TYNECASTLE STADIUM UPGRADE POTENTIAL - UEFA category 4 granted ( updated/merged )

[jbee647]

12 hours ago, Sooks said:

Gorgie gets a raw deal it is no where near as bad an area as some people like to make out I have nothing but fond memories of my time living there

****ing Gods Country 

I’ve been all over the world, and Edinburgh and home is best, Gorgie is where my roots are, that will never ever change, 

[Bungalow Bill]

16 hours ago, cruzabic said:

We sell out like 3 times a season...until we sell out every week for 5 years there's no point in having a bigger stadium. We don't need bigger just because we've had a wee uptake from the plastics who only come back when we're winning. They'll all soon be gone when we haven't won the league by Christmas.

 

ALSO, if we are ever going to move, it will be away from gorgie as the area isn't fit for purpose.

Agreed. One season finishing 4th or 5th (which will happen) and we’ll be back down to 12,000 season ticket holders. 
 

The good thing is though should we choose to expand there appears to be plenty engineers and surveyors on the forum who may give their time for free to the club. 

[Bungalow Bill]

3 hours ago, jbee647 said:

****ing Gods Country 

I’ve been all over the world, and Edinburgh and home is best, Gorgie is where my roots are, that will never ever change, 

I lived in Dalry for a couple of years, moved there purely because it was close to Tynecastle. Absolutely hated it. 

[Bazzas right boot]

15 hours ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

 

We’re not heading for any difficult conversations. The conversation is as follows: We’re staying at Tynecastle, as-is, in it’s current form, with zero major changes to the stadium for the foreseeable future, but a few minor upgrades such as big screens. Beginning, middle and end of conversation.
 

The club are still only now getting these new revenues ramped up to full power, and getting these increased revenues investing toward the squad.

 

Say what you want with Levein, it is a fact that the club had a reduced budget for 3 seasons due to the stadium work and the squad paid the price, a lethal cocktail combined with  his own incompetence which was obviously 90% of

the problem. But that 10% of the problem was, budget wise money was going to pay for the stand. And then COVID mess happened and the bloody stadium was empty for a year. 

 

So what that means is it’s only now we’re seeing what the full potential is.
 

Neilson & Savage has subsequently come in and post lockdown, they are only now getting Tynecastle Park up at full power with the strong sales this year. 
 

So the main stand expansion +3500 capacity increase, and within that a doubling of hospitality, this current upgrade is still current and very very relevant to our club, we have just finished this project including the last stages of the interior as well. It lhas enabled what could potentially be the biggest season ticket sales and biggest average attendence at Tynecastle in more than 30 years going back to 1992. Plus it will definitely be the biggest sales of hospitality as well as that’ll be near enough the only way to get a ticket. We could potentially average over 19k depending how results go. We will also have the biggest number of sell out fixtures in a season at Tynecastle since 2004 with 4 home European group stage ties guaranteed as well. The stadium as-is is fantastic and will power our club for the next decade minimum. Probably 2 decades. 
 

So folks should, in the immediate term, stop engaging with unrealistic fantasies about filling corners or new wheatfield stands etc,  it is not happening any time soon, unless we manage to miraculously qualify for the champions league group stage and net £40m - that’s the type of minimum sum needed to pay for a meaningful redevelopment of wheatfield. Thats 40 years of FoH money. Or 10 successive years of getting in Europa groups and possibly getting to knockouts a couple of times.
 

Realistically it’s all about cementing ourselves above Hibs and above Aberdeen.
 

That’s what Tynecastle of today offers us the chance to do. Hibs are in a panic to try to copy Tynecastle and catch up, but their facilities are simply not in the same class. Aberdeen are just ****ed. We’ve got a decade worth of the advantage over them 2 clubs and if we keep that lead we will move ahead of them on player sales as well. 

 

The club is only at the very beginning of the journey with the current, fully completed Tynecastle Park. 

 

 

I'm summary... Fill in da corners! 

