Additional revenue streams

[John Findlay]

We can't do anything with the Georgie or Roseburn stands as the are hemmed in.

We could maybe make the Wheatfield larger, maybe add an extra 3k seats at the most. Filling corners possibly just the Two between Gorgie and Wheatfield and between Roseburn and Wheatfield.

Due to where we put the away support I don't see the the corner being filled between the mainstand and Roseburn.

Unless we move the police control room, could it go between the mainstand and Roseburn?, I don't see the corner between Mainstand and Gorgie being filled in.

At a push I think 25k capacity could be obtained at a push, but maybe 23k is more realistic.

The only other alternative is to build a new stadium.

That opens a whole new can of worms.

[jr ewing]

Hospitality under the Wheatfield Stand. 

[Fxxx the SPFL]

42 minutes ago, 1971fozzy said:

hopefully 👍 great away day but brutal pitch and football.

actually we are usually there and get in at 11.30.

not too clever by 3pm but more often than not the games are that bad there it’s a must 🤣

👍

[JG_1874]

Move police control room to Roaseburn, with a media suite above, fill in the 3 corners. 
 

costly but would provide more seats for home fans. 
 

 

[BelgeJambo]

1 hour ago, Batistuta87 said:

Princes St is a dive now. St James Quarter is where it's at and we've had a pop-up there a few times. Obviously doesn't make enough money to have a permanent location there though. 
 

Agree the Airport would be a good place for a shop though. Rich Yanks would be all over that. 

 

****ing annoying every time I fly in and out of Edinburgh and see Weegie shite on sale.  Heart’s/Hibs/Edinburgh Rugby/SRU could do a joint venture perhaps

[Scott Monument]

2 hours ago, Jambomuzz said:

So with the completion of the Main Stand and the hotel, it got me thinking what other streams of revenue hearts could utilise. Is there anything stopping Hearts from looking beyond Tynecastle? Obviously a completely extreme example but for instance opening up a second hotel in Edinburgh somewhere? Just an example as something like this would obviously be a large investment. But what’s stopping hearts other than funds doing this or something else similar? 
Everything also needs to be balanced with investment to the playing squad. 
 

I think if there’s ever going to a be serious challenge then hearts need to find a way to close that financial gap in whatever way possible 

Good point future investment doesn’t necessarily have to be at the stadium or football related 

[Phil D. Corners]

1 hour ago, Batistuta87 said:

Better merch. The stuff we sell is utter bollocks.

 

 

This. The club store and online store need a revamp. It’s very disorganised. 
 

Potentially advertise merch to overseas fans watching on HeartsTV. 

[Birregrande]

1 hour ago, Batistuta87 said:

Better merch. The stuff we sell is utter bollocks.

 

 

I think the merch website is not great. The shop though - I have been in there a few times in the last year, to buy stuff for my Australian nieces and was really impressed. Was getting full kits, balls [the wee one getting a smaller soft ball], and dinosaurs.. As an aside, I thought it would be the Oz presence in the 1st team that they would buy into, but it's the woman's team that inspires them.

 

 

1 hour ago, Mr Rabbit said:

I’m not knocking your idea however I would like us to focus on the football team.

 

Whilst investing in other revenue streams will help in the long term I think we’ve done well recently with the stadium and hotel.

 

Especially with the season we’re having now is the time to try and move away from the others and push the football club on. Investment should be focused on the team and securing players like Shankland whilst improving the team we have.

I agree there, and would say that adding another hotel isn't the answer - it would compete with the main one unless it was in another city. Having said that, I believe JA can't chuck money into the team directly, so maybe he'd be looking at other projects in the meantime.  He loves the community ideas, so I like the idea of HMFC owned pitches, maybe with gym facilities? in locations around the city. Make the brand highly visible, get some coverts as well. 

[Drylaw Hearts]

Quickest and most lucrative way to increase revenue is to focus on scouting players to sign and sell on at big profits.

 

[Cruyff]

Was our £20.8million revenue because of Conference League money? 

If so, with Europa League qualification and the hotel? Maybe £30-35mil revenue on a good year if we were to do that and maybe get a decent player sale. 

 

We could operate with a £18mil staff costs if we were regularly turning between £23-30 mil every season. 

Perhaps that would allow us to increase the wage structure, pay higher fees. Maybe enough to challenge for a title if we build well and then who knows? 

 

So I don't think having a 30,000 seater stadium is the be all and end all tbh but an increase in revenue, invest our savings, in a few years we can afford to buy land or, build a new stand, or fill in the corners and put a new snazzy lid on it? 

 

Small stuff - we could cut costs in certain parts on wastage, e.g. the overpriced tacky shite we sell in the shop & online. I don't know whether we actually buy units of Lego buses, Shan oor Willie prints or act more of a 3rd party and receive a fee for facilitating the sale. I think we could definitely make a mint if we found better suppliers that could achieve better quality for cheaper. 

