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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 22:49 - Apr 23 with 2810 views | TheKraken |
Sure; why not.
Cortesedome me up. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 22:49 - Apr 23 with 2786 views | ArthurHucksake |
Your gates will go down next season, the plastics will have had their fill. | |
| I know for sure you are he. No question about it. You are rude, agressive and angry just like doc was. You fool no one lambkins. |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 22:52 - Apr 23 with 2776 views | TheKraken |
Had their fill of what? Looking decent in the Premier League?
Our attendances have risen throughout the season, Albus. More sell outs late on than in the earlier days. Season tickets should get close to all time high levels this summer. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 23:00 - Apr 23 with 2764 views | redblooded |
"Build it and they will come"
Lets be brutally honest, any person within 60 miles wanting to see decent PL footy will come to SMS. True there is always a chance the plastics will drift away, but continuous success will strengthen the fan base and increasing stadia seating will be necessary to accommodate this and the plastic day trippers. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 23:06 - Apr 23 with 2741 views | Del_Bianco |
Mongtastic logic. We expand up in the hope that people from Swindon, Worthing, Weymouth and Trowbridge fancy a day out at the Soccerball. | |
| Part of A small, but perfectly formed nucleus of clueless c**ts bowling underarm, deludely thinking they're in the big leagues since December 2015 | | Poll: | what do you prefer? |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 23:07 - Apr 23 with 2742 views | Chesham_Saint |
WTF it got to do with you, fish boy? Feck off and worry about the capacity of that shithole your bunch of monthly contracted cloggers play in. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 23:12 - Apr 23 with 2729 views | TheKraken |
Its flawless logic FFS, how can you even deny it? If you live in, say, Cornwall and you have a longing for Premier League football, who else are you going to watch? Man Utd? Too far? Man City? Too far. Southampton? Practically on the doorstep.
#biggestcatchmentareainfootball | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 23:17 - Apr 23 with 2718 views | redblooded |
Exactly, you cannot wait to see...because people who get frustrated with not getting a seat, will unlikely try again, but those day trippers who find access easy, may get the bug and come along again.
I have brought london friends to SMS, and they quite like the idea of being London Saints fans, as they liked what they saw...I take them to Kingsland mind and not the living dead of the Chapel end. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 00:32 - Apr 24 with 2678 views | Onhishead |
Yes.
8000 - 10000
We will average at least 35000 and sell out 42000 for the big ones. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 06:26 - Apr 24 with 2646 views | Butty101 |
More likely we will get some of the passionate plastic blue few who aren't feeling the semi pro league they are now in. So yeah let's expand and educate our new used to be blue but soon to be red fans. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 06:45 - Apr 24 with 2638 views | st_bangkok |
Is that another of your nailed on predictions similar to
Harry is your next manager
you will ship average of 6 goals against each of the top four
You are going down this season | |
| Sometime people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed. | | Poll: | 9/11 - Conspiracy or not? |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 07:29 - Apr 24 with 2611 views | SalisburySaint |
We already have mnay supporters in Weymouth and going by the Saints fans already on the train when it gets to Salisbury many from the Trowbridge / Bath area too
If we are the only show in town, I think we are likley to get more people form these areas in the future to get their fix of Premier league football, and hopefully many will bev=come Saints fans in the future
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 07:55 - Apr 24 with 2585 views | omi |
whats the point in that??????? 10000 is to many fill it for 6 games and look empty in places for 13 other games...lets face it there is more sh!t teams than good in the PL i think what we got is plenty...we are getting a bit carried away hey!!!!!!! | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 08:34 - Apr 24 with 2546 views | Capt_Koons |
Better to have a smaller full stadium all the time than a bigger stadium partially empty some of the time.