[Bungalow Bill]

15 hours ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

 

We’re not heading for any difficult conversations. The conversation is as follows: We’re staying at Tynecastle, as-is, in it’s current form, with zero major changes to the stadium for the foreseeable future, but a few minor upgrades such as big screens. Beginning, middle and end of conversation.
 

The club are still only now getting these new revenues ramped up to full power, and getting these increased revenues investing toward the squad.

 

Say what you want with Levein, it is a fact that the club had a reduced budget for 3 seasons due to the stadium work and the squad paid the price, a lethal cocktail combined with  his own incompetence which was obviously 90% of

the problem. But that 10% of the problem was, budget wise money was going to pay for the stand. And then COVID mess happened and the bloody stadium was empty for a year. 

 

So what that means is it’s only now we’re seeing what the full potential is.
 

Neilson & Savage has subsequently come in and post lockdown, they are only now getting Tynecastle Park up at full power with the strong sales this year. 
 

So the main stand expansion +3500 capacity increase, and within that a doubling of hospitality, this current upgrade is still current and very very relevant to our club, we have just finished this project including the last stages of the interior as well. It lhas enabled what could potentially be the biggest season ticket sales and biggest average attendence at Tynecastle in more than 30 years going back to 1992. Plus it will definitely be the biggest sales of hospitality as well as that’ll be near enough the only way to get a ticket. We could potentially average over 19k depending how results go. We will also have the biggest number of sell out fixtures in a season at Tynecastle since 2004 with 4 home European group stage ties guaranteed as well. The stadium as-is is fantastic and will power our club for the next decade minimum. Probably 2 decades. 
 

So folks should, in the immediate term, stop engaging with unrealistic fantasies about filling corners or new wheatfield stands etc,  it is not happening any time soon, unless we manage to miraculously qualify for the champions league group stage and net £40m - that’s the type of minimum sum needed to pay for a meaningful redevelopment of wheatfield. Thats 40 years of FoH money. Or 10 successive years of getting in Europa groups and possibly getting to knockouts a couple of times.
 

Realistically it’s all about cementing ourselves above Hibs and above Aberdeen.
 

That’s what Tynecastle of today offers us the chance to do. Hibs are in a panic to try to copy Tynecastle and catch up, but their facilities are simply not in the same class. Aberdeen are just ****ed. We’ve got a decade worth of the advantage over them 2 clubs and if we keep that lead we will move ahead of them on player sales as well. 

 

The club is only at the very beginning of the journey with the current, fully completed Tynecastle Park. 

Take the rest of the day off, a great post. 👍

[Texaco]

15 hours ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

 

We’re not heading for any difficult conversations. The conversation is as follows: We’re staying at Tynecastle, as-is, in it’s current form, with zero major changes to the stadium for the foreseeable future, but a few minor upgrades such as big screens. Beginning, middle and end of conversation.
 

The club are still only now getting these new revenues ramped up to full power, and getting these increased revenues investing toward the squad.

 

Say what you want with Levein, it is a fact that the club had a reduced budget for 3 seasons due to the stadium work and the squad paid the price, a lethal cocktail combined with  his own incompetence which was obviously 90% of

the problem. But that 10% of the problem was, budget wise money was going to pay for the stand. And then COVID mess happened and the bloody stadium was empty for a year. 

 

So what that means is it’s only now we’re seeing what the full potential is.
 

Neilson & Savage has subsequently come in and post lockdown, they are only now getting Tynecastle Park up at full power with the strong sales this year. 
 

So the main stand expansion +3500 capacity increase, and within that a doubling of hospitality, this current upgrade is still current and very very relevant to our club, we have just finished this project including the last stages of the interior as well. It lhas enabled what could potentially be the biggest season ticket sales and biggest average attendence at Tynecastle in more than 30 years going back to 1992. Plus it will definitely be the biggest sales of hospitality as well as that’ll be near enough the only way to get a ticket. We could potentially average over 19k depending how results go. We will also have the biggest number of sell out fixtures in a season at Tynecastle since 2004 with 4 home European group stage ties guaranteed as well. The stadium as-is is fantastic and will power our club for the next decade minimum. Probably 2 decades. 
 

