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

[Watt-Zeefuik]

1 minute ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

I'd be gutted if we were 3rd consistently then spent £40m on a project. 

 

 

 

 

Were you gutted when we were fresh out of the Championship and admin and spent nearly £20m on a project?

[Bazzas right boot]

2 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

Were you gutted when we were fresh out of the Championship and admin and spent nearly £20m on a project?

 

The Old stand was over 100 years old. 

We also weren't 3rd consistently. 

 

The situations not the same. 

 

We should be diverting most funds into the playing side now and for the foreseeable to ensure we stay 3rd.

 

If we do that and have £40m plus in ten years  then it means the title is a realistic possibility. 

£40m in savings could and Likley would get you in the top 2.

 

If it's v title v extra seats,  I vote for the title then with the money from that plan further expansion but we'd be doing that from a higher base. 

 

Also if we are doing  well and successful we can charge more so there is more ways to make money longer term. 

 

I'd be gutted if we had a spare £40m and never spent it on the football side. 

 

We're a football club 

 

Fantasy stuff anyway,  we've finished 3rd  twice in ten years so a bit to go before it's even a serious discussion. 

 

[A_A wehatethehibs]

10 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

Were you gutted when we were fresh out of the Championship and admin and spent nearly £20m on a project?

An entirely different scenario as we had a crumbling ruin of a main stand and needed to execute on either renovation or rebuilding immediately. That isn’t something we are facing right now. 

[Sooks]

Why do people get so wound up about discussing possible expansion it was not that many years ago that people were saying we would not be able to rebuild the main stand but it is now complete and we are not saddled with debt from the project

[Watt-Zeefuik]

5 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

The Old stand was over 100 years old. 

We also weren't 3rd consistently. 

 

The situations not the same. 

 

We should be diverting most funds into the playing side now and for the foreseeable to ensure we stay 3rd.

 

If we do that and have £40m plus in ten years  then it means the title is a realistic possibility. 

£40m in savings could and Likley would get you in the top 2.

 

If it's v title v extra seats,  I vote for the title then with the money from that plan further expansion but we'd be doing that from a higher base. 

 

Also if we are doing  well and successful we can charge more so there is more ways to make money longer term. 

 

I'd be gutted if we had a spare £40m and never spent it on the football side. 

 

We're a football club 

 

Fantasy stuff anyway,  we've finished 3rd  twice in ten years so a bit to go before it's even a serious discussion. 

 

 

The funny thing about that £40m, it doesn't appear magically. A fair whack of it is available because you're building a tangible real estate asset that can be used as security, and that it's opening new revenue streams for you (some of which could be guaranteed with things like the 500/1000 club things.

 

Also, the flat matter of it is that £40m in one season would just be enough for us to go toe-to-toe with the OF, no guarantee of not ending up third again, and then that cash is gone. I realize this is just banter but there's no way that short term squad improvements are a better use of one-time funds than capital improvements spent only once sufficient demand has been demonstrated.

 

3 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

An entirely different scenario as we had a crumbling ruin of a main stand and needed to execute on either renovation or rebuilding immediately. That isn’t something we are facing right now. 

 

It's funny how I find myself arguing against two sides at once here. On this thread you have people saying we need to expand in like a year or two, with no concept of the costs and no explanation for how we might be able to raise those funds. On the same thread we also have people saying that any expansion at Tynecastle is a fantasy and we should either be permanently happy with our current capacity or, even more weirdly, contemplate going somewhere completely different to build a £100m+ stadium because that would be better than . . . ?

 

My point in these posts is to say both that we neither can nor should expand in the next five years, but that there are realistic scenarios in 10-15 years where it's fully possible and indeed prudent, grounded in actual publicly available reports done by consultants for Hearts, construction costs of similar stands, attendance data, and my own experience doing vaguely related projects of a similar scale.

 

And of this I get called both a stick in the mud (because I don't think we should spend £20m tomorrow) and a fantasist (because I think keeping an eye towards the next decade of growth is a fine thing to do).

 

[Bazzas right boot]

27 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

The funny thing about that £40m, it doesn't appear magically. A fair whack of it is available because you're building a tangible real estate asset that can be used as security, and that it's opening new revenue streams for you (some of which could be guaranteed with things like the 500/1000 club things.

 

Also, the flat matter of it is that £40m in one season would just be enough for us to go toe-to-toe with the OF, no guarantee of not ending up third again, and then that cash is gone. I realize this is just banter but there's no way that short term squad improvements are a better use of one-time funds than capital improvements spent only once sufficient demand has been demonstrated.

