Why stadium expansion is a must for AFC Bournemouth

Add as preferred source on Google

While fortunes on the pitch have surprised and delighted AFC Bournemouth supporters in equal measure these past few seasons, a certain off-field issue is becoming a bone of contention. With a capacity of just over 11,000, the Vitality Stadium is comfortably the smallest ground in the Premier League. In fact, most weeks the attendance is lower than at all Championship games. Attracting fans through the turnstiles is not the problem. Demand has outstripped supply to the extent that every fixture this season could probably have sold out twice over. For a club that wants to become established in the top-flight, expanding the stadium is the next step.

Embed from Getty Images

Manager Eddie Howe recently admitted that he receives numerous letters on a weekly basis from disappointed supporters, who rarely get to see their beloved team in action. For each home fixture, roughly 3,000 seats are available to non-season-ticket holders. It is a mad scramble. The priority points system in operation is designed to give first choice to those who were regulars last season. While this is undoubtedly the fairest system and one that is replicated across the Premier League, one drawback is that it prevents new fans from purchasing tickets.
So meteoric has been Bournemouth’s rise through the divisions that the club has struggled to keep up off the pitch.

Some sympathy is needed here. When the dilapidated old Dean Court was demolished in 2001 to make way for a new, all-seater facility, nobody could have imagined that just 15 years later it would be considered unfit. For a club that historically attracted gates of around 5,000, the capacity seemed ample. Famously, the ground was built with only three permanent sides because of financial constraints. Even now, with the club basking in the wealthy glow of the Premier League, a temporary stand still sits at one end.

Embed from Getty Images

In November 2014, Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn remarked that stadium expansion was being treated as a matter of urgency, irrespective of whether the club reached the top-flight. But once the Cherries had sealed promotion last May, time had run out. Owner Maxim Demin bankrolled a state-of-the-art training pavilion as well as other mandatory improvements at a reported cost of £6 million, in order to meet Premier League guidelines. All remaining funds were entrusted to Howe to use in the transfer market. Given the daunting task ahead of him, it seemed a prudent approach and one that drew few complaints from supporters.

The landscape is different now, however. Although survival is still far from certain, Bournemouth have been more than competitive and are on course to retain their Premier League status. So now seems the ideal time to capitalise on the club’s rising profile by ensuring that next season, the ground is able to accommodate an ever-expanding fan base. But despite several rumours that have ranged from a new stadium altogether to a modest capacity increase, no official announcement has been issued. The longer this continues, the more the supporters worry that nothing will be in place for next season.

From a financial perspective, an additional 4,000 supporters will not generate a significant amount of extra revenue. Compared with the enormous income Premier League clubs receive from TV rights, ticket sales represent a drop in the ocean. But that is not a viable argument against expanding the stadium. As the recent row over ticket prices has underlined, supporters are the lifeblood of a football club. If Bournemouth’s powers-that-be choose not to address this pressing concern, they will be jeopardising the club’s future by alienating a new generation of fans. Now is the time to act. But so far, the silence from the club has been deafening.

Featured Image: All Rights Reserved by Pete_Dobson