St Mary's Stadium

[Chocolate Box]

Better value to be had in mending the bloody roof of the Chapel then. Fed up with getting soaked.🤬

[Miltonaggro]

31 minutes ago, Turkish said:

didnt Lowe say the cost of expansion was £3k per seat, that was years ago so lets call if £5k per seat now. 10,000 new seats = £50m. What's the average cost of a season ticket, £600? So £6m a year. Would take about 8 years to pay for itself. But of course we'd sell more hot dogs too so maybe only 7.

It might be that Lowe actually got something right after all.  Assuming that its just a stand expansion with Barr's bolt on used circa £40-50m, but if it also involved recladding / redeveloping the stadium infrastructure (which it should) getting on for £60-70m I would imagine.  We'd likely have to be nailed on top half and finding / selling a Lavia each summer before the green light from Serbia.

[rooney]

Rupes also said that we needed to sell 25K ST for 5 years before expansion considered.

[northam soul]

Should this actually happen in the future what would it consist of and look like.

Am i right in remembering it was just a Kingsland add on.

Edited 12 June, 2024 by northam soul

[stevy777_x]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Yep I get that and it's a valid point, but it would still cost millions and millions of pounds to build - I don't personally think that's a sensible use of our money at the moment, let's build a PL side first and see where we are come 2030.

Why delay what you can do now? Dragan can put some of his money without it hurting the club s finances. It would also not count for ffp rules

[JRM]

2 hours ago, rooney said:

Rupes also said that we needed to sell 25K ST for 5 years before expansion considered.

You'd have thought we'd need to be one of those teams with a season ticket waiting list 

[Charlie Wayman]

3 hours ago, Saint Gifford said:

Dragon is a savvy media mogul that I guess understands that business more than most. 
 

I expect more trips and preseasons to Serbia and Eastern Europe to build the Saints name in the coming years. 
 

Expanding the fan base commercially on a pan European, global basis is where the income will be generated. Along with subscription services on TV mobile ect ect ect. 
 

We arent quite Man Utd status yet, but baby steps………..

St Mary’s in my humble opinion seems fit for purpose for the foreseeable. Team first.

 

Sorry to throw cold water on your hopes but the first piority will be to survive in the PL and that will not be an easy task by any means. Think global but act local.

[Charlie Wayman]

On 30/05/2024 at 11:04, Saint Fan CaM said:

I’ve always understood “affordable housing” to mean publicly owned rented housing…what in my time was once called ‘council houses’.  This made them ‘affordable’. They’re typically not so readily available to younger families nowadays thanks to the Tories introducing “Right to Buy” so they either fall into tenant private ownership or property developers buy up the houses and then rent them out themselves at higher rates.

"Afforable housing" is meaningless Tory drivel aimed at pacifying the masses. Affordable for whom?

Let's hope Keir Starmer re-invents council housing, builds tens of thousands of them and ends the shame and anguish of young homelessness once and for all. 

Fourteen years of Tory Toffs starving the resources of public institutions, local authorities and the armed services so as to enrich themselves and their pals has left our country in a state of disorder, disarray and decline that would shame many developing countries and has left us defenceless against potential foes.

Edited 12 June, 2024 by Charlie Wayman

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, stevy777_x said:

Why delay what you can do now? Dragan can put some of his money without it hurting the club s finances. It would also not count for ffp rules

The priority is that he invests in a team that allows us to compete and stay in the PL.

If he invests in a 70-100m stadium add on, but not the team, we then sit in the Champ with half an empty bowl and a shit ton of debt.

I never understand why fans get so excited about stadium expansion. It will happen when it happens, but it's so far down the list of things that need to be done right now.

Edited 12 June, 2024 by S-Clarke

[Master Bates]

Apparently the red pedestrian line around the stadium is a measurement, a line to how far the Stadium can be expanded outwards.

[Saint Garrett]

Would be absolutely bonkers to stick an add on on the stadium, unless he’s got too much money and can’t spend it. 