I think when SMS was designed it allowed for 5k expansion on either end and 7k expansion on either wings. So the logic would be to do one end first and increase to 37k, but I'm not convinced. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:17 - Apr 24 with 2504 views | UTS |
I dont think SMS can simply be expanded in its current state. I suspect there are piles under both car parks. There would still need to be some sort of evacuation area and so you would be looking to use land currently occupied by the trading estate. Acquiring the land on that brings allsorts of obstacles esp as i think that the nearest units are all occupied. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:26 - Apr 24 with 2489 views | dirk_doone |
Yes, we do. I think we could comfortably average 37,000 gates next season, if we had the capacity, and the club is attracting more fans all of the time. As Lawrie McMenemy used to say, the small capacity of the Dell was the one factor that stopped the club developing into a really big club in the 80s. The plans for a 40,000 capacity stadium, which he was desperately keen for us to build, were only blocked by the then Pompey chairman, Deacon, when he was in control of Southampton city council.
Interestingly, one of the main ambitions of the Pompey Trust and their fans in general is to have a stadium capacity bigger than Southampton's, and they are in League Two.
As one of the Trust's leaders says, "No one wants FP to be at least 1 seat bigger than ST Mary's than me!"
http://www.fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/view.php?id=494529 [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:27 - Apr 24 with 2480 views | Del_Bianco |
I thought when it was built they said we could expand 3 sides of it? I think the Itchen was the one that couldn't be for the reasons you state, | |
| Part of A small, but perfectly formed nucleus of clueless c**ts bowling underarm, deludely thinking they're in the big leagues since December 2015 | | Poll: | what do you prefer? |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:36 - Apr 24 with 2473 views | SaintNick |
I believe the ground can be expanded fairly easily by adding extra tiers which actually wouldn't need to extend that much back from the current walls, however whether we need to do it is an entirely different argument.
Football is driven by what is perceived as success, but eventually what seems good now, ie mid table survival becomes boring and people drift away, even this season for our first home game back in the premier arguably more exciting than say our first game at home next season, we were some 3,000 short of capacity, now if all those people couldn't be bothered at the start of this season, whats going to make it different next.
Before we speak of expansion we need firstly to have re established ourselves back in the premier league for a couple of seasons at least and then secondly we need to be selling out at least 75% - 85 of our games.
A year ago to this very weekend 32,363 attended the game against Coventry all pledging undying love etc for our record crowd at St Mary's, four months later there were big swathes of empty seats for the opening home game against Wigan, don't mistake a few casual fans getting all excited as being the basis to spend a lot of money on extending the ground quickly.
Foundations need to be built amongst the support to do that | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:43 - Apr 24 with 2460 views | likesadrink |
Some genuinely mental comments on that thread. They didn't sell out Fratton after their first season in the Prem, averaged pathetic numbers in the Champ and were embarrassing in League 1 yet they talk about 40,000 seats?
Proper fruit cakes them lot, meanwhile we quietly go about our business of selling out game after game home and away, our Chairman will also quietly go about the job of looking at expansion and if it's viable. Personally "I'm all right jack" as a ST holder but know loads that can't get a ticket for games and don't bother trying as we sell out after a few days for each game, so can see the point of putting it up to 38k - 40k. Suddenly I'm all for it as them lot down there will go completely scitzo if we did, rip up their plans and whack another tier on each stand in a desperate attempt to keep up with us, bankrupting themselves (again) in the process. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:44 - Apr 24 with 2459 views | Saints_Fan_73 |
"Foundations need to be built amongst the support to do that "
You were doing ok until that bit Nick.......
You are quite correct that some fans will get bored if we end up being a mid-table team for the next 3-5 years but your usual 80s drivvle will not help this at all. It's not about fan parliaments, fans on the board, fan forums to talk sh ite to the manager/Chairman that will boost crowds, it's how well the team is doing on the pitch that counts.
Football in 2013 is far more akin to any other type 'entertainment' that people can choose to spend their money on than the tribal thing is was back in your halycion days of the 80s. A bad film will get few people buying tickets and this is the same with a bad football team.
If we want to continue to increase demand for tickets to a stage that stadium extension is an option than the only way to do this is to continue to improve on the field and move up the league table, contend for Europe, etc.
