Matthew Le God

It is actually £16m season one £16m season two £8m season three £8m season four But as I said... - most teams that will come down from the Premier League are already heavily burdened with debt. Saints are debt free. - most teams that will come down from the Premier League will have huge wage bills and may have many players on large wages that they can't shift If for example - Wigan come down, they already are getting average crowds of 15k in the Premier League, a return to the 2nd tier and they will drop off even further. - West Ham have huge debts still and relegation would be a massive blow. - Blackpool, average crowds of 15k in the Premier League, will be much lower in the Championship - Bolton currently averaging 20k which is fewer in the Premier League than Saints are in League One. A relegation will see this slide even further. - West Brom, Blackburn, Fulham, Birmingham all playing Prem matches week in week out, YET are all only averaging very slightly higher than Saints in the 3rd tier.

They don't get the £48 million in one go. It is spread out over 4 years and will largely go to the Premier League level wages some of their players may still have. Many of the clubs coming down will also have debts to finance, Saints are debt free. You only need to look at the Championship and the average gates of the teams to see Saints will be in the top two or three for match day income should they be in the Championship for the 2011/12 season. There really isn't much money in the Championship clubs atm and should Saints be promoted they will be a "big fish" financially.

You have become a little confused. NickG said that the Echo need Saints for their circulation. He didn't in that post say that Saints need coverage in the Echo, nor did he say huge numbers of Saints fans read the Echo for Saints news. All he said was that the Echo's circulation is dependant on people reading about Saints and buying the paper for that reason. It is the 21st Century, lots of other ways across a multitude of media outlets to follow the club than just the local paper.

The Liebherr's, since Markus' father Hans Liebherr started in business back in the 1940's, don't accrue debt. It is pretty much a family policy. Any new stadium or expansion of St Mary's may well be paid for upfront, it isn't money lost as it adds value to the business and provides additional revenue sources.

When he was at Plymouth he did have a good record. At Saints he never got the chance to take penalties/free kicks with a number of players ahead of him in the queue.

Now confirmed... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/o/oxford_utd/9168737.stm http://www.oufc.co.uk/page/News/0,,10342~2212871,00.html

On twitter...

I doubt Nicola would want to say anything to a BBC correspondent that the family would disagree with. The family haven't questioned the clubs public statement in August about the plans continuing unaffected. If they disagreed they could quite easily refute it, yet 3 months later they still haven't. Suggests to me it is true!

I beat you to it.

For those still doubting the Liebherr's willingness to see through Markus' "vision", one of the main BBC sports reporters (Dan Roan), 24 minutes ago Tweeted this... http://twitter.com/#!/danroan Hopefully he'll be producing an article about this "meeting" like he often does(see interview he had with new Liverpool owner John Henry). I'll update this thread when/if he does.

He has skin tone 14, which shouldn't look Caucasian.

He keeps getting injured. I've been able to get these players on frees and others over 48 monthly payments, allowing you to spend ****loads. I hope it doesn't turn into a Pompey situation!

First season in the Premier League... Season 3 It was looking like relegation until I changed tactics in early January and signed Willian. Was unstoppable after that. Stadium expanded to 35k. Signed some great players on free transfers in the summer of 2013!

I think you need to listen to it again! Not me. The actual words... "We have also plans regarding the stadium capacity but its much too early to talk about. The traffic problems that the stadium creates after a match like Portsmouth or Leeds, the stadium is not in the right location. Unless the area around the stadium is developed as well. If the council make us comfortable that development in the area will help sort out the traffic issues, I wouldn't see a reason if we had any plans to increase the capacity. But I wouldn't exclude the possibility that we are going to build a complete new stadium." Nicole Cortese, 13th March 2010

Nicola Cortese said in March 2010 that they have plans to expand St Mary's and also they would consider relocating if they can't. It is on record, so no delusion required. If the club think the only way to expand is to relocate then they will. Maybe traffic problems in the St Mary's area would mean it wouldn't be feasible to expand St Mary's.

Can you tell us anymore than that? Where it would be? When it may be built? How big it would be?

Is this just based on what Cortese said in March or have you heard something new?

Do you have the latest drivers for your graphics card? Does you system meet the minimum spec for the game?

Use the editor and have a look.

Really is pathetic to bring it back to petty insults about me researching FM. Saints between 2001 and 2005 averaged over 30k in a 32k stadium every year, including the relegation season! No need to wait until back in the Premier League, the club will know that the first season in the Premier League will see a return to over 20k season ticket holders/3k away fans/increased corporate interest etc etc. It will become difficult to get a ticket again if you aren't a season ticket holder. A larger stadium also allows the club to be more flexible with ticket pricing and thus easier to build the supporter base even further. Until 2009 the club had never had real investment in the team if further player investment occurs the club will build the numbers of match going fans. If the Liebherr/Cortese really is to establish the side in the Premier League then a bigger stadium is needed. Cortese has already said as much in the March interview on the BBC.

Every season at St Mary's in the Premier League averaged over 30k. It will be too small for the demand the moment Saints get back there. Certainly no harm getting the planning process done now and even construction started for expansion so it is ready for a return if the Liebherr's are providing funding to support a Premier League team.

In the design in the youtube video, the footprint of the stadium doesn't really get any bigger.

All four seasons at St Mary's in the Premier League, the club averaged over 30k. If Cortese/Liebherr family provide the funding to support the club as a mid table or better top flight team, then expansion of stadium or a new stadium would be required. 32k simply wouldn't be big enough if they wanted to compete in the Premier League again.

A thread about St Mary's isn't complete without this... Created by a Southampton based architect firm (Dalton Crawley) and put on youtube in February 2010. Not sure why they did it, but it is just called a "design exercise". Maybe just an architect haing fun in his free time or maybe the club asked them for rough designs? After all, one month later Cortese revealed in an interview with BBC radio Solent they did have plans for expanding the stadium or possible relocation.

Wikipedia can be edited by anyone in the world. It is made up.