We get it we're not a massive club...

[John B]

32 minutes ago, moonraker said:

I have not created a ranking system, just stated some of the things that would be obvious to anyone creating a business plan for stadium expansion.  As you I am sure well know such an ambition would require a lot of research and analysis, and alongside a ranking a weighting would be applied, I am sure with your apparent superior insight you could do that.  You, I,  nor anyone else on here has empirical evidence as to whether an expansion would result in notably and regular increased attendance, but I for one like to believe that the club can grow, as has been said so many times we all have an opinion on these things and my differs from yours.   

I think he does not think it a good idea at the moment

[Charlie Wayman]

48 minutes ago, TWar said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/02/18/southampton-became-premier-leagues-grown-up-club/

Good read and no bloody firewall to frustrate us. Thanks for sharing. 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, moonraker said:

I have not created a ranking system, just stated some of the things that would be obvious to anyone creating a business plan for stadium expansion.  As you I am sure well know such an ambition would require a lot of research and analysis, and alongside a ranking a weighting would be applied, I am sure with your apparent superior insight you could do that.  You, I,  nor anyone else on here has empirical evidence as to whether an expansion would result in notably and regular increased attendance, but I for one like to believe that the club can grow, as has been said so many times we all have an opinion on these things and my differs from yours.   

but you listed three areas which are a gauge for our potential. So let’s take them one by one.
 

So catchment area 

a medium sized city outside of that half of it in the sea, to the east a city that hates us. To the left a forest north of Winchester competing with London based clubs 4 of which are currently in the top 10.

 

On field success 

one trophy in 137 years. 
 

historical trends 

an average historical crowd average of around 16.5k

Let’s build a case or 45,000 capacity based on that shall we? excuse me for a dell sized mentality but There ain’t one

Edited 18 February, 2022 by Turkish

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

but you listed three areas which are a gauge for our potential. So let’s take them one by one.
 

So catchment area 

a medium sized city outside of that half of it in the sea, to the east a city that hates us. To the left a forest north of Winchester competing with London based clubs 4 of which are currently in the top 10.

 

On field success 

one trophy in 137 years. 
 

historical trends 

an average historical crowd average of around 16.5k

Let’s build a case or 45,000 capacity based on that shall we? excuse me for a dell sized mentality but There ain’t one

Cause and effect innit. How do you expect us to win a trophy with a capacity of only 32,000 ?

[The Kraken]

11 hours ago, moonraker said:

I do not believe there is a single super metric for assessing our potential for bigger attendances.  Whilst I accept that a healthy season ticket waiting list would add to the body of evidence for potential increased attendances it is as you state one of many.  Taking any criteria in isolation does not further the discussion.  That being said I think there are three others that in my view carry similar weight as season ticket waiting list; Catchment area, on field success (subjective in its own right) and historic trends.   My view is that whilst we cannot claim exclusive attractiveness to the whole central south and south west, we do, I would contend, offer more than all the other clubs in these areas, the vast majority of clubs (in the prem) who have increased their capacity have seen a corresponding increase in attendances, our current on field performance is very encouraging, and for a club of our size we are as established and stable as a prem club could ask to be.   So in conclusion there is not a single super metric, as a business the club need to assess all of the evidence (metrics) to assess the potential for growing our attendance and weigh that against the increased potential for commercial growth. 

Fair enough. I agree there are very many factors that contribute to a potential for a bigger stadium. But, for me, the two biggest ones by far are (1) having more fans who want a season ticket than there are season tickets available and (2) monitoring home ticket sales and seeing how quickly games sell out. There are other variables such as club success, ticket pricing etc but these are just contributory factors to the two metrics I mentioned.

Off the top of my head there are 4 PL clubs who are going through the process of stadium expansion / move: Liverpool, Everton, Leicester, Leeds. A quick google tells me that all four of those clubs operate a season ticket waiting list. So it kind of highlights the importance of that metric IMO.

I should point out that I’ve always thought Saints might be able to accommodate a bigger stadium under certain circumstances, I could potentially see a growth up to a stadium size around 40k. We’re not there now IMO, and it’ll be interesting to hear if our new owners have any intention of upgrade in size, though I’m not expecting it soon. But, yes, there’s always hope of ‘doing a Leicester’.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, The Kraken said:

Fair enough. I agree there are very many factors that contribute to a potential for a bigger stadium. But, for me, the two biggest ones by far are (1) having more fans who want a season ticket than there are season tickets available and (2) monitoring home ticket sales and seeing how quickly games sell out. There are other variables such as club success, ticket pricing etc but these are just contributory factors to the two metrics I mentioned.

