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SAINTS keen on stadium expansion


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As an growing business you dont wait until you are running at full capacity before you expand. If the signs are there that we could get in excess of 30k for normal games along with an expected 35 -40k for the bigger games we should expand. We arent that far away from that imo. Add to this the extra match day revenues, the long term benefits of supporter loyalty, the kudos of a larger stadium, potentially greater corporste revenues etc its not quite as daft as some are making out.

Which is all very well were it not for the fact that attendances fell by about 600 people per game last season. And that overall numbers were 1500 per game down from our all time high 10 years ago.

 

I must say I'm staggered at the amount of people sticking their fingers in their ears to what has actually been said by the chairman. We're not expanding any time soon. We might in the future, but not until we see a significant about turn in numbers game after game after game. And that point is certainly not now.

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West Ham are effectively doing similar. It helps increase the fan-base, raise the profile of the club and makes the club more appealing for sponsors.

 

Okay, West Ham have a bigger fan base than us, but 32,000 vs 54,000 stadium bigger?

 

But you're forgetting you can draw an imaginary line from Upton Park down to Brighton, and north round the m25, up the M11 across to the m69 exit at junctions 21 and then Up the m6, across the m62, down the M1 and across to the north Lincolnshire Coast , And there isn't a premier league club in that entire area so with that catchment area they'd be tens of thousands of fans wanting to watch premier league football at the Olympic stadium. Not forgetting they get crowds bigger than us now and are a crap team playing unattractive football. Just imagine if they were playing good football in a nice stadium!

Edited by Turkish
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MLG. you spent all summer dumbing our place down in the footballing world saying what did we expect when CL and even non CL clubs came in and took our players

 

as much as I would love to see another tier thrown on the kingsland, cant you see that 32k is just right for us now at these pricing levels?

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Which is all very well were it not for the fact that attendances fell by about 600 people per game last season. And that overall numbers were 1500 per game down from our all time high 10 years ago.

 

I must say I'm staggered at the amount of people sticking their fingers in their ears to what has actually been said by the chairman. We're not expanding any time soon. We might in the future, but not until we see a significant about turn in numbers game after game after game. And that point is certainly not now.

I was effectively agreeing with what Ralph said, but just added that I didn't think we were that far away from the the point where we start to seriously think about expansion.

 

Attendances might well be down on our 'all time high' but we have a good team, good manager and a board that backs them. Things have not been this good for a long time. If it continues for a couple of years, the economy continues to grow and we get a bit of luck along the way, who knows?

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But your forgetting you can draw an imaginary line from Upton Park down to Brighton, and north round the m25, up the M11 across to the m69 exit at junctions 21 and then Up the m6, across the m62, up the A1m to scotch corner, And there isn't a premier league club in that entire area so with that catchment area they'd be tens of thousands of fans wanting to watch premier league football at the Olympic stadium. Not forgetting they get crowds bigger than us now and are a crap team playing unattractive football. Just imagine if they were playing good football in a nice stadium!

 

I followed these instructions v.carefully!

 

West Ham Catchment Area 2014:

westham_zpsbe83a95a.jpg

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I followed these instructions v.carefully!

 

West Ham Catchment Area 2014:

westham_zpsbe83a95a.jpg

 

Don't forget everything east from Grimsby down, that is their catchment area. There must be thousands of people in kent, Sussex, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk looking for a premier league club to support!

Edited by Turkish
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Why we spend £30m expanding the stadium and then reduce the price to fill it?

 

Yes but increasing your active fan base is no bad thing. A larger stadium attracting more fans prepared to pay the lower prices may not boost profits short term but will be the equivalent of throwing down ground bait when starting to fish.

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Yes but increasing your active fan base is no bad thing. A larger stadium attracting more fans prepared to pay the lower prices may not boost profits short term but will be the equivalent of throwing down ground bait when starting to fish.

It's the equivalent of pi ss ing money away. Massive capital expenditure to intentionally devalue your own product is utter madness.

 

The only reason to expand and then slash prices is bone-headed vanity. Thankfully neither Cortese (despite MLG's fantasies on here) or the current regime were/are quite that thick, so it won't happen.

Edited by CB Fry
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Do they all have to blow bubbles or is this perk not available to the JCLs?

 

It'll be part of their easyjet pricing model. £15 gets you into the ground, £20 gets you Into the ground and one use of the bogs, £35 gets priority entry and to blow bubbles as well.

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  • 6 months later...
Oh yeah, I forgot.. he was banned at last.

 

:D ok. What's the deal here? If someone beats Blatter, which they won't, England could win 2026 bid, which they won't, but if they did we could build the Cortese Megadome, which we won't?

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Just imagine how much demand for tickets they'll be if the team were doing well and challenging near the top of the league.

 

Do we still need to imagine that scenario, MLG?

 

## sits back and waits for MLG to pretend he never said such a thing ##

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Just imagine how much demand for tickets they'll be if the team were doing well and challenging near the top of the league.

 

Do we still need to imagine that scenario, MLG?

 

## sits back and waits for MLG to pretend he never said such a thing ##

 

Please let there be easyjet pricing.

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Bingo. If it was up to me, I'd stick the away fans in the Itchen/Northam Corner and make the whole Northam safe standing with cheaper tickets. Would get a bigger crowd into the same area, have a better atmosphere and make the same amount of money.

 

I quite like the idea of the train station. It seems those being unwilling to walk to Central are being branded lazy by some on here but spare a thought for some of our older fans. My grand parents were ST holders until about 5 years ago but got put off by the 20+ minute walk to a suitable car park.

 

A train station could also help to significantly ease traffic. If we had a park and ride by train scheme from SMS going out to places like Eastleigh, Airport, Hedge End and Winchester, it would be a lot quicker than parking in town. 15 minutes after the game you could be out of town and away from the traffic.

