Lets face it, Southampton is having it's best start to a season in living memory, and we can't fill out the stadium now. If you are suggesting we will fill it out once we are in the Premiership do we want those plastic fans. The standard of the competition in the Championship and our run should be enough to fill the stadium now. Maybe the finacial downturn is playing a big part. I think there is not any real justification to expand the stadium now. Maybe if we survive in the Premier for a couple of seasons and selling out during that time.
Ask Cortese if he'd like plastic fans buying tickets at SMS...he'd bite their hands off. Remember everyone comes to their first game sometime....is that a can of worms I can hear being opened
Yep, in one sense that's true. But The Dell held 30,000 standing, and occasionally made that number. I can still remember the crush of 1969 when ManU cam by, and 31,044 squeezed in. Thing is, standing or seated, the capacity is roughly the same, and that means not actually progressing in 31 years [when SMS was built]. Saintjack was right. The sums were superb back then - £32M for 32K. Should have built the 40 to 45K stadium there and then. But there you go. SMS is a lovely stadium, there is no doubt. Even at 32,683.
I can't see it for a decade at least and it all depends on where we are in ten years time. Let's not get ahead ourselves though, we are doing well in the Championship and look to have the attributes to win promotion but the difference between winning promotion and surviving the Premiership is vast. So many examples in Premiership history I wouldn't even know where to start. Cortese isn't going to look into expanding the stadium until we are an established Premier League outfit and SMS is selling out regularly. Our stadium is quality and we are lucky to have it. Anyone at the Walsall game at the end of last season will know what I mean when I say this, but the atmosphere is as good as anywhere. How many times did SMS sell out last season? I know we were in League One but still...
I'm also sure that nothing will happen for at least a decade and then only if the numbers are right. NC has to learn not to make throwaway remarks...we analyze them to death, polish them until they sparkle, and then claim they're set in stone.
Many of you forgetting Saints at St Mary's in all four seasons in the Premier League between 2001 and 2005 averaged 30k+. Many games sold out long before matchday and supply couldn't meet demand often. Should the club return to the top flight these problems will return unless the club expands St Mary's. Something which Cortese has on a number of occasions now mentioned to be in the Cortese/Liebherr plan.
I'd rather they expand the stadium to give the exisiting supporters more room, not the johnny come latelys. Compared to the Emirates, Wembley and the new Brighton stadium, the seats at SMS are crammed into the minimum allowed space between rows. I reckon if Cortese was to ever do anything with SMS it would be to flatten it, totally rebuild a multi-purpose stadium with roof and probably try to buy the surrounding land to get shot of the gasometers (unlikely) and the sand/gravel works across the road (possible) so that any new stadium would be right alongside the waterfront to maximise earning potential on non-match/event days. I think indoor stadiums will be the norm in a few years time, the cost of retractable roofs is reducing with different engineering solutions and even the fixed roofs like in the New Zealand rugby stadium that England used are also now workable with a natural grass pitch. (although more and more pitches are now 50/50 natural/artificial grass)
I think he should open a station on matchdays with a special branchline to pick up from the ferries. When we arrive we should be greeted by waiters plying us with beer/wine/champagne and snacks. Each wide padded seat should have a cup-holder and a tv screen so we can watch replays (but only those that favour us). Bit far fetch but, hey, I'm happy on pain killers.
i think it will be a few years away tbh, with the economic pressures there are many fans - plastic or not - that dont attend as much as they did a few years ago, not only due to relegation. but as was said earlier, £32m for 32k stadium was cheap as chips when you think about it - hindsight is a wonderful thing but it certainly seems like an opportunity missed. either way i heard rumblings a while ago that cortese is buying up any land around the stadium that becomes available to put in place for a St Marys regeneration project - including the business park warehouses that surround it, whenever a property becomes available i hear we are the ones buying it. if this is true then i imagine a complete refresh wouldnt be out of the question. of course we all know the don has his business hat on at all times and he wouldnt make a massive decision like this unless we were probably stable in the prem. one thing i am surprised we dont see anymore is SMS used for gig's - surely this was a great earner in the off season and with the location we have a bigger stadium could really pull in big names, and therefore big money.