So folks should, in the immediate term, stop engaging with unrealistic fantasies about filling corners or new wheatfield stands etc,  it is not happening any time soon, unless we manage to miraculously qualify for the champions league group stage and net £40m - that’s the type of minimum sum needed to pay for a meaningful redevelopment of wheatfield. Thats 40 years of FoH money. Or 10 successive years of getting in Europa groups and possibly getting to knockouts a couple of times.
 

Realistically it’s all about cementing ourselves above Hibs and above Aberdeen.
 

That’s what Tynecastle of today offers us the chance to do. Hibs are in a panic to try to copy Tynecastle and catch up, but their facilities are simply not in the same class. Aberdeen are just ****ed. We’ve got a decade worth of the advantage over them 2 clubs and if we keep that lead we will move ahead of them on player sales as well. 

 

The club is only at the very beginning of the journey with the current, fully completed Tynecastle Park. 

Agree with all this. In the meantime in times of unprecedented success, although not popular, Murrayfield is an option for large European games. I've been to see CF Montreal play and they use the 19000 Saputo stadium for most games and the Olympic stadium 61000 next door for the odd big play off type game and this works well. Caveat is it would have to be cost effective for the club and we have a team that's comfortable to play and win there.

[Armageddon]

17 hours ago, Phil D. Corners said:

If I had the brain of a 12 year old I’d photoshop that.

[Armageddon]

Folk saying we can’t fill in the corners, they put a man on the moon FFS 😬

[A_A wehatethehibs]

3 minutes ago, Armageddon said:

Folk saying we can’t fill in the corners, they put a man on the moon FFS 😬

Is the US government going to pay us $25bn? 

 

[tazhearts]

IF it was even possible to "fill the corners" how many extra seats would that give us? 

[Boab]

7 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

Is the US government going to pay us $25bn? 

 

😂

 

You're earlier post was spot on. Let's see where we are in 2 or 3 years and enjoy the very good position we are in now. A full Tynecastle is a great thing and we can progress as it is without any major upgrades at the minute.
 

 

[broxburnjambo]

28 minutes ago, Armageddon said:

Folk saying we can’t fill in the corners, they put a man on the moon FFS 😬

The Americans didn't need planning permission.😄

[Rogue Daddy]

34 minutes ago, Armageddon said:

If I had the brain of a 12 year old I’d photoshop that.

Sorted!.... see, easy! It fits!

 

[GavK1012]

40 minutes ago, Armageddon said:

Folk saying we can’t fill in the corners, they put a man on the moon FFS 😬

 

#allegedly

 

[Newton51]

20 minutes ago, broxburnjambo said:

The Americans didn't need planning permission.😄

They didn’t need to work with Edinburgh council 

[Phil D. Corners]

18 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

Sorted!.... see, easy! It fits!

 

 Bravo

 

[Libertarian]

While ideally I would (like most Hearts fans) want us to remain at Tynecastle, the fact is that the current location of the stadium is hindering the club from reaching its full potential. We really need a stadium with at least 30,000 seats but it's difficult to see how this could be achieved in the current location. The fact that we have sold out our season ticket allocation of 15,500 is fantastic but I was on the verge of purchasing a season ticket for my daughter and I suspect that there were more like me. This is all lost revenue for the club. This comes at a time where the club is being run properly for the first time in years and the population of the south east and Edinburgh are growing exponentially. If we can continue to make progress there's no reason why we couldn't hit 18,000 season tickets and higher in a few years but Tynecastle is simply too small to allow this to happen. Hopefully there are some really clever people out there who can work out how we can improve the capacity at Tynecastle to allow the club to develop, however as has been mentioned in a number of earlier posts the time may come quite soon where for the benefit of the club we have to seriously consider relocating to a site which will have enough space to cater for all of those who want to come and support Heart of Midlothian. 