 

I think we could do more with match day catering and kiosks. I think we could do more, more choice etc.. Could put some food huts on the Plaza, close it off and allow supporters to use it at half time? 

[OTT]

I would really like to see a significantly expanded Wheatfield. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome, but if it was possible, we should be looking to absolutely maximise the potential capacity on that side. Elland Roads big stand holds 15k, do we have sufficient space behind the Wheatfield to nearly triple its capacity? Worth investigating. Need to future proof Tynecastle as much as we can. In Scottish football, ticket sales are king. 

 

Just running with that idea, lets say we do that. Then also have a massive amount of space within the stand to play around with. Could add a sports bar that is open all the time and constantly making money. Maybe could look at a gym to tie in with the other hospitality services that are already there? Additional hotel or function room space? 

 

If the benefactors could help see something like this over the line, we'd see the club grow to an unprecedented level IMO. 

[billybalfour]

Beam back  any sky games or PPV games at opponent's grounds.My mates were at the Derby at Easter Rd .last week.£10 entry and pretty well attended.I've enquired a few times if we we're doing this and get nowhere.Plenty lounges we could use.!874 isn't always open even for Scotland games.I think Hibs are a wee bit ahead of us on this.

[Bungalow Bill]

1 hour ago, JG_1874 said:

Move police control room to Roaseburn, with a media suite above, fill in the 3 corners. 
 

costly but would provide more seats for home fans. 
 

 

What income would a media suite bring in? The match day stuff is done pitchside nowadays at most grounds. There’s also a media room in the main stand where the pressers happen. 

[Pasquale for King]

Do any other stadiums have protruding police control rooms? Considering how little they actually do, as last Wednesday showed, was there really any need to have restricted view seats because of this?

[Dunks]

2 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

I thought it was 55k, apologies 👍🏽. 

 

No need to apologise, so did I until I looked

[TommyC]

1 hour ago, OTT said:

I would really like to see a significantly expanded Wheatfield. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome, but if it was possible, we should be looking to absolutely maximise the potential capacity on that side. Elland Roads big stand holds 15k, do we have sufficient space behind the Wheatfield to nearly triple its capacity? Worth investigating. Need to future proof Tynecastle as much as we can. In Scottish football, ticket sales are king. 

 

Just running with that idea, lets say we do that. Then also have a massive amount of space within the stand to play around with. Could add a sports bar that is open all the time and constantly making money. Maybe could look at a gym to tie in with the other hospitality services that are already there? Additional hotel or function room space? 

 

If the benefactors could help see something like this over the line, we'd see the club grow to an unprecedented level IMO. 

Expanded Wheatfield with the space on the pitch behind built on. Three storeys: High quality gym/health centre you could charge a big buck for membership; 5 a side covered pitches; and a bar.

 

No idea if any of these are financially viable or profitable!

[Finlay James]

3 hours ago, Lord Beni of Gorgie said:

Binge watching Kin at the moment, few ideas there

Involving Amanda hopefully 😍

[Snedescu]

Bring back the 50 / 50 club. 

[Jambo61]

4 hours ago, Jambomuzz said:

So with the completion of the Main Stand and the hotel, it got me thinking what other streams of revenue hearts could utilise. Is there anything stopping Hearts from looking beyond Tynecastle? Obviously a completely extreme example but for instance opening up a second hotel in Edinburgh somewhere? Just an example as something like this would obviously be a large investment. But what’s stopping hearts other than funds doing this or something else similar? 
Everything also needs to be balanced with investment to the playing squad. 
 

I think if there’s ever going to a be serious challenge then hearts need to find a way to close that financial gap in whatever way possible 

I always said they should have had a McDonalds or something under the Gorgie stand.  Steady income/ rent 24/7, shutters opening into the ground during matches. No brainer to me!

[stevie1874]

51 minutes ago, TommyC said:

Expanded Wheatfield with the space on the pitch behind built on. Three storeys: High quality gym/health centre you could charge a big buck for membership; 5 a side covered pitches; and a bar.

 

No idea if any of these are financially viable or profitable!

Think all parking in Gorgie & surrounding areas is permits now so a gym would not make money  unless a car park is available. Loads of good ideas here. Some sort of large fans bar or social club at Wheatfield would be great for before & after games. 1874 bar is not the greatest. 

[OTT]

1 hour ago, TommyC said:

Expanded Wheatfield with the space on the pitch behind built on. Three storeys: High quality gym/health centre you could charge a big buck for membership; 5 a side covered pitches; and a bar.

 

No idea if any of these are financially viable or profitable!