 

 

It's funny how I find myself arguing against two sides at once here. On this thread you have people saying we need to expand in like a year or two, with no concept of the costs and no explanation for how we might be able to raise those funds. On the same thread we also have people saying that any expansion at Tynecastle is a fantasy and we should either be permanently happy with our current capacity or, even more weirdly, contemplate going somewhere completely different to build a £100m+ stadium because that would be better than . . . ?

 

My point in these posts is to say both that we neither can nor should expand in the next five years, but that there are realistic scenarios in 10-15 years where it's fully possible and indeed prudent, grounded in actual publicly available reports done by consultants for Hearts, construction costs of similar stands, attendance data, and my own experience doing vaguely related projects of a similar scale.

 

And of this I get called both a stick in the mud (because I don't think we should spend £20m tomorrow) and a fantasist (because I think keeping an eye towards the next decade of growth is a fine thing to do).

 

 

 

All fair. 

 

But if we ever get £40m plus in the bank we should go for he title and start by rangers and Celtic's best player 😎

[HMFC 86]

44 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Why do people get so wound up about discussing possible expansion it was not that many years ago that people were saying we would not be able to rebuild the main stand but it is now complete and we are not saddled with debt from the project

Absolutely, it’s as if they enjoy shooting down any notion of expansion or upgrading of the stadium. We need to continue proactively managing and improving our assets, both team and infrastructure 

[Sooks]

Just now, HMFC 86 said:

Absolutely, it’s as if they enjoy shooting down any notion of expansion or upgrading of the stadium. We need to continue proactively managing and improving our assets, both team and infrastructure 

Seems fair to me and worthy of discussion

[Watt-Zeefuik]

47 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

All fair. 

 

But if we ever get £40m plus in the bank we should go for he title and start by rangers and Celtic's best player 😎

 

I mean in my daydreams this happens because we kick ass in our little corner of Europe, help get Scotland's association coefficient up to sixth, then one of the OF win the Europa League and third place gets an automatic UCL group stage bid.

 

Then we take half of that money and build a new stand and take the other half and buy the best players off the rest of the SPFL the way Celtic and Rangers do.

[Libertarian]

1 hour ago, HMFC 86 said:

Absolutely, it’s as if they enjoy shooting down any notion of expansion or upgrading of the stadium. We need to continue proactively managing and improving our assets, both team and infrastructure 

Absolutely correct. Any investment in increasing the capacity should be exactly that, an investment which should pay for itself in increased revenue.

[OTT]

1 hour ago, HMFC 86 said:

Absolutely, it’s as if they enjoy shooting down any notion of expansion or upgrading of the stadium. We need to continue proactively managing and improving our assets, both team and infrastructure 

 

Absolutely, one thing I think Budge has done really well especially is putting in the Sky Lounge, having a stadium which generates money on days where there is no football is genius. I'm not trying to claim that Budge is some sort of oracle that is reinventing the wheel, but clearly its thinking which isn't prevalent in Scottish football - How many clubs actually have a fully fledged restaurant? I think if you take that as a starting point, then it makes you wonder what else we could add. Hotel? - Well we have a festival and could absolutely price gouge the tourists which over the period where there is no football on, is basically a license to print money. What about a gym? 3000 members paying £30 a month would bring in another £1m a season. Couple that in with an expanded capacity and we could be easily adding on another £2m a season, if not more. 

 

Its a perfectly valid topic to discuss and bounce ideas about. I find it really interesting and hopefully over the next decade we'll continuing building on the facilities the stadium has. I'm convinced we've been held back by decades of mismanagement and its only under Budge (and Savage) that we're actually finding out feet. 

[jambopilms]

Folk talking about raising 50m as if it was easy. Only 20m in debt from the above plan.

We would struggle to raise or save 5m nevermind 50. Maybe walk before we can run like finish and pay for the stand we have just built.

[Jambo-Fox]

Far too much negativity on this thread!

 

100s of reasons given not to increase the size of Tynecastle! Think small & be small. Think big & be bigger!

 

We need a vision supported by a strategic plan … build it and they will come!

