Leaving St Mary's?

[jjsaint]

I would like a section reserved for ex-Pompey supporters. They can come in for £5 and we can p*ss on them from above. Everybody wins.

[sfc4prem]

I would like a section reserved for ex-Pompey supporters. They can come in for £5 and we can p*ss on them from above. Everybody wins.

 

LOL! Great idea!

[St. Jason]

So the rest of us who don't actually live in Southampton should start watching Romsey Town, Winchester City, Eastleigh, Totton or whatever.

 

Or would we be considered local enough?

 

If so, where would the cut-off point be?

 

10 mile radius of SMS or you don't get a ticket.

 

If you did that you could forget about stadium expansion - as half the crowd would disappear overnight.

 

Not saying Saints fans from everywhere aren't welcome, all i'm saying do we really want to become just a corporate club, selling it's soul, becoming a franchise? When we were in the Prem I was amazed to see 2 coaches from Weymouth Saints at every game, we have a huge catchment area, yes utilise it, fill the stadium, increase it and fill it again, lets just not sell out!

[sidthesquid]

Saturday's attendance was the fifth biggest of the weekend - only Man U, Chelsea, Spuds & Sunderland had better than us. Bigger than Hull, Brum, Bolto, Burnrley, Stoke, Boro, WBA & Leicester. Not bad for a mid-table third division team

[krissyboy31]

Saturday's attendance was the fifth biggest of the weekend - only Man U, Chelsea, Spuds & Sunderland had better than us. Bigger than Hull, Brum, Bolto, Burnrley, Stoke, Boro, WBA & Leicester. Not bad for a mid-table third division team

 

TBF, most of those wouldn't be able to get that many into their grounds. Still a great attendance and it did beat the Tees/Tyne derby at the Riverside and they do have the capacity.

[LA77]

Let me guess

 

you are no older than 21 years old who sits at the back of the northam banging the back boards and taunting the away fans behind the safety of the stewards. You probably don't have any real memories of the dell other than the family club when you used to go with mum and dad

 

LOL. So because I think you're a boring dullard, and a pathetic wind up merchant, that makes me a 21 year old Northam stand chav that barely remembers the Dell.

 

Let me guess (or tell the truth)

 

You are a bit of a weirdo that spends far too much time on the internet taunting other Saints fans behind the safety of your keyboard. You probably don't attend that many games (11,000 posts LOL), but you're highly motivated to post argumentitive replies. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[Gorgiesaint]

For comparison Juventus are building a new stadium, but only 42,000 seats. One newpaper described it as 'in the English style', which I took to mean that the seats were closer to the pitch.

http://www.juventus.com/site/eng/JPL_newstadium.asp

 

What has happened to Juventus is interesting in relation to this thread.

 

For those who don't know, for years up until 1990 Juve played at the Stadio Communale (circa 30k capacity in those days). In 1990 they moved to the newly built Stadio delli Alpi (built for 1990 world cup) with its capacity of circa 60k. This proved totally unpopular with the fans, and I remember they had one crowd for a Coppa Italia game of circa 3000. In 2006, following the renovation of the Stadio Communale for the winter olympics (and it being rebranded as the Satdio Olympico) Juve moved back despite its 25k capacity (and sharing the ground - as they had done with the Delli Alpi - with Torino). They are now moving to a new ground (ironically on the site of the now demolished Delli Alpi with the 42k capacity linked to Whitey Grandad.

 

The moral of this - I suppose its that moving to bigger ground (even if your current ground is far too small) needs to be carefully planned out. The Delli Alpi was a financial disaster - fortunately, like most Italian stadia, it was owned by the local council. And lets face it, whilst SFC are many things, we're not a Juventus with their level of success at home or in Europe just yet.

 

Now I know that any proposed ground will be no where near the size of the Delli Alpi, but it shows what affect a soulless stadium can have on fans.

 

There are lots of questions to be asked and answered if SFC were to move before any decisions could be made.

[Charlie Wayman]

This is all complete ******** of course, it will never happen. Already Cortese is showing the early signs of delusions of grandeur brought about by extreme stress and modest attainment.

 

We all think Pardew is under the cosh of Cortese but it looks more likely that Cortese is under Liebherr's cosh.

