IAW needs more seats.
- Thread starter Gwynfor
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- Tags #venue problems #iaw #capacity #tickets
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Something will be done at some point if attendances remain so high, purely from a business perspective.
The owners investing will want/require growth as simple as.
The IAW is what it is, considering the circumstances and events preceding I don't think it can be considered a failure that the current capacity is the size it is.
The owners investing will want/require growth as simple as.
The IAW is what it is, considering the circumstances and events preceding I don't think it can be considered a failure that the current capacity is the size it is.
I think the option of modifying the existing building will be too expensive & time consuming.
From a business perspective, once you've sold 2,800 (ish) season tickets, leaving your one away block, you have a guaranteed income level & less agro trying to sell tickets. If the budget has to go up, put prices up. Unless the ownership wants to make more profit out of the business, why do anything different.?
From a business perspective, once you've sold 2,800 (ish) season tickets, leaving your one away block, you have a guaranteed income level & less agro trying to sell tickets. If the budget has to go up, put prices up. Unless the ownership wants to make more profit out of the business, why do anything different.?
From my perspective, obviously the scarcity of tickets is exactly what we want. I would rather have 10% too much demand than 10% too much supply. There's a different atmosphere in the city and in the arena when you have people turned away. As others have mentioned, it also allows us more certainty in our budgeting when we are signing players in the off season. I don't think at this point that the market is big enough to start looking at expansion (even if we did have control over that). As I've said from the start, silverware is my first priority - not maximizing profit. With that being said, it's silverware over a very long period of time not just this year. In order for it to be sustainable, a profit needs to be made. No matter how many titles you win, it starts to get tiring if you're writing cheques every year!
More than anything, I'm just grateful for the fans in coming out and enjoying the Devils. There are no sure things in sports as our boys have proven over the past month but I'm grateful that our fans are there to support them through the good times and the tougher times. Lets us know we made the right decision.
More than anything, I'm just grateful for the fans in coming out and enjoying the Devils. There are no sure things in sports as our boys have proven over the past month but I'm grateful that our fans are there to support them through the good times and the tougher times. Lets us know we made the right decision.
I still think (H&S permitting) is a relatively inexpensive job to get some standing capacity up in the gantry. Could easily add a few grand into the coffers per game.
I shudder to think how many millions that Swansea has lost each season since being in the Premiership with their lack of ambition to expand the Liberty. Talk of it now, but it's now going to cost more to undertake and they've missed out on 5 years of revenue (which would have paid for that expansion by now) ! Also I know quite a few fans who lost interest as they could never get a ticket - do the Devils want that ?
The successful teams in most UK sports always seem to be those that ramp up their capacity. (Cardiff City excluded due to Tan's shirt color antics and alienation of the fan base!)
I shudder to think how many millions that Swansea has lost each season since being in the Premiership with their lack of ambition to expand the Liberty. Talk of it now, but it's now going to cost more to undertake and they've missed out on 5 years of revenue (which would have paid for that expansion by now) ! Also I know quite a few fans who lost interest as they could never get a ticket - do the Devils want that ?
The successful teams in most UK sports always seem to be those that ramp up their capacity. (Cardiff City excluded due to Tan's shirt color antics and alienation of the fan base!)
Honestly I really don't think the Gantry is a possibility, it's a shallow view once you step away from the barrier and you only have room for about 2 deep without it being severely cramped.
Add in like Dave mentioned earlier in the thread all the electrics, piping etc that is up there and it simply isn't feasible for people to stand there, and there isn't really a lot that can be done to move anything up there because of all the electrical equipment (not the icetime stuff, the stuff that runs the rink)
Add in like Dave mentioned earlier in the thread all the electrics, piping etc that is up there and it simply isn't feasible for people to stand there, and there isn't really a lot that can be done to move anything up there because of all the electrical equipment (not the icetime stuff, the stuff that runs the rink)
Whilst I would love an expansion we also have to remember the facilities of IAW are already at breaking point.
Any expansion would have to factor in food and drink outlets which almost puts it out of the question, unless you take the roof off and do some sort of Cardiff City/Anfield bolt on extra tier, for about 1k seats on each side. But that would cost a fortune. It probably wouldn't be far off the cost of a new rink. Especially if it was a single pad.