♥️♥️♥️♥️

[FarmerTweedy]

23 hours ago, soonbe110 said:

Not a chance that any cantilever on top of Wheatfield could be done for £8-10m.  Any project like that would incur professional fees of £2-3m for a start. 
Real problem with your idea however is that planning permission highly unlikely due to impact on surrounding housing.  We could buy all the housing to solve the problem but that more than eats up your initial £8-10m 

Assuming by a cantilever, you both mean another tier directly above, i.e. actually hanging over, the existing Wheatfield stand, it can't be done at any cost. The existing stand is either bang on, or a bawhair away from, the steepest angle you can have a stand at, and the front is basically as close to the pitch as it can be. Another tier overhanging it would have all but the front row unable to see a huge area of the pitch, unless you built about a 50-60 degree rake into it.  The professional fees would cost next to nothing because as soon as the club approached any professionals about it, they'd just say straight away that it's a completely impossible idea, and probably ask if we were trying to wind them up!

 

If it means something else, of course, feel free to correct me!

[soonbe110]

1 minute ago, FarmerTweedy said:

Assuming by a cantilever, you both mean another tier directly above, i.e. actually hanging over, the existing Wheatfield stand, it can't be done at any cost. The existing stand is either bang on, or a bawhair away from, the steepest angle you can have a stand at, and the front is basically as close to the pitch as it can be. Another tier overhanging it would have all but the front row unable to see a huge area of the pitch, unless you built about a 50-60 degree rake into it.  The professional fees would cost next to nothing because as soon as the club approached any professionals about it, they'd just say straight away that it's a completely impossible idea, and probably ask if we were trying to wind them up!

 

If it means something else, of course, feel free to correct me!

I wasn’t thinking of any type of stand.  I was just replying to a poster that had suggested a cantilever could have been built for £8-10m.  My post was more  about you couldn’t put  any type of stand or current stand extension on the Wheatfield footprint for anything like £8-10m. 

[soonbe110]

2 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

 

The funny thing about that £40m, it doesn't appear magically. A fair whack of it is available because you're building a tangible real estate asset that can be used as security, and that it's opening new revenue streams for you (some of which could be guaranteed with things like the 500/1000 club things.

 

Also, the flat matter of it is that £40m in one season would just be enough for us to go toe-to-toe with the OF, no guarantee of not ending up third again, and then that cash is gone. I realize this is just banter but there's no way that short term squad improvements are a better use of one-time funds than capital improvements spent only once sufficient demand has been demonstrated.

 

 

It's funny how I find myself arguing against two sides at once here. On this thread you have people saying we need to expand in like a year or two, with no concept of the costs and no explanation for how we might be able to raise those funds. On the same thread we also have people saying that any expansion at Tynecastle is a fantasy and we should either be permanently happy with our current capacity or, even more weirdly, contemplate going somewhere completely different to build a £100m+ stadium because that would be better than . . . ?

 

My point in these posts is to say both that we neither can nor should expand in the next five years, but that there are realistic scenarios in 10-15 years where it's fully possible and indeed prudent, grounded in actual publicly available reports done by consultants for Hearts, construction costs of similar stands, attendance data, and my own experience doing vaguely related projects of a similar scale.

 

And of this I get called both a stick in the mud (because I don't think we should spend £20m tomorrow) and a fantasist (because I think keeping an eye towards the next decade of growth is a fine thing to do).

 

To be honest it’s all pie in the sky so I’d suggest you save your time.  We currently have a regular home support of about 15-16k with up to a couple of thousand walkups at most home games.  For really big games, this Thursday, we could probably sell 20-21k home tickets. But these games only come round once in a while. 
With proper segregation installed we could have 18,500 home fans at all games which probably satisfies existing demand. Any stadium expansion wouldn’t be justified until that 18.5k was clearly way too small for the demand for tickets.  Think that’s years away to be honest. 

[soonbe110]

22 minutes ago, Jambo-Fox said:

Far too much negativity on this thread!

 

100s of reasons given not to increase the size of Tynecastle! Think small & be small. Think big & be bigger!

 

We need a vision supported by a strategic plan … build it and they will come!

♥️♥️♥️♥️

Yep, team first then stadium if required. They will come if we can really challenge the ugly sisters.  A real chicken and egg situation. 

[Libertarian]

7 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

Yep, team first then stadium if required. They will come if we can really challenge the ugly sisters.  A real chicken and egg situation. 

But they are coming. Hearts have sold out their season tickets as well as every home game thus far this season. There's absolutely no reason that we could not sell 18,000 season tickets within a few seasons. We also could have sold 25,000 for the Zurich match. This is all lost revenue. Any new build and increase in capacity should be viewed as an investment helping the club to grow in order to ensure that we guarantee European football every season and really begin to challenge the Glasgow clubs.

