Monday, June 1, 2009

Manchester United to Expand Old Trafford

It has been announced that Manchester United are to expand Old Trafford by an additional 20,000 seats raising the max attendance to 95,000. This number is bigger than Wembley maximum attendance! Currently a full house at a United home game brings in an estimated $3.7 million revenue, with the increase adding an extra $800,000. According to reports, it was Alex Ferguson who pushed the idea on the Glazer's stating a desire to add cheaper, more affordable seating for fans.

With the current Premier League Averages, only Arsenal and Newcastle would have over half the attendance of United, with Arsenal averaging 60,000 and Newcastle at 48,750. Yes thats right, the only teams to have half of Uniteds! What this essentially means is that United would be pulling in over double the revenue of 85% of the Premier League every home game. This relates into over $25 million dollars more per season in generated revenue, essentially a big money signing! One of the key issues to this is whether it will encourage other teams to follow suit. Liverpool in particular are set to move from their Anfield home in a quest to catch up on United. Chelsea are another team that might need to soon make a transition.

2009 Premier League Average Attendance Numbers:

TeamPldTotalHighestAverageCapacity
Pct
1Manchester United (1)191430776755697530476212
98.8%
2Arsenal (4)191140754601096004060432
99.3%
3Newcastle United (18)19926244521144875052387
93.0%
4Liverpool (2)19828610444244361145362
96.1%
5Manchester City (10)19820075473314316248000
89.9%
6Chelsea (3)19790172434174158842055
98.8%
7Sunderland (16)19763098479364016349000
81.9%
8Aston Villa (6)19756422425853981242551
93.5%
9Tottenham Hotspur (8)19682645361833592936310
98.9%
10Everton (5)19677679395743566740394
88.2%
11West Ham United (9)19650307408423422735647
96.0%
12Middlesbrough (19)19540144337672842935100
80.9%
13Stoke City (12)19512242275002696028384
94.9%
14West Bromwich Albion (20)19490726263442582828003
92.2%
15Hull City (17)19471507249452481625404
97.6%
16Fulham (7)19462462256612434026600
91.5%
17Blackburn Rovers (15)19446146283892348131367
74.8%
18Bolton Wanderers (13)19427228260212248628723
78.2%
19Portsmouth (14)19376762205401983020688
95.8%
20Wigan Athletic (11)19348656229541835025138
72.9%

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