Off the top of my head there are 4 PL clubs who are going through the process of stadium expansion / move: Liverpool, Everton, Leicester, Leeds. A quick google tells me that all four of those clubs operate a season ticket waiting list. So it kind of highlights the importance of that metric IMO.

I should point out that I’ve always thought Saints might be able to accommodate a bigger stadium under certain circumstances, I could potentially see a growth up to a stadium size around 40k. We’re not there now IMO, and it’ll be interesting to hear if our new owners have any intention of upgrade in size, though I’m not expecting it soon. But, yes, there’s always hope of ‘doing a Leicester’.

Can vouch for Leeds as my local premier league club. Tried on a couple of occasions to get tickets well before match day. Complete sell out and referred to the membership System to have a chance in future. £50 for standard membership or £80 for membership plus for me £30 for 8 year old son so £110  just to have a chance to get a ticket, plus the ticket cost itself to watch two teams im not bothered about at least one of which is currently in the bottom 6. We’re going to see our local league two club instead, £20 for the pair of us and no hilarious Bantz between fans to endure. 
 

I’ve managed to get a few corporate tickets for the saints game fortunately as I do a lot of work with a premier league sponsor but no chance will I be able to get a Leeds ticket outside of this. Never had that sort of problem at saints. If you want a ticket and get in early enough you can generally get one

[Matthew Le God]

39 minutes ago, Turkish said:

If you want a ticket and get in early enough you can generally get one

That is true of every club on the planet.

[egg]

I can't believe we're back on this discussion. We don't fill a 32k stadium so don't need a bigger one. Not complicated. 

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, egg said:

I can't believe we're back on this discussion. We don't fill a 32k stadium so don't need a bigger one. Not complicated. 

Yet another sold our game tomorrow 

[Turkish]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

Yet another sold our game tomorrow 

Is it soon yet?

 

🤣🤣🤣

[CB Fry]

13 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Is it soon yet?

 

🤣🤣🤣

He never said that etc etc etc etc.

[adrian lord]

Those commenting about the catchment being 50% sea (to the south) forget the tens of thousands that could be recruited from the Isle of Wight. 

[The Kraken]

6 minutes ago, adrian lord said:

Those commenting about the catchment being 50% sea (to the south) forget the tens of thousands that could be recruited from the Isle of Wight. 

Are they not recruited already? If not, what’s stopping them?

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, egg said:

I can't believe we're back on this discussion. We don't fill a 32k stadium so don't need a bigger one. Not complicated. 

Sell out doesn’t mean that every single seat is occupied.

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Is it soon yet?

 

🤣🤣🤣

Nice to see ten years on that neither me or @moonraker have changed our opinion one bit.

 

Some absolute effing gems in that thread.

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Nice to see ten years on that neither me or @moonraker have changed our opinion one bit.

 

Some absolute effing gems in that thread.

Good to reminisce seeing some posts from Franks cousin on there, obviously very, very drunk at the time he made them 

[egg]

8 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Yet another sold our game tomorrow 

"yet another" is more often used to describe the games we don't sell out. I can't believe a stat man would overlook that out average home attendance is just over 29k, more than 3k under capacity. Sure, there'll be a few season ticket holders and ticket buyers who no show, but not 3k average per game.

It's a simple case that we're not consistently selling out, so the case for a bigger stadium is a poor one. 

[adrian lord]

I don't think we have properly exploited the potential fanbase boost from the Channel Islands' either. Why stop there? St Malo? Brittany? Never mind ruling the south coast, we could be the giants of English Channel football. 

Edited 19 February, 2022 by adrian lord

[rallyboy]

Who wants to be a massive club?

Beating Burnley 5-0 every time and chucking your toys out and demanding major changes when you occasionally lose to other massive clubs doesn't look like much fun.

When not winning the Champions' League is a total disaster, you've lost touch with the fans.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, adrian lord said:

I don't think we have properly exploited the potential fanbase boost from the Channel Islands' either. Why stop there? St Malo? Brittany? Never mind ruling the south coast, we could be the giants of English Channel football. 

Good point. Is our twin city still Le Harve? Surely potential to exploit that relationship along with our historical links to Bilbao, plenty of fans in Basque Country who would love a premier league club to support. Direct ferry links to Hampshire from Bilbao as well so thousands of them can get here easily.

[Charlie Wayman]

12 hours ago, adrian lord said:

Those commenting about the catchment being 50% sea (to the south) forget the tens of thousands that could be recruited from the Isle of Wight. 

Loads of French players in our team so let's get all those footie fans in Normandy & Brittany to come over that should push the numbers up a bit. 