[FarmerTweedy]

1 hour ago, Led Tasso said:

 

I mean in my daydreams this happens because we kick ass in our little corner of Europe, help get Scotland's association coefficient up to sixth, then one of the OF win the Europa League and third place gets an automatic UCL group stage bid.

 

Then we take half of that money and build a new stand and take the other half and buy the best players off the rest of the SPFL the way Celtic and Rangers do.

In your scenario above, third place wouldn't get an automatic UCL group stage place. As whichever arsecheek had won the Europa League would also have qualified for the UCL group stage through finishing 1st or 2nd in the Premiership, they wouldn't use the group stage place reserved for the Europa League winners, and the empty space would be filled by the Champions of whichever country was the highest ranked one at the time to not already have an automatic group stage place for their champions. 3rd in our league would still just go into the 3rd qualifying round for the UCL. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

52 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

Assuming by a cantilever, you both mean another tier directly above, i.e. actually hanging over, the existing Wheatfield stand, it can't be done at any cost. The existing stand is either bang on, or a bawhair away from, the steepest angle you can have a stand at, and the front is basically as close to the pitch as it can be. Another tier overhanging it would have all but the front row unable to see a huge area of the pitch, unless you built about a 50-60 degree rake into it.  The professional fees would cost next to nothing because as soon as the club approached any professionals about it, they'd just say straight away that it's a completely impossible idea, and probably ask if we were trying to wind them up!

 

If it means something else, of course, feel free to correct me!

 

48 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

I wasn’t thinking of any type of stand.  I was just replying to a poster that had suggested a cantilever could have been built for £8-10m.  My post was more  about you couldn’t put  any type of stand or current stand extension on the Wheatfield footprint for anything like £8-10m. 

 

Please feel free to drop the cantilever hypothetical. I said in the immediate paragraph after it that it was not possible because of structural and planning constraints. It was more like, in a mythical other stadium that you wanted to add onto you could do this, but not at Tynecastle. Probably shouldn't have even bothered.

 

42 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

To be honest it’s all pie in the sky so I’d suggest you save your time.  We currently have a regular home support of about 15-16k with up to a couple of thousand walkups at most home games.  For really big games, this Thursday, we could probably sell 20-21k home tickets. But these games only come round once in a while. 
With proper segregation installed we could have 18,500 home fans at all games which probably satisfies existing demand. Any stadium expansion wouldn’t be justified until that 18.5k was clearly way too small for the demand for tickets.  Think that’s years away to be honest. 

 

We currently have more demand for season tickets than we can fulfill. That's a pretty decent sign that it's at least worth thinking about.

 

If that continues to grow, as I think it will, the case for a bigger stadium gets stronger.

 

 

16 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

In your scenario above, third place wouldn't get an automatic UCL group stage place. As whichever arsecheek had won the Europa League would also have qualified for the UCL group stage through finishing 1st or 2nd in the Premiership, they wouldn't use the group stage place reserved for the Europa League winners, and the empty space would be filled by the Champions of whichever country was the highest ranked one at the time to not already have an automatic group stage place for their champions. 3rd in our league would still just go into the 3rd qualifying round for the UCL. 

 

I'm fairly sure this is incorrect. Germany has 5 teams already qualified for the UCL group stages, including Eintract Frankfurt. The EL champion is in addition to the league qualification.

 

1 hour ago, jambopilms said:

Folk talking about raising 50m as if it was easy. Only 20m in debt from the above plan.

We would struggle to raise or save 5m nevermind 50. Maybe walk before we can run like finish and pay for the stand we have just built.

 

I would really like it if folk would notice that I keep saying this is for 10+ years on and assuming we reach consistent success in Europe.

[FarmerTweedy]

32 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

I wasn’t thinking of any type of stand.  I was just replying to a poster that had suggested a cantilever could have been built for £8-10m.  My post was more  about you couldn’t put  any type of stand or current stand extension on the Wheatfield footprint for anything like £8-10m. 

I suspect you're right!  The simplest thing, on the face of it, would be to just extend the current Wheatfield by building an extra bit behind the existing stand (removing the back wall and roof, of course) to a height that lets you simply add more rows, behind the existing back row (30) and continuing the current rake, extending the staircases, etc. Each new row would add around 200 seats. Stick a similar roof on but sloping down from the back to the front to meet the existing truss rather than sloping down from the front to the back as the current roof does. Some guttering solution would also be required to divert rainwater away from just all pouring off the front!  Simples, and on the face of it, probably quite cheap!

