Claim made on Norwich City expanding Carrow Road - there is some fan unrest right now | OneFootball

FLW's Norwich City fan pundit has debated a potential expansion of Carrow Road

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Norwich City's fanbase has become known as one of the Championship's most loyal, with the Canaries' historic stadium of Carrow Road often full to the brim, regardless of the club's divisional status.

The Yellows' recent history has certainly had its fair share of great highs and lows, with Norwich being a Premier League club as recently as May 2022, whilst it was only 15 years ago that the club were promoted from League One after an initially disastrous plight from the top flight into the third tier.

For many visiting supporters, Carrow Road often gains mixed reviews, with facilities surrounding the stadium and inside the concourse fairly average - like most stadiums of Norwich's divisional rivals - whilst also having a respectably solid atmosphere which can either improve or dip depending on opposition or the Canaries' own predicament, be it fighting for promotion back to the Premier League or succumbing to a drab mid-table finish, as has been the case in two of the past three seasons.

Regardless, with a current capacity of 27,244, it sits bang in mid-table when it comes to stadium size in this season's Championship.

With that being said, Football League World quizzed our resident Norwich City fan pundit, Zeke Downes, whether a potential expansion or new stadium would be the best way for the club to move forward.

Ironically, this comes at a time when the East Anglian outfit have just confirmed planned phases of development in a bid to improve the overall matchday experience at Carrow Road.

This will include the construction of a new 'fan zone' behind the vociferous Barclay Stand, as well as changes to the facades of the South Stand and Regency Security Stands, the latter of which will also house visiting supporters in its lower tier, meaning supporters currently in this section and surrounding sections of the South Stand will see their season tickets relocated.

As such, Downes has referenced the controversy this has caused among sections of Norwich supporters, whilst believing that an overall expansion is only likely to occur should the club return to the Premier League.

"Obviously, we've seen at the moment, they are hoping to improve the stadium ready for next season," Downes referenced. "It's caused a bit of uproar. But, to be fair, I feel like everything would at this point.

"With how we're playing on the pitch, any sort of announcement would be taken in a negative way. The only issue I have with it is that they're going to move fans as the away supporters are being relocated to the lower part of the Regency Security Stand instead of where they are, which feels a bit odd.

"That's meant that some of the people sitting there have moved, and they've been there for maybe 15, 20 years or more. So, it's not been taken very well," he explained.

"I'd say the only way we could expand the stadium is if we're in the Premier League," Downes added. "I don't think there's any point in doing it at this point.

"There's obviously room to expand. One of the tiers is smaller than the others, so there would be a point you could see another added on top of those to maybe add 5,000 seats. We would probably fill that.

"I know there's a bit of unrest at this point, but Norwich fans have always turned up, and they always will," our fan pundit claimed. "Even in League One, we were getting attendances in the 20,000's. If we added another tier, I reckon we would fill it, and it would put the capacity to around 32,000, maybe a little bit more.

"That's probably what we would need as a club like us. But, I can't see it happening at this point. I know there's been talk of it in the past, but it kind of depends on how we're doing on the pitch.

"I can't imagine the Attanasio's wouldn't want to expand in the near future," Downes concluded.

Norwich City could improve multiple club facets with Carrow Road expansion

As Downes alluded to, it remains to be seen if the club were to expand the stadium's capacity on top of their recent plans.

However, as is often cited when an expansion or stadium move is mooted, doing so often allows more revenue to be generated which, subsequently, can be utilised within the club's transfer kitty or wage bill in order to entice high-profile or high-quality players to the club, which would be a statement of intent regarding short and long-term ambition.

At present, Norwich's average attendance of 25,942 is the ninth-highest in the division, but that is clearly a positive when it trumps the position of Carrow Road when it comes to overall capacity.

Due to modern outlooks, it wouldn't be surprising if expansion plans were met with uproar. However, if the values of the club and the atmosphere generated at Carrow Road were at the forefront of such a hypothetical scenario, the chances of controversy would be significantly lessened.