Southampton City Council sign agreement with Saints to develop St Mary's and Itchen Riverside

https://www.southampton.gov.uk/news...ve-vision-for-st-mary-s-and-itchen-riverside/

 

Good idea, but maybe focus on getting the on field stuff right first.

 

Excellent. More money for Goztepe.

 

Honestly, who gives a **** about off the pitch enhancements. This is just another in a long line of corporate bullshit.

On pitch is a ****ing disaster, bottom of the table with 5 points, but hey, at least we've got a brand spanking new pub opening alongside the new cocktail bar. **** all the local boozers, the club want more and more of your money to spunk ip Rasmuses arsehole.

 

These announcements just annoy supporters when the team is so ****e

 

Doesn't annoy me! It's similar to the dream Gao had until the rug was pulled from under him.

 

Sounds interesting and the waterfront development is long overdue but I have concerns that ultimately we'll be the ones who pay for it.

Curious about the improved transport links. The area has been terrible for traffic for years even before all the new homes built at the meridian site (plus the new ones going up at the old gas holders).

Obviously light on detail at this stage and will be many many years off yet if it happens but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Have club acquired/trying to acquire the cemex site? Can't see any big waterfront development being worthwhile without that tbh.

One thing I will say is that no matter how much you do up the waterfront the surrounding areas of Northam and St Marys will always be complete **** holes

Probably be worth buying a cheap run down property on the edge of these areas too. Price will skyrocket in next decade or so if this comes to pass.

 

This sounds like a nod to a vague and hypothetical development that may happen at some undetermined point in the distant future.

Doesn't really mean much at the moment and we have more pressing concerns, like not being ****.

 

If it’s any consolation, I doubt the people working on this project are likely to be the football department staff… unless you think Russell and Rasmus are playing SimCity or something

I know we’re out of our depth on the field right now but we don’t half have some professional mards. If the club had forever done absolutely nothing on the infrastructure side because the playing side weren’t getting results, I dread to think what state the club would be in at this point in history

 

Very interested in this personally. Always good to see improvements being made to the city and that area really needs it.

If you're gonna support a sh*t football club, might as well do it in nice surroundings.

Oh yeah, and f*ck you Russ!

 

Reference this line from your post - Curious about the improved transport links.
Maybe re-open the rail line?

 

What's the point? We weren't selling out every game in the Championship last year, or in fact any of the years we've been there.

We're too skint to bin RM apparently but have found a spare half a billion dropped behind the sofa for this?

It's a rather transparent attempt to shut fans up on social media. It won't happen in our life times. It'll quietly be parked next season, betcha

 

How long is it since you had a positive thought about anything? Gao had a dream and saw the potential, he may have achieved it, if the Chinese hadn't pulled the plug.
The potential must be there, whether anything will become of it, is a different matter.

 

Markus’s original plans for the stadium (if I remember correctly) involved the land immediately around the stadium; opening a station is a no brainer as long as there’s more than Championship football to do it for, waterside property and opening up more than is currently a pretty reasonable development and as someone mentioned, will skyrocket local property prices and lead to inevitable and long overdue redevelopment of the local area.

However…. It still makes us look tw*ts if the on pitch product doesn’t work.

 

Great summary. Interesting is exactly what I was thinking. I actually think Sport Republic have done some good things off the pitch and I like that they're prepared to try different things. On the pitch is obviously a different story.

Not my area really but I think the Council could use a Compulsory Purchase Order to get hold of the land. The transport stuff will be public transport and/or walking and cycling links. I'm sure I've seen someone from Sport Republic talk about a railway station in the past. Maybe you could even argue for having a station by the stadium and reinstating one down by the cruise terminal.

 

This isn’t an ownership wanting to float around with parachute payments, and sell off the Crown Jewels, so at least we can put that silliness to bed.

 

That's made sense for years and I'm not sure why it's never been fully explored. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the tracks themselves aren't really fit for passenger trains now (or something along those lines) so it would have to be redone completely but not sure if true or not.

Would be a great option for transporting away fans for high risk matches since the move too.

 

Yeah I think they've been incompetent more than nefarious in their time so far really. Don't particularly rate them but could be a hell of a lot worse and much better than the previous owner.

On that note too and 'Gao had a dream' night be the most batshit thing I've ever read on here.

 

You should see the plans they have for the Goztepe stadium!!

 

A two way line from ocean village/docks into Northam and then central/out of the city would be fantastic. Not sure there's enough physical room for a second set of tracks mind so capacity could be an issue.

For me without trying to exaggerate too much this entire thing depends on what happens with the Cemex site. Can't see anything happening at all if that can't get sorted tbh.