Tony Stewart will give the go-ahead to stadium expansion
plans if Rotherham fans turn up in their numbers.
Increasing the capacity of New York Stadium has long been
mooted by the Millers chairman, with the design of the 2012 build allowing
quick and disruption-free contruction.
With the club set for a third year in the Championship and
demand expected to outweigh supply on a more regular basis given the size of
some of the visiting clubs, Stewart is keen to maximise profit.
However, the chairman is even more desperate to have his
hand forced by an increased number in season-ticket sales, citing 8,000 as the
magic number.
“It needs the home fans to put pressure on me. If we had
9,000 season-ticket-holders, we’d be digging already," Stewart said. "The
home and away followings work together. You’d be biting off your nose to spite your
face if you didn’t do it.
“It’s the home support that will lead this really. We need
more home support - and that support is growing - to hit the magic button - 8,000 season tickets would be the trigger.
"Next season, we have Newcastle coming down from the
Premier League, and there are other clubs with big support. If there are eight
or nine games where visiting teams want 5,000 tickets and we can give them only
2,500, then you start hitting the calculator.
“If you’re losing out on X number of pounds per game in
potential ticket sales, you work out how many games it would take to get that
initial £5-6million investment back. It doesn’t make business sense to miss out
on income."
