St Mary's Stadium

[spyinthesky]

On 26/06/2024 at 17:35, The Cat said:

Maybe also in part due to the fact they built all over the land at Windhover which was one of the biggest park and ride car parks we had

There was also a Park & Ride introduced at the tail end of our last Prem season using the Multi Storey at Nursling.
It wasnt advertised too well and therefore take up was low.

[JRM]

2 hours ago, AllyD said:

Just driven round the ground, interesting progress - a new fenced off walkway behind the bike storage area and two new large portacabin like bars/food areas in situ.

 

Fenced off walkway linked to away entrance? 

[Saint_clark]

On 26/06/2024 at 13:23, Saint86 said:

Surprised the club can justify reducing the number of disabled parking spaces from 57 to 30. Have they reduced the number of disabled seats in the stadium or provided alternative means for disabled supporters to get to the stadium? On the face of that seems quite poorly thought through.

Not trying to be funny but one of our stands is now entirely standing so surely that's affected how many spaces we need?

[CSA96]

Saw these pics of some of the work getting under way at St Mary's earlier this week (from @sfcwxl on Twitter)

[M271]

8 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Saw these pics of some of the work getting under way at St Mary's earlier this week (from @sfcwxl on Twitter)

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

[CSA96]

3 minutes ago, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

I was wondering that too. Maybe it's so that it can be an open flow round the stadium pre-game but then they can put in temporary partitions shortly before KO and after games where they anticipate some aggro, so they get the away fans in/out without a flow of Saints fans or marching away fans through the home support.

Edit: just re-read your message and realise you mean they don't touch the pavement! Fair question too

Edited 28 June, 2024 by CSA96

[Wurzel]

14 hours ago, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

Any trouble, kettle the away fans, shut the gates on them, stewards police and everyone else can safely stand outside the fence laughing as the police dogs are let loose to crawl in under the gates and have their fun 🤣

[Whitey Grandad]

18 hours ago, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

Hedgehogs 

[Patches O Houlihan]

19 hours ago, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

In the event of a crush anyone who ends up on the ground by the gate can roll under to safety?

[northam soul]

20 hours ago, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

It’s in case we ever play the skates again, it’s to let the smell out of the compound.😉

[Nordic Saint]

On 28/06/2024 at 19:51, M271 said:

I wonder why the gates don't go down to nearer the ground level?

Ease of opening and closing them.

[Matthew Le God]

Crystal Palace are another PL club that think a big infrastructure investment will help them increase revenue, which will then allow them to spend more due to new financial rules coming in restrict you to a spending a % of income.

 

[CB Fry]

34 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Crystal Palace are another PL club that think a big infrastructure investment will help them increase revenue, which will then allow them to spend more due to new financial rules coming in restrict you to a spending a % of income.

 

Will take them to a 34,000 seater stadium. A ground so gigantic I can't even imagine it.

The ambition of these clubs are completely blowing us out of the water.

[angelman]

Palace are interesting. They have a huge catchment area..... Croydon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, town in the country without a pro football team. Population 385k. Then there is a huge area of south London that has Wimbledon, and then the next closest is (I think, but happy to be told otherwise) Chelsea then Milwall. IMO if you wanted to buy a PL team and increased value of it, Palace would probably be top for me.

Edited 1 July, 2024 by angelman

[Miltonaggro]

On 30/06/2024 at 14:39, CB Fry said:

Will take them to a 34,000 seater stadium. A ground so gigantic I can't even imagine it.

The ambition of these clubs are completely blowing us out of the water.

FFS, wish we were Crystal Croyden.

[JRM]

On 30/06/2024 at 14:39, CB Fry said:

Will take them to a 34,000 seater stadium. A ground so gigantic I can't even imagine it.

The ambition of these clubs are completely blowing us out of the water.

As a % increase still  a decent improvement for Palace 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

7 hours ago, JRM said:

As a % increase still  a decent improvement for Palace 

It's the massive boost to their corporate facilities that will probably make the biggest difference.

