Matthew Le God

Ronald Koeman ‏@RonaldKoeman 7m Stretching the legs after 4 hours by Coach.

West Ham are effectively doing similar in order to fill the Olympic stadium. It helps increase the fan-base, raise the profile of the club and makes the club more appealing for sponsors. Okay, West Ham have a bigger fan base than us, but do you really think it is 32,000 stadium vs 54,000 stadium bigger?

Foreign clubs only at that point, but yes he can. He isn't going to sign a new contract at Saints, we all know that surely.

On what are you basing that?

The Boruc loan (if it happens) will be a short term loan of 3 months. After the transfer deadline in September you can't do loans which finish at the end of the season until the next window opens in January, you can only do short term loans in the meantime.

We can loan him out for 3 months.

Because Fraser Forster is our first choice, Boruc won't play for us as much as he wants and if Forster gets injured we would recall Boruc from his loan. Boruc would get the game time he wants and he wouldn't need to move house and uproot his family.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/5926705/Artur-Boruc-to-join-Southampton-on-loan-from-Bournemouth-exclusive.html?CMP=SOC-SunFootball-SFtw-24_04_2014-318-0-0-0

[video=youtube;K-jpYIbsVpc]

From today's press conference... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29260844?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

If the 4 original stands had 30k people in them vs West Brom for example, why would it matter atmosphere wise if a new Kingsland upper tier was empty? I doubt you'd really notice. When Man Utd etc come to town you sell the lower tier first and then open blocks in the new upper tier as an overflow.

You could make the new upper tier unavailable for season ticket holders and only use it as an overflow when there is a game with more demand.

Football is a long term business. It might be a 14 year payback, but so what? Higher income in those 14 years will help will FFP and allow Saints to spend more money elsewhere. Stadium improvements are exempt from the FFP regulations. 1) Will Southampton FC still exist in 14, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years time? 2) Will Southampton still likely be at St Mary's in 14, 20, 30, 40 years time? 3) Does having a higher gate income help in an age of FFP? 4) Would having a larger stadium and averages help grow the fan-base as more people can watch the big games they want to see? 5) Would the club likely see a rise in other revenue on top of ticket sales?

I'll refer you to the same thing...

Why have Wolves built a new stand? Why have Brighton added 8,000 seats to the Amex? etc etc Football is long term, if Saints built a new tier on the Kingsland it would still be used in 20 or 30 years time.

What are you using to determine what is an "acceptable price"?

Would either of you like to see point a) happen soon? If not, why not?

I'd like them to... a) look to redevelop the land around the stadium like the images Cortese commissioned show b) start with an additional tier on the Kingsland Okay, you may not agree with a), but would you rule out b) as a means of creating new revenue streams in an age of FFP? b) doesn't require the club to sellout regularly in order for it to go ahead. St Mary's gets lumped in with Coventry's, Middlesbrough's Derby's, Leicester's etc in terms of stadium. If Saints had a development like those Cortese commissioned it would help raise the profile of the club which may have knock on positive effects elsewhere for the club.

Had Cortese got his way we may have expanded, but a lot has happened with the running of the club in those 3 years as you well know. We now have new people running the club, so that is a factor why it hasn't happened. However the owner remains and the current chairman isn't doing anything to rule it out. In fact he has been positive about the possibility (dependant on attendance triggers) on a number of occasions now.

Yes, to both. So what? Do you agree that Saints at present will likely sell out those 7 games and possibly some others this season? It is the other games that drag the average down to circa 30k, but the average would rise if the max attendance for the more attractive games was bigger. West Brom won't sell out a 40k St Mary's, but Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea would and if they did the average would rise even if only 29k turned up for the less attractive games.

It is extremely relevant as it is looking at what a rise in capacity would do to the attendance. Okay, rising to for example 40k isn't going to see games against West Brom get anywhere near max capacity, but the average attendance will still rise as the more attractive games will get close to that figure. It also helps grow the fan base long term as more people can see the bigger games. Hard to tell as we don't know the exact details of the attendance triggers Krueger refers to. For example how many sellout outs over what period he would need to see.

Probably not a good idea to take the **** when you can't spell the word correctly! Also you keep saying "Chelsea in 1984" as something I've said. I actually talked about Chelsea in the mid 1990's, not 1980's - before they had investment. You however love to take things out of context.

With the Saints team as they currently are... St Mary's is too small for games against Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Spurs, Chelsea and any big cup games. Other games will also sellout if near to Christmas, last home game of the season or if Saints are doing well. Even if you just take the 7 teams I've mentioned as sellouts; a 40k sellout for them instead of 32k and similar attendances to what we currently get for the other 12 home games would still see the average attendance rise.

Are you suggesting 17,690 for a non-competitive game is poor? How is that relevant? Saints aren't in League 1 any more, the standard of opponent and Saints team we see at league games is significantly better now. If the club did as Saint_clark suggested and had German level pricing of £10 to £15 for Premier League level football then yes, I think we would sell out every game in the Premier League.