 

Look guys you can't just move Saints up to London and build a s****y new stadium at Hampstead if that's where you'd prefer it to be. This is tiny little tin-pot, backwoods town Southampton and Saints is our tiny little tin-pot backwoods team. Long may it last. There just ain't 60,000 folks down here who give a toss about footie.

[krissyboy31]

What has happened to Juventus is interesting in relation to this thread.

 

For those who don't know, for years up until 1990 Juve played at the Stadio Communale (circa 30k capacity in those days). In 1990 they moved to the newly built Stadio delli Alpi (built for 1990 world cup) with its capacity of circa 60k. This proved totally unpopular with the fans, and I remember they had one crowd for a Coppa Italia game of circa 3000. In 2006, following the renovation of the Stadio Communale for the winter olympics (and it being rebranded as the Satdio Olympico) Juve moved back despite its 25k capacity (and sharing the ground - as they had done with the Delli Alpi - with Torino). They are now moving to a new ground (ironically on the site of the now demolished Delli Alpi with the 42k capacity linked to Whitey Grandad.

 

The moral of this - I suppose its that moving to bigger ground (even if your current ground is far too small) needs to be carefully planned out. The Delli Alpi was a financial disaster - fortunately, like most Italian stadia, it was owned by the local council. And lets face it, whilst SFC are many things, we're not a Juventus with their level of success at home or in Europe just yet.

 

Now I know that any proposed ground will be no where near the size of the Delli Alpi, but it shows what affect a soulless stadium can have on fans.

 

There are lots of questions to be asked and answered if SFC were to move before any decisions could be made.

 

Funny thing with this is that I was under the impression that the Juve fans boycotted the Alpi because of its out of city location rather than its size/design. Turin is a big city and Juve have fans from all over Italy, so I would have thought 42k (or 41,200 if you look at the stats at the bottom of the report) seems a little short-sighted.

[krissyboy31]

This is all complete ******** of course, it will never happen. Already Cortese is showing the early signs of delusions of grandeur brought about by extreme stress and modest attainment.

 

We all think Pardew is under the cosh of Cortese but it looks more likely that Cortese is under Liebherr's cosh.

 

Look guys you can't just move Saints up to London and build a s****y new stadium at Hampstead if that's where you'd prefer it to be. This is tiny little tin-pot, backwoods town Southampton and Saints is our tiny little tin-pot backwoods team. Long may it last. There just ain't 60,000 folks down here who give a toss about footie.

 

Funny how this thread has gone from extending the stadium (or relocating) to just above 40k, to 50k and now 60k. Of course we're not going to build a 60k stadium like Arsenal's but something around 45k makes economic sense.

[Gorgiesaint]

Funny thing with this is that I was under the impression that the Juve fans boycotted the Alpi because of its out of city location rather than its size/design. Turin is a big city and Juve have fans from all over Italy, so I would have thought 42k (or 41,200 if you look at the stats at the bottom of the report) seems a little short-sighted.

 

I think it was a combination of its location together with the soulless atmosphere (massive stadium with limited crowds a long way from the pitch) that signed the death warrant for the Delli Alpi. Your right, its ironic that Juve have chosen to go back to the site of the Delli Alpi. It will be v interesting to see how they get on.

[eelpie]

Imo we should develop St Mary's to 40,000 or 45,000 capacity which will make Southampton a major stadium for international fixtures and music events.

The new top tier need only be used when attendances peak 30,000 so the ground would retain it's atmosphere.

 

The cement works site should be purchased for a luxury riverside hotel and water sports and sailing centre alongside the ski slope and bowling etc, all which would help finance the stadium running costs.

 

But with major changes to the Stadium:

Build above the Kingsland pedestrian area (leaving the pedestrian concourse beneath open for fans going to stands) and turn the centre of Kingsland into luxury corporate area, restaurant and boxes, moved from Itchen. Then Nicola and Co will be as far away from the Away fans as could be, who then could be allocated to Itchen North, leaving Northam for us.

 

Marcus could even develop the railway siding for a private train to bring him directly here from the airport. (Not even Abramovitch has that, lol). And corporates would have easy access to the new Kingsland boxes from the Chapel car park.

