Is a new stadium a boon or a millstone? A look at ongoing PL ground improvements

by Tony Attwood

At the moment there are a lot of people denouncing the Kroenke family who own Arsenal, just as for quite a while there were people around who denounced Mr Wenger for not giving Arsenal more than three FA Cup triumphs since moving to the new stadium.

And the angst among some Arsenal fans seems to be growing because Tottenham finally broke the long sequence of seasons in which they came below Arsenal in the league.

So now we come to the next step in the saga.   Tottenham’s rebuilt ground finally opened in 2019, with much pazzazz and celebration, although also with an awareness that the Tottenham home crowd figures for 2018/19 were dramatically down on those of the previous year.   (Figures from European Football Statistics).

Arsenal’s crowds (or for those who worry about the number of no-shows, the number of tickets sold) were up last season by 1%, while Tottenham’s were down last season by 20.2%.   The Tottenham decline was probably partly because of the uncertainty over the ultimate opening date of New White Hart Lane, partly because of a dislike of Wembley, partly because of the distance between Tottenham and the top two, and partly because Newhl is smaller than Wembley.

So we wait and see what will happen to them in the coming season: will they fill the ground and bounce back into second place for average home attendance?

Meanwhile Chelsea’s project of rebuilding their entire ground took a bit of a knock a year or so ago when the owner announced that the club had put the plans for a new stadium on hold.  Nothing seems to have happened since to change the view that the “on hold” position looks permanent, unless the government decides to give him his work visa back.

So I though it might be interesting to see who else is planning some stadium work, and consider once more what can happen when a new stadium is built.  Here I’m just looking at PL clubs, and trying to gather up the latest information.  If I have missed something, my apologies – I often do make mistakes, but do welcome corrections with details of the source of the information.

This interest in stadia has been a long running feature of Untold, since we first published the table on what has happened to clubs that move or rebuild.  Here’s a reprint of the table

*Plus three FA Cup wins.

Our conclusion was that mostly building a new stadium was bad for results, largely because of financial constraints and the psychological factor of enhanced expectation and player uncertainty.

Which leads on to the question: what clubs are currently undertaking some work on their grounds?

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace  have  permission to increase the capacity of Selhurst Park to over 34,000 by building a bigger a four tier Main Stand.  It was supposed to start this summer – although I can’t find anything on the internet to confirm that this is actually now ongoing.  If you have seen it happening please do let us know.

Bournemouth

AFC B said they were going to leave the tiny Dean Court ground and build a new 25,000 capacity stadium close by in Kings Park with detailed plans about to be announced.  Certainly plans for a new training centre have been announced in the local press, but is anything else happening on the new stadium?  The club did originally say they would be moved by August 2020 – so we should be seeing some signs now.  The last statement on the club site on the subject was posted in July 2017.

Everton

We had a lot of arguments on this site over the fact that Liverpool council were subsidizing the financing of a new Everton ground at Bramley Moore Dock, with Untold saying this was totally against EU regulations.  But since then, nothing.  No formal plans or proposals, and no application for planning permission, no clarification on the financing   But still a lot of up-talking on the club’s website

Meanwhile, at the latest new stadium – Newhl – the arguments never seem too far away.  After all the comments about why the ground slipped so very far behind schedule (you might recall our reporting of the coverage in the trade journal Construction News on the topic), the latest story is a report in the Observer about the level of fly-tipping in the area having a negative effect on the image of the new stadium.  The story is Tottenham are refusing to pay for a clean-up of the area.   One note reported by the Observer written after a meeting between Tottenham H and the council, says the club were “very dismissive as to the current state/appearance of Tottenham and implied that this was not an acceptable environment for their new stadium and supporters…. the comment adding“Spurs as you may be aware quite an aggressive operator. When the question of all the extra cleaning needed was raised and who would fund it, it was made very clear that it would not be paid for by Spurs.”

The Observer newspaper quoted Martin Bell as saying, “The attitude of Spurs beggars belief and is insulting to the people of Tottenham. The club has a legal and moral responsibility to ensure the area around their new stadium is kept clean because ultimately they are the ones who are really benefiting from it.”

As for Tottenham’s results at the new stadium, they have four wins, two defeats and a draw.  In the league that was three wins, one defeat and one draw.

Their total in the league for the season including the games at Newhl was 12 wins two draws and five defeats at home – a 63% win rate.  At the new stadium it was a 60% win rate.  Arsenal, for the record, had 14 wins three draws and two defeats at home.  A 74% win rate.