The only easy option is standing at the back or a bar and barstool type seat set up. I'm not sure how health and safety would see it blocking a walkway but I imagine that seeing as the upper walkway isn't a fire escape if should be too much of an issue. Something like this:
Any expansion would have to factor in food and drink outlets which almost puts it out of the question, unless you take the roof off and do some sort of Cardiff City/Anfield bolt on extra tier, for about 1k seats on each side. But that would cost a fortune. It probably wouldn't be far off the cost of a new rink. Especially if it was a single pad.
The only easy option is standing at the back or a bar and barstool type seat set up. I'm not sure how health and safety would see it blocking a walkway but I imagine that seeing as the upper walkway isn't a fire escape if should be too much of an issue. Something like this:
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Public buildings have to account for amenities, toilets per head, actual physical space in the building for safe movement of people in normal operation, add extra for unsafe situations.
The upper walk way acts as an emergency route, it does not need exits on it, but allows max capacity if lower routes become blocked. That is why the photo depicts a much wider space, to account for the seating, IAW has not factored seating into that area, because the arena has not factored extra capacity into the design.
The metal work of the structure was not factored for added load that would be required to increase capacity, raise roof etc etc.
It's an arena for what it was designed for. The current capacity I'm afraid is all your going to get.
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The upper walk way acts as an emergency route, it does not need exits on it, but allows max capacity if lower routes become blocked. That is why the photo depicts a much wider space, to account for the seating, IAW has not factored seating into that area, because the arena has not factored extra capacity into the design.
The metal work of the structure was not factored for added load that would be required to increase capacity, raise roof etc etc.
It's an arena for what it was designed for. The current capacity I'm afraid is all your going to get.
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This may seem as though l am, but I don't want to start a hate campaign against SORAC, but some of the past needs to be addressed. I've taken this from the Inferno written on the thread "SORAC and the new rink" from 2010. I'm highlighting a past post, l obviously cannot quote the 40 odd pages involved in that discussion, but highlighting a past relevant thread that people may find interesting, quoting a very small part of the first announcement of that thread.
I'm not a fan of Planet Ice, again I'm not picking on SORAC for the decisions it made at the time it made them with the information they had, it's one of a group involved in getting the rink we have today.
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I'm not a fan of Planet Ice, again I'm not picking on SORAC for the decisions it made at the time it made them with the information they had, it's one of a group involved in getting the rink we have today.
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But SORAC wasn't concerned with getting the best deal for all ice users not just Cardiff Devils? Given where we are now a 6,000 capacity single pad rink might have worked for us but we can't have it all ways - we have an excellent facility that we pay no rent to use and which is far superior than WNIR and gives increased ice availability for all users.
Lets not try and run before we can walk. If we get to a point where we have filled it regularly for a couple of years and have around 80% of capacity as season tickets then we should be looking at further expansion. Devils are doing well at the moment and there is a huge novelty factor about the IAW. Let's see what happens if we have a serious dip in form and after the novelty wears off before start demanding huge increases in capacity.
Lets not try and run before we can walk. If we get to a point where we have filled it regularly for a couple of years and have around 80% of capacity as season tickets then we should be looking at further expansion. Devils are doing well at the moment and there is a huge novelty factor about the IAW. Let's see what happens if we have a serious dip in form and after the novelty wears off before start demanding huge increases in capacity.
I'll jump in as the third person who spends game nights on the gantry. It's simply not an option. All the ducting for the environmental control run near the length of the thing and could not be re-routed. It was designed for exactly what it's being used for, and it's being very well used.
If you could (you can't) substitute the current setup for standing, can I ask where you would suggest the entire webcast production, cameraman, sports analysis team and match night production setups would live? They wouldn't all fit in the DJ room
It's fantastic to be selling out and I'm not being negative about ideas, but there is a reason the gentry isn't public access - because there's very little space, broken sightlines (due to the metal upright beams), and a huge amount of ice / temperature / electrical plant up there.
If you could (you can't) substitute the current setup for standing, can I ask where you would suggest the entire webcast production, cameraman, sports analysis team and match night production setups would live? They wouldn't all fit in the DJ room
It's fantastic to be selling out and I'm not being negative about ideas, but there is a reason the gentry isn't public access - because there's very little space, broken sightlines (due to the metal upright beams), and a huge amount of ice / temperature / electrical plant up there.
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