ER - a 20k seater white elephant

[EasterRoad4Ever]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

[PaulSmith]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

So I suppose we had a 17,600 white elephant before the new East as well then?

Christ if we had built a stadium that only holds 15,000 there would be a 60 page thread on how it proves that the club lack ambition.

We have the stadium that's fitting for a club of our stature within the Scottish game, get over it. The problem right now is Hughes.

[Bishop Hibee]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

No.

The under 21 game coming to ER shows that a good stadium will generate revenue.

A better Hibs team will come along somewhere down the line, the stadium will be fuller and the better times will role once more. Just hope we don't have to wait too long.

[Alfred E Newman]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

I suppose that means we had a 60000 white elephant before the ground was rebuilt.

[HFC 0-7]

So I suppose we had a 17,600 white elephant before the new East as well then?

Christ if we had built a stadium that only holds 15,000 there would be a 60 page thread on how it proves that the club lack ambition.

We have the stadium that's fitting for a club of our stature within the Scottish game, get over it. The problem right now is Hughes.

Sorry but I think you are missing the OP's point. with an extra 3000 seats no one is really in danger of missing a game if they choose to be a walk up or buy a ticket for individual matches. Many people bought ST to ensure they would get a ticket beside their mates, now people will be able to sit with their mates as walk ups etc. To build a stadium fit for an excellent football team before the team is excellent or even good is always going to cause problems.

We struggled to fill the stadium before so what made Petrie think we could fill it after. There was no real reason to invest heavily in the stand as the other was still serving its purpose, yes it was an eyesore, but people still loved it. Now we have a team on the pitch that is crap, an eyesore which isnt fit for purpose but we wont see any investment into the team like we just have on the stand.

I have hit this barrier with you before, but surely now you must see that investing heavily in the stand before the playing staff and manager is causing problems, which will effect this new stand as well.

Basically we have a stadium fit for an excellent football team and a football team fit for third lanarks stadium.

[lucky]

The original OP is half right. The attraction of a ST has waned. But he is wrong about that stadium. Hibs dont need to invest in the infrastructure again for a fair bit as such we should be able to invest in the team. Hibs will come good again but I fear we are heading for 1st Division football.

[Barney McGrew]

a football team fit for third lanarks stadium.

Which is due to the manager and not the new stand.

[HFC 0-7]

Which is due to the manager and not the new stand.


Yes and no. Due to the manager cause he is mince and its still the boards fault for appointing him and now emptying him by now. What funds were actually available to sign players? Probably not a lot because we used any money we had on the stand. We also lost our top scorer. Our most gifted player was not replaced, which is probably due to funds as well.

We used a lot of money on the stand. FACT. We could have used that on the playing staff and still not had a problem with capacity.

[PaulSmith]

Sorry but I think you are missing the OP's point. with an extra 3000 seats no one is really in danger of missing a game if they choose to be a walk up or buy a ticket for individual matches. Many people bought ST to ensure they would get a ticket beside their mates, now people will be able to sit with their mates as walk ups etc. To build a stadium fit for an excellent football team before the team is excellent or even good is always going to cause problems.

We struggled to fill the stadium before so what made Petrie think we could fill it after. There was no real reason to invest heavily in the stand as the other was still serving its purpose, yes it was an eyesore, but people still loved it. Now we have a team on the pitch that is crap, an eyesore which isnt fit for purpose but we wont see any investment into the team like we just have on the stand.

I have hit this barrier with you before, but surely now you must see that investing heavily in the stand before the playing staff and manager is causing problems, which will effect this new stand as well.

Basically we have a stadium fit for an excellent football team and a football team fit for third lanarks stadium.

Your right, we should get Dalkieth Demolition back to knock it down and only have a 15,000 capacity as that will force people to buy ST's.

The stand is all but paid for. It will not cost us any more money that has already been paid out which was raised by selling Fletcher and Stokes.

There is absolutely no argument to be made now on the East Stand, it's there. If folk don't want to buy season tickets then it will be because this current manager is incapable of putting a team on the park that is attractive to watch and breeds confidence. That's really it in a nutshell.

[Barney McGrew]

Yes and no. Due to the manager cause he is mince and its still the boards fault for appointing him and now emptying him by now. What funds were actually available to sign players? Probably not a lot because we used any money we had on the stand. We also lost our top scorer. Our most gifted player was not replaced, which is probably due to funds as well.