The industrial park to the South is owned by the City Council, who then lease it out. Centrica (British Gas) own the Gasometers and I think they are in their long term plan as it's clearly next to impossible to build new ones of those anywhere these days because too many people would object. The Wharfs are privately owned, but while the aggregate imports continue, I think they'll stay put. There was a possiblity of them moving to Dibden Bay Container port if that got built, but no sign of that happening in our life-times. So, I doubt the club is buying up surrounding land now, unless its the little bits and pieces land like the flats and car dealership opposite the ticket office which are in an odd place anyway (although they always remind me of the Dell and the car dealership in Milton Road and the old Saints travel club office on the corner of Wilton Avenue)
Not being familiar with Southampton, I only knew the St Mary's area after we moved there. I looked at it's proximity to the centre and front and said to my friend (Southampton born) this is the place to buy property. She replied that it was a dump. But it was obviously an up and coming area and had some tatty squares with original houses which could be gentrified. Renovated it could be an asset to the city. The development around Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth is so attractive..Southampton could do with a similar waterfront development with a marina to draw the crowds. Parts of Southampton are lovely but a bit spread out. Hope the Leihberr's don't move us out of the City though and totally develop the area around SMS. Might be more convenient for fans from outside the city, but purely selfishly I like it where it is.
The stadium land before Saints took it over was never going to be used for anything. The City council knew this and it was all part of the trade-off to keep the stadium idea alive after the Stoneham debacle, plus the council were able to keep the club within it's boundaries, plus breath some life into a decaying part of town... plus make some money by selling land that would otherwise still be empty right now. I believe there was toxic waste issues regarding the land, that Saints had to pay a lot to get cleared... plus they had to pay to move some of the gas pipelines and electrical substations on site.... plus, everyone knew it was the original roman/saxon location for the first settlement in the area, meaning whoever was going to build on that land, would have to spend a year and lots of money digging up all the artifacts and doing a full archeology survey, which is what Saints ended up doing (because they had to).
I'm pretty sure I've read an article, in the last 3 years, where there were ideas for expansion, renovation and renewal, in Southampton, where the Liebherr name was mentioned. And not just in hiring a load of big trucks and cranes either. BTW Peeps, just in case anyone hasn't thought... oh yeah..! We are now owned by the crane and truck Liebherrs, who presumably own the Mali group too. In the past 3 years, I don't how many posters would mention that we were owned by the crane and truck Liebherrs [the family], when we had no connection with them, and some pedant [me occasionally] would point out that we weren't owned by them. But now they're right and us pedants are right too. Together as one..?
One sword, that apparently wasn't that special or unique. So really worth the £1m and one year spent digging. There were rumours they found a dark, twisted and evil monster buried deep deep down, but would never have been competition for Rupert anyway.
Just to finish from my previous post... So, whenever you're on holiday, or just out and about, or even that you see a truck or a crane on TV bearing the name Liebherr, you can now truthfully say... that us..!
I had rather hoped that we'd pass privately to ML's daughter so that she wouldn't sell us out of sentiment.
Oh, when you're as rich as that family, Saints are little more than petty cash. And besides, if SFC breaks even, or makes a profit, it hasn't cost them anything. I don't think they'll be selling for many, many years. I've also a sneaky feeling that Nicola is going to be around for donkey's years, so nothing, off the field, is going to happen to break the spell.
i have no idea about the rest of the Liebherr family but im sure alot of us would keep your fathers dream that he only just began running - especially if money isnt really an object and its not like were draining the coffers like man city - and especially when it brought him so much joy - and to others. also the Nicola connection makes me think they wont go for a long long time.
