A bigger stadium would be great but what I dont get is yesterdays game was a sellout something like 31,500 tickets sold but the stadium capacity is 32,700? Why cant Saints start opening up more blocks of seats that are always empty between the away fans?
I expect Friday's attendance will be back around the 24-25,000 mark, so in that case, no, we don't need a bigger stadium and yesterday's game was not a sell out. It was still possible to get single seats right up to kick off. Atmosphere for Boxing day games has changed a lot over the years. Now it appears to be more of a family outing sort of mix of fans. Nothing against that, but atmosphere was a bit dead, although the game was comfortable and Palace fans were half asleep too.
Well Official Saints are useless then as they said that tickets for seats were sold out when I rang the ticket office! And also said that normal seats were sold out on the official saints facebook page! So I never went to the game!! They are pretty useless at communicating with us fans! Oh well will get down to the Bristol City game instead!
The home end sold out. Any empty seats in the home end were from people that brought tickets or were season ticket holders but didn't go. Palace didn't sell out the away end, plus there were seats taken up by segregation. Saints averaged over 30k every year at St Mary's in the Premier League, a huge number of games were sold out long in advance of the match. Should Saints return to the Premier League they could easily sell more than 32k for a number of games. - They had a 31k sell out in the home end on boxing day in the 2nd tier against Palace. - They had a 30k sell out on boxing day in the home end in the 3rd tier against Exeter. Imagine how many could be sold for a Boxing Day "local" game against Chelsea, Arsenal or Spurs.
Result was never really in doubt; I suspect that if Palace had scored, the atmosphere would have abruptly changed !!
Don't need a bigger stadium...yet. If the team makes the Premier League and survives the first season looking as if it could survive long-term, then you seriously consider expanding. Last thing the team needs at the moment is to commit significant resources to an expansion that, if we're stuck in the Championship (either by failing to go up this year, or going back down next) will only be filled a small fraction of the time. 32,000 is more than enough for the time being.
Takes a while to recoup the money from a stadium expansion...can't see it happening in the short term. It has to be paid for...the stadium won't be expanded just so a few fans aren't disappointed.
Trouble is, some footy fans can be rather fickle friends. We are breaking club records at home and most fans will never have had it so good, but we are only selling out fewer than half the games. Imagine we had a bad run of form, rather than the dip we have hopefully just finished. We don't need a bigger stadium. Yet.
I would judge, aside from a few people who remain against Him for various obscure reasons, that Cortese is pretty damn popular these days. Yet Saints are in the Championship and gunning for the Premier League, at this moment. It's early days, and occasionally Cortese talks about stadium expansion or a new stadium, new this, better that, Champions League, etc... I don't think for one second that this is idle talk, but rather entirely possible. Cortese is talking about turning Saints into a global brand, just like Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool, etc... The challenge for him [and this is one of the reasons why I think he striving to do it] is because it is so unlikely by the means of old. Traditionally, Saints are compromised, compared to other major clubs, simply because half of their catchment area is in the water. I bet it has crossed Cortese's mind, several times, that this coastal club manages to get 30,000+ people into the stadium, in the Championship, during tough financial times, and used to sell out regularly as a Premier League club that [let's be honest] made up the numbers. It doesn't take a genius to realise that you can regularly add 10,000 to that figure, given the opportunity. Plus, if a League One Saints can take over 50,000 people to Wembley, then a Premier League Saints, playing for higher stakes, just might be able to compete with, and beat the big clubs, and count on regular 40,000+ support, with a global audience looking on. I think Cortese is on a bit of a mission to show that, by the right means, Saints can be as big as the other major teams. He'll just go about it the right way. Stadium expansion..? It's my belief that we haven't seen anything yet.
Will ( Probably ) Never happen , but get rid of the gas works OR Move the Stadium . TSS Yours was a TOP POST
Well said TSS (won't quote it yet again!). The great thing about Southampton's location is that it is bang in the middle of the south coast with great road and rail links to London, Bristol etc. Also when we get back to the Prem we will be, once again, the only club in England south of Birmingham outside London in the Prem. That in itself should get bums on seats in an expanded SMS or a new stadium. A city like Newcastle, which is a little bit bigger than Southampton (292,000 vs 235,000) and in a comparable coastal location manages to get an average crowd of 47,000 in St. James Park. The challenge will be for Southampton to do something similar.
They also have Sunderland close by who also have a 48k seater stadium and they have 177,000 population.
Not a very good comparison IMO, In Newcastle they eat, sleep and breathe football. Anyone who's been in the city on match day will know exactly what I mean. They have much more support. They were getting 45k in the Championship after they went down.
