if the ticats and city of hamilton go ahead and build a 22,500 seat stadium, it will be a disaster..look at the new stadiums in sask., winnipeg and ottawa...all over 30,000.....the ticats average 23,000 to 27,000 a game and look at labour day, 31,000...everyone thinks that a 22,500 seat stadium will be a hot ticket and sellouts every game..guess what...with a smaller stadium the cats will raise prices...the economy in the golden horseshoe can't take it....we'll be back to the years of 14,000 in the stands and how long will a team last with that fan base...never mind ever having a grey cup game again...people need to push for a minimum 30,000 seat stadium and keep prices somewhat reasonable or ????????
No, a small stadium is perfect for us.
The only game of the year where we actually get more than 22,500 is Labour Day. Every other regular season game is around that figure. We can't even sell out playoff games.
A small stadium creates supply and demand. The less supply, the more demand and the more you can charge. With a 30,000 seat stadium, there will always be tickets available.
Why do you think Montreal was always sold out, a winning product with a limited number of tickets. They expand and they aren't selling out.
A small stadium fulfills our needs and in the end will be more profitable than building a larger stadium.
We are discussing this on the Stadium Thread - no need to open another one. Post comments there.
But yes 31k at Labour Day - first time in years! 23k average so a stadium around 25k makes sense, 22,500 plus the private suites, Club seats brings it close to 25k. Ottawa is building a 24k stadium, Montreal has a 24k stadium, so it's about right. Besides Pan Am funding was for a 15k seat stadium and with the city and Ticat money it brought it up to 22 - 23k. Taxpayers can't be expected to put any more money towards it.
I tend to agree with the original poster, though I wouldn't put it as starkly as he has.
Seems to me there are two strategies you can take when building a new stadium.
One is to make it bigger than current demand will fill (or at least as big), and work to grow attendance over time. Low ticket prices combined with aggressive marketing to a large user base would be tactics to deploy for this. The other locations you refer to are taking this kind of approach.
The second strategy is to keep it small and hope to sell out every game. The idea here is to position the tickets as scarce and attractive items that people will pay a premium for. Montreal took this approach when they went to Molson Stadium. A key here is to have high quality facilities and services that justify the premium.
The available funding for a new IWS dictates the strategy to a considerable degree. There simply isn't money available to build a 30K+ seat stadium in Hamilton. So that leaves strategy #2. It will probably mean higher average prices over time. Will the Hamilton market tolerate that? I have no idea, but I guess the team's management think so. They have to hope so anyway.
To some extent choosing strategy #2 becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy... if you have a small stadium that requires higher prices, those higher prices may limit demand to a level that does not exceed the stadium size.
The only hybrid approach I can think of is to build the small stadium with future expansion in mind as a possibility. Thing is, if the small stadium/ high price combination does indeed limit demand, then you may alienate potential customers and never find yourself in a position where there is a need or a good business case for that future expansion.
Ultimately, strategy #1 seems more confident and growth -oriented. Strategy #2 is more conservative about the future. It isn't exactly defeatist, but certainly less aggressive. However, money constraints give us no choice in Hamilton at this time.
Things change. There was a time in the 1960s- early 1970s when IWS was the biggest stadium in the CFL (remember the old bleachers where the tents and Tiger Vision screen are?). We used to fill that stadium with 34,000 fans fairly regularly. Those days are gone now, unfortunately. Maybe things will change again. It will take some time.
Captain Kirk hunted down the quote in the Spectator last time but it seems that he and I
are the only two people in the city of Hamilton who are aware that Scott Mitchell said..
'there is nothing to stop the city or Bob Young from increasing the stadium's seating.
To me, that was a broad hint that that there is a strong possibility
that the underappreciated Bob Young may contribute toward that end.
P.S.
The stadium will be laid out so that temporary seats can be added
to the 22, 500 permanent seats so that it will seat 40,000 fans
because that is what the CFL requires for Grey Cup Games.
The city/Ticats? could put in more permanent seats instead
You are the only two who are aware of what he said? we keep posting the article from the spec in the stadium thread so maybe people just don’t read it. I think most readers have very short memories. How many times have we posted that the details of the new stadium is going to be on 26 Sept but we still get people asking or complaining why there is no new stadium news yet!!
Mitchell has stated 22,500 at $50 average a ticket to break even.
The city report which has also been posted many times states temporary seating for special events. From what I have read in the report and with the Building Code, Temp seats cannot be permanently in the new stadium.
Let’s see if we can fill the new Pan Am stadium for a few years in a row before we start talking about a bigger stadium.
'And, he says, the seating capacity on opening day doesn’t have to remain that way. He wouldn’t comment directly, but the configuration of the new stadium has to include room for enough temporary seating to reach the 40,000 minimum required to play host to a Grey Cup Game"
[url=http://www.thespec.com/sports/ticats/article/587582--mitchell-answers-questions]http://www.thespec.com/sports/ticats/ar ... -questions[/url]Quickly glancing over the Tiger-Cats’ attendance so far this year, a 25,000 seat stadium would be perfect. The lowest attendance so far this year was 22,000 and I don’t think 3000 empty seats will really be that visible.
They could definitely put in temporary seating for Grey Cups, but that’s a national event. I don’t know how expensive it is to put them in, but maybe they could put them in for labour day too so you wouldn’t have to push 6000 people away.
Also don’t forget, the CFL requires teams to have a 25,000 seat stadium. I can’t see them making exceptions for anybody.
Actually, Percival Molson stadium seats 25,000. Same goes for Ottawa, what would the point of a minimum capacity be if they let teams ignore it?
Do you have a link to where the CFL requires a 25,000 seat stadium? If you read the Spec article above or if you have been following the stadium debate you would know that the Ticats have asked for a 22,500 capacity. Are you saying that the CFL won’t let them play? The Als played in a 19,000 seat stadium for 14 years.
I forgot to put up the Ottawa capacity, it’s below 25k too at 24,000
[url=http://lansdowne.econsultation.ca/topics-sujets/show-montrer/34?root=444]http://lansdowne.econsultation.ca/topic ... 4?root=444[/url]When I said same goes for Ottawa, I meant the fact that they’re building a 24,000 seat stadium doesn’t make sense.
Mark Cohon has mentioned it several times when talks about expansion have come up. If you do a google search it shows up several times, on wikipedia and other websites. Montreal was allowed to have a small stadium simply because the franchise was old and it was the only stadium they could play in, and don’t forget they did end up expanding it just past 25,000.