 

In reality, even that would be more complicated than it would first appear, as there will probably be issues such as how many seats can be added before extra toilets need added, how many more rows can be added before it starts taking too long to evacuate the stand in an emergency (or even just get down for a pie or a single fish at half time) without staircases out the back from the top of the stand, need for additional turnstiles at the Wheatfield entrance, etc.

 

Realistically, any expansion of capacity on the Wheatfield stand side would probably be more likely to take the form of complete demolition of the existing stand and a much larger new stand being built from scratch. I've said before that a two tier stand with the lower tier less steep than the existing stand and the upper tier as steep as the existing and possibly overhanging the back few rows of the lower tier would seem to be the way to go IMO.

[FarmerTweedy]

2 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

 

 

I'm fairly sure this is incorrect. Germany has 5 teams already qualified for the UCL group stages, including Eintract Frankfurt. The EL champion is in addition to the league qualification.

 

 

I would really like it if folk would notice that I keep saying this is for 10+ years on and assuming we reach consistent success in Europe.

Re the bold, it's not incorrect. Germany has 5 teams in the group stage because Eintract Frankfurt won the Europa League but failed to qualify for the UCL group stage through their own league (in fact, they failed to qualify for Europe at all through domestic football)!  If Eintract Frankfurt had finished in the top 4 in the Bundesliga, there would only be 4 German teams in the UCL group stage. 

 

Re the other bit, I'm with you on that! 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

8 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

Re the bold, it's not incorrect. Germany has 5 teams in the group stage because Eintract Frankfurt won the Europa League but failed to qualify for the UCL group stage through their own league (in fact, they failed to qualify for Europe at all through domestic football)!  If Eintract Frankfurt had finished in the top 4 in the Bundesliga, there would only be 4 German teams in the UCL group stage. 

 

Re the other bit, I'm with you on that! 

 

Cheers, took me forever to find something on that. UEFA don't make anything simple, do they!

 

Finally found a source here: https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/021f-0f8a8ca92372-fd6c3efc2f2e-1000--distribution-details/

 

Quote

"Clubs winning either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League," he said, "will not add an extra place to the total number of places available for that association in the subsequent club competition season – with one exception.

"The only time an association can gain an additional place in the subsequent season's club competitions will be if one of their clubs wins either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League and, at the same time, does not finish in a place in their domestic league or domestic cup which automatically grants a place in a UEFA club competition.

"It should also be stated," he added, "that an association with, for example, four places in the UEFA Champions League can increase their participation to five places should a club from their association win the UEFA Europa League in the previous season.

"If that club has already qualified for the UEFA Champions League via their domestic league, then the association remains with four places in the UEFA Champions League. If that club has already qualified for the UEFA Europa League via their domestic league, it results in five clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League, and two – not three – participating in the UEFA Europa League."

 

So fine, I guess we'll have to get the coefficient up to 6th and THEN manage second . . .

[FarmerTweedy]

6 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

Cheers, took me forever to find something on that. UEFA don't make anything simple, do they!

 

Finally found a source here: https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/021f-0f8a8ca92372-fd6c3efc2f2e-1000--distribution-details/

 

 

So fine, I guess we'll have to get the coefficient up to 6th and THEN manage second . . .

No, they don't! 

 

Tbf, I actually think the way they do it is fairer, even if it is more complicated. I think it's reasonable to have a place in the following season's UCL as a prize for the Europa League winners (and the UCL winners!), but if they also qualify through their own league, effectively meaning they've qualified twice, I think it's fairer to give the 'spare' place to a club that's actually won their league but whose country doesn't rank quite high enough to be guaranteed a group stage place, than to give the 'spare' place to a club that's from the same country as the UCL or Europa League winners but that didn't finish high enough in their league to qualify on their own merit!

 

In this season's UCL, Shakhtar Donetsk are Ukrainian Champions, and were due to start off in the UCL playoff round, but have been given the group stage place that would have gone to last season's UCL winners (Real Madrid) had they not qualified through La Liga. The alternative would have been 5th placed Real Betis being given the spare place because they happen to be the next highest league finisher in Real Madrid's country, but I think Shakhtar are more deserving (although in this particular case, you could probably debate their merit in terms of actually being regarded as Champions, given that the Ukrainian season was abandoned about half way through when Russia invaded!

[Watt-Zeefuik]

38 minutes ago, FarmerTweedy said:

No, they don't! 

