @250?

I reckon 1,100 short of capacity so 13878 of which 1589 Crewe = 12,289 Rovers fans!!

Can we be louder than the Barrow game?

Have I missed owt?

[Chris Black come back]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

08/09 was 11964

That’s correct, it was 11,964.

Even though that was for several months a very poor season, and we ended in a lower position than the next season, being back at that level for first time in 50 years probably inflated gates artificially. The following season 09/10 was a better one in terms of points and league placing and we had Billy Sharp, yet gates dropped off by 1,000.

[BillyStubbsTears]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

True, but we had the relative misfortune of hitting our high point just as the world hit the worst recession in 80 years. I'm sure that limited our potential crowds to some extent.

The current fervour suggests our potential crowds are perhaps a bit higher these days.

[Chris Black come back]

Maybe. We had 13,081 for the Southend game. See if we beat that.

Doubt we will have any issue beating Charlton home leg of 11,140.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

#safestanding

But it’s not clear cut as to whether safe standing increases capacity. Yes, it hopefully would do, but not necessarily.

But it would generate a real buzz and atmosphere and be the place where most people want to go.
I hate sitting down to watch football and very rarely do but safe standing would give a more authentic terracing vibe that us oldies used to have.

What we mustn't forget is it's still a multi purpose stadium, and there would have to be alot of thought about this before taking out any traditional seating, even before considering the cost to install them. For the relatively little we would gain, I expect you'd rather see that money spent elsewhere.

[The Beast]

Could we increase the capacity if we could make the South Stand ‘safe standing’?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

08/09 was 11964

That’s correct, it was 11,964.

Even though that was for several months a very poor season, and we ended in a lower position than the next season, being back at that level for first time in 50 years probably inflated gates artificially. The following season 09/10 was a better one in terms of points and league placing and we had Billy Sharp, yet gates dropped off by 1,000.

The novelty factor of the new stadium wore off, then the prices increased  paying up to £28 for West £25 in South? Then of course struggling in the league with Mr Dickov post SO'D.

Still, these were much higher averages than we'd seen for decades.

I really thought there would be a boost in attendances post Covid, with folk just glad to get to games again but alas, the footy wasn't really up to it.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Something else to bear in mind.

When we won this division in 03/04, at a time when we were full of drive and optimism, our average attendance was under 7000.

We've topped that this year, even though we've been in the bottom 6 for the majority of the season.

Plus, in 03/04, we had a lot of local derbies. Hull, Huddersfield, Scunthorpe, Mansfield, Lincoln, York. Nothing like that this year. EDIT. On second thoughts, I'm maybe overplaying this a bit. I was only thinking of Bradford and Mansfield. I forgot Notts C, Grimsby, Stockport and Wrexham all bringing good away followings.

I know the counter argument. That was in OBV. But that's part of the point. Over the last decade and a half, we've had a generation of new supporters who have joined us in a modern stadium, with, generally, decent, successful, high-ish level football being served up. That's a generation that is secured for the long haul, whereas when we last made the Championship, we were still coming out of 50 years of failure and low interest in the town.

Note that, even when we spent nearly all of 16/17 in the top 5 of this division, we only just topped 6000 as an average.

This year's, and even last year's attendances indicate that something has changed. There's a bigger bedrock of loyal fans than we've had in my lifetime now.

I suspect that if we did become established in the Championship (big if) we'd be selling out the home tickets pretty much every week.

Worth pondering in terms of what the potential fanbase now is.

[BillyStubbsTears]

They are proper shit I know but Rotherham have been getting average gates of 10,500 this season. Their last three seasons in the Championship have been between 9,800 and 10,500.

Would we get much more at that level? Building a new stand is not going to be required for probably another generation at least barring any oil money or gormless Hollywood types.

Think with GM at the helm we would ave 12.000+ assuming we were not losing every week.

In living memory we have had five seasons in the Championship:

2008/9 - ave gates of 10,964
2009/10 - ave gates of 10,992
2010/11 - ave gates of 10,258
2011/12 - ave gates of 9,341
2013/14 - ave gates of 9,110

Little evidence we can turn out 12,000 plus gates.