[cliffdanum]

10 minutes ago, Libertarian said:

While ideally I would (like most Hearts fans) want us to remain at Tynecastle, the fact is that the current location of the stadium is hindering the club from reaching its full potential. We really need a stadium with at least 30,000 seats but it's difficult to see how this could be achieved in the current location. The fact that we have sold out our season ticket allocation of 15,500 is fantastic but I was on the verge of purchasing a season ticket for my daughter and I suspect that there were more like me. This is all lost revenue for the club. This comes at a time where the club is being run properly for the first time in years and the population of the south east and Edinburgh are growing exponentially. If we can continue to make progress there's no reason why we couldn't hit 18,000 season tickets and higher in a few years but Tynecastle is simply too small to allow this to happen. Hopefully there are some really clever people out there who can work out how we can improve the capacity at Tynecastle to allow the club to develop, however as has been mentioned in a number of earlier posts the time may come quite soon where for the benefit of the club we have to seriously consider relocating to a site which will have enough space to cater for all of those who want to come and support Heart of Midlothian. 

The potential is there to expand its being able to buy the land, the distillery selling land and some buildings near the memorial garden behind both the Wheatfield and School ends is key. Pushing back Wheatfield and School ends with a 2 tier Wheatfield similar to Anfield Rd End and extending Main and Gorgie Stands to reform a tight enclosed ground around a expanded pitch would push capacity towards 27k. 

[TheBigO]

20 hours ago, Phil D. Corners said:

Bayer Leverkusen took roofs off their stands and out a big circular roof on. Looks great.   

Let's just rent Big Carl from Hinkley Point C, he'll get the job done in 5 mins

[Libertarian]

6 minutes ago, cliffdanum said:

The potential is there to expand its being able to buy the land, the distillery selling land and some buildings near the memorial garden behind both the Wheatfield and School ends is key. Pushing back Wheatfield and School ends with a 2 tier Wheatfield similar to Anfield Rd End and extending Main and Gorgie Stands to reform a tight enclosed ground around a expanded pitch would push capacity towards 27k. 

It would be great if we could do this but my understanding that the old school building is listed and that while NBD own the school they plan to convert the building into student accommodation.  Of course nothing is impossible. 

[J80MBO]

Aside from whether I think we need bigger stadium or not, who would be paying for all the ideas suggested?

 

Not being smart but genuine question.

[davemclaren]

6 minutes ago, J80MBO said:

Aside from whether I think we need bigger stadium or not, who would be paying for all the ideas suggested?

 

Not being smart but genuine question.

Us. 

[jambopilms]

We dont often fill the stadium we have nevermind we "need 30k". 

What happens when we finish 5th ? Folk would be saying why are we wasting millions on a stadium when the team is shite and we would have 15k empty seats.

[Rogue Daddy]

10 minutes ago, jambopilms said:

We dont often fill the stadium we have nevermind we "need 30k". 

What happens when we finish 5th ? Folk would be saying why are we wasting millions on a stadium when the team is shite and we would have 15k empty seats.

Thing is, we'll never know until we make the move. When we played at Murrayfield, we were getting decent crowds... not enough to fill the ground, granted, but decent numbers for us.

I feel, IF we were to expand to 30K, we would sell more ST's purely on the basis that everyone would get a 'decent' seat/view (and also more chance of getting 2/3/4 seats together for families etc)... which is why I think we sold more tickets for Murrayfield.

[davemclaren]

22 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

Thing is, we'll never know until we make the move. When we played at Murrayfield, we were getting decent crowds... not enough to fill the ground, granted, but decent numbers for us.

I feel, IF we were to expand to 30K, we would sell more ST's purely on the basis that everyone would get a 'decent' seat/view (and also more chance of getting 2/3/4 seats together for families etc)... which is why I think we sold more tickets for Murrayfield.

We did manage to sell about 10,000 tickets to Rangers. Careful what you wish for. 

[johnking123]

Think we have one last rebuild at Tynecastle. Buying the pitch and car park next to the bowling green and increasing the size of the Wheatfield. Adding hopefully 4k and that would do us. Anything else and we will most likely move.

[A_A wehatethehibs]

1 hour ago, J80MBO said:

Aside from whether I think we need bigger stadium or not, who would be paying for all the ideas suggested?

 

Not being smart but genuine question.