My gut feeling is we got 4000 new STH, most of which probably cancelled last summer when we were relegated. Easy marketing. Even with 4k new ones, I would be shocked if we’ll have more than 22k STH next season.

[david in sweden]

On 12/05/2024 at 21:16, Whitey Grandad said:

Ten years is a long time for me and I doubt that I’ll see half of that but good luck with the future, lads!

I  guess we are in a similar generation Whitey..... so have faith . 

My inspiration is the thought that I look forward to Saints actually winning... something BIG ! 

[Mattio]

Improving the match day experience is much more important than increasing capacity. The new bars etc they're adding outside are the right way to go. Another massive improvement would be some sort of halt station on the train line outside, even if it was just a shuttle to central.

[suewhistle]

My Saints going experiences have ranged from 31,044 packed in to The Dell, down to its 14k capacity with the bench seats to St Marys where they were planning their budgets based on from 18k to 28k crowds and a 24k average..

So demand is a bit elastic, and although there has to be some fundamental underlying demand I wouldn't be too hung up on a waiting list for season tickets. Many can't justify them due to other commitments some of the time.

I'm a bit concerned the absence of a physical ticket will dissuade people from having one if you can't easily transfer it or lend it. I have an ST now but when living away was able to borrow various ones through connections. Either way there's a big casual market out there, and you also  need to keep a range of cheap seats for the kids and teenagers who can't commit.

I can't see expansion happening quickly but at least more likely than with the previous owners. How do concerts like Take That impact on the club's finances? Would more of them make expansion more likely?

[negium]

When you listen to the price of football podcast they go on about how clubs would rather not have too many season ticket holders as they make more money out of individual sales but obviously have to balance against the guaranteed income season tickets provide. So can imagine an expanded stadium allowing them to get more people in paying full price would be attractive to the club.

[northam soul]

This upcoming season will have an expansion though.

Block 1 will be open.

[Wade Garrett]

All the flats near the ground would be affordable if built.  Fucking shithole of an area, wouldn’t pay more than a tenner for one.

[Give it to Ron]

41 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

All the flats near the ground would be affordable if built.  Fucking shithole of an area, wouldn’t pay more than a tenner for one.

But you have a great pub opening right on door step in old ticket office!

An extra tenner at least….

[Lymington Saint]

6 hours ago, Mattio said:

Improving the match day experience is much more important than increasing capacity. The new bars etc they're adding outside are the right way to go. Another massive improvement would be some sort of halt station on the train line outside, even if it was just a shuttle to central.

We have had this before.  The problem is that the spur from the docks line westwards to Central was filled in and is now part of the school playing fields.  So even if the old Northam station was rebuilt trains could only go north.  The place for a matchday station is actually north of Northam road on the main line.  Unfortunately there is a traincare depot there now and there isn't room.  Think that we are stuck with having to walk back to Central.  Although I would love to see the bridge over the railway rebuilt to be twice as wide to stop the bottleneck going up the steps

I agree with you about improving the existing facilities.  SMS was built as a functional stadium without too many frills.  I can't imagine that the economics of expanding SMS are that great.  Much as a 40k+ stadium would be great, if SMS was 35-36k, then I think that it would be enough.

[The Kraken]

10 minutes ago, Lymington Saint said:

We have had this before.  The problem is that the spur from the docks line westwards to Central was filled in and is now part of the school playing fields.  So even if the old Northam station was rebuilt trains could only go north.  The place for a matchday station is actually north of Northam road on the main line.  Unfortunately there is a traincare depot there now and there isn't room.  Think that we are stuck with having to walk back to Central.  Although I would love to see the bridge over the railway rebuilt to be twice as wide to stop the bottleneck going up the steps

I agree with you about improving the existing facilities.  SMS was built as a functional stadium without too many frills.  I can't imagine that the economics of expanding SMS are that great.  Much as a 40k+ stadium would be great, if SMS was 35-36k, then I think that it would be enough.