 

Tbf, I actually think the way they do it is fairer, even if it is more complicated. I think it's reasonable to have a place in the following season's UCL as a prize for the Europa League winners (and the UCL winners!), but if they also qualify through their own league, effectively meaning they've qualified twice, I think it's fairer to give the 'spare' place to a club that's actually won their league but whose country doesn't rank quite high enough to be guaranteed a group stage place, than to give the 'spare' place to a club that's from the same country as the UCL or Europa League winners but that didn't finish high enough in their league to qualify on their own merit!

 

In this season's UCL, Shakhtar Donetsk are Ukrainian Champions, and were due to start off in the UCL playoff round, but have been given the group stage place that would have gone to last season's UCL winners (Real Madrid) had they not qualified through La Liga. The alternative would have been 5th placed Real Betis being given the spare place because they happen to be the next highest league finisher in Real Madrid's country, but I think Shakhtar are more deserving (although in this particular case, you could probably debate their merit in terms of actually being regarded as Champions, given that the Ukrainian season was abandoned about half way through when Russia invaded!

 

When you put it that way, it is fair. I have noticed that in terms of money and coefficient points, they've worked hard to make sure there's no silly games clubs can play by intentionally dropping a competition. A dominant group stage in the UEL is lucrative but is still just a little less so than getting steamrolled in the UCL, and so forth.

 

Still, it's a damned jungle figuring out all the qualification lines and such.

[Americana]

Not to bang this old drum again, however I wonder what length of time passes by and were still selling out Tyencastle to the likes of St Johnstone before the club looks at cashing in on the demand.

 

The Roseburn isnt exactly the box office seats and any additional tiers added to either one of the big stands would become sought after seats whilst making up in shortfall with away fans in the Roseburn. 

[mitch41]

On 22/08/2022 at 21:50, FarmerTweedy said:

I suspect you're right!  The simplest thing, on the face of it, would be to just extend the current Wheatfield by building an extra bit behind the existing stand (removing the back wall and roof, of course) to a height that lets you simply add more rows, behind the existing back row (30) and continuing the current rake, extending the staircases, etc. Each new row would add around 200 seats. Stick a similar roof on but sloping down from the back to the front to meet the existing truss rather than sloping down from the front to the back as the current roof does. Some guttering solution would also be required to divert rainwater away from just all pouring off the front!  Simples, and on the face of it, probably quite cheap!

 

In reality, even that would be more complicated than it would first appear, as there will probably be issues such as how many seats can be added before extra toilets need added, how many more rows can be added before it starts taking too long to evacuate the stand in an emergency (or even just get down for a pie or a single fish at half time) without staircases out the back from the top of the stand, need for additional turnstiles at the Wheatfield entrance, etc.

 

Realistically, any expansion of capacity on the Wheatfield stand side would probably be more likely to take the form of complete demolition of the existing stand and a much larger new stand being built from scratch. I've said before that a two tier stand with the lower tier less steep than the existing stand and the upper tier as steep as the existing and possibly overhanging the back few rows of the lower tier would seem to be the way to go IMO.

Sod having more stairs I want escalators and lifts .

[SUTOL]

1 hour ago, mitch41 said:

Sod having more stairs I want escalators and lifts .

 

We have escalators in the main stand. 

[Bazzas right boot]

5 hours ago, Americana said:

Not to bang this old drum again, however I wonder what length of time passes by and were still selling out Tyencastle to the likes of St Johnstone before the club looks at cashing in on the demand.

 

The Roseburn isnt exactly the box office seats and any additional tiers added to either one of the big stands would become sought after seats whilst making up in shortfall with away fans in the Roseburn. 

 

Ross County and Utd were sell outs? 

 

Does it need to be St Johnstone,  if so we play them soon, there's about 300 tickets left,  if that. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Philfigo]

On 14/08/2022 at 20:27, tazhearts said:

When I saw them today I was convinced they are just additional floodlights 🤷🏼‍♂️,.as the look exactly the same as the existing floodlights. I don't think they are disco lights (sadly).

We have our disco lights tho lol

[tazhearts]

Disco lights that double as floodlights!  What's not to like.  I thought they were great.

[mitch41]

On 25/08/2022 at 16:45, SUTOL said:

 

We have escalators in the main stand. 

So what. If the Wheatfield gets any higher I want escalators and  lifts and if it doesn’t I’ll scream and scream and scream so there.