We used a lot of money on the stand. FACT. We could have used that on the playing staff and still not had a problem with capacity.

The bit in bold is the only fact. The rest about funds available is just guesswork.

A quick scan of the accounts will show that our wage bill is higher than it's been for a long time, and the biggest outside the OF and the maroon basketcases. Yogi has been given funds for the squad, it's just that he's making an erse of the job. And he's done absolutely nothing to suggest that even if he'd had more funds to spend we'd be doing better than we are.

The only agreement you'll get from me is that the board should be acting on getting someone else in pronto.

[1875 NO 1]

Your right, we should get Dalkieth Demolition back to knock it down and only have a 15,000 capacity as that will force people to buy ST's.

The stand is all but paid for. It will not cost us any more money that has already been paid out which was raised by selling Fletcher and Stokes.

There is absolutely no argument to be made now on the East Stand, it's there. If folk don't want to buy season tickets then it will be because this current manager is incapable of putting a team on the park that is attractive to watch and breeds confidence. That's really it in a nutshell.

Player sales were used to fund oprerating losses and Stoakes will be used to fund this years losses

[HFC 0-7]

Your right, we should get Dalkieth Demolition back to knock it down and only have a 15,000 capacity as that will force people to buy ST's.

The stand is all but paid for. It will not cost us any more money that has already been paid out which was raised by selling Fletcher and Stokes.

There is absolutely no argument to be made now on the East Stand, it's there. If folk don't want to buy season tickets then it will be because this current manager is incapable of putting a team on the park that is attractive to watch and breeds confidence. That's really it in a nutshell.

Not true to be honest, I know of a couple of people that have always bought season tickets but dont go to all of the games. the buy ST to ensure they are beside their mates when it comes to the big games, they have already said that they are probably not going to buy a ticket next season because they reckon they can get tickets no bother, and beside their mates as walk ups or buying tickets as and when.

I know the stand is built and we have to deal with it, IMO they have done things the wrong way round and we are paying for it now.

[cabbageandribs1875]

We struggled to fill the stadium before so what made Petrie think we could fill it after. There was no real reason to invest heavily in the stand as the other was still serving its purpose, yes it was an eyesore, but people still loved it. Now we have a team on the pitch that is crap, an eyesore which isnt fit for purpose but we wont see any investment into the team like we just have on the stand.

I have hit this barrier with you before, but surely now you must see that investing heavily in the stand before the playing staff and manager is causing problems, which will effect this new stand as well.

Basically we have a stadium fit for an excellent football team and a football team fit for third lanarks stadium.




I know the stand is built and we have to deal with it, IMO they have done things the wrong way round and we are paying for it now.

why do some people on here not understand that we had to build the new stand ? the time limit was running out for permission to build a stand with the capacity it has now, there's absolutely no way whatsoever that we would have got permission to build a stand with the present capacity after that time had elapsed:rolleyes:

[Beefster]

Your right, we should get Dalkieth Demolition back to knock it down and only have a 15,000 capacity as that will force people to buy ST's.

The stand is all but paid for. It will not cost us any more money that has already been paid out which was raised by selling Fletcher and Stokes.

There is absolutely no argument to be made now on the East Stand, it's there. If folk don't want to buy season tickets then it will be because this current manager is incapable of putting a team on the park that is attractive to watch and breeds confidence. That's really it in a nutshell.

Where did you get this information?

[PaulSmith]

Where did you get this information?

I was just looking at the accounts and the only outstanding finance seems to be covered in the current trade creditors due within one year, figure seems to be around the £800k mark (1.2m 2010 - 0.43m 2009).

Quoted also "All payments made to contractors during the year in respect of the new East Stand were funded from the clubs internal resources"

I cannot see anything else which suggests that there is anything else to pay. I'm sure CG will keep us right though.

[Dashing Bob S]

Can't really see the point of moaning about the fact we now have a decent stadium. Short of bulldozing the new stand and replacing with a lower one-tier scabby structure with pillars, there's little we can do but suck it up.

As other posters have I intimated, the problem is on the park. We have the 4th highest wage bill but the 10th placed team. Even if we used a lot of the stand resources on wages we'd still have the 4th highest wage bill - and maybe the 8 or 9th best team.

