The ‘huge ongoing issue’ massively impacting Portsmouth with stadium under spotlight
Pompey have sold 14,700 season tickets for the 2025-26 Championship campaign - and demand for a Fratton Park seat is on the rise.
Pompey have to expand Fratton Park if they want to decrease the ever-growing wait for a season-ticket.
That’s the verdict of The News’ chief sports writer Neil Allen, who has reiterated the need to grow the Blues’ home once again to match supporter demand.
Ahead of the new 2025-26 Championship campaign, 14,700 season-tickets have been snapped up by fans after the first renewal period came to an end.
However, the club have confirmed there are 3,300 fans on the waiting list as demand to watch John Mousinho’s men grows.
The Blues, of course, can’t expand Fratton Park until they receive the results of the Fratton Station bridge feasibility study, which the club and a number of partners have funded.
That is expected to be published at the end of the year, with Pompey looking to redevelop the North Stand as the next part of their project.
And that remains a huge ongoing frustration for Pompey, according to Allen, as the need to expand becomes even clearer.
The huge issue impacting Pompey and Fratton Park redevelopment
Speaking on the latest episode of Pompey Talk, he said: ‘I was reading an article where Mark Catlin was delighted when saying they could hopefully get 11,000 - I think that was 2016 - and since then Pompey have long been capped at 15,000 season-ticket holders.It just shows how the fans have got on board with John Mousinho and the attendances have steadily been increasing.
‘Fratton Park holds more now than it did six, seven, eight years ago. The waiting list is the issue and it’s around 3,000. It’s a huge ongoing issue until Pompey manage to expand because it is preventing fans and a new generation of fans coming to Fratton Park and watching the team. It’s a big concern.
‘They won’t be moving, let’s get that out the way. Expansion. They talked about the North Stand for a while. We know it’s tied in with the developments around there.
‘The footbridge - I know people mock the footbridge - but it’s a totally legitimate factor in this, they’re currently exploring the feasibility studies of that. A number of commercial partners have funded that. That should be known by the end of this calendar year.
‘There’s a number of partners wanting to build on that area - not least Pompey who want to build a hotel, want to build residential flats and that’s going to fund for the North stand.
‘I know people say just build it but it’s not that simple unfortunately and you have to be realistic over the situation. That’s the crucial one the North Stand. That’s the only one they can extend but we’re still waiting, still dragging on, the waiting list is getting higher and higher and demand is increasing all the time.
‘The important thing was filling in the corners - one corner they can’t because the ambulance goes there but the issue is that it doesn't create many seats. They could do but it’s an ongoing problem.
‘There’s not getting around it, Pompey need to extend that North Stand. It’s just the time it’s taking because of external factors.
‘The feasibility studies are the next stage, which Pompey have partly funded with a number of partners so nothing's going to happen until that comes back. I know it’s frustrating but that’s the situation at the moment.
‘It is frustrating because there needs to be more fans coming to games, the potential is massive. Young kids want to start coming to the games but they can’t at the moment.
‘Fratton Park is getting 20,000 gates at the moment, it’s the highest home attendance in 57 years, It’s all there and it’s immensely frustrating but at the moment they’re waiting on other factors.’