 

 

Expensive, but still much cheaper than spending £200 mill on another site. Fanciful? No. because Nicola and Marcus are clearly thinking big.

 

And SMS would retain its character and winning atmosphere (which has taken so long to achieve)

 

(For a small % commission I'll even supply the architect.)

 

Everyone a winner

[Whitey Grandad]

Imo we should develop St Mary's to 40,000 or 45,000 capacity which will make Southampton a major stadium for international fixtures and music events.

The new top tier need only be used when attendances peak 30,000 so the ground would retain it's atmosphere.

 

The cement works site should be purchased for a luxury riverside hotel and water sports and sailing centre alongside the ski slope and bowling etc, all which would help finance the stadium running costs.

 

But with major changes to the Stadium:

Build above the Kingsland pedestrian area (leaving the pedestrian concourse beneath open for fans going to stands) and turn the centre of Kingsland into luxury corporate area, restaurant and boxes, moved from Itchen. Then Nicola and Co will be as far away from the Away fans as could be, who then could be allocated to Itchen North, leaving Northam for us.

 

Marcus could even develop the railway siding for a private train to bring him directly here from the airport. (Not even Abramovitch has that, lol). And corporates would have easy access to the new Kingsland boxes from the Chapel car park.

 

 

Expensive, but still much cheaper than spending £200 mill on another site. Fanciful? No. because Nicola and Marcus are clearly thinking big.

 

And SMS would retain its character and winning atmosphere (which has taken so long to achieve)

 

(For a small % commission I'll even supply the architect.)

 

Everyone a winner

Oi mush, I sit there!

[RedAndWhite91]

.....The new top tier need only be used when attendances peak 30,000 so the ground would retain it's atmosphere.....

 

So essentially, you want it like stadium:mk... The top tier can accommodate 10,000 more fans, but is closed and not yet finished, which makes the ground look sh!t and empty.

[dune]

I want a gummi bear log flume.

[Thedelldays]

LOL. So because I think you're a boring dullard, and a pathetic wind up merchant, that makes me a 21 year old Northam stand chav that barely remembers the Dell.

 

Let me guess (or tell the truth)

 

You are a bit of a weirdo that spends far too much time on the internet taunting other Saints fans behind the safety of your keyboard. You probably don't attend that many games (11,000 posts LOL), but you're highly motivated to post argumentitive replies. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

nice one..you could not be further from the truth if you tried mate (or love)

 

penis

[Trader]

Not saying Saints fans from everywhere aren't welcome, all i'm saying do we really want to become just a corporate club, selling it's soul, becoming a franchise? When we were in the Prem I was amazed to see 2 coaches from Weymouth Saints at every game, we have a huge catchment area, yes utilise it, fill the stadium, increase it and fill it again, lets just not sell out!

 

Yes, but if we become uber successful like you say you want, we will become a fashionable club.

Which means that we will attract support from all over.

Look how many Man U, Arse, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts you see nowhere near those places.

 

So I'm afraid 'selling out' goes with the territory.

 

But at least we'd fill our 50,000 stadium.

[CB Fry]

Of course we wouldn't want to be saddled with another massive mortgage. I was making the assumption that Markus would continue making financial gifts, and not start making loans. Don't forget the real estate holds it's value more than players do when it comes to re-sale value (ie more of the money invested in infrastructre will be recooped upon sale of the club).

 

 

Well, I think this is a very dangerous assumption and the kind of assumption that Skates were making about Sacha only a year or so ago.

 

I wouldn't think Liebherr would give us a stadium effectively for free, in fact if he did I'd think he was a bit strange and far better to spend it on the team, or not at all. I don't want us to be that much in one person's debt when there is no need.

 

It's a bit like asking your best mate for a £500 loan when you don't really need it. He'd probably give it to you, but you'd be in his debt for no particular reason.

 

There is absolutely no compelling financial, sporting or logistical reason to build a new stadium. Not now and, honestly, not even in the next decade. Even thinking about it would create work and expense we frankly don't need.

[Saint_clark]

Not saying Saints fans from everywhere aren't welcome, all i'm saying do we really want to become just a corporate club, selling it's soul, becoming a franchise? When we were in the Prem I was amazed to see 2 coaches from Weymouth Saints at every game, we have a huge catchment area, yes utilise it, fill the stadium, increase it and fill it again, lets just not sell out!

