People may seem to forget that it shows a statement of intent and ambition to investors and players , on this flat pack stadium World nearly all of them are around the 32,000 size , expand it simply to make it different , if it costs 8 million per side so be it , thats only a 5 million player and wages after all and this shows an awful lot more than a solitary player .
So under these figures an investment at worse would be playing for itself in under 7 seasons ? I am no Al Sugar but it strikes me as a very good situation to be in .
The Liebherr family and Cortese know best, if they want to extended St marys or build a new one. up to them!!! I think wait few years, look at costs then, but i think its fine ATM. In Cortese we Trust.
Totally Agree MLG The Rugby World Cup wont make a difference to weather the stadium gets extended or not because as some people have already said, 32,000 is a very good sized stadium for group matches. I watch Premier League Rugby at Exeter Chiefs and as passionate as the Devon and Cornish are, even they would struggle to fill 32,000 for a lower group match. The truth is Cortese is a businessman firstly but on stories i have heard a very passionate Southampton part owner and fan and wants nothing but success and that includes bigger gates. My belief is some sort of ground extension or movement will be spoken about at some stage next season as Mr Cortese as the saying goes "Wont let the grass grow under his feet"
As SMS was built a while ago and cheaply (Cortese remarked at the beginning that it wasn't to his standards), it would probably require a full survey before any extensions could be even considered. I know that rules about foundations have changed for even a house never mind for stands seating thousands. Also access and safety issues would have to be considered. Extension will never be a cheap option. This is also an issue where the loss of Markus may have an effect. Although a businessman, ML was showing all the signs of becoming a fan and may have financed extension/new stadium, but Nicola has probably more constraints on him. Think the money is better spent on getting the team right.
No, I'm not sure, but these are the kind of figures I recall from last time it was discussed and based on a quick internet search it seems consistent with figures quoted elsewhere (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary's_Stadium#Expansion). Not necessarily reliable of course but no-one outside the club can claim to know for sure, and it doesn't sound unreasonable to me that it would cost 3 times as much to add seats to a stadium that is already built compared with buliding from scratch, there are far more complications invovled. Also, whilst it's tempting to think in terms of average attendances, I would have thought the club would focus on the number of season ticket sales as the key indicator of when to expand, as this is a far more reliable indicator of the extent to which the stadium is going to be filling up week in week out.
You guys need to spend money on staying in the premier league before thinking about expanding the stadium. You guys then need to make sure you guys are well established in the premier league and imo you can only be certain of that after 3 to 5 years. Wolves have started expanding their stadium to 36 000, who here thinks they will be able to fill it if they are still in the Championship? That is why I think you should expand once you are certain of your league status.
