St Marys expansion to 44000

[Turkish]

@ Dorkish.

 

The levels of genius on this forum never cease to amaze.

 

Pipe down Dunce. They are the guardians of intellegent debate. Given his willingness to see the Liehbers throw 36m away I expect Les Bender to be on here a lot today, he'll be on strike.

[CB Fry]

So let me get this straight. To justify a 44,000 seat stadium, we would need to fill it on a Tuesday night in the second division?

 

Right.

 

In a word, yes.

 

Sunderland averaged nealry 30,000 when they were top of the league a few years back.

 

I go back to my original point - where on earth are 20,000 - twenty thousand - extra fans going to come from?

 

Oh, sorry, I remember - you "intelligent posters" have the answer don't you - spend xxx million on the stadium and then fill it by giving tickets away to school children, doing family discounts and kids for a quid nights. Oh, yes, and how can I forget, selling 8,000 tickets to travelling Man U fans to help the atmosphere. Brilliant.

Edited 30 November, 2011 by CB Fry

[Colinjb]

I personally cannot imagine anything worse then a stadium that is too big for us. I couldn't stand us playing at an arena like The Riverside, far too big for Boro's needs, even when they were getting to UEFA Cup finals. A period of extended consolidation and full houses at St Mary's in the top flight would be required before I would think it a good idea.

[Capel Saint]

If Cortese is thinking about expanding the ground to 44,000 sometime in the future then that is great, as it shows ambition. He is probably thinking back to the JPT final when 55,000 Saints fans bought tickets and had the FA given the go ahead, a further 20,000 ticket scould have been sold. I appreciate that the game was at Wembley and Saints fans were riding high on Marcus saving our beloved club but perhaps he is thinking that eventually he can attract some of those fans to attend SMS on a regular basis and globally increase the awareness of the club.

 

This ambition will be tempered on a number of factors which includes in the short term, getting promoted to the Prem, being able to compete and avoid annual relegation dogfights and sound investment in the squad to improve it year on year. Every Chairman dreams that their academy can produce a flow of excellent players to supplement their squad but in reality the flow is just a trickle. However, even if a manager could bring on one or two players a season into the team successfully, then that is a great achievement. Everton are a good example of being able to bring on youngsters and eventually cement them into the first team, providing one of the big six or seven teams doesn't poach them. Fergie was very lucky in the early 90's to have Beckham, the Neville brothers, Scholes, Giggs and Lee Sharpe all mature at the same time and be able to be integrated into the first team at once and which paid him dividends for years afterwards.

 

Therefore I am sure Cortese would certainly consider expanding the stadium but only when attendances get back to the stage where we were regularly filling the stadium to capacity (factoring in empty away fan seats). The reason Lowe didn't consider expanding the stadium was because the club could never afford to do so in a plc structure. If the Liebherr Family decide to invest heavily into the club if and when we are back in the Prem then expansion of the stadium could happen. Time will tell peeps!

[stev2001]

Isn’t the argument about ‘planning’ for a bigger stadium?

 

I’m sure Cortese will do all the maths on whether it is financially viable in the long term, but for some to keep arguing the point about not needing a bigger stadium is not covering all your bases is it. Cortese doesn’t have to follow through with the plans FFS. He is investigating it and for a club moving in the right direction like ours is at the moment is the clever thing to do as these things take time.

 

I’m not saying we would fill a 44k stadium every match, but we would fill it and I don’t think anyone on here could say how many times that would happen.

 

Another point, 44000 might be the planning for the complete expansion. There is nothing to say it couldn’t be staged where stage 1 would be 38000 and so on. I think if he is talking about it, it’s a good thing and anyone on here who would rather do nothing all the time and not consider alternatives just in case it could go wrong should think themselves lucky they are watching games at SMS and not at the dell.

[david in sweden]

I'm still on the fence about an extension, but the idea "sounds nice " if we fill the stadium, but at the end of the day (sorry season) its Cortese's vision ..and his (Liebhers investment )..all Saints fans need to do is ..

....BRING A FRIEND.

 

Don't any of you have a mate/colleague / friend /neighbour ...whose never been to a match and might want to come and see what it's like?.....Ask someone to come FCS!

[CB Fry]

Isn’t the argument about ‘planning’ for a bigger stadium?

 

I’m sure Cortese will do all the maths on whether it is financially viable in the long term, but for some to keep arguing the point about not needing a bigger stadium is not covering all your bases is it. Cortese doesn’t have to follow through with the plans FFS. He is investigating it and for a club moving in the right direction like ours is at the moment is the clever thing to do as these things take time.

 

I’m not saying we would fill a 44k stadium every match, but we would fill it and I don’t think anyone on here could say how many times that would happen.

 

Another point, 44000 might be the planning for the complete expansion. There is nothing to say it couldn’t be staged where stage 1 would be 38000 and so on. I think if he is talking about it, it’s a good thing and anyone on here who would rather do nothing all the time and not consider alternatives just in case it could go wrong should think themselves lucky they are watching games at SMS and not at the dell.

 

 

No one is arguing we shouldn't plan it.

 

The debate on here is from the self proclaimed "intelligent posters" who want things to happen now now now and disregard sensible measures like - do we have 25,000 season ticket holders and a waiting list for season tickets, is our stadium locked out weeks in advance for most games, have we truly established ourselves as at least a top ten Premier League club, have we maxed out revenue streams from tickets and corporate entertainment meaning the only viable option is additional seats. That's what me and the "thickos" as we are described by Wes Tender and Matthew Le God want to see. Planning, thought, and genuine business need. Plan for ways to grow the business. Absolutely no doubt that is what Nicola Cortese is doing.

 

Us thickos want planning. It's the self proclaimed "intelligent" ones who want to build it because Wolves might do the same, and their plan to fill it is by running discount promos left right and centre to give tickets away to school kids, and selling thousands and thousands of additional tickets to fans of opposing teams whereby gift wrapping the atmosphere of the stadium over to the opposition. It's the self proclaimed "intelligent" ones who want a 44,000 stadium just to make them feel good, regardless of whether it makes us a dime.

 

But what would the rest of us know. The intelligent posters know best.

Edited 30 November, 2011 by CB Fry

[MarkSFC]

This "debate2 on whether we need/want/could fill/justify a bigger stadium is interesting to say the least. We all have different attitudes to it generally based on our typical outlook on life in general. Some people are more optimistic, some more pesimistic, some more practical, and some more realistic. Some people are reluctant to change, some like it, and some like it for the sake of it.

What this means is that the fan-base (and certainly this opinionated site) cannot and will not ever agree or come to a consensus.

 

luckily the only person who will make the final decision is a very shrewd, intelligent, and experienced business man who has access to a lot of funding. If it happens it will be for all the right reasons an the back of masses of research and reasoning. If not it will be for all the right reasons on the back of of masses of research and reasoning.

 

If its the latter option I just hope that St Mary's as it is is improved in terms of comfort, facilities, operation efficiency and service as well as turned into a 365 days a year business for the long term prospects of our club.