Ideally I'd love to see a Leicester-type plan for expansion (I know Leicester aren't doing theirs but they got permission).  Would take capacity up to  around 40K which I think we could sell out for the top games.  Middle and lower ranked games wouldn't get up to that, but that's just something you have to accept.

What I wouldn't want is to a Cardiff, which is a similar thing but looks absolutely dreadful.

[Disco Stu]

I think that Leicester design is horrible. I hope ours won't look anything like that.

[OldNick]

Foresight is perhaps some people on here haven't got. I recall the people saying we wouldn't sell out a 30k stadium. As the population increases and perhaps with a modicum of success 40k is sustainable. 

The play off final showed how may fans we could attract with a bit of success. IMO we could have sold 5-10k more tickets on top of the 38k we did so.

I applaud the owners trying to generate bigger attendances, that I assume will help us to be able to spend more with the spending rules. 

Don't want to be left behind.

It will take years and so pretty quickly we will see if we are moving to sunlit uplands or swimming with Pompey and feeding at the sewer pipe

[Saint86]

22 hours ago, stevy777_x said:

Why delay what you can do now? Dragan can put some of his money without it hurting the club s finances. It would also not count for ffp rules

From an FFP perspective, we spend the money without restriction, and within a couple of years it starts to deliver more "income" to use against wages/transfer costs etc.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I think that Leicester design is horrible. I hope ours won't look anything like that.

It looks a bit futuristic compared to the rest of the stadium but I don't dislike it. From inside I can't see any expansion we might do looking much different and that would add 8,000 seats. Maybe the roof is a bit too blue for us...but I'm sure we wouldn't just copy them anyway.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

Woke up in a cold sweat this morning with a troubling thought...with our limited songbook and as we've lost a few chants (Stu Armstrong, Aribo rumored to possibly be off and as we aint gonna be challenging for europe, so no EI-EI-EI-O) was fearing we may be left with just even more OWTS but it could be worse...the return of the Lallana wave. 

[gammon cheeks]

1 hour ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Woke up in a cold sweat this morning with a troubling thought...with our limited songbook and as we've lost a few chants (Stu Armstrong, Aribo rumored to possibly be off and as we aint gonna be challenging for europe, so no EI-EI-EI-O) was fearing we may be left with just even more OWTS but it could be worse...the return of the Lallana wave. 

Don't worry I've got it ....Russell said" got to play him up front a bit "...oh words can't describe when I see him in the red & white....his touch sublime ..scores goals fn all the time ...that's why we sing this song for Adam Armstrong....

[Saint Fan CaM]

Have to say I’m so glad the Northam has sold out - proved a point about the concept of expanding the ‘home end’ / cop. I’m looking forward to seeing it in person for the first time, so I hope everyone’s in good voice for that!  Quite surprised also to read that ST’s have all but sold out - I wonder how many matchday tickets will be available to purchase?

[sfc4prem]

How many years of ST queues would we need before expansion, d'you reckon?

[Secret Site Agent]

On 20/05/2024 at 18:45, LaptopSaint said:

Honestly mush, kids today eh? No respect for tradition. 
 

Why can’t they just go down the Painted Wagon, have a few beers, fight the ICF down by the station, go to the game, have a few more beers, go down Top Rank, have another fight, throw up, have more beers and then go home?

Anything else is just embarrassing. 

 

 

Youuuu bleeding lightweight.

What happened to the Kebab afterwards from JR's, and snogging the big bird from the holyrood estate, and dancing down the high street, wearing a cone on yer head, and telling the old bill where to go,(behind their backs) AND singing 80's tunes through Hoglands park. AND you were up at 10 am on Sunday to have a full English at Nicks in East street, then down the Dockies for 12 for a few liveners, onto play Sunday League footie and back on the beer until 10.30.

