New Ground

I was at a social function a few months ago where I engaged into a conversation with a chap regarding SFC. He told me that he met NC on a number of occations and has seen 2 different plans (models) of a new ground. These would inc a redvelopment of the waterside area. I asked him specifics about the location but he was unable to tell me. The guy seemed decent enough and I have no reason not to believe him.

Has any one else heard or seen these plans?

 

I was at a chairman's dinner two weeks ago and NC was asked about a new ground. He said it wouldn't be moved, although that may have allowed a little movement within the area, but my understanding was that it would stay where it is. The current ground can easily take another 12,000.

he did say that it appears that the old regime may have run out of cash when building the stadium as certain areas seem to have been done on the cheap or not to best standard as other parts of stadium have been.

 

St Mary's is a lovely ground and new, why do we need another one?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if an extension was mooted, but wouldn't imagine it would be soon. Extensions always cost more than if done when the building first went up, so I'm sure NC would not put us financially at risk at the moment. He would want to be sure of our future income to lay out such a large amount of money. I heard somewhere that Saints (or the Leihberrs) were buying up land near SMS, but that may be pure gossip.

 

The front of the stadium cannot be extended because of Britannia Road.

There is space behind the Northam, Chapel and Kingsland Stands where it can be extended out increasing the stadium capacity to 45,000-50,000 seater.

What I don't understand is there SHOULD be plans for a station to be opened behind the Kingsland as there is the railway line and you could create a link between either St Mary's and St Denys or Southampton Central

 

To rub our wealth in the Skates faces.

 

Think a rail link was discussed and the cost was prohibitive, though whether it is still prohibitive I don't know. However, NC would have to be convinced it was financially viable...being convenient for fans doesn't really come into it.

 

Even IF we get promoted this season. Will we fill the stadium every game next season? Do we really have the demand to have a 45-50,000 seat stadium?

 

Doubt we would sell out all games. In our PL years we had good crowds but didn't sell out every game. Very hard to guess how many people were turned away for the sell outs...hard to justify expensive expansion just to avoid disappointing a few fans.

 

I dont think we have the fan base for stadium expansion.
This is not meant as a dig but we dont fill our ground now, even though we are pushing for top spot.
To attract a bigger crowd in the Prem then we need higher end players who can challenge the top 4.
This all costs mega money and couple that with a building project(in addition to staplewood) i think the chances are slim.

Its been said time and time again on here but, turn up , fill the seats we already have and see what happens!

 

I don't think we need to move to a new ground but I think we have a big fan base! You have to admit attendances are being effected a great deal by the financial climate? There are a lot of people out of work & struggling to pay for things! Me included I work in construction & I've never seen it this bad before. In a few years & we are in the premier league I could see us filled a 50,000 seater Saint Mary's Stadium

 

If we get to the Premier league,i reckon we could easily get 40,000 plus for half a dozen games a season, and probably 35,000 for another 6. And dont forget there could be quite a few from the East of the county who may defect to us when there team goes bust in a few weeks time.

 

No way we need a bigger capacity weve sold out only a couple of times this season it will be more expensive next year so can only see us selling out like half the matches. Our core fan base is around 18k which swells to a maximum of about 35k usually and in exceptional circumstances even bigger but its not viable IMO to increase the capcity.

 

Any business only moves to bigger premises when it cannot function properly in the old one. St Mary's is sold out for a minority of the matches, but with a good basic core support. If we were selling out say 75% of home Saturday games then a case can be made. I think we might do that in the EPL.

 

Would take an awful lot of extra tickets to pay for an extension. A half empty bigger stadium will hardly help the atmosphere.

 

i agree with most on here but WHEN (not IF) we reach the prem, all the fair weathered fans will be back in there droves, & in my opinion SMS will be a sell out most weeks like it was when we last plyed in the prem

 

Because when it was built it was too small. I said so at the time, but at the moment, it isn't. Sooner or later, it will be again. Luckily, it was at least 8,000 seats too small, which means it is almost certainly worth bothering to extend the stadium to allow for the extra seats. According to FLT's night out with NC, St Mary's can be extended to, at least another 15,000 seats, which I would say is a reasonable, but not ideal, capacity for a club that wishes to start regularly knocking on the Champions League door.

 

Spoke to the old man a while back who is a senior railway signalling engineer and he said there isn't the room in terms of safety requirements for there to be a station. The area couldn't handle the intensity of passenger traffic over a short period

 

More revenue.NC would only extend the stadium once we estabilish ourselfs in the prem.

 

Yes,we would fill our stadium out.