NASA apparently  

[Rogue Daddy]

16 minutes ago, johnking123 said:

Think we have one last rebuild at Tynecastle. Buying the pitch and car park next to the bowling green and increasing the size of the Wheatfield. Adding hopefully 4k and that would do us. Anything else and we will most likely move.

Yeah... but would the cost for an extra 4k be worth it? As much as I love Tynie, if it definitely can't be upgraded to 30k then, as you say, it would have to be a move... and I think 30K is a good number that we should be aspiring to.

[davemclaren]

3 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

Yeah... but would the cost for an extra 4k be worth it? As much as I love Tynie, if it definitely can't be upgraded to 30k then, as you say, it would have to be a move... and I think 30K is a good number that we should be aspiring to.

I remember a few years back when we were building the new main stand that some felt we didn’t need the additional capacity.  Things change quickly in football in both good and bad ways. 

[Fozzyonthefence]

58 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

Thing is, we'll never know until we make the move. When we played at Murrayfield, we were getting decent crowds... not enough to fill the ground, granted, but decent numbers for us.

I feel, IF we were to expand to 30K, we would sell more ST's purely on the basis that everyone would get a 'decent' seat/view (and also more chance of getting 2/3/4 seats together for families etc)... which is why I think we sold more tickets for Murrayfield.

Were there any more Hearts fans attending Murrayfield though?  When we played Rangers we gave them 14/15k tickets, Aberdeen brought 7k and even St Johnstone brought a bigger support than they would to Tynie.  Seemed to be more of a novelty thing for the away fans. 
 

I think part of the reason that we’ve sold so many STs is because some fans want to guarantee a seat as most games might not be far off sell outs.  With a 30k stadium there would be no need to buy a ST to guarantee a seat. There would be no sell outs unless we give the OF a huge away allocation.  

[Nobreath]

What was the capacity before the new main stand was built?

[Rogue Daddy]

2 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

I remember a few years back when we were building the new main stand that some felt we didn’t need the additional capacity.  Things change quickly in football in both good and bad ways. 

Yes, I agree with that... however, I really feel we've turned a corner. Fan owned, debt free (almost), FOH... all this on top of having the 3rd biggest support for the last 16 consecutive years (read that somewhere earlier). Now is the time to have one eye on the future.. when was the last time we had a waiting list for st's? ...and this isn't at the start of the season, we've had one(?) pre-season session... days after st's went on general sale! Great effort by the club and the fanbase... I don't think a stadium with a 30K capacity is over-doing things.

[Hackney Hearts]

1 hour ago, J80MBO said:

Aside from whether I think we need bigger stadium or not, who would be paying for all the ideas suggested?

 

The Mexicans.

[Rogue Daddy]

17 minutes ago, Fozzyonthefence said:

Were there any more Hearts fans attending Murrayfield though?  When we played Rangers we gave them 14/15k tickets, Aberdeen brought 7k and even St Johnstone brought a bigger support than they would to Tynie.  Seemed to be more of a novelty thing for the away fans. 
 

I think part of the reason that we’ve sold so many STs is because some fans want to guarantee a seat as most games might not be far off sell outs.  With a 30k stadium there would be no need to buy a ST to guarantee a seat. There would be no sell outs unless we give the OF a huge away allocation.  

The 'novelty' is a fair point (even for both sets of fans)... but even if we gave the uglies/hobos/sheep 4k (Roseburn Stand allocation) and we continue in the direction we're going, I reckon we would get 20K ST holders, leaving around 5 k for walk ups. I think 30K capacity for a club our size, in Edinburgh is a fair stadium to have.

 

FWIW - 17k fans for the sheep game at Murrayfield.

 

https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/article/murrayfield-matters

Edited June 24, 2022 by Rogue Daddy

[Bob Loblaw]

Before we discuss any extensions, we need to make sure we can consistently sell out the current ground and that this years ST sales aren't a flash in the pan. Given the fact it's the first time it's ever happened it's a genuine possibility we don't hit it again next year, thus negating the need for anything bigger. If we do it 3/4 seasons in a row it's time to look at it.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Bob Loblaw

[Libertarian]

2 hours ago, davemclaren said:

We did manage to sell about 10,000 tickets to Rangers. Careful what you wish for. 

