The Fulham Future...

[zzamora]

I can see that if we are still in the premier league by 2016 Al-Fayed will start to seriously consider building a new stadium.

I would personally like a 30,000 seater, which like a key distinguishing feature (ie something like a wembley arch). I do not want a boring bowl like the emirates

[SHADY1]

We'd not leave the cottage for an extra 5000 seats ... he could just put prices up a bit and save all the hassle ..If we ever go it will be for 40.000 min ... & that WON'T Happen ..i'd rather drop a division .. and lose 4 000 tourists .. and 2000 fair weather fans so we'll all be sitting comfortably by the river..

[mike_f]

Fulham is nothing without the Cottage. One of the few great stadiums in England.

[clint23]

Fulham is nothing without the Cottage. One of the few great stadiums in England.

+1

[SHADY1]

lets be honest the blue lot have an owner worth 100 times ours and they have easily an extra 15000 fans to draw on per game ... if they haven't moved we certainly wont... and if they did thats the only move i could every see happening us to the bridge. And hard as it would be I'd settle for that ahead of sharing with QPR out of the borough..

[Bilet]

Never leave Craven Cottage. It can easily be built to a 30 000-stadium and we will never need more. I will rather fight for relegation every season than be playing at some ground that have no soul or history about it.

Why do someone think that a large ground is the route to success? 10 years ago it was nothing like this.

[Peabody]

Agree with everyone else plus if we did ever go for a new stadium, where would you build it? There is certainley no available space in Fulham.

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

never going to happen,we are Craven Cottage,Craven Cottage is us

[MJG]

4000 extra seats at the moment would not generate enough income apart from maybe 4 or 5 games a season to warrent the outlay on fitting them in to an already crowded space.

[White Noise]

The extra seats don't generate that much more oney relative to the clubs income as a whole. There will always be clubs that make more than us and you just learn to get on with it.

We won't stay in the top flight indefinitely so we need to keep the club lean and flexible and not have a huge white elephant of a ground. We can definitely get 34,000-35,000 capacity at The Cottage if we want it but its importnat to retain the charatcer of the ground.

My hope is that we can establish a first rate youth set-up and a reputation for being a good club to go to progress through the youth and professional ranks. Also that we retain and enhance our profile as a friendly, family focussed club that values its history and tradition. If we can stay in the top flight for another 10-15 years we should establish a decent size of core support that will sustain us when we drop down a division. But, ultimately, I guess I just hope there is a club around for my kids and theirs to support.

[JBH]

Considering Blackburn only had about 1500 fans at the Cottage it seems that our fan base is growing as each season passes, I think another 2000 seats would still see us sell out the home areas on a regular basis and if the club can do it so that we have a larger home area in the Putney then even better.

[MJG]

Considering Blackburn only had about 1500 fans at the Cottage it seems that our fan base is growing as each season passes, I think another 2000 seats would still see us sell out the home areas on a regular basis and if the club can do it so that we have a larger home area in the Putney then even better.

The putney end on Saturday was full of kids as it was fulham kids day or something like that. Fulham did well for an unattractive game to fill it up, but if the tickets were full price and no special offers we would have had maybe 20/21K.
Supply and demand and at the moment the demand is not there to expand.

[JBH]

Considering Blackburn only had about 1500 fans at the Cottage it seems that our fan base is growing as each season passes, I think another 2000 seats would still see us sell out the home areas on a regular basis and if the club can do it so that we have a larger home area in the Putney then even better.

The putney end on Saturday was full of kids as it was fulham kids day or something like that. Fulham did well for an unattractive game to fill it up, but if the tickets were full price and no special offers we would have had maybe 20/21K.
Supply and demand and at the moment the demand is not there to expand.

And if the club market the prices to attract parents to bring the kids then all well and good, after all they are the future suporters on FFC

[MJG]

Considering Blackburn only had about 1500 fans at the Cottage it seems that our fan base is growing as each season passes, I think another 2000 seats would still see us sell out the home areas on a regular basis and if the club can do it so that we have a larger home area in the Putney then even better.