Edited August 26, 2022 by mitch41

[Inchgarvie]

No room to enlarge the Georgie stand, already restricted but I reckon there could be room to enlarge the Roseburn and Wheatfeild. Could redesign and make extra space at the corners but at what cost. Could the new main stand have been bigger? 

[Sooks]

On 25/08/2022 at 15:33, mitch41 said:

Sod having more stairs I want escalators and lifts .

I use the escalators from the Premium Lounge to main stand concourse all the time …………. why do you bring them up ?

 

You know they exist and are operational I hope 

[chrisyboy7]

So it appears we can only sell......wait for it.......approx 17k tickets to our fans for home european games....WOW   That's less than a league game against St Mirren ffs.......And people think or ground is big enough lol....Aye Nay bother. We where simply superb on Thursday night but clearly luck wasn't on out side as we all know.   But the myth of 4 europen home games of 20k are.....well a myth....This for me, sums it up....we will never be able to compete at a higher level the way tyncastle is....Sad but true.....While we have around 20k seats or just under...Segregation obviously lowers it....The income lost in seasons past and from now to the years ahead,  must will run into many many millions and the biggest laugh is  This money would have pay to expand it..Then eventually make a profit. Case proven.....

 

Demand for our league games is approx 19-23k(hearts fans) with european games way more....approx plus 5k on top

 

Also...

 

The 1874 bar is a great YES but guess what.....not big enough either...Sometimes cant get in.....They either build another one at the Wheatfield or extend the current one if thats even possible......There are so many avenues that the club can invest in like they already have done in the past few years, but do they have the plans to do it?  

 

Looking forward to some constructive views lol

 

 

Rant no 10 over    HHGH

[Sooks]

13 minutes ago, chrisyboy7 said:

So it appears we can only sell......wait for it.......approx 17k tickets to our fans for home european games....WOW   That's less than a league game against St Mirren ffs.......And people think or ground is big enough lol....Aye Nay bother. We where simply superb on Thursday night but clearly luck wasn't on out side as we all know.   But the myth of 4 europen home games of 20k are.....well a myth....This for me, sums it up....we will never be able to compete at a higher level the way tyncastle is....Sad but true.....While we have around 20k seats or just under...Segregation obviously lowers it....The income lost in seasons past and from now to the years ahead,  must will run into many many millions and the biggest laugh is  This money would have pay to expand it..Then eventually make a profit. Case proven.....

 

Demand for our league games is approx 19-23k(hearts fans) with european games way more....approx plus 5k on top

 

Also...

 

The 1874 bar is a great YES but guess what.....not big enough either...Sometimes cant get in.....They either build another one at the Wheatfield or extend the current one if thats even possible......There are so many avenues that the club can invest in like they already have done in the past few years, but do they have the plans to do it?  

 

Looking forward to some constructive views lol

 

 

Rant no 10 over    HHGH

Did you mean to post this over the road instead ?

[mitch41]

19 hours ago, Sooks said:

I use the escalators from the Premium Lounge to main stand concourse all the time …………. why do you bring them up ?

 

You know they exist and are operational I hope 

Maybe you didn't catch what the thread was about. I was talking about the Wheatfield Stand being made bigger. Are you ok with that.

[OTT]

Is it maybe fair to say walk ups don’t really want to sit in the roseburn because it doesn’t really feel like you’re in the home end properly?
 

There were about 250-300 Zurich fans, which means minus the roseburn the home end was pretty much sold out? Looked full. 

[Libertarian]

7 hours ago, chrisyboy7 said:

So it appears we can only sell......wait for it.......approx 17k tickets to our fans for home european games....WOW   That's less than a league game against St Mirren ffs.......And people think or ground is big enough lol....Aye Nay bother. We where simply superb on Thursday night but clearly luck wasn't on out side as we all know.   But the myth of 4 europen home games of 20k are.....well a myth....This for me, sums it up....we will never be able to compete at a higher level the way tyncastle is....Sad but true.....While we have around 20k seats or just under...Segregation obviously lowers it....The income lost in seasons past and from now to the years ahead,  must will run into many many millions and the biggest laugh is  This money would have pay to expand it..Then eventually make a profit. Case proven.....

 

Demand for our league games is approx 19-23k(hearts fans) with european games way more....approx plus 5k on top

 

Also...

 

The 1874 bar is a great YES but guess what.....not big enough either...Sometimes cant get in.....They either build another one at the Wheatfield or extend the current one if thats even possible......There are so many avenues that the club can invest in like they already have done in the past few years, but do they have the plans to do it?  