We also sold 26,000 tickets to Hearts supporters for that match.

[heartsfc_fan]

1 hour ago, Nobreath said:

What was the capacity before the new main stand was built?

About 17,800 or so.

 

Was "officially" 18,008 for years but seats were taken away to lengthen pitch.

[Nobreath]

10 minutes ago, heartsfc_fan said:

About 17,800 or so.

 

Was "officially" 18,008 for years but seats were taken away to lengthen pitch.

 

Cheers 👍

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 hours ago, Libertarian said:

While ideally I would (like most Hearts fans) want us to remain at Tynecastle, the fact is that the current location of the stadium is hindering the club from reaching its full potential. We really need a stadium with at least 30,000 seats but it's difficult to see how this could be achieved in the current location. The fact that we have sold out our season ticket allocation of 15,500 is fantastic but I was on the verge of purchasing a season ticket for my daughter and I suspect that there were more like me. This is all lost revenue for the club. This comes at a time where the club is being run properly for the first time in years and the population of the south east and Edinburgh are growing exponentially. If we can continue to make progress there's no reason why we couldn't hit 18,000 season tickets and higher in a few years but Tynecastle is simply too small to allow this to happen. Hopefully there are some really clever people out there who can work out how we can improve the capacity at Tynecastle to allow the club to develop, however as has been mentioned in a number of earlier posts the time may come quite soon where for the benefit of the club we have to seriously consider relocating to a site which will have enough space to cater for all of those who want to come and support Heart of Midlothian. 

 

The current location doesn't hinder us any more than a move away does. Both are prohibitively expensive in the short term.

 

I've said above that in today's costs, to do a cost-effective expansion, we'd need to be looking at around £40m. That would likely be enough to pay NBDC to move the ethanol tanks elsewhere and/or build remediation structures, acquire enough land around us, sort out planning permission, then either rebuild the Wheatfield into a giant stand or rebuild all three older stands with the corners wrapped.

 

An entirely new stadium would be north of £75m, as Aberdeen have discovered.

 

We are nowhere near having that kind of money right now. It's not hopeless for the future—we have a real chance to become European regulars and start getting EL group stage money coming in, which can be compounded with higher player sales, lower signing fees (free agents want to come to play in Europe), and so forth. At some point, if we could bank £20m for a stadium fund, it would be reasonable to finance the rest.

 

The absolute shortest time frame I could see that happening in is about 10 years. In the meantime, we should enjoy having solid finances and packed out Tynecastle. While ideally I'd like more fans to see the inside of Tynecastle on gameday (and be able to get in myself when I'm in town), it's no bad thing to have tickets be seen as hard to get and something one is fortunate to have.

[davemclaren]

1 hour ago, Libertarian said:

We also sold 26,000 tickets to Hearts supporters for that match.

Apparently Rangers sold out their full allocation of 14.100 so I don’t think we sold 26,000. 

[Libertarian]

12 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

Apparently Rangers sold out their full allocation of 14.100 so I don’t think we sold 26,000. 

 

13 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

Apparently Rangers sold out their full allocation of 14.100 so I don’t think we sold 26,000. 

You did say a wee bit earlier We did manage to sell about 10,000 tickets to Rangers. Careful what you wish for. My understanding that the attendance that day was in excess of 36,000 I assumed that what you had written was correct and that therefore Hearts had sold 26,000

[johnking123]

3 hours ago, davemclaren said:

I remember a few years back when we were building the new main stand that some felt we didn’t need the additional capacity.  Things change quickly in football in both good and bad ways. 

We growing as a club definitely. We had a set back for a few year with giving one man to much power. But really feel we are heading right direction on and off the pitch now. Their will be a blips, no doubt about it. But if it continues like this for a few years. We will need a bigger boat.

[davemclaren]

8 minutes ago, Libertarian said:

 

You did say a wee bit earlier We did manage to sell about 10,000 tickets to Rangers. Careful what you wish for. My understanding that the attendance that day was in excess of 36,000 I assumed that what you had written was correct and that therefore Hearts had sold 26,000

My estimate was a tad out now that I have checked the figures. Thus it would appear that we sold 22,000. 
 