Kids don't know their born these days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Kraken]

1 hour ago, Secret Site Agent said:

Youuuu bleeding lightweight.

What happened to the Kebab afterwards from JR's, and snogging the big bird from the holyrood estate, and dancing down the high street, wearing a cone on yer head, and telling the old bill where to go,(behind their backs) AND singing 80's tunes through Hoglands park. AND you were up at 10 am on Sunday to have a full English at Nicks in East street, then down the Dockies for 12 for a few liveners, onto play Sunday League footie and back on the beer until 10.30.

Kids don't know their born these days.

Nicks was more big dinner, Jackpot Cafe in Portswood for a full English was our spot. We used to play Sunday mornings and after a big session you’d pray for heavy rain so the game would get called off and we’d have a team breakfast at the Jackpot instead.

[OldNick]

On 20/06/2024 at 08:01, Saint Fan CaM said:

Have to say I’m so glad the Northam has sold out - proved a point about the concept of expanding the ‘home end’ / cop. I’m looking forward to seeing it in person for the first time, so I hope everyone’s in good voice for that!  Quite surprised also to read that ST’s have all but sold out - I wonder how many matchday tickets will be available to purchase?

It isnt quite correct they have all sold out. A large tranche of tickets were kept back for people who have been displaced and will be going on sale 2nd July. Iam on the waiting list

[OldNick]

On 30/05/2024 at 15:45, The Kraken said:

Still think it’s such a shame they’re putting up such a generic blob of flats and not making more of the gasworks. Dublin did theirs properly and I think it looks great.

Theres some other good ones in Shoreditch

[Danbert]

Planning permission granted: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp236lxw3o

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, Danbert said:

Planning permission granted: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp236lxw3o

Don't excite MLG  

This is just for the fan zones outside of the Northam.

[Nolan]

35 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Don't excite MLG  

This is just for the fan zones outside of the Northam.

bit more than that.

Half of the Car Parking (and Bike parking) spaces are being removed around the entire stadium to fit in more facilities within the grounds.

 

Edited 26 June, 2024 by Nolan

[JRM]

58 minutes ago, Nolan said:

bit more than that.

Half of the Car Parking (and Bike parking) spaces are being removed around the entire stadium to fit in more facilities within the grounds.

 

That's a lot of car parking spaces to go, especially when tv crews use a lot of them, they'll be sending them up to the pay and display off St Mary's Street now 

[JRM]

They haven't actually got very long to get this sorted if they want the new bars etc in operation for first game of the season 

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Danbert said:

Planning permission granted: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp236lxw3o

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.

Edited 26 June, 2024 by Saint86

[Weston Super Saint]

12 minutes ago, 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.

I guess they are sticking to the rules of X number of disabled spaces per y number of total spaces.  Reduce the total, reduce the amount of disabled spaces....

[ant]

6 minutes ago, 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.

Indeed. Would've thought one of the primary reasons for parking at the ground is disability and/or limited mobility. Sure isn't for a quick getaway.

Unless we're missing something I'd have suggested going for a roughly 50:50 split with the remaining spaces, which would've maintained similar numbers of disabled ones.

Anybody remember the little tear-off bus vouchers on the tickets in the mid 2000s? Something like that wouldn't go amiss.

[JRM]

4 minutes ago, ant said:

Indeed. Would've thought one of the primary reasons for parking at the ground is disability and/or limited mobility. Sure isn't for a quick getaway.

Unless we're missing something I'd have suggested going for a roughly 50:50 split with the remaining spaces, which would've maintained similar numbers of disabled ones.

Anybody remember the little tear-off bus vouchers on the tickets in the mid 2000s? Something like that wouldn't go amiss.

Free bus travel on match days with those vouchers, I think it was a condition of building the stadium later dropped, should bring it back really , they have similar at German grounds to encourage people to use public transport 

[suewhistle]

Wouldn't cost very much, most of us have senior bus passes!