Luckily we have a people running the club who are fully up to speed with modern football and are fully aware of this. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Upholding Mongboard Standards of Common Decency (Without Nick I am Nothing) |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 09:54 - Apr 24 with 2444 views | SaintNick |
Did I mention fan parliaments etc, no I said foundations need to be built amongst the fans, you immediately used it as an excuse to have a go and pipe up with your usual 80's claptrap.
The foundations im talking about are getting people to get used to coming to the games, encouraging those not coming to come more often, actively marketing the club etc, now I know what the modern game says about doing this and sadly at the moment its not how we are doing it, ask any experienced football marketing director that you know, I take it you do know and speak to some rather than get your football marketing information from the daily mail.
You have hit the nail on the head though, stadium expansion should happen when we have created the demand by being successful on the field first and we are not there yet.
Middlesbrough are a good example of a club who built a new stadium, filled it week in week out, waiting list for season tickets etc and after success on the pitch expanded it, suddenly the number of seats was more than demand, people didn't buy season tickets because getting tickets for the big games was easier so they didn't need to pay to watch the smaller premier clubs, overall gates dropped steadily on average and then drastically as people became bored of mid table mediocrity | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:02 - Apr 24 with 2432 views | Saints_Fan_73 |
What brilliant ideas Nick. Cortese is missing a trick by not employing you in marketing. "getting people to get used to coming to the games" That's amazing! What are you suggesting? Club organised dry-runs on non-game days. Get the fans on buses to the stadium, then a quick pint before the match, practice buying a programme? In through the tunrstile and then out again?
It is just about impossible to market a club that plays badly, just as much it is to sell a car that drives badly. If the club is around the bottom of the league and playing poorly then no amount of marketing will stop there being empty seats.
The thing you fail to comprehend over the years of your attendance debates is that how we are playing and what league we are in is by far the most factor in attendance. We had more people in the NPC than when in L1. We are selling more tickets now than when we were bottom of the league. It's really not that hard to work out. | |
| Upholding Mongboard Standards of Common Decency (Without Nick I am Nothing) |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:39 - Apr 24 with 2410 views | SaintNick |
Actually we had more people in league 1 than in the last 2 seasons in the npc before relegation, so league status isn't the main question but how the team is perceived to be playing.
Ie in our first season in league 1 people perceived it was a great season because we won the JPT even though in the league we were average, but people perceived it to be good, although statistically in terms of league position it was our worst season in almost 50 years.
If a club is at a low ebb your right there will always be empty seats, but that is actually the time that you don't stop marketing, you keep encouraging fans to go, keep them interested to some degree, make sure that there are perhaps less empty seats than there would have been, you build on what foundations you have and then when things come good again the fans will come back a lot quicker.
If fans still go to a couple of games a season its a lot easier to get them back than if they stop going completely, football supporters are creatures of habit | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:45 - Apr 24 with 2396 views | Happy_Jack |
The comparison with league 1 and the NPC is obvious though Nick. We were in a bad way when we went down in 09 then the takeover happened hope sprang eternal and we started winning again hence more people became interested and started going again. Some felt watching a winning team on the up in league 1 was far more enjoyable than watching a team in a downward spiral in the NPC. Maybe you could question the loyalty thing in that case but it was hardly surprising. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:51 - Apr 24 with 2389 views | Chesham_Saint |
Taking a slightly broader view...
So we stay in the Prem - isn't it quite likely that the strucuture of that will change, i.e fewer clubs? What effect would that have on attendances?
What are do the 'social planners' say is going to be happening in SW Hants in the next 30 years? If the population increases (and not just becuase of Poles, Romanians and Bulgars, (ffs)) or decreases then what efect will this have?
What competitition do we face? The skates are a joke but won't die away altogther (sadly). BourneMouth are on the up, but are they really a serious competitor? The likes of Charlton and West Ham actively target fans from miles away from their grounds (Kent and Essex) so why shouldn't we?
In short, it isn't just the old arguments, but I'm sure Napoleon will consider all of these from his underground bunker/control room at SMS.... | |
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