A press conference at 11.45pm (UK Time) on Thursday morning will reveal that a Californian Billionaire is about to take over and transform Southampton FC with the intention to turn the club into a Premier League giant.
By midday the lives of Saints fans will be be transformed when plans are revealed not just for the club itself and the stadium, but the city of Southampton itself.
The deal has been in the offing for a while and has taken place under a smokescreen so that negotiations could proceed unhindered, I first heard of the deal two weeks ago and was sworn to secrecy on the promise that I could exclusively reveal the news at 8.30am this morning.
The new owner of Southampton FC will be Douglas C. Neidermeyer a self made billionaire from California, he has made his fortune not just in the high tech business in Silicon Valley in Northern California, but in shrewd investement in the Film Industry in Los Angeles and it has been his money that has financed many box office smashes.
In fact it was Neidermeyer's interest in films that lead to his interest in Saints, a big fan of the film Titanic and then subsequently the ship itself, he visited Southampton to tour the sites and was surprised to find that there was so little promotion of the film.
Whilst driving around the Docks area he came across St Mary's Stadium and being a fan of Soccer in the USA a plan came into his head.
This was back in 2019 and he saw potential in both Southampton as a City and Saints as a football club.
The press conference later this morning will expand on his plans for the club, but I am allowed to reveal some key points..
1. Neidermeyer will purchase 80 % of the club from Gao Jisheng or £210 million, the Liebherr family will retain their 20%. This is very much a long term project.
2. In the summer £150 million will be made available to Ralph Hasenhuttl to strengthen the squad.
3. Neidermeyer has not needed to borrow money to make the purchase, nor will he leverage the purchase against the club.
4. In the summer of 2022 work will begin on St Mary's to extend the capacity, by extending the seating in the Chapel end and also adding extra tiers, with the intention of making the ground 58,000 by August 2025.
5. Neidermeyer has already purchased the quayside area behind the Itchen stand and this will be transformed into a leisure area called Legends Square, statues of Saints greats surrounded by restaurants & bars.
6 . Neidermeyer intends to also invest in the city itself and turn it into a major tourist destination based around Titanic.
7. There will be a restructure of the way the club is run, the existing board will be retained as they have the knowledge on running a football club, but overall the club will be under the Executive Chairmanship of Neidermeyer's right hand man John Blutarsky.
8. Blutarsky will also oversee a second tier of club management concerned with the non football side of things, CEO of this will be Eric Stratton assisted by Donald "Boon" Schoenstein.
These are only a few key points, all will be revealed at the 11.45 pm press conference that this site will be covering in detail with live updates.
Exciting times for Southampton FC and by midday today we will all be in no doubt of just what Douglas C. Neidermeyer will be able to do for this club and we will all remember just where we were on April 1st 2021.