08/09 was 11964

That’s correct, it was 11,964.

Even though that was for several months a very poor season, and we ended in a lower position than the next season, being back at that level for first time in 50 years probably inflated gates artificially. The following season 09/10 was a better one in terms of points and league placing and we had Billy Sharp, yet gates dropped off by 1,000.

The novelty factor of the new stadium wore off, then the prices increased  paying up to £28 for West £25 in South? Then of course struggling in the league with Mr Dickov post SO'D.

Still, these were much higher averages than we'd seen for decades.

I really thought there would be a boost in attendances post Covid, with folk just glad to get to games again but alas, the footy wasn't really up to it.

But the novelty DIDN'T wear off.

We averaged more in 17/18, 18/19 and 3/4s of 19/20 than we did when we went up in 08/09.

[Move DRFC]

The fact we're going to be comfortably beating the Charlton home leg attendance is pretty interesting. That was a semi final in the division above against a much bigger club.

Has the fan base grown over the last 5 years? I do agree though there seems to be a real buzz about it at the minute. It's great. Keep McCann and we could be in for an exciting rise.

[GazLaz]

Seriously, the whole "pins" thing was a laugh years ago.

If it ever came to it, it would be relatively easy to put a second tier above and behind any of the existing stands. The columns at the back of the existing seating area would then be taking a much higher load than now. If sufficient capacity was built into those columns when the ground was first built, it would be very easy. If that allowance hadn't been made, it would be a bit trickier, but still quite doable. That's miles away from being needed though. We'd have to be an established top half Championship side before it even can on the agenda.

Would it though? Depends on the pile and foundation spec of the existing structure.

[Chris Black come back]

This might be a theory rather than fact but it feels like the conscious decision to hammer down on season ticket prices has increased our hearing towards season tickets. That helps stem support losses when we are shit. I think we now have 4,500 to 5,000 season tickets? That would have been way more than in 03/04 and possibly in Championship years? We’ve basically made it very cheap to attend if you buy one.

[Nudga]

Something else to bear in mind.

When we won this division in 03/04, at a time when we were full of drive and optimism, our average attendance was under 7000.

We've topped that this year, even though we've been in the bottom 6 for the majority of the season.

Plus, in 03/04, we had a lot of local derbies. Hull, Huddersfield, Scunthorpe, Mansfield, Lincoln, York. Nothing like that this year. EDIT. On second thoughts, I'm maybe overplaying this a bit. I was only thinking of Bradford and Mansfield. I forgot Notts C, Grimsby, Stockport and Wrexham all bringing good away followings.

I know the counter argument. That was in OBV. But that's part of the point. Over the last decade and a half, we've had a generation of new supporters who have joined us in a modern stadium, with, generally, decent, successful, high-ish level football being served up. That's a generation that is secured for the long haul, whereas when we last made the Championship, we were still coming out of 50 years of failure and low interest in the town.

Note that, even when we spent nearly all of 16/17 in the top 5 of this division, we only just topped 6000 as an average.

This year's, and even last year's attendances indicate that something has changed. There's a bigger bedrock of loyal fans than we've had in my lifetime now.

I suspect that if we did become established in the Championship (big if) we'd be selling out the home tickets pretty much every week.

Worth pondering in terms of what the potential fanbase now is.

I actually think a big reason for the higher attendances is GM.

He will often talk about the fans, whether it's us playing our part in helping the team with atmosphere, thanking fans for travelling loads of miles or wanting send fans home with smiles on their faces.

I've never known a Rovers manager speak like he does about the fans. He's not daft, I think he knows exactly what he's doing but I also think that he totally gets us and our recent history and fall from grace.
I felt the positive shift away at Hull very early in the season.
I am not being dramatic here when I say this but Mr TB and Gavin have got to capitalise on this and give this talented manager the tools he needs to keep growing the club. Strike while the iron is hot.
It feels almost like the Pied Piper with GM, talking with other fans over the season at games it's very clear that he is 100% loved. I hope the feeling is mutual because this guy will get us to the championship sooner than later.
It's just a question of will the boards ambition match his?