Planet Swans ArchivesThere is no doubt that the lack of expansion has been a huge missed opportunity for the club with a generation of Swans fans not able to get the hands on the tickets that they want week in week out.
I was fortunate enough to grow up in the glory years of the Toshack era and – like many for that time – it created a bug and a passion for the football club that has never disappeared. And we have had that same opportunity to create the same again but have been unable to do it.
If you take a look around Swansea and the surrounding areas these days then you have more and more Swansea shirts and merchandise being worn by youngsters but you know that a very large proportion of them cannot get into see games.
And you just know that what that means is that any fall from the Premier League could see those shirts being replaced very easily by the red of Manchester United or Liverpool and the blue of Manchester City or Chelsea. We have to avoid that to never have a complete lost opportunity.
Getting extra seats inside the stadium is one sure way to help that being avoided. People come to watch football and – as we all know too well – if they pick up the bug then they come back time and time again, year after year.
So it is always pleasing to hear the noises that stadium expansion could happen and the words of the new owners yesterday when they said “That is one of the things that is top of our list.
“We just came from a meeting having that discussion about what’s the best opportunity for us to grow the stadium, so more of our fans have the opportunity to witness the incredible action live.
“We are going to spend some time really figuring out what is the right path for us to take.
“There’s a real laser focus on having a great fan experience and, if we’re going to improve the fan experience, we want to do it for more fans.
“Getting more people in this building also helps us with our competitiveness. We think that gives us a competitive edge when other clubs come here and it’s something of a hostile atmosphere.”
If you avoid the ‘Americanisms’ in the statement then it sounds positive news but we need to remember that we have heard the same positive news for several years now and still we sit in a stadium that just holds 21,000.
The key to this now is action and if the words can be followed up with actions then it will be for the best of Swansea CIty – or at least it should be.
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