Thr point I was trying to make is that if we had a 30,000 stadium we will not always be successfull so for some/many seasons we would likely give the OF a bigger proportion of the stadium than what we now do. 

[Sooks]

3 hours ago, Rogue Daddy said:

Yeah... but would the cost for an extra 4k be worth it? As much as I love Tynie, if it definitely can't be upgraded to 30k then, as you say, it would have to be a move... and I think 30K is a good number that we should be aspiring to.

I would say it was personally a twenty four thousand stadium at Tynecastle in Gorgie for a few years would generate extra fans and income if we were doing well and make the decision to move if we absolutely had to an easier decision because we would see the necessity ………….. moving to an out of town new stadium of thirty thousand straight from a twenty thousand one in Gorgie would present a bit of a risk factor for me

[johnnythejambo]

The board wouldn't be doing their job if they are not at least thinking about some possibilities 

[1953]

2 hours ago, Bob Loblaw said:

Before we discuss any extensions, we need to make sure we can consistently sell out the current ground and that this years ST sales aren't a flash in the pan. Given the fact it's the first time it's ever happened it's a genuine possibility we don't hit it again next year, thus negating the need for anything bigger. If we do it 3/4 seasons in a row it's time to look at it.

This. Lets not get carried away until we have some consistency. Also, sorry to rain on the parade, but if it becomes clear that we need more capacity then I think that moving to a new stadium will have to be looked at seriously. 

[EIEIO]

3 hours ago, Fozzyonthefence said:

Were there any more Hearts fans attending Murrayfield though?  When we played Rangers we gave them 14/15k tickets, Aberdeen brought 7k and even St Johnstone brought a bigger support than they would to Tynie.  Seemed to be more of a novelty thing for the away fans. 
 

I think part of the reason that we’ve sold so many STs is because some fans want to guarantee a seat as most games might not be far off sell outs.  With a 30k stadium there would be no need to buy a ST to guarantee a seat. There would be no sell outs unless we give the OF a huge away allocation.  

Aberdeen brought 5k huns 13k. While not massively so we had more Hearts fans at most murrayfield games than Tynecastle ones.  I'm happy at Tynecastle and accept our 20K capacity. In the long term it may prove to be too small but we are not there yet. Let's have 5 years of sustained on field success then think about expansion options.

[Libertarian]

51 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

My estimate was a tad out now that I have checked the figures. Thus it would appear that we sold 22,000. 
 

Thr point I was trying to make is that if we had a 30,000 stadium we will not always be successfull so for some/many seasons we would likely give the OF a bigger proportion of the stadium than what we now do. 

Personally I don't mind if the horrible OF get a bigger allocation as long as this isn't at the expense of our home support. It's all extra revenue for the club. My view is that Hearts as a club have a fantastic opportunity to grow (and by doing so) seriously challenge those cretins from the west. However in order to grow the club we require a bigger stadium which in turn will generate bigger revenue streams for the club.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 minutes ago, Libertarian said:

Personally I don't mind if the horrible OF get a bigger allocation as long as this isn't at the expense of our home support. It's all extra revenue for the club. My view is that Hearts as a club have a fantastic opportunity to grow (and by doing so) seriously challenge those cretins from the west. However in order to grow the club we require a bigger stadium which in turn will generate bigger revenue streams for the club.

 

Exactly. I don't mind having 5k OF fans if it means 25k Hearts fans can be there.

 

(This of course doesn't override my earlier post about financial impossibility in the near future, but anyway. . .)

[North Berwick Jambo]

Easily fit a shiny new 30,000+ stadium in Saughton Park with plenty room left over for parking & other facilities. The overall  area from the running track to the gardens and over to Balgreen is massive. Train line next door for a new station, roads on three sides making it easier to reach the bypass, Glasgow road etc. Oh and I suppose it’s still technically on Gorgie Road.  

Edited June 24, 2022 by North Berwick Jambo