To blindly follow someone or something when their values, principle, ethos, expectations and behaviour are at complete odds with your own value system would be a very strange thing to do. No one should take me or any other Saint's fan for granted and anyone who says as they are a Saints fan they will remain so no matter what is a very foolish and ill thought out statement. So I shall keep my options open and wait and see how anyone taking over the Saints behaves. I follow the Saints because I like their underdog position. They show real character in fighting their corner season after season. The fans are not arrogant believing they have some exclusive right to success and the club make a valuable contribution to football in this country and to my mind are undervalued by the footballing community. The Leibherr takeover has turned out to be consistent with my values as a person and it means I am really enjoying being a Saints fan. Having said all of that I would not now be a Saints fan had we been taken over by Roman Abramovich as I would have found his extravagance with the club using resources taken from the Russian people and leaving them the poorer at odds with the principles by which I live. As regards the supposed Chines takeover I am uneasy primarily because I like the way we are being managed and I don't like change especially when it is uncertain and when it is achieved at the loss of something very good. It is a matter of let us wait and see before we make decisions and jump to conclusions. Finally I am not sure about Kat's motive in seeking to sell but I would like to know her reasons.
Many posters are well known for different reasons. Some of us for our warmth, understanding, intellect and compassion and others for not such nice reasons.
The stadium expansion question is difficult but on a ground tour (I can heartily recommend going on one - £15) the chap said that the club has an attendance percentage target at which they'll extend. The ground's designed to be extendible in three stages separately, with the Kingsland going first. However, the thing that's changed since I was told that is that the cash from attendances is less significant than it was. There are 19 home games this season. Assume 30,000 people at each one. That's 570,000 seats over the season. At about £30 average for a ticket that's £17M or so. If we end up mid-table this season we'll get about £125M in from Sky - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31386483 ). Gate money pales into insignificance. Certainly, the cost and disruption of an extra 6,000 seats on the Kingsland that, even packed, would only bring in £3.4M might look hard to justify. So, an owner taking a short term view might say that if we get enough atmosphere and survive we'll get the Sky money so who cares about expansion? Long term it's a different matter as a good support base brings in other benefits, but this is one of may reasons why it does matter who buys us. Vin
A new stadium would only be warranted if the owner was willing to make it a long term risk. We have a loyal and enthusiastic fan base, but not a massive one. Ideally we'd want it a little big bigger, but that wouldn't make sense economically. It would be good to be able to offer very cheap seats to youngsters in order to build the fanbase for the future. All kids for miles around would support us (rather than the Chelsea/Uniteds etc) if we were successful and they regularly got in for a few pounds. Perhaps resurrect the kids club that used to be at The Dell....where children could be dropped off and entertained and taken into the ground by helpers. That was very popular. We are nearly at the point of a new ground being desirable, but we are not at the point where it is essential.
Nope, missed it and I'm normally good at irony. It's practically what I do for a living. I guess we're becoming desensitised due to the proliferation of emotions. Disregarding all of that, gambling is technically illegal in China so any kind of sponsorship by a betting company might be ruled out. It was a long time ago now but I seem to remember that this is the point I thought you were making.
I feel a larger stadium might offer flexibility on ticket prices to encourage future fans, but no one would spend a lot of money on extending the stadium without a good financial reason to do so (even if that financial gain was long term). I'm not expecting philanthropy.
How do you get bigger? It's the push/pull argument...in my view if you reach a point when you're having to build/expand a stadium then it's already too late. Sunderland are regularly getting 40k + despite serving up largely poor football for several seasons. Our populations are not that different, but their fans are in the habit of attending games and that's built on opportunity to attend
I attended the kids club and it's a shame that no longer exists. Kids tickets are good value, but as soon as you have to add an adult then that deal suddenly looks very poor. I know a few parents who don't care for football but their children want to go to a game.
I struggle to understand you saying you would no longer be a saints fan if Abramovic had taken us over and ran us like Chelsea. I don't support Saints because of our owners or the way we play or any other characteristic. I support Saints because they are the team I was taken to see as a young boy - and I fell in love with the club just from walking up the steps and seeing the green of the pitch. I think supporting a football club is so different to most things in life. It is an unconditional love that doesn't really make much sense - but that's the beauty of it! I would support saints regardless of our owners, players, managers or success!
If an Abromovich type owner had stepped in when we were in trouble, we'd all be happy as Larry, but the problem is that we have now become so proud of the Saints way of doing things that we can't accept being an ordinary billionaire's play thing. And, as we are no longer so worried that we'd sell our first born to the devil to save the club, we have a natural fear of being bought by a shark or an idiot (both these things have happened to other clubs). There is an interesting article in The Mail about Swansea's fall of grace since being sold by the man who saved them and got them to the Premier League...sent a shiver down my spine (and the people who bought them didn't even mean them harm).
If the stadium can be extended by sections, I would be fully supportive of the Northam being given a second tier, simply because it would potentially allow the visitors to be given their full allocation, but squeezed further into the corner, in a narrower strip of seats. This would still satisfy the stipulation, by the police, that the visitors are in the safest place, whilst putting Saints fans behind the Northam goal, which would benefit the atmosphere and the home team.
Expansion was also talked about by her father to quote I believe he said some thing like as we progress we have the opportunity to expand or even to completely build a new stadium. To those that say we have never filled our current stadium.The recorded total at St Mary's has been listed about 200 short of a its safe capacity. For what ever reason I can confirm that for some of the better teams visiting us they have an away allocation which in some cases is short by up to a thousand or even more. Also home support requests for seats for the same games is frequently short by quite a lot. I appreciate that those games are few and far between. However you can't sell seats you ain't got. You have only to look at our Wembley visits which while sparse have usually brought in supporters up in the mid 40000s which is nigh on 30% more than our average crowd. If you had a larger stadium maybe you could persuade 10-15% of those extra fans to be regulars. As someone else has suggested doing things in stages is the way to go. Although the longer it is left the more expensive it will become. It has to be part of the natural plan of expansion. If they don't they will be making the same mistake the board did back in the early 60's. In those days we had a similar capacity but no room for expansion. So unti we can get a ground with up to a 45000 capacity we will never be an excepted force in the premier league. This was Katrina's fathers dream was it not?
No worries. Didn't know it was illegal in China, but was just proliferating the stereotype without saying it outright!
Stadium expansion would cost a hell of a lot of money. St Marys would need reinforcing due to how cheaply it was made.
They always say that SMS can be extended on 3 sides (not the Itchen), but building standards have changed...I doubt the foundations are good enough.
Hasn't it previously been said that we can build a new stadium for the same amount as it would cost to expand?