 

The really good thing here is that we have a board that have consistently made good business decisions. Delivering the mainstand was a good idea, delivering the Skyline Restaurant was a good idea, implementing the hotel was a good idea, opting for a charity sponsor for so has been a good idea, bringing the retail arm of the club back in house was a good idea - I'm struggling to think of any non-footballing decisions they've made that have been bad. Even stuff like the curry club was innovative. 

 

I'm impatient with stadium expansion because I don't want to be in this never ending slugging match with Hibs & Aberdeen (and others) for 3rd. I want to see us begin to pull away and truly become the 3rd force in Scottish football. You get a stadium that is 25k+ in capacity and you have more money than 9 other clubs by a country mile, and I think it becomes its own pitch when competing with these clubs for players. 

[maltese jambo]

3 hours ago, BelgeJambo said:

****ing annoying every time I fly in and out of Edinburgh and see Weegie shite on sale.  Heart’s/Hibs/Edinburgh Rugby/SRU could do a joint venture perhaps

Yes absolutely agree. JD sports parading old firm garbage at Edinburghs Airport is shameful. There should be an Edinburgh shop (like there's a Glasgow shop in Glasgow airport...which is awful btw) and it should involve Hearts and Hibs

[maltese jambo]

I think there's some simple things that can be done to improve match day experience.

 

Hardly any food/drink options last time I was at a game. Had to wait ages in a queue to be then told there was nothing left. Ridiculously bad. Need more vendors and a larger variety around the stadium.

 

I think with the fan ownership, feel good factor, and money pouring into the club I would love to see us capitalise and really pull away from the other clubs in terms of turnover.

 

Think a shop at the airport as some sort of joint venture is a great idea.

[SkabalaJam]

Hearts Celtic DVD

[chrisyboy7]

5 hours ago, RudiSkacelsLeftPeg said:

Increasing Tynecastle capacity again to make it the third biggest stadium in Scotland would be a massive move. Not sure what are options are or even if it’s a realistic one given we just increased it not so long ago however would be a massive step if we could start attracting crowds of 20/25k consistently which would hopefully see us pull away from the rest in terms of revenue. 

This

[Devorgilla]

What happened to the half time draw?  Presumably ended because of Covid?  Unlikely  to make a huge difference but would have thought every little counts, although I think the proceeds went towards youth development?

[Nelly Terraces]

Rip off some Lithuanian pensioners.

 

Oh hold on, we've tried that one before...

[johnking123]

1 hour ago, stevie1874 said:

Think all parking in Gorgie & surrounding areas is permits now so a gym would not make money  unless a car park is available. Loads of good ideas here. Some sort of large fans bar or social club at Wheatfield would be great for before & after games. 1874 bar is not the greatest. 

Make car park on ground floor. Would make money on game days. We need to start asking or make sure we are front of the cue for the pitch and warehouses.

[Rocky jamboa]

5 hours ago, 1971fozzy said:

we used to have shooed I’m sure at the gyle and st James from memory.  They shut down quickly as they weren’t money makers and especially in the eras they were open.  Our club shop is probably just fine

Pop up shops at lucrative times are likely more cost effective, such as the one we had at St James quarter over Xmas. 

 

I can't see us shifting enough gear to make a permanent shop worthwhile. 

[OTT]

1 hour ago, maltese jambo said:

Yes absolutely agree. JD sports parading old firm garbage at Edinburghs Airport is shameful. There should be an Edinburgh shop (like there's a Glasgow shop in Glasgow airport...which is awful btw) and it should involve Hearts and Hibs

 

Completely agree with this.

 

Hearts and Hibs should be clubbing together to try and chase any hint of the OF out of Edinburgh. Its to neither sides advantage to have this sort of shit happening, and whilst we can't dictate what JD sports sells, we can try and make ourselves every bit as visable within Edinburgh. Maybe putting a big emphasis on us being EDINBURGHs teams. Maybe even some tongue and cheek stuff too. 

[Section Q]

When I was in Prague a few years ago there was a Sparta shop selling their merchandise in the old part of the city. Lots of tourists buying stuff. Nothing like the shop that Vlad put in the St James. 

[chrisyboy7]

Add 5-7K seats  another supporters bar and encourage thousands more to sign up for FOH

[RobNox]

10 hours ago, section s heart said:

Establishing the hotel will be made easier by having a large group of fans as potential customers, and making it profitable is helped by not having a loan or rental cost to service. A second hotel might work, but the impact of these might dilute the potential gains.

 

Agree that widening income streams should only be a good thing (as long as they are viable), and I'd imagine the board is looking at every angle. 

Correct, we are also utilising our existing catering facilities to service the hotel, so from a catering point of view, we are only incurring the incremental increase in catering staff costs.  I also agree with your second point, starting up a second hotel from scratch is just not going to give us the same return on capital, so it's a no from me.

