I have no idea if 50k is the correct number. I always thought we would just add 10,000 seats or so, which would bring us up to 42k-ish like you say. We'll be selling out often enough with the stadium at its current size, but I have no idea what the demand will be like over that. Cortese might have a decent idea though.
Looks like Saints have started to strengthen and good luck to them. Is £7m too much for him only time will tell - if he knocks in a Holt-esque 15 league goals and this keeps Saints up then it is money well spent. If he doesn't and they struggle then clearly not. If we had the funds to pay that and the wage bill safe in the knowledge that our owners had deep enough pockets to cover it then I am sure that we would all be keen for NCFC to do exactly what Saints have done. Be interesting to see if he and Lambert can play together, if not Saints will have a very strong bench but at least one dissenting senior player.
But if Jay picks up a season ending injury early in the season that gamble could be pretty costly ...
Saints have produced some great players over the years the likes of Bale,Walcott ,Oxo and Lallana.There are plenty of other players out there in the PL and FL who have come through the saints academy like Leon Best (Newcastle),Nathan Dyer (Swansea),Surman (Norwich),Baird (Fulham),Kenwyne Jones (Stoke),Bridge (Sunderland) and these players came through before Cortese came into the building except Oxo so there is no reason why we can't keep producing more players like this and better quality one's aswell considering we've invested £15m into the academy by upgrading it to a academy 1 status.
i think saints will be the strongest of the promoted sides. reading don't seem to have a plan - they can't decide if they are going to do a qpr and go down the old and expensive route or copy ourselves. west ham will probably end up with barton and there will be the inevitable infighting once the ball gets booted up to carlton cole's head... saints are on a sound footing, know exactly where they are going and how to achieve it - mid-table finish for them i expect
It's not quite related to your point, but how often do you currently sell out your ground? If you haven't been able to pack it out week-in, week-out this season, then I wouldn't be certain that you'd fill out another 10k, even if you are in the PL.
He said 50k in that interview with the Sun last season.I don't know if we wants to gradually add 10,000 seats or so or if he wants to do it in one go.
my point is that it is incredibly difficult to bring through that calibre of player on a regular basis. not even man united have been able to do it! you need a lot of luck to repeat it, let alone keep repeating it, no matter how good your facilities. norwich's facilities are in the top ten in britain but we've hardly produced a decent player in ten years - before that there appeared to be an endless supply for about ten years.
We were mostly getting 25k-30k attendances this season if I recall, so I'd expect plenty of capacity crowds next season. I don't foresee any expansions to the stadium for a few seasons yet though. Obviously we would have to know that there is significant demand before we would go ahead with something like that.
Well that is very ambitious, any time frame for this? I have no doubt you could become a well established prem team and maybe fight for Europa spots in a few seasons but champions league seems a way off. Sadly big money usually has to be spent to achieve that in this country and I don't know if top players would be attracted to Southampton, but in a few years who knows. Highly doubt you would be able to fill a 50,000 seater week in week out though, thats a big % of the catchment area.
I'm sure Jay Rod will do very well for Southampton, but to be honest, where Southampton finish will depend on who else they buy - they already had decent strikers before now! Maybe if James Vaughan stays fit for us though we might not need another striker when he already have Holt/Morrison/Jackson.
Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse are the next ones to watch. Shaw is already in the England setup and been linked with the Prem big boys. We then have the youngsters that finished 2nd in their league last season.
Average attendance this season was 26,419 with the 8 homes games with 30k capacity or more so that's 34,7%=35% of home games with 30k capacity or more and next season we will average around 31,32k.
That's true,but there are clubs out there who have been doing it for years,namely Ajax,Barca,Sporting Lisbon.It's a tough ask,of course it is but if the scouts are doing their job then you never know we might continue to keep producing these types of players like Walcott,Bale and Oxo.
It's not as ambitious as it sounds because won't be spending money in anticipation of getting into Europe in the way that Pompey did. We won't be making any massive investments like that until we know for sure it's the right decision, and so nothing can really go wrong. If we don't get into the top half of the table and generate as much demand as we hoped, then fair enough we won't expand the stadium. Like I said, we won't be spending beyond our means.
There is no doubt you have an excellent academy, but how good do you think those players would of become if they stayed? Its one thing to train up good youngsters, then another to take that raw talent and make them international standard professionals. Its impossible to know really but if you were to rely on academy players you would have to make sure this transition is there as Barca, Ajax etc do to produce 1st team players.
sounds to me like you're not actually too far off your ceiling. as i said earlier, 40, maybe 42k is the absolute maximum a club like southampton could get, no matter how good the team. i'd guess that you'd be fine aiming for 38k to be honest. my club have practically sold out every home game for five years, including one year when we went down! the waiting list for season tickets is long - we have sold 22k season tickets yet again for a capacity of just 27k! we are crying out for a bigger ground - it is nowhere near big enough - but we aren't daft. anything over 35k would be very optimistic because although we'd be capable of getting more than that for the top games, if we got relegated we wouldn't want to play in front of empty seats. in fact, if we could borrow st mary's that would help
Well that is fair enough if they actually stick to that plan, but you can bet if you were just falling short fans would want money spent, sadly the way things are going. It is ambitious but not risky if you stick to this plan you stated.
good point tipsy. its interesting that there are even a few norwich fans, who have had our clubs plan rammed down their throats so that they know exactly what the club is doing for years to come, pining to get more funds for the manager when that goes completely against what the club are trying to do. the club have to stick to their plan.