[Saint86]

43 minutes ago, ant said:

Anybody remember the little tear-off bus vouchers on the tickets in the mid 2000s? Something like that wouldn't go amiss.

Yes i think so. This was in relation to the match day specific shuttle busses that were put on between various destinations and the stadium? 

I think it would be a good idea to bring these back, and its certainly likely to be popular with the fans for a fairly minimal cost on match days - anything that facilitates sustainable and easy travel to the ground should be explored tbh.

I should add that I'm not impacted in the slightest by the reduction in disabled parking for the stadium, i just think its incredibly poor from the club (on face value) to cut it down to so few spaces - the demand doesn't magically drop because they've halved the car park size, and there really are limited options for the disabled match day fans (and i guess staff) that made use of those spaces - especially given the changes to the away fan access to the stadium as well now (reduced number of routes, narrow congested ramp over the footbridge, and longer routes to certain parts of the ground). 

Edited 26 June, 2024 by Saint86

[CSA96]

Could be wrong, but think I read a segment in the planning application document on the topic of disabled parking spaces at SMS and how they're very rarely all used/close to being all used, which the club was presenting as justification for reallocation.

[M271]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

Yes i think so. This was in relation to the match day specific shuttle busses that were put on between various destinations and the stadium? 

I think it would be a good idea to bring these back, and its certainly likely to be popular with the fans for a fairly minimal cost on match days - anything that facilitates sustainable and easy travel to the ground should be explored tbh.

I should add that I'm not impacted in the slightest by the reduction in disabled parking for the stadium, i just think its incredibly poor from the club (on face value) to cut it down to so few spaces - the demand doesn't magically drop because they've halved the car park size, and there really are limited options for the disabled match day fans (and i guess staff) that made use of those spaces - especially given the changes to the away fan access to the stadium as well now (reduced number of routes, narrow congested ramp over the footbridge, and longer routes to certain parts of the ground). 

I remember using the tear off bus vouchers for a few years after St Mary's opened. You could use them on any bus within the Southampton boundary.

[Ted Bates Statue]

3 hours ago, ant said:

Anybody remember the little tear-off bus vouchers on the tickets in the mid 2000s? Something like that wouldn't go amiss.

We did have a Park and Ride scheme in our last season in the prem which got discontinued after relegation. Guessing the vouchers fell by the wayside in similar circumstances.

[The Cat]

47 minutes ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

We did have a Park and Ride scheme in our last season in the prem which got discontinued after relegation. Guessing the vouchers fell by the wayside in similar circumstances.

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

[Dragon_man]

On 26/06/2024 at 15:36, CSA96 said:

Could be wrong, but think I read a segment in the planning application document on the topic of disabled parking spaces at SMS and how they're very rarely all used/close to being all used, which the club was presenting as justification for reallocation.

Wow. Season before last I rang up twice as my dad was coming to a game and asked if there was disabled parking I could use (he has a blue badge), on both occasions I was told 'absolutely none, they are all sold out/allocated at the start of the season'. Their recommendation was to use the drop off and collection point at the front of the stadium. Much easier said than done on match days and it was a real pain both times. Dropped him off and took 40 mins for me to get back to him, nowhere for him to sit either. Longer in reverse.

[CSA96]

4 minutes ago, Dragon_man said:

Wow. Season before last I rang up twice as my dad was coming to a game and asked if there was disabled parking I could use (he has a blue badge), on both occasions I was told 'absolutely none, they are all sold out/allocated at the start of the season'. Their recommendation was to use the drop off and collection point at the front of the stadium. Much easier said than done on match days and it was a real pain both times. Dropped him off and took 40 mins for me to get back to him, nowhere for him to sit either. Longer in reverse.

Hmm, maybe I am conflating the disabled spaces with the bike spaces? Tbf that might make more sense, those bike racks on the Kingsland side of the ground have never looked overly full to me (Kingsland STH)

[AllyD]

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.