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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:52 - Apr 24 with 943 views | Saints_Fan_73 |
And we were not 'average' in the JPT year. But for the -10 we would have been in the play-off spots. Not top of the league, but hardly mid-table obscurity. | |
| Upholding Mongboard Standards of Common Decency (Without Nick I am Nothing) |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 10:59 - Apr 24 with 909 views | Del_Bianco |
Other than to troll Nick I'm not really quite sure why Bradley the burger flipper from slough is spending so much time and energy on a stadium expansion thread, considering he's on record on here as saying matchday attendance these days are pretty much irrelevant, its all about the TV audience now. | |
| 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 11:06 - Apr 24 with 903 views | Del_Bianco |
So fans will only come when a team is being successful, yet our average attendance is our relegation season was virtually identical to the one we had in 2002/03 season when we finished 8th and reached the cup final. Maybe football is still more like the 80s than Bradley would like to admit. | |
| 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 11:30 - Apr 24 with 904 views | Poole_Saints1 |
We were only short due to Wigan's poor away turn out, couldn't have been more than 300 in their allocation of just over 2k. The crowd was 29.6k so a full allocation would have basically resulted in a home sell out minus the corporate seats. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:32 - Apr 24 with 900 views | dirk_doone |
Sorry Nick but you are wrong. It was proven before that consecutive mid-table positions were enough to sell out the stadium.
What puts off fans is a team that loses every week. Just knowing there is a good chance the team will win top flight home games is enough to sell out St Mary's year in year out. If we could establish ourselves in the top 8, we'd average close to 40,000. As little success as 12th place brought in these sort of crowds, even after many years in the Premier League:
http://stats.football365.com/2004/ENG/teams/Southampton.html
[Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:33 - Apr 24 with 891 views | Del_Bianco |
Do we should depend on the away fans to sell our tickets should we? This was our glorious return to the premier league, i cant think of any excuse as to why we wouldnt sell out that one. How do you explain Everton and Fulham when there were over 2000 away fans there, less than 26,000 Saints fans, meaning with c23,000 seat on tickets, less than 3,000 non STHS could be bothered to attend? | |
| 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 11:37 - Apr 24 with 888 views | dirk_doone |
How do you expain the fact that in spite of all this poor home support you and Nick perceive, we'll average 31,000 this season?
I know we probably have one of the most humble, unambitious sets of fans in the country but in order to compete the club needs to grow and become successful. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:42 - Apr 24 with 871 views | dorsetsaint |
How does pricing effect peoples attendance to games? If demand continues to outstrip supply most businesses would adjust their pricing (upwards) until this evens out. This in Saints case would increase revenue without the cost associated with increasing capacity. It could also act as a guage to the commitment of the floating supporter if we continue to sell out. FWIW I think the clubs pricing is about right at the moment. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:44 - Apr 24 with 851 views | Del_Bianco |
Where have I said we had poor support? For the second half of the season in the main our support has been decent, but there really isn't any point expanding the stadium unless we need it for most of our games, what's the point of building 10,000 extra seats at a cost of £20m or whatever it is for them to be empty 2/3s of the season. Do you think 10,000 extra seats would have encouraged more people too come to the Fulham game? More importantly do you think the chairman would think its a good use of money to spend multi million pounds building seats that will only be used 4 or 5 times a season? Using a small away following as an excuse for a low crowd is quite pathetic. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| 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 11:45 - Apr 24 with 859 views | SaintNick |
No one said it was poor, I just said that the figures don't add up to needing to increase just yet
last season saw us average 4,000 less than this season, so its fair to assume that at least that number are just as likely to disappear again if times get bad.
Business sense says that we need to establish ourselves back in the premier league first and then see a sold out ground for most of the games in that time | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:48 - Apr 24 with 854 views | dirk_doone |
My guess is that season ticket prices will increase by at least 15% next season to £700+ and that we'll continue to sell out.
There are many reasons why the capacity needs to be increased. The club and its fan base need to grow or it will stagnate and thousands of potential new fans will be lost. When top players look at which club to play for size matters. Every ambitious player wants to play for a big club and Southampton has the potential to become one. To be honest, this 'ever so 'umble' attitude of many of our fans p!sses me off a bit. I want to see Saints compete in Europe again and win major trophies before I die.
Instread of always asking what happens if we get relegated we need to be asking what happens if we become more successful? The stadium capacity simply isn't big enough if the club has any ambition to be more successful. We need to be planning for success, not failure, and I believe that Cortese is, so we will get a bigger stadium. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 11:50 - Apr 24 with 843 views | Del_Bianco |
Quite.
We keep being told what a great businessman Cortese is and he seems to agree as apart form a few pretty pictures on a DVD there appears to be no concrete plans to expand just yet. So maybe rather than making up arguments for expansion by excusing low attendances or poor away crowds, Making up catchment areas and saying we should do it because people in Illfracombe might fancy a day out at the Soccerball they should pipe down and back the chairman as he seems to take the same view on this as we do. [Post edited 1 Jan 1970 1:00]
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| 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 12:31 - Apr 24 with 799 views | Chesham_Saint |
There needs to be room for fans to 'rotate' By that I mean non season ticket holders and those who can make just a few games per season - its stating the obvious but without the younger fans we'll die as a club and many parents simply can't afford to pay for a (discounted) season ticket.