The putney end on Saturday was full of kids as it was fulham kids day or something like that. Fulham did well for an unattractive game to fill it up, but if the tickets were full price and no special offers we would have had maybe 20/21K.
Supply and demand and at the moment the demand is not there to expand.

And if the club market the prices to attract parents to bring the kids then all well and good, after all they are the future suporters on FFC

I don't disagree with that, we lost a generation of young fans during the dark days and its good to see youngsters at games, but I go back to the point that we are still not selling out most games without offers.
At the meeting I went to last year with AM he made it clear that he felt our prices were still low hence the ST price hikes in the riverside.

[White Noise]

Fulham set to sign Israeli kid Altman after midfielder's trials with Liverpool and Arsenal


By Sportsmail Reporter


Last updated at 9:18 PM on 7th March 2011


Fulham look set to win the battle for Israeli midfielder Omri Altman.

The 16-year-old from Maccabi Tel Aviv had trials with Liverpool and Arsenal last year.

Meanwhile Millwall have signed Tottenham winger Andros Townsend, 19, on loan for the rest of the season, while Crystal Palace are to sign midfielder Kemy Agustien from Swansea on loan.


Coup: Fulham manager Mark Hughes is set to sign Omri Altman


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1363952/Fulham-set-sign-Omri-Altman-trials-Liverpool-Arsenal.html#ixzz1FxAYIzo7

[White Noise]

The above is an interesting illustration of where we have got to with the youth set-up. We are attracting young players of significant quality in competition with the leargest clubs in the country.

On the 'lost generation' point I think messageboards like this give one formk of insight into the true number of supporters a club has. OK, its a very rough measure and some clubs only have one decent messageboard whereas numbers for others can be spread across several but you looks at boards for clubs even two divisions down and they are many times busier than any of our are.

We have over 17,000 ST holders now but I am not sure that we would retain more than 12,000 if we went down. I think a lot of people at our home games are still 'passive' fans and could easily be persuaded to stop going or switch allegiance but we are building the real numbers steadily. We just started from a pretty small base 13 years ago.

[MJG]

One of the plus points of fulham is after last season we have a good reputation in Europe and also we r in London which will appeal to foreign young players.
But being in London is also a down side with regards fans, just too much competition.

[NogoodBoyo]

I used to work in advertising.  Some of my contacts tell me many people in that industry and in the City buy season tickets at Fulham, not because they support the club but because it's the only way and the cheapest way to see premier league football in London.
Our core base of foul-weather supporters is probably somewhere between 6,000-12,000.  But, the longer we stay up, the more we will convert.  And sometime we will will a cup or two.
Nogood "crunching numbers, isit" Boyo

[b+w geezer]

The extra seats don't generate that much more money relative to the clubs income as a whole. There will always be clubs that make more than us and you just learn to get on with it.

We won't stay in the top flight indefinitely so we need to keep the club lean and flexible and not have a huge white elephant of a ground. We can definitely get 34,000-35,000 capacity at The Cottage if we want it but its important to retain the character of the ground.

I believe 34k would be a tall order, raising many logistical, planning and financial issues, and therefore unlikely to be attempted, not least for the reason you give at the start. As per your second sentence, our relative position as a club would also barely differ whether we had 28k, 30k or 34k capacity. Your relegation/white elephant point is also sound.

The bean-counters would surely reckon ground developmental money to be best applied not in pursuit of maximised seat numbers so much as boosting the capacity for premium seats and corporate stuff, particularly in areas within sight of the river. That unparalleled location is under-exploited.

[MikeR]

The extra seats don't generate that much more money relative to the clubs income as a whole.

That's the real issue.

Assume 5,000 more seats all sold to ST ticket holders at a net profit of about £200 per season (assuming the construction costs are paid off over a long period). That equals £1,000,000 per season, which is roughly what the club gets in merit pay for each place higher we finish in the premier league. The math just doesn't work. And that's not taking into account the supporter outrage MAF would elicit if he tried to build a new stadium or tear down CC.