 

I can tell you now there was only one coach from Weymouth. We took 2 coaches once for a United game.

[St. Jason]

I can tell you now there was only one coach from Weymouth. We took 2 coaches once for a United game.

 

I stand corrected, sorry I was wrong, maybe there were 2 coaches and I just assumed they were both from the same place, it still impressed me though!

[St. Jason]

Yes, but if we become uber successful like you say you want, we will become a fashionable club.

Which means that we will attract support from all over.

Look how many Man U, Arse, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts you see nowhere near those places.

 

So I'm afraid 'selling out' goes with the territory.

 

But at least we'd fill our 50,000 stadium.

 

Portsmuff won the fa cup and you don't see many of their shirts outside of Pompey. Villa are pretty good and again not many of their shirts about. Blackburn won the league etc etc

[docker-p]

I love the location of SMS and don't want a soulless out of town stadium like Readings. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I shall shortly be setting up a facebook group called SOSMoS, Save our St Marys Stadium.

Edited 15 March, 2010 by docker-p

[Saint 76er]

For comparison Juventus are building a new stadium, but only 42,000 seats. One newpaper described it as 'in the English style', which I took to mean that the seats were closer to the pitch.

http://www.juventus.com/site/eng/JPL_newstadium.asp

 

If you look at the picture gallery, the new Juve stadium gives an impression as to how a redeveloped SMS might look.

 

The stadiums have a similar roof line and the pictures show how a second tier at SMS could look, and in a stadium with a similar capacity to our needs.

[alehouseboys]

For comparison Juventus are building a new stadium, but only 42,000 seats. One newpaper described it as 'in the English style', which I took to mean that the seats were closer to the pitch.

http://www.juventus.com/site/eng/JPL_newstadium.asp

 

Surprisingly for Juve, actually only 40,200 (to be picky)

 

...I'd still prefer this myself, keeps our 'Kop'...

 

[Saint 76er]

Maybe time to bump this thread back into life following our outstanding turn out at Wembley.

 

Behind Cortese's deadpan face, as he gazed upon the Southampton hordes, presumably an accountant's brain was busily calculating figures.

 

By all accounts we had around 52,000 in the stadium and countless others couldn't get tickets, and the wild enthusiasm and joy of supporting the reborn Saints was clear for all to see and I doubt if this message was lost on the viewing Swiss banker.

 

Make no mistake Cortese is setting sail for the premier league, champions league and all that stuff, and he is smart enough to want the infrastructure in place when it happens.

 

It's almost as if our fan base has been somewhat in hibernation during the gulag of hopelessness under which we have suffered prior to this new awakening. But the fans haven't gone away, in fact they seem to have increased and are now out in force and keen to reconnect with a rejuvenated Saints.

 

Consequently, will this evidence of large scale support firm up Cortese's desire to build a new 50,000+ super stadium out of town, or is he likely to err on the side of caution and settle for a redeveloped St Mary's at an appropriate time?

 

If the former, he may well want to put things in motion fairly quickly to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak...

[sandwichsaint]

PlasticFantastic me up.

Regular crowds of 40k?

Capacity of 50k?

Sell 30k STs at the (much higher) prices needed to sustain a new-build stadium and premier Lge/CL football?

It's certainly a different sort of 'next level'...... anybody seen my jester hat and face paint?

[Saint 76er]

PlasticFantastic me up.

Regular crowds of 40k?

Capacity of 50k?

Sell 30k STs at the (much higher) prices needed to sustain a new-build stadium and premier Lge/CL football?

It's certainly a different sort of 'next level'...... anybody seen my jester hat and face paint?

 

I understand your reasoning SS, but I'm not sure that Cortese will.

 

We all know that he is aiming for big things with Saints and I doubt if, ultimately, a stadium of our current capacity and perhaps build quality will be part of his plans.

 

Sure, he has to provide the product to entice any missing fans back and providing a suitable environment would presumably be a part of that process. Look how many fans have said how great it was to be part of such huge Saints support in such a magnificent stadium

 

Cortese will have seen a glimpse of the future on Sunday, and fortunately I suspect his vision of that future will be far more positive than your own.