[Matthew Le God]

On 30/06/2024 at 14:39, CB Fry said:

Will take them to a 34,000 seater stadium. A ground so gigantic I can't even imagine it.

The ambition of these clubs are completely blowing us out of the water.

Irrelevant to the point that an infrastructure investment ultimately allows you to spend more on transfers and wages under incoming financial rules. 

[Turkish]

22 hours ago, angelman said:

Palace are interesting. They have a huge catchment area..... Croydon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, town in the country without a pro football team. Population 385k. Then there is a huge area of south London that has Wimbledon, and then the next closest is (I think, but happy to be told otherwise) Chelsea then Milwall. IMO if you wanted to buy a PL team and increased value of it, Palace would probably be top for me.

Our catchment area

[skintsaint]

On 01/07/2024 at 23:07, angelman said:

Palace are interesting. They have a huge catchment area..... Croydon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, town in the country without a pro football team. Population 385k. Then there is a huge area of south London that has Wimbledon, and then the next closest is (I think, but happy to be told otherwise) Chelsea then Milwall. IMO if you wanted to buy a PL team and increased value of it, Palace would probably be top for me.

Played in a charity game at Tooting & Mitchams ground last Sunday, there were a lot of Palace shirts around and mainly by kids so good to see they haven't gone for the likes of Chelsea/Arsenal. 

[CSA96]

 

[warsash saint]

On 30/06/2024 at 14:03, Matthew Le God said:

Crystal Palace are another PL club that think a big infrastructure investment will help them increase revenue, which will then allow them to spend more due to new financial rules coming in restrict you to a spending a % of income.

 

If only Palace prioritised the god awful away end !

[The Kraken]

13 minutes ago, warsash saint said:

If only Palace prioritised the god awful away end !

The Arthur Wait is absolutely appalling! Ok it gave us Dellhurst Park but the concourses and toilets are a disgrace!

[Saint_clark]

6 hours ago, CSA96 said:

 

Showing our commitment to fans doing a bit of good old fashioned fence rattling. 

[Matthew Le God]

Won't be easy to get a ticket next season for many. Only 5% of capacity (1,626 seats) available to non season ticket holders.

Season tickets sold out...

https://x.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1809135612089250093?t=oIGUyreQO9oW6wrwCQfY7g&s=19

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

 

 

 

[bpsaint]

3 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Won't be easy to get a ticket next season for many. Only 5% of capacity (1,626 seats) available to non season ticket holders.

Season tickets sold out...

https://x.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1809135612089250093?t=oIGUyreQO9oW6wrwCQfY7g&s=19

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

 

 

 

Great to see that relegation really didn’t harm our support last season, and likewise people aren’t/weren’t put off by the dire 2022/23 season and the likelihood of a few beatings coming our way.

it’d be good if the club take a good look at expanding now it’s clear the fan base is there.

[suewhistle]

As any expansion would be over the Kingsland perhaps the extra catering within the new fence is connected and they are seeing how it might work? But I presume the external wall would also be further out than now so the internal concourses would be extended, but maybe not sufficiently?

Who knows? At least there is some small sign of investment going on.

 

[The Kraken]

Not sure why the club don’t release actual ST sales numbers. They used to back in the earlier days of St Mary’s. I seem to recall 23K being a high and Rupert Lowe MP stating he wanted to see 25k over multiple seasons before he consider stadium expansion.

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, The Kraken said:

Not sure why the club don’t release actual ST sales numbers. They used to back in the earlier days of St Mary’s. I seem to recall 23K being a high and Rupert Lowe MP stating he wanted to see 25k over multiple seasons before he consider stadium expansion.

Are match day tickets on sale already? Surely we could work it out by how many are available when they go up. 

[The Kraken]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Are match day tickets on sale already? Surely we could work it out by how many are available when they go up. 

You could but it’s never going to be too accurate, you have to take into account all the corporate boxes, the lounges, comps for staff/players/guestsetc, that’s all a bit of an unknown quantity. Coukd probably make a best guess though I suppose. 

