In that Echo article it suggests expansion would cost circa £3k / seat, so whilst St Mary's isn't in the optimum location, I'd be very surprised if £30M was sufficient to finance a new 40-45k seater stadium elsewhere. I'd say go for expanding St Mary's, the costs of the new seats would be recovered in 3-4 seasons, and I get the feeling we're currently too full most weeks to encourage casual fans (who might eventually become regulars / season ticket holders).
The main advantage of building a brand new stadium, subject to getting an adequate plot of land is to not solely rely on the income from the football. Fran mentioned MK Dons who have a hotel, conference centre and a large retail park all generating income 27/7 and not relying on alternate weeks during the season
Which is why Nicola previously spoke about buying up all the waterfront n building there as well casino etc. Similar to the Ricoh.
I think a multi functional site is the way forward generate a steady income throughout the year with peaks during the season but would easy the issue of cash flow during the summer
I agree that if we were going to build a complete new ground you would need alternative ways of bringing in new revenue. However you are talking really big money depending on the type of development, in my view upwards of £250/£300 mil at the minimum.
Alternatively, as JWP's GC alludes to, you can buy up the beach front properties. In the old design proposals there was the copper coloured building. I believe that was to be an add-on venue for things other than requiring 40,000+ seats, plus there was the facelifted St Mary's with the expansion in place, and an awful lot of landscaping of the area. Consideribly less than £300M.
After much thought, I think about 8:00, on a Monday. Expand Chapel end, then Kingsland. Finish job on Friday. If the club ever did buy the waterfront, we could have a floating multistorey carpàrk which would help.
Like I said before the complete development would have to be a Leihberr Corp investment not a Saints thing but return on investment, including either the sale or rent on the stadium would be a very worth while risk if you had the money to invest. Leihberr Corp and Saints win/win
This paints a far sunnier picture of the reality I admit to giving it next to no thought, but I can't think of better place to have the stadium than in its current location and as other have pointed out there would be room for a near re-build if required as the car park could be expanded on and the industrial units could be replaced by a new car park. If we had a forward thinking council then we could use the existing railway line to ease congestion. Even act as part of a tram or light rail network around the city