[EasterRoad4Ever]

Can't really see the point of moaning about the fact we now have a decent stadium. Short of bulldozing the new stand and replacing with a lower one-tier scabby structure with pillars, there's little we can do but suck it up.

As other posters have I intimated, the problem is on the park. We have the 4th highest wage bill but the 10th placed team. Even if we used a lot of the stand resources on wages we'd still have the 4th highest wage bill - and maybe the 8 or 9th best team.

I've no problem with the new stand, it looks brilliant and is something to be rightly proud of. My main point is that when the time comes around to renewing our STs next May, a number of ST holders and potential holders may be less inclined to buy due to the increased availability. Its like any product - limit the availability and it tends to generate demand. I'm also fed up with having the product downgraded once I've bought the ticket. Petrie's problem will only grow the longer he leaves it - I expect an announcement this week.

[HFC 0-7]

why do some people on here not understand that we had to build the new stand ? the time limit was running out for permission to build a stand with the capacity it has now, there's absolutely no way whatsoever that we would have got permission to build a stand with the present capacity after that time had elapsed:rolleyes:

Pretty sure all they had to do to extend the planning permission was to activate the building works qhich could be something as little as moving earth around at the back of the east.

[Jones28]

Another thread about Hibs finances...really? :yawn:

[w.connectionfc]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

spot on and the longer the board leave hughes in charge the longer it will take for fans to trust the board again and give full support.

[Sas_The_Hibby]

Can't really see the point of moaning about the fact we now have a decent stadium. Short of bulldozing the new stand and replacing with a lower one-tier scabby structure with pillars, there's little we can do but suck it up.

As other posters have I intimated, the problem is on the park. We have the 4th highest wage bill but the 10th placed team. Even if we used a lot of the stand resources on wages we'd still have the 4th highest wage bill - and maybe the 8 or 9th best team.

That's the level of my ambition, TBH, now that Hughes has put me right on the fans' unrealistic expectations. Even so, I do sometimes fantasise about a golden era in the distant future when we could perhaps aspire to 7th or even 6th! :flag:

[hibsbollah]

Petrie is a money man who bases all his decisions around cashflow and balance sheets. If he leaves Hughes in charge, with the majority of the existing fans thoroughly frustrated at whats going on, fewer and fewer Hibs fans will trust the club enough to buy a season ticket again. It is a serious issue for the club.

A few years ago, a season ticket gave you:
1 reasonable savings on cash gate prices - IF you planned to or could attend all the games (usually on a Sat afternoon)
2 priority for big games at Hampden, PBS, Europe etc
3 certainty of getting a seat at ER for all games - including the important ones
4 a feeling you were helping the club to build and attract good players and Manager.

IMHO the extra capacity at ER will actually WORSEN the position for Petrie, rather than give him the extra earning potential. With over 20,000 seats, there is now NO danger of anyone being locked out of ER. Also,

1. the chance to move seats, sit with your pals, get away from or join the moaners, change of view
2. no paying £££ for matches played at crazy times/days, invariably being shown on TV, and when the team is crap.
3. the days of high demand for Hampden final tickets, big European nights, exciting Derbies are over.
4. Hibs fans can more effectively "vote with their feet" when the club sell the few remaining players worth watching at the last minute, with no plan to replace !

I'm a longstanding ST holder, but the benefits are no longer there.

The new East is excellent, and I was sceptical about it before the Rangers game. That match proves it can also generate a good atmosphere.

Its all about getting the product right on the pitch. The stadium development, in my view, is without question a good thing.

[3pm]

Sometimes you just have to admit you are are ******.

[Phil MaGlass]

Good chance the white elephant may start to fill up in the home games to come?

[--------]

Good chance the white elephant may start to fill up in the home games to come?

:agree:

There's nothing wrong with having a decent stadium. It's been needed for a while, and now it's done.

What needs to happen now is for the board to get their act together and appoint a manager who's capable of putting a team on the park that people will want to come and watch. They also have to ensure that whoever does come in gets al the necessary support and the resources to do so.

They've built the store - now they need to put the goods on the shelves that people will want to buy. But I've no complaint about the fact that they've built the store.