 

Looking forward to some constructive views lol

 

 

Rant no 10 over    HHGH

[Libertarian]

Apparently another sell out today. Yet more evidence that the current capacity at Tynecastle is too small and is hindering the growth of the club.

[OTT]

3 minutes ago, Libertarian said:

Apparently another sell out today. Yet more evidence that the current capacity at Tynecastle is too small and is hindering the growth of the club.

 

Thats incredible to see!!

 

I think the fans have always been willing to turn up and back the club, but all anyone has wanted is a bit of competence from the team. We've finally got that. Excellent manager, fantastic DOF, modern and effective recruitment team and a non-footballing leadership team that are probably the best the club has ever had. Certainly since Mercer. Its incredible. 

 

I do agree, I suspect this problem will need to repeat itself next season and possibly the following one again before cogs start turning. 

 

I think everyone knows someone they could bring with them if there was space which is the funny thing. Hopefully when the time does come, the intention is to make the Wheatfield as big as we possible can. Space is at a premium around the stadium, so I suppose its probably the one where we have the most potential to expand with. The Roseburn is landlocked and the the Gorgie stand would require probably buying the flats and a few hail mary's to convince the council to allow us to demolish them!!  

[indianajones]

Aye lets upgrade Tynie to a cost of many tens of millions to accommodate the slight increase in ticket demand. 

 

[SwindonJambo]

42 minutes ago, indianajones said:

Aye lets upgrade Tynie to a cost of many tens of millions to accommodate the slight increase in ticket demand. 

 

This x1,000. We cannot expand Tynecastle without spending tens of millions. Where's that going to come from? Banks are no longer willing to lend to Scottish Football so forget that. We've only just got to routine sell outs so let's see if they continue. A few bad results and crowds will drop back again, as they have for the last 148 years. 

 

If the current trajectory of growth continues and is maintained (and we all hope it does) then we can look at how a new stadium can be financed. In the current deteriorating  economic climate that will not be easy, unless there's a super rich fan somewhere willing to sink a spare tens of millions into it.

[David McCaig]

50 minutes ago, indianajones said:

Aye lets upgrade Tynie to a cost of many tens of millions to accommodate the slight increase in ticket demand. 

 

Is that not exactly what we did with the Main Stand just a couple of years ago... The main stand that's now paid for, sold out and making us money every week?

[indianajones]

Just now, David McCaig said:

Is that not exactly what we did with the Main Stand just a couple of years ago... The main stand that's now paid for, sold out and making us money every week?

 

To replace the old main stand which was a crumbling wreck. 

 

The rest of the stands are fine. The capacity is fine. 

 

Leave Tynie alone. 

[rudeskaboyuk]

I am quite convinced the last time I sat in the single seats that run  down the stands gable ends there is room for actually 2 seats together. One maybe with partial restricted view.

 

If that is the case, we are looking at maybe a increase in capacity of maybe 150-200 ?

 

That 2nd tunnel needs to go surely?

 

When I was down at Everton's ground a few years ago with mates, we all sat in main stand. It was incredibly tight but no one complained.

[iwasthere1954]

2 hours ago, Libertarian said:

Apparently another sell out today. Yet more evidence that the current capacity at Tynecastle is too small and is hindering the growth of the club.

How many times is this going to come up on here. We are not allowed any more fans in the stadium due to the tanks belonging to the distillery. No not that kind of tank

[OTT]

57 minutes ago, iwasthere1954 said:

How many times is this going to come up on here. We are not allowed any more fans in the stadium due to the tanks belonging to the distillery. No not that kind of tank

 

Its a topic folk are clearly interested in. 

[iwasthere1954]

31 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Its a topic folk are clearly interested in. 

What every day. By now everyone should know, as it stands ,we cannot extend the stadium.

[Libertarian]

20 hours ago, iwasthere1954 said:

How many times is this going to come up on here. We are not allowed any more fans in the stadium due to the tanks belonging to the distillery. No not that kind of tank

The title of the topic is Tynecastle Stadium Upgrade Potential? Since we have sold out our season tickets as well as every competitive game this season this suggests that the current capacity is too small and is hindering the growth of the club. We all want the best for the club and the current stadium is an excellent arena, indeed the best in the country. However the fact is that every supporter/customer who is turned away is lost revenue for the club. I would be amazed if the the Board along with FOH aren't investigating all possible ways to increase the capacity at Tynecastle in order to allow the club to grow and fulfill its potential.