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Are match day tickets on sale already? Surely we could work it out by how many are available when they go up. 

Echo journalist Alfie House says in the Tweet I posted earlier...

"Saints have confirmed membership information for the 2024/25 season with earlier ticket access as sales expected to be limited. Season tickets sold out at St Mary’s with I believe around 5% tickets held back for match-by-match sales."

5% = only a mere 1,626 seats left for match day tickets 

If that is true, season ticket numbers may be circa 26k/27k with the rest for corporate seats, the stadium boxes and the 3k away fans. 

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

[JRM]

49 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Echo journalist Alfie House says in the Tweet I posted earlier...

"Saints have confirmed membership information for the 2024/25 season with earlier ticket access as sales expected to be limited. Season tickets sold out at St Mary’s with I believe around 5% tickets held back for match-by-match sales."

5% = only a mere 1,626 seats left for match day tickets 

If that is true, season ticket numbers may be circa 26k/27k with the rest for corporate seats, the stadium boxes and the 3k away fans. 

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

I don't think the club have confirmed anywhere how many season tickets have been sold. They've decided they've reached a total they are happy to stop at , if sales are as high as we're assuming I worry that will encourage the club to put game by game prices sky high as so few for them to sell. Would be a shame. 

[Weston Super Saint]

14 minutes ago, JRM said:

I don't think the club have confirmed anywhere how many season tickets have been sold. They've decided they've reached a total they are happy to stop at , if sales are as high as we're assuming I worry that will encourage the club to put game by game prices sky high as so few for them to sell. Would be a shame. 

Wouldn't get those nasty away supporters in the home end though, like the 100k Leeds fans that bought memberships.

[oldsarum]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Echo journalist Alfie House says in the Tweet I posted earlier...

"Saints have confirmed membership information for the 2024/25 season with earlier ticket access as sales expected to be limited. Season tickets sold out at St Mary’s with I believe around 5% tickets held back for match-by-match sales."

5% = only a mere 1,626 seats left for match day tickets 

If that is true, season ticket numbers may be circa 26k/27k with the rest for corporate seats, the stadium boxes and the 3k away fans. 

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

Some of the season tickets holders will actually be in hospitality areas, so I think you’ll find there will be more match days tickets available than you suggest 

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, oldsarum said:

Some of the season tickets holders will actually be in hospitality areas, so I think you’ll find there will be more match days tickets available than you suggest 

I included corporate seats & boxes in my post

[Sarisbury Saint]

4 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Echo journalist Alfie House says in the Tweet I posted earlier...

"Saints have confirmed membership information for the 2024/25 season with earlier ticket access as sales expected to be limited. Season tickets sold out at St Mary’s with I believe around 5% tickets held back for match-by-match sales."

5% = only a mere 1,626 seats left for match day tickets 

If that is true, season ticket numbers may be circa 26k/27k with the rest for corporate seats, the stadium boxes and the 3k away fans. 

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

With the area we live in expanding at such a fast rate, then surely it would be very short sighted to not expand our stadium, especially with the season ticket sales being so high this early.

[egg]

On 06/07/2024 at 09:37, Matthew Le God said:

Won't be easy to get a ticket next season for many. Only 5% of capacity (1,626 seats) available to non season ticket holders.

Season tickets sold out...

https://x.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1809135612089250093?t=oIGUyreQO9oW6wrwCQfY7g&s=19

https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1809142722235601385?t=dCTc1uQ-vYRnQ_TqcEgP4A&s=19

 

 

 

Another 5 seasons of that, people consistently clambering for tickets, still being settled in the PL, and it'll then be time for a discussion about expanding the stadium.  

[rooney]

8 hours ago, egg said:

Another 5 seasons of that, people consistently clambering for tickets, still being settled in the PL, and it'll then be time for a discussion about expanding the stadium.  

That's about it.