Now if you were to expand that to Zurich Airport and drive me down the M3, I would buy a season ticket yesterday.....I promise.

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Surely the Amex would get it over us just like this years RWC?

 

The football World Cup has a minimum capacity requirement for its stadiums that the Rugby World Cup doesn't. Given the relative positions of the two clubs, Saints can justify a need for a larger stadium more than Brighton can.

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Woah, woah, woah... wait a minute!

 

I thought it wasnt possible for a UEFA confederation nation to bid for another world cup until 2030 (as the rotation rule currently prevents a confederation from holding anymore than 1/3 world cups), or have I missed something.

 

You missed the bit where they invented the "rotation rule" in order to ensure the USA got the World Cup in 1994 and revived it to ensure South Africa got it in 2010, but have otherwise completely ignored it.

 

With the exception of 2010/2014 Europe has hosted every other World Cup, and though the idea of adding other continents to the rotation is there in principle, there's no particular reason why they couldn't have 2026 - especially if Russia counts as Europe/Asia in 2018. Because FIFA's not big on principles.

 

1990 Europe

1994 North America

1998 Europe

2002 Asia

2006 Europe

2010 Africa

2014 South America

2018 Europe

2022 Asia

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The football World Cup has a minimum capacity requirement for its stadiums that the Rugby World Cup doesn't. Given the relative positions of the two clubs, Saints can justify a need for a larger stadium more than Brighton can.

 

In the same way one very bald man can justify buying a comb more than another very very bald man.

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Lower ticket prices and people like me can have STs again.

 

We would 100% get 40k fans if we charged the following, also help me make more games with my son.

Cat A Stay the same.

 

Cat B 30 pounds 25 pound for u18s and OAPs U11s 5 pounds.

 

Cat C 25 pounds 20 pounds for U18s and OAPs U11s free still

 

We cant fill the stadium at the moment and it saddens me, but also gives me hope people at SMS who work out ticket pricing can see they have failed badly at getting the prices correct, its not because of the fan base size its purely the money aspect, this is why we cant get 32k in Cat 3 games.

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The football World Cup has a minimum capacity requirement for its stadiums that the Rugby World Cup doesn't. Given the relative positions of the two clubs, Saints can justify a need for a larger stadium more than Brighton can.

Expansion can be temporary just for the World Cup. If there was a bid we would face stiff competition from Brighton and Pompey, their councils would put up very strong bids.

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Try telling that to someone who could not get tickets Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

 

Had to bide by time and finally managed to get one for Burnley.

Okay.

 

We don't need a bigger stadium, we can't sell out the current one.

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Expansion can be temporary just for the World Cup. If there was a bid we would face stiff competition from Brighton and Pompey, their councils would put up very strong bids.

 

Brighton makes sense but isn't Pompey's stadium completely inadequate for a World Cup? It only holds 21,100 according to my in depth googling.

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Okay.

 

We don't need a bigger stadium, we can't sell out the current one.

 

The situation is more complicated than that. If we could sell a significant number of additional tickets over the course of a season and thereby generate a significant amount of additional revenue and if Leibherr was filling to fund the expansion, the additional revenue would be available under FFP to spend on salary and transfer fees whereas the costs of expansion would not count against FFP. If Liebherr is not willing to fund the expansion, then cash flow limits probably dictate against the expansion.

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The situation is more complicated than that. If we could sell a significant number of additional tickets over the course of a season and thereby generate a significant amount of additional revenue and if Leibherr was filling to fund the expansion, the additional revenue would be available under FFP to spend on salary and transfer fees whereas the costs of expansion would not count against FFP. If Liebherr is not willing to fund the expansion, then cash flow limits probably dictate against the expansion.
But that's the simple point. The club clearly don't feel there would be a significant enough revenue increase to cover costs of expansion, which is why we haven't done it.
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But that's the simple point. The club clearly don't feel there would be a significant enough revenue increase to cover costs of expansion, which is why we haven't done it.

 

That is sort of what I said, but more complicated--because I always make things more complicated. Should I explain why?

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If we had a bigger stadium the overall. Number of tickets sold over a season would rise significantly. Even if that means we still got 30-32k at home to burnley, wba, Stoke and sunderland

Try telling that to our friend further up the thread who had to settle for Burnley tickets when he wanted to see the Chelsea match instead.

 

Making it easy to pick and choose just the big matches could easily deflate season ticket sales and attendances for lower grade prem matches. Over supply is not the same as actual demand.

 

And anyway, your point is not the point - it's whether that supposed increase in tickets sold more than covers the investment needed. The club clearly see, right now, it don't. Boring but true.

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Try telling that to our friend further up the thread who had to settle for Burnley tickets when he wanted to see the Chelsea match instead.

 

Making it easy to pick and choose just the big matches could easily deflate season ticket sales and attendances for lower grade prem matches. Over supply is not the same as actual demand.

 

 

 

And anyway, your point is not the point - it's whether that supposed increase in tickets sold more than covers the investment needed. The club clearly see, right now, it don't. Boring but true.

 

I live in Paris so I don't come to the Uk often. Turns out the dates I could have come to the UK had these games on.

 

I even went to the QPR away game in the QPR home end just because I was desperate to see Saints.

Had to control myself when we scored in injury time.

If I was living in the Uk I would defo get a season ticket.

So I don't get to pick and choose big matches as you are implying

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I live in Paris so I don't come to the Uk often. Turns out the dates I could have come to the UK had these games on.

 

I even went to the QPR away game in the QPR home end just because I was desperate to see Saints.

Had to control myself when we scored in injury time.

If I was living in the Uk I would defo get a season ticket.

So I don't get to pick and choose big matches as you are implying

So if you couldn't go to those games anyway, not sure what point you were making in that original post.

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