the fact is anyone below liverpool are in the frame for going down as its that close..a couple of wrong results would have seen saints scraping for survival. we finished in 9th and had the worst finish of everyone but the bottom teams could not capitalise and we finished in 9tth place, but i know that anyone from WBA down are all in the frame this season.
You said Saints were one of the favourites, not that they were one of a number of clubs that could go down. It is simply not the case that they are favourites to go down next season as my earlier post highlighted. I can't see Swansea finishing above Southampton for much longer, we are quickly catching you up and have the resources, fanbase and infrastructure to surpass you on the pitch relatively soon. Why don't you apply your logic to your own club? Swansea revealed plans to make the Liberty Stadium as big as St Mary's... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-22159360 - Swansea averaged 15k in the Championship promotion season compared to Southampton's 26k - Swansea averaged 13k in the League One promotion season compared to Southampton's 22k Southampton have resources and fan-base size in excess of Swansea. As they regularly sold out a 32k stadium whilst finishing 14th, a 32k stadium is too small if the team actually had a decent season in the Premier League.
That's the case in most years; unless you're one of the top seven, you go into the season with the possibility that it could go wrong and relegation could follow. That doesn't mean that teams ought to plan as if they will be relegated.
Quite sure that Nicola has worked out the finances based on relegation as part of the plan. Doesn't mean he expects it, but he will have covered the bases. He may be taking risks, but not such large ones as to risk the club. That is why I can't see a ground extension in the short term plans...people may be looking into it, but it will be a long term strategy based on certain criteria. Money at the moment will be diverted to the team and achieving a good league position.
£15m+ on a new training ground when promotion from the championship had not yet been secured suggests otherwise.
The money for the training ground was provided initially by Markus and was planned for. Doubt it was ever expected to come out of income. The Leihberrs then effectively wrote off the initial debt by converting to equity. We took a pay-day loan on our Sky money to provide a jump start to our season in the PL, but that was no risk as it was based on guaranteed income.
Have we all forgotten that a few years ago, we were getting crowds of around 14,000-18-000 in the Championship (before relegation to Lg1 and all that followed)? That's our core support, people.
I have never taken to St Mary's in the way I did the 'Dell'. Maybe because we were at the old place for so many years and our history is mainly from there. For me the atmosphere has never been as good and the noise levels have very seldom approached what I remember from our old home. Again it is possible that memories make things better than they were. A new ground built with better all round facilities which would include a larger stadium but one with improved acoustics and if possible one where we could be closer to the action. That would be my dream. Maybe I am just an old fuddy duddy but there is still room for people like little old me in a bigger ground.
It will be higher than that...not everyone goes to every game. Total guess, but suspect that the number who went to at least one game may have been 25K+. As someone else said each fan, apart from ST holders, have probably increased the number of games they go to. Remember not even ManU would fill their ground in League 1.
I used to get a real tingle of excitement when approaching the Dell and the atmosphere inside was fantastic. Being close to the pitch also drew you more into the game and evening matches were best of all. St Mary's does not have the atmosphere of the Dell (that is probably true of most grounds now) and as I have got older some of the excitement has gone but ask me if I would like to stay at St Mary's or go back to the Dell and I would say "I 'll stay at St Mary's thank you".
The atmosphere as you squeezed past the mens toilet to get to the 1 (ONE) Ladies toilet in the family section at the Dell was amazing (sarcasm mode).
I remember standing at a urinal at the Dell next to a couple of Tottenham fans when one said "Stinks here doesn't it?" and the other replied "Yeah and these bogs aren't much better".
I can probably be safe in saying that the men's toilets were pretty incredible too. Only when I started going to Glastonbury did I experience anything to rival them. And there were men eating pies inside them.
A couple of right result would have seen us pushing on even higher .... swings and roundabouts fella, the one fact no-one can argue, is we finished 14th. Job one done. Job two is progression and around here, progression just isn't 13th or 12th and not just about league position. Swansea have had a magnificent two years and I am not close enough to your club to compare ambitions. If your Chairman takes actions and has an ambition like ours, then good luck mate as we could both be flying very high, very soon.
I think they would very easily. I do still struggle to believe there are many unattached passionate football fans just waiting for a club south of london to become successful for them to decide to follow. Personally, I'd prefer empty seats to them being filled with people who used to "support" Chelsea or Man Utd.
I agree with your first part CBK. The crowd would swell though as more people would start to show an interest and the 'non-attending' fans would want to start going to games. I wouldn't want empty seats though.
Everyone's money is the same when it contributes to the club's finances. The club would die if no new fans were allowed to attend. No point in getting too precious about it.
Is it now more important to contribute money to show support for a club, than it is to contribute effort, sacrifice & passion?
How many tickets did we sell for the JPT final? How more could we have sold? Now obviously not all of those people are going to be able to or want to get a season ticket but it does show that even in League One there was a very large group of fans with some sort of connection to Southampton. The more successful you get the more people will want to come and see you. Some will be there for the football while others will be more interested in sampling the club's prawn sandwiches. That's life.