As for what the average Saints fan will pay to watch (or turn up for) I remember Mick Channon saying about 25 years ago that Saints fans want to see good football first and foremost, the result second. Or as I'd say, the antithesis of a Leeds or Stoke. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 14:39 - Apr 24 with 750 views | Poole_Saints1 |
From what i saw on the day they were given the 2k allocation, other than that and the boxes, the ground was full. Depending on how they have initially set up the sales, i suppose it's not always possible to get these tickets back to resell to Saints fans.
You don't have to sell out every home game to warrant say a 5k increase on your stadium capacity. I would say 12 sell outs and 5 close to sell outs would do. Man City i believe haven't sold out every game this season, should they reduce their capacity? | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 14:48 - Apr 24 with 737 views | Del_Bianco |
Both Everton and Fulham had away support of 2-2.5k in crowds of 28,000. This means that with 23,000 season ticket holders only 3,000 'casual fans' bothered to go and there were 4,500 empty seats. Granted some would have been corporate but only about 1-1.5k. It's all very well selling out for the big games but we need to sell out for these smaller games as well. Do you honestly think a great businessman like Cortese is, would spend £15m adding on 5,000 extra seats knowing he would only need them 5 times a season and take decades to see an ROI?
And you last point is ridiculous, yeah of course a club should reduce the capacity of a stadium already built.
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| 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 15:01 - Apr 24 with 666 views | Chesham_Saint |
There is an unquantifiable here as well. If we filled a stadium of 40k from time to time then wouldn't the perception at least be that we were 'bigger' - on a par say, with a West Ham? Quite what tangible advantages that would bring, I'm not sure....
Also, Spurs, West Ham, Chelsea, Swansea, Reading (and others?) are all looking to increase their capacities so something must have convinced them. Ok in the case of Spurs and Chelsea its probably a no brainer, but for the others...again, I'm not so sure. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 15:03 - Apr 24 with 665 views | SaintNick |
Swansea its a no brainer as their ground only holds 20k so needs to be bigger even for the Championship.
Reading are a case for not expanding, they got back to the premier and talked about it, they would be mad to do it now though, they are an example of what can happen to most of the premier clubs ie relegation | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 15:10 - Apr 24 with 654 views | Poole_Saints1 |
Tongue in cheek!
You mention the Everton & Fulham games and yes we should be getting more for those types of games but that's only 2 games of the season. It's all speculation but with a 37k capacity i reckon we'd sell out a good 10 games. | | | |
| Do we need a bigger ground? on 15:13 - Apr 24 with 650 views | Del_Bianco |
Spurs have a waiting list of 13,000 for season tickets
West ham have just be given the opportunity to move to a bigger stadium for a reasonable rental outlay
Chelsea have supply outstripping demand every week for 10 years
Swanseas ground only holds 20,000
Reading, well we'll see what happens with them!
All of those clubs circumstances are much different to ours and all 'no brainers' (excpet for Reading) in no way does it prove we need a bigger stadium because they do. Lets concentrate on filling the ground we've got most weeks before thinking about making it bigger.
as to how we are 'perceived' do you perceive Sunderland as a bigger club than Chelsea, Spurs, Livepool because the SOL is bigger than their grounds? | |
| 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 15:23 - Apr 24 with 639 views | SaintNick |
Sunderlands average is 40k this season in a 47k stadium, against the smaller clubs they struggle to get much more than around 36k | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 15:30 - Apr 24 with 629 views | dirk_doone |
So, basically, nearly half of the clubs in the Premier League, the ambitious ones, which now include West Ham, are looking to expand their capacities. The unambitious ones will be content to just survive and drift along as they are. Personally, I'd like us to join the ambitious group.
Any club is capable of growth, if the will is there, as Reading and Brighton have shown. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 15:47 - Apr 24 with 612 views | SaintNick |
Clubs who have shown ambition and built extra capacity or new grounds and who are now struggling who are now struggling include
Bolton
Leicester
Derby
Middlesbrough
Blackpool
Millwall
Huddersfield
Wolves
Just because you build extra capacity doesn't mean that you will fill it, just doing something doesn't mean you have realistic ambition, the business world and indeed football is littered with people who claim ambition and have big plans, but actually haven't really thought it through.
Id like us to be ambitious, but I want us to do so rationally and with the reasons behind us, I have spent the past 8 years on this board trying to drum up support at St Mary's only to be constantly told not to be so unrealistic people have better things to spend their money on these days, personally I don't think its either ambitious or good business sense to spend millions on a ground extension, till we are secure in the premier league again, better first to build a good strong team again first
Who is going to pay for the extension, all we will do is load up debt again | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 16:26 - Apr 24 with 592 views | stmichael |
I would have no problem with a ground extension now.
There are more games than not this season when we clearly would have have sold more tickets.
Plenty of away teams would take a bigger allocation if need be.
Seems to me that we will never be in a better position to do so.
Cash rich premier league team about to receive the biggest sky money ever.
Build it whilst we can.
We could build it in such a way that if times get hard and gates decrease then we can close the upper tier and basically turn the lights off so the ground does not appear bathed in empty red seats.
Better to have the extra capacity for when we do need it in my opinion. | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 20:52 - Apr 24 with 548 views | theinsider |
yes and with safe standing areas! | |
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| Do we need a bigger ground? on 22:44 - Apr 24 with 524 views | emigrant |
For what it is worth. I recently sat next to a couple who regularly come up from Plymouth. This is the nearest club where they can see top flight football.
So there is a good argument that our fan base is quite wide. So it is possible to add Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the fan base list. | |
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