Saints Chairman Ralph Krueger has set down the criteria needed to be met if Saints are to consider expanding St Mary's
Ralph Krueger has said that although the club is ruling nothing out, Saints will not be looking to expand St Mary's Stadium until certain criteria has been met.
Speaking to the Daily Echo Krueger said.
"I think when we go through a full season with 100 per cent occupancy then you can have those conversations,” he said.
"We’re still not there. We’re at 93 per cent or 94 per cent. There will be permanent renovations going on within the building.
"We have some plans if they fit into our budget still to make some changes in some of the hospitality areas of the club, but at the moment we see next season as a primary focus is to sustain the football growth and the final product on the field, and the cosmetics of the club are a secondary focus and they will happen over time, but that’s more a bigger picture, three-to-five-year kind of development.
"We’re permanently trying to fix things here, but we won’t be making any major steps in the stadium until the timing’s right.
"I see 2016-17 there will be a lot more invested in the stadium than in this season. We’re pretty happy. It’s a great place to play.”
Again a measured take on the situation from Krueger and his board and the truth is that apart from a couple of matches it hasn't been that hard to get a ticket for a Premier league game as long as you have booked at least a week in advance.
Perhaps this has been helped by many clubs not taking full allocations that has meant that an extra 1,500 tickets have usually been available for Saints fans, but in the main these seats haven't been fully sold suggesting that the capacity at the moment is about right.
However that is probably due to the price of tickets at St Mary's, although they have remained static for this season, in our first two years back in the Premier League supporters saw hefty increases on the previous seasons.
If the club want to expand the stadium they need to expand the supporter base, or at least make attending games more regularly affordable for supporters, the way to do that is by building a season ticket base that is not dependent on results, the big question is why club's like Norwich and even Brighton have bigger season ticket numbers than us ?
The answer is competitive pricing especially on early renewals and making sure there are good payment plans available to attract those who cannot afford to buy a ticket in one lump sum.
We missed a chance to do that this coming season when the opportunity was there to really offer a cheap season ticket and expand the numbers drastically, but there is always next season.