[VectisSaint]

11 hours ago, egg said:

Another 5 seasons of that, people consistently clambering for tickets, still being settled in the PL, and it'll then be time for a discussion about expanding the stadium.  

So is that the purpose of the new fencing? 

[Nolan]

The below clearly shows the  area around St Marys is right for development by either the Club or the City 
 

 

[spyinthesky]

I am pretty sure there has been ongoing discussions between the club and the Council at least from the Cortese days.

As far as I am aware the Council owns the freehold of a lot of land around the stadium and they certainly would like to 'gentrify' the Itchen waterfront.

However the Aggregate companies on the waterfront adjacent to St Marys have long leases and the ships would need to find a new home to operate.

In this respect there could be options over at Dibden Bay if that ever gets developed.

[Dman]

17 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

I am pretty sure there has been ongoing discussions between the club and the Council at least from the Cortese days.

As far as I am aware the Council owns the freehold of a lot of land around the stadium and they certainly would like to 'gentrify' the Itchen waterfront.

However the Aggregate companies on the waterfront adjacent to St Marys have long leases and the ships would need to find a new home to operate.

In this respect there could be options over at Dibden Bay if that ever gets developed.

It must drive the council and club mad. It has such untapped potential on a residential and commerical basis that strip between Shamrock Quay and Ocean Village. 

[JRM]

Looks like Man Utd at home is sold out already a month in advance, not sure we've ever sold out like that before a season has already started (Nottingham Forest also sold out early) , potential for us to get bigger crowds if stadium allowed for it. 

[Sunglasses Ron]

2 minutes ago, JRM said:

Looks like Man Utd at home is sold out already a month in advance, not sure we've ever sold out like that before a season has already started (Nottingham Forest also sold out early) , potential for us to get bigger crowds if stadium allowed for it. 

To be expected I guess, but things will probably come back down to earth if we really struggle (quite likely).

Not unreasonable to want to see a prolonged period of sell-outs before committing to costly expansion.

[saint francis]

14 minutes ago, JRM said:

Looks like Man Utd at home is sold out already a month in advance, not sure we've ever sold out like that before a season has already started (Nottingham Forest also sold out early) , potential for us to get bigger crowds if stadium allowed for it. 

There will be a fair few Utd supporters in the home end if history is anything to go by...

[CSA96]

31 minutes ago, saint francis said:

There will be a fair few Utd supporters in the home end if history is anything to go by...

Think this will get clamped down on now. With digital tickets, the club will be able to work out who has purchased for them and is getting them into the ground and it'll be faster/easier to issue warnings and potentially block purchases moving forward for people who are found to not be using their season ticket / match ticket and giving it to oppo fans. They have also said that for certain big games they even have the possibility of disabling ticket transfers to emails that aren't already in the system or just disabling ticket transfers and the ticket exchange altogether for those types of fixtures

[JRM]

46 minutes ago, saint francis said:

There will be a fair few Utd supporters in the home end if history is anything to go by...

I'm sure , but that's why I also noted Forest selling out well in advance. 

Games selling out to members with purchase history and season ticket holder additional, where the risk is if season ticket holders buy for United supporting mates  , if that happens and get caught they'll lose their season ticket so hopefully not many 

[Master Bates]

5 hours ago, Nolan said:

The below clearly shows the  area around St Marys is right for development by either the Club or the City 
 

 

The housing in Everton and Liverpool, the rows like that, so awful.

[CSA96]

Information on fan zones; what's happening in each one and timings here: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/three-fan-zones-launch-at-st-marys-for-premier-league-opener?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=stadium-changes&utm_term=fan-zones&utm_content=link

 

[sfc4prem]

4 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Information on fan zones; what's happening in each one and timings here: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/three-fan-zones-launch-at-st-marys-for-premier-league-opener?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=stadium-changes&utm_term=fan-zones&utm_content=link

 

Love that they're open late. One of the first steps I've seen towards getting the area around the stadium to be more of a social draw. Bit like Wembley with all of the restaurants, bars and fan zones around it.