St Landrew Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 It's ridiculous to suggest Saints should never had moved from The Dell. Much as a loved the old ground, the mistake was not doing it much sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmel Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 What we yearn for is the emotion and spirit of the Dell , walking to the Dell from Bedford place after having a fews knowing that our team was going to compete with whoever we were playing , it didnt matter if it was the Mancs , scousers or Arsenal we stood a chance of pulling of a win . We were hard to beat at the Dell and teams hated coming there , you would go to the match with excitement in you belly rather than trepidation. I dont miss the urine running out of the toilets or the crazy queues for a pie at half time , StMarys is now our home and like it or not we must turn it into the same fortress the Dell was . Lowe ,crouch and the PLC structure all have to go before we can move forward , I just hope that the spirit of the club is still there somewhere and can be re-ignited. I am not sure it is sadly ! Spot on. I used to drink at the Winston on the corner and with miltary precision could time my arrival in the ground to that of the two captains shaking hands. I never made that walk from the pub to the ground not believing we were going to win, no matter who we were playing. Maybe it's just nostalgia or sentiment, but I would give everything, just to see and hear the "old girl" rock again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgiansaint Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 I think there's alot of truth in that statement. Although, paying dividends to shareholders and expenses to non-Saints fan boardmembers etc etc is a drain on resources that could be put into a club. It has also proved near impossible to remove Lowe. Did it once - JUST after a long battle and unless he's preparing to run away (which may be the case now) he'll hang on again. I agree though - this plc has been a failure due to personalities. It became a business as it was run by businessmen and forgot it was a football club almost the moment it was formed. Sheffield Utd just delisted, no doubt to provide more funds for players. But it sounds as if their own plc was quite amicable - the shareholders had the club in mind before business. So, I suppose it can work - but even where it has it seems to have served its purpose. I'd love one owner who had the Club at heart, a CEO to run it and a MANAGER. All this European set up is totally daft in a CCC club. Is the fact board members were non Saints fans that relevant? I mean they could have had the company's and "customers'" interests at heart and do their job properly. Being a fan and being an honest and careful board member don't necessarily go hand in hand, do they? What seems more important to me is that apparently they were in there to line their pockets, especially the Wilde execs if I understood the other threads right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughieslastminutegoal Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 We should have moved, we shouldn't have got relegated. In taking on the debt for a new stadium, the service of which requires prem income, we should have tried to make a better fist of avoiding relegation. It appears to me that Lowe thought that relegation wouldn't be that bad as he was convinced we could make loads of dosh from the Academy product, and we had senior pros on contracts that cut their wages in half (well most of them). So he was complacent about the necessity of really trying hard to stay in the prem. We are paying the price for trying to recover from that half-hearted strategy. And now he is back he has a half-hearted strategy about staying in the CCC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 Of course we had to move, but there were elements of the Dell that we should, and could, have replicated. Lowe acknowledged this, and said that they WERE going to be taken into account. They weren't (God, to think I actually believed what Rupert said in those days!). We should be closer to the pitch, the rake should be steeper etc.. No chance now of the old lady who stood near the corner so that she could talk to Nick Holmes when he took a corner having a word with the corner-taker (would almost certainly help), or of one of the players getting the result of the 3.30 from one of the crowd. It may not be the biggest factor in our slump, but it is contributory and was another opportunity lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint1977 Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 What we yearn for is the emotion and spirit of the Dell , walking to the Dell from Bedford place after having a fews knowing that our team was going to compete with whoever we were playing , it didnt matter if it was the Mancs , scousers or Arsenal we stood a chance of pulling of a win . We were hard to beat at the Dell and teams hated coming there , you would go to the match with excitement in you belly rather than trepidation. I dont miss the urine running out of the toilets or the crazy queues for a pie at half time , StMarys is now our home and like it or not we must turn it into the same fortress the Dell was . Lowe ,crouch and the PLC structure all have to go before we can move forward , I just hope that the spirit of the club is still there somewhere and can be re-ignited. I am not sure it is sadly ! Top post and we made plenty of noise when WGS was here (with a strong home record to boot) but we haven't quite made SMS into the same fortress yet. As you say, the boiling point at boardroom level will hopefully be the driver behind the spirit and sense of purpose coming back amongst us fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsacar saint Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 We had to move, when we did. To keep surviving on 15000 gates , was getting harder and harder. In restrospect, with the money still owned on the ground, it is easy to say that we should have stayed put. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint1977 Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 We had to move, when we did. To keep surviving on 15000 gates , was getting harder and harder. In restrospect, with the money still owned on the ground, it is easy to say that we should have stayed put. We had to move plus the East and West stands would have needed replacing - bearing in mind there was no room for outward expansion we couldn't have built upwards as it would have blocked the light of surrounding properties. We've had some great times so far at SMS, it's not the stadium's fault that several different boards have made a pig's ear of things. It's easy to be nostalgic because the fanbase was close-knit at the Dell but the reverse-takeover happened in 1996 when we were still at the Dell so the trouble was already brewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakovnetski Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 If we stayed we would be selling out all the games at this end of the division.:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ooohTerryHurlock Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 Look at Luton who are stuck with a really antiquated old hole of a ground with no way of generating any income bar ticket sales. We've messed up on football, the SMS mortgage should have been doable but various boards since 2004 have made stinking football decisions. That's not SMS's fault and I'm not sure that the Dell would have held it's intimidation factor much longer anyway. The Skates have a similar type of ground and their record at Fratton Rust Bowl over the last 2 seasons hasn't been that clever. Whats that big ****ing Silver thing in their trophy cabinet? I would rather have their record over the past two years! Big green eyes i have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ooohTerryHurlock Posted 9 January, 2009 Share Posted 9 January, 2009 nothing wrong with being a PLC ' date=' PROBLEM was our one was controlled by 6 men for their own benefit , so basically we were a private company still .[/quote'] ... But the optionis there for fans to put there money where there mouth is and put money into the club. If every season ticket holder invested £100 we would have a holding equivelent to that of RL. What is that -£5 a game? or give up a pint and pie in the ground? We moan and groan and huff and puff but there is no way forward is there? If we got together as a fan base and started to buy the club up we could change things and in doing this we could then approach the council to get them on board. We need to get sorted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eelpie Posted 10 January, 2009 Share Posted 10 January, 2009 St Mary's was a good idea, but a lousy choice of design, thank you Rupert. It lacks an intimidating atmosphere and suits opposing teams more than us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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