Torquay United Fans Forum

Kernowgull wrote:The gap wasnt large on Saturday, it was one set of stewards with fans sat directly next to them from what I could see!

Sorry, my writing was ambiguous - I meant the gap between the official capacity and actual attendance!

The gap wasnt large on Saturday, it was one set of stewards with fans sat directly next to them from what I could see!

I imagine the difference can only be because of season ticket holders not turning up. Clearly, the club could not double sell their seats/standing allocation and so anyone not attending would result in a lower figure than the official capacity, allowing for the empty seats dividing home from away fans in Bristows Bench. The gap does seem rather large though!

I'm puzzled that the club didn't make a more serious effort to achieve true full capacity. It looks like unlike with the big premiership clubs for us 90% full = full capacity. That's quite a significant income given away.

Understand that concept. Still not sure what happened to the 'increased capacity' that was definitely mentioned at the design phase.

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

I'd imagine this is due to the loss of the standing area in front of the old grandstand. You can fit a lot more people into a terrace than seats.

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

Fonda wrote: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.

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.

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?

Plymgull wrote: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!

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

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

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.

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)?