[RobNox]

4 hours ago, Section Q said:

When I was in Prague a few years ago there was a Sparta shop selling their merchandise in the old part of the city. Lots of tourists buying stuff. Nothing like the shop that Vlad put in the St James. 

When I was in Prague many years ago, there was a Dukla Prague shop selling incredible numbers of away tops to British tourists.  If only Half Man Half Biscuit had released a song called All I Want For Christmas is a Heart of Midlothian Away Top..  

[RobNox]

9 hours ago, Drylaw Hearts said:

Quickest and most lucrative way to increase revenue is to focus on scouting players to sign and sell on at big profits.

 

That and developing young talent through our Academy and actually managing to secure them on decent contracts that allows us to command big fees for them.  We're a football club, not a hotel or restaurant chain, concentrate on getting our core business right, which is football. 

[Section Q]

10 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

Do any other stadiums have protruding police control rooms? Considering how little they actually do, as last Wednesday showed, was there really any need to have restricted view seats because of this?

This.....

Police control room could be outside the ground. Monitoring cctv doesn't need a room with a view.

[OBE]

Hearts Euromillions Lottery Club, "it could be us", National Lottery is dug meat...3 mill meh!

 

We do get extremely lucky, now and again...

[Seymour M Hersh]

We could have harnessed the steam coming off Lennon and Brenda on Sunday to generate power for the Hotel for a week or so. 

[biffa12]

Solar panels on each stand roof - sell the power back to the Grid after using what we need for hotel, match days etc 

[Shooter McGavin]

We just need to steal more poppy tins.

 

In all seriousness, safe standing can in some cases increase capacity. Not sure if that would be the case for us, but a bit of fag packet maths here.

 

Say the width of a safe standing seat is 5cm shorter than a seat at the moment. Across a row of 28 seats, that could create 140cm of additional space at the end of the row, allowing for maybe another 2 seats.

 

Again, I don’t think it did much to the capacity at Killie or Celtic park, but it is sold as potentially increasing capacity, I’ve no doubt the club will be checking that.

[Howdy Doody Jambo]

If we have a season ticket waiting list of 3 to 4 thousand that is your additional income streams, we must increase capacity of the stadium the future generations of which could develop would give you a return  within a few years, the most important thing is having an attacking winning team on the park and money will follow 

[i8hibsh]

It has to be player sales. All the great things done so far are just that - great, the revenue from hospitality however is a fraction of what good player sales can be.

 

Improve our entire youth structure and our scouting network and the rewards could be endless.

 

It quite simply has to all be about the football now.

[Batistuta87]

15 hours ago, Benny Klack said:

What stuff are you after that we don’t do the now?

Nothing in particular to be honest mate I just think the stuff we sell now is horrible. That Oor Jambo stuff is embarrassing. We’ve had it for about 10y now and nobody buys it. Get rid of it. The fake lego bus. The drinks cups with the cheap printed badge in a variety of colours that are nothing to do with Hearts. The unbranded t-shirts and hoodies are crap. The kids teddies and stuff are just generic plushes with a Hearts badge stuck on them and then the price quadrupled. A Hearts measuring tape lol. There’s just so much low quality tat. 

 

[XB52]

3 hours ago, Section Q said:

This.....

Police control room could be outside the ground. Monitoring cctv doesn't need a room with a view.

The room holds electrical systems for the stadium. It's not just a room for the polis to sleep in

[I.T.K]

16 hours ago, Benny Klack said:

What stuff are you after that we don’t do the now?

 

Like all good fans I think he would love to buy 2019 postcard of Christoph Berra. 

 

https://heartsdirect.co.uk/products/player-postcard-berra 

 

 

[Gundermann]

17 hours ago, BelgeJambo said:

A bar below the Wheatfield

Shop at Airport or on Princes street if viable 

 

Yes.

 

Understand that airport shops aren't cheap but one there and/ or city centre would sell the club. 

[Pap]

Is there any actual plans for under the Wheatfield?

 

If theres not. Maybe it means they are looking to expand it.

 

Could sell a brick in the new Wheatfield stand for £500. Sell a 1000 and chuck it in towards building it.

[hughesie27]

14 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

Do any other stadiums have protruding police control rooms? Considering how little they actually do, as last Wednesday showed, was there really any need to have restricted view seats because of this?

Think the police box was required as part of planning permission back in the 90s. Bizarre they put it at that end instead of between the Home and away end.

 

[Section Q]

23 minutes ago, XB52 said:

The room holds electrical systems for the stadium. It's not just a room for the polis to sleep in

A whole room for cables.  . .  Wow. . . !

[We_are_the_Hearts]

4 minutes ago, hughesie27 said:

Think the police box was required as part of planning permission back in the 90s. Bizarre they put it at that end instead of between the Home and away end.

 

That was the away end up until that point