I don't expect us to sell every ticket, and yes there are people I know who do stay away because they don't like the ground, because we haven't got cash turnstiles,and they dont want to be sitting in Row A seat number 3 of the West Stand. So yes more seats would equal more choice, but not necessarily bring much higher gates.
We are not "forced" to sell tickets at that premium price.....almost half the seats in the ground available to home fans are taken by season ticket holders, then add on the 200-300 complimentary tickets every game given to sponsors, associates, visiting team scouts etc etc, and you're left with around 3000 seats available on a "walk up" basis. From what i've seen most people purchase tickets in advance so actually only pay £22, the queues for collections are far bigger than the queues for cash sales.
Also the club does make a large number of tickets available to schools, youth teams etc. Commonly there are between 4 and 6 youth teams playing in the shootout, and tickets are made available to the kids for a fiver and its £15 for their parents. So we do already offer cheap tickets too. And yet still we only fill 76% of the seats available to home fans.
I agree with you that Sixfields is not the most welcoming place, I agree that capacity needs to be larger...i'd advocate 12000 to prepare for the Championship, and I agree that we need more room for visiting fans. I also agree that it doesn't appear that the current incumbents in the hot seat are "made of money" and will invest countless millions into the club.
It ain't that easy, there is no guaranteed return. If there was, they'd have done it by now!
Suggestions of unsustainable 'countless millions' being needed is not the only option, we could try going down the steady sustainable growth route, a smaller version of what the Saints rugby did, one section at a time, we could extend the South stand and 12 corperate boxes built into the shell soon followed by the restaurant and bars, nothing to luxurious but still giving the ground a more professional feel.
We, the football club of Northampton could be working with the council to help THEM to acheive planning permission to a developer in return for some financial help that goes directly into where it's needed.
There are several other ways to raise revenues enough to give us the little we require, so scaremongering with large sums doesnt help our continual demise and as doing nothing in fear that it may take a few years to build up our club is a very poor excuse.
KT and co need to show more ambition towards our club.