Now here's a hypothetical situation, we are forced to sell 3 or more of our top players. It would be hard to spend all this money back on players without disrupting squad harmony like has happened before with other teams. E.g spurs last season. Would you bank the money or reinvest it a stadium and facilities like NC planned. I'm not saying it has to be like his proposed design but either at least a new stadium or expanded capacity?
You're unlikely to get increased attendances that would warrant that greater capacity by selling three or more top players and not replacing them.
I agree. To attract crowds of 50,000 we would have to be playing regular Champions League football, and you don't get there without investing heavily in the team.
Once the training ground is complete then the next capital project has to be on the stadium. I think the board will look at expanding St Marys 1st rather than a re-build or new stadium. If we moved into a 50k stadium tomorrow then we would sell out the obvious games, but would a new bigger stadium push a league match against say Burnley from just under 30k to over 40k? We suffered at the Dell and I wouldn't want us to be back in a situation where it was practically impossible for the casual fan to get a ticket, but I think stadium capacities need to grow somewhat organically. We can't afford to neglect the team and end up with a white elephant. West Ham are flying by the seat of their pants at the moment and who knows if that gamble will pay off
Saints have been investing in the team for decades via the Youth System and Academy, but the output has either only been good enough for ourselves, or if very good indeed, we sell them. That can't continue. The Barcelona model is that you keep hold of your better/best players, which Saints have been trying to do for the last 5 years, more or less successfully. That has to continue or the club is a dead duck, in terms of ambition. About a 50K stadium. Fine, but there has to be a progression. I believe the catchment area research of economically active people suggests that Saints could easily fill one, in time, but that time is a long way off. We are no Bolton or Blackburn, with ManC and ManU over the hill. There is no real competition [sorry Cherries]. You make regular Champions League happen at 32,683 St Marys and suddenly all bar the most commited supporters will never get in the place again. It will indeed be interesting to see how WHU cope with the Olympic Stadium, but their model is totally different to ours.
Would we? Don't really see any evidence for that. Games against Man Utd etc may sell out with 32k capacity, but it's not exactly within minutes of tickets going on sale. Bloody big leap expecting another 15,000 (excluding away fans) to suddenly appear. Stadium size is right for the club right now, think we only had a full sell out (including boxes & suites) 3 times last season.
And stadiums of 50k that only have 24-30k in them look & feel bloody horrible. Remember what SMS was like with 14k inside?
Just behind the flashy red awning support..? Or by that collection of street lamps..? Or they haven't bothered to put it in. Essential..? No motorbikes either, dammit..!
I think some of the ticketing policies we adopt for these matches would be dropped. Buying in conjunction with other matches etc, but you're right it would be a struggle even for the big matches. On hospitality the club really needs to drop its prices and get these boxes close to sell out and earn itself some loyal corporate customers and then slowly raise the prices over time
Increasing the capacity would allow: 1. provide a much bigger away supporter section that would sell out for most of the London Clubs and the big northern teams. Also improve atmosphere 2. Allow greater flexibility for "kids for a quid", school party tickets etc to try and expand our future supporters by getting the youngsters in to SMS
I generally agree but I think some games would sell out in a 50K stadium. I mean we easily sold 44k tickets for the JPT final. So there are enough people out there interested that, even accounting for the day out at Wembley factor, I think one or two sell outs could happen.
Often The Dell wouldn't sell out the pathetic 15,575 capacity, because in the end, people couldn't be bothered to try to go. It's like a case of building bigger roads. You build them and the traffic will fill them. With the lack of direct competition in Hampshire, Dorset, West Sussex and Wiltshire [sorry those clubs I've completely disrespected, but it's true], there's a catchment area like few others. Getting a measly 50,000 people to fill a stadium every fortnight should be child's play, but they've been doing other things all these years. Give them a big enough reason and they'll come.
Which games do we think a 48k capacity stadium would sell out? 1. Manure 2. Bindippers 3. Chelski 4. Spuds 5. Arsenole Would these be enough to support the expenditure?
TSS....yes Liverpool You could be right about Man City and Everton, also possibly West Hoof If these could fill to capacity, what are we waiting for?
Of course we'd get the expenditure covered because ticket prices would go up to cover it. Clubs might say they are investing in the stadia but most new stadiums have had hikes in ticket prices. People may well say Man City didn't but you have to remember that they got a first class stadium on the cheap.
Other than purely increasing the immediate revenue, the most important thing for me would be to fill as many of the seats as possible at the games that wouldn't attract big crowds i.e. kids for a quid, school parties, kids football teams all paying low prices just to get them into the stadium not for the atmosphere or even the gate money but to attract kids into supporting Saints. With them would probably come a parent and maybe a sibling too. This builds up the next generation of Saints supporters to guarantee our future fan base. Next season, take a look around you at the average age of our fans. Even at the noisier end its pretty high...we need the kids to support Saints not Chelsea, Manure, Liverpool etc