[Disco Stu]

I'm glad today is a sell out but generally this season our attendances have been pretty poor as far as I'm concerned. Our current capacity is about right I think. It's embarrassing enough seeing a few thousand empty seats on motd. We don't need a few thousand more.

 

I'd love to have a more characterful stadium rather than the flat-packed bowl we currently play in. I'm glad we've made some efforts to jazz it up a bit with red and white panels, new red surround around the pitch and the new screens coming in. That's the best we can hope for right now. Major development or a rebuild isn't currently justified.

[The Kraken]

Just for clarity.

[Dr Who?]

On this note Borja makes it clear that he wants to make it at Chelsea and shows that no matter what he says about wanting to stay is just to generate interest from elsewhere. It’s so blatant as well. 

[Toadhall Saint]

2 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

On this note Borja makes it clear that he wants to make it at Chelsea and shows that no matter what he says about wanting to stay is just to generate interest from elsewhere. It’s so blatant as well. 

What note? Where gave you seen this?

[Dr Who?]

11 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

What note? Where gave you seen this?

On the note of players wanting out. Another case will be today. Great performances against teams when ‘in the shop window’ Man City, Spurs, and Man U, but we will see today. I’m hoping we carry it on, but I bet it is under par against a weak Everton side. 

it was on his social media sites, but having a quick search he seems to have removed the post of him doing the trademark celebration after scoring for Saints, but changed to a Chelsea shirt with him saying ‘hopefully one day’. This I think was on his Facebook official page posted by him. But now gone. 

[Toadhall Saint]

3 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

On the note of players wanting out. Another case will be today. Great performances against teams when ‘in the shop window’ Man City, Spurs, and Man U, but we will see today. I’m hoping we carry it on, but I bet it is under par against a weak Everton side. 

it was on his social media sites, but having a quick search he seems to have removed the post of him doing the trademark celebration after scoring for Saints, but changed to a Chelsea shirt with him saying ‘hopefully one day’. This I think was on his Facebook official page posted by him. But now gone. 

Cheers

[The Kraken]

8 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

On the note of players wanting out. Another case will be today. Great performances against teams when ‘in the shop window’ Man City, Spurs, and Man U, but we will see today. I’m hoping we carry it on, but I bet it is under par against a weak Everton side. 

it was on his social media sites, but having a quick search he seems to have removed the post of him doing the trademark celebration after scoring for Saints, but changed to a Chelsea shirt with him saying ‘hopefully one day’. This I think was on his Facebook official page posted by him. But now gone. 

It absolutely shouldn’t be a surprise that he wants to play for Chelsea. He’s been on their books for many years and he’s only here on loan. He’d be mad to bin that off to sign for us, he absolutely should be aiming to break through into the Chelsea team next season. Yeah, he’s got a bit of a media game to play while with us, and don’t burn your bridges in case you don’t make it at Chelsea, but after more than a decade with Chelsea before the loan it’s fairly obvious where his loyalties will lie.

[Dr Who?]

16 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

It absolutely shouldn’t be a surprise that he wants to play for Chelsea. He’s been on their books for many years and he’s only here on loan. He’d be mad to bin that off to sign for us, he absolutely should be aiming to break through into the Chelsea team next season. Yeah, he’s got a bit of a media game to play while with us, and don’t burn your bridges in case you don’t make it at Chelsea, but after more than a decade with Chelsea before the loan it’s fairly obvious where his loyalties will lie.

No it should not be a surprise, and it is not, but there is a way to conduct yourself, especially when he has said he would like to stay. He has obviously been advised to take such posts down. He could end up signing, but I very much doubt it if he keeps playing like he is at the moment. Just talking about him and a link to Arsenal again, which I keep hearing over the last few days. 
 

Edited 19 February, 2022 by Dr Who?

[saintquin]

On 16/02/2022 at 14:58, sad saints fan said:

It would be pointless having a larger capacity stadium because even if we won the champions league 10 years running Southampton does not have the population to increase fan numbers significantly. There only just over 300k people in Southampton and about the same number in Eastleigh and Winchester combined . So you would need about 6% of the population to be a) a football fan b) a Southampton fan c) Not be an armchair fan d) be able to afford the price of admission. You would get a few tourist but not a significant amount .

Which is about the same as Sunderland and they get a great size crowd for that even in League One!

[Toadhall Saint]

33 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

No it should not be a surprise, and it is not, but there is a way to conduct yourself, especially when he has said he would like to stay. He has obviously been advised to take such posts down. He could end up signing, but I very much doubt it if he keeps playing like he is at the moment. Just talking about him and a link to Arsenal again, which I keep hearing over the last few days. 
 

Broja’s mum is quoted as saying the family will decide but Armando needs to be playing football week in and week out. Read into that what you will.