Matthew Le God

Please can you tell me why you keep ignoring that large numbers of games in that four year period sold out long in advance of the matchday? Leaving many unable to go, even though they wanted to. The club was even able to sell circa 30k for matches as a League One side in the last two years vs Leeds, vs Exeter, vs Walsall, and vs MK Dons. That is for games with League One players on show and not internationals. Also it may have been the last game of the season, but the Walsall League One game sold out and many were left unable to get a ticket.

2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 Many games in those seasons sold out long in advance of the matchday. Also had The Dell been bigger in the late 1990's the club would also have sold more than 32k for a number of games.

Where were they for Chelsea between 1992 (when the Premier League started) and 1995 (money starting going into them) when they averaged in the Premier League similar to what Saints averaged in League One last season? Attendances fluctuate dependant on many factors, the most important being success on the pitch (often driven by money invested into the club). Success brings in the casual glory hunting fan, potentially in huge numbers.

Why wait until you go up until you start thinking about it? Within the last decade the club has had four consecutive seasons of 30k+ crowds and sold out many games long in advance. You don't need to wait another four years after promotion to see if it will happen again, the demand will still be there. It could potentially be a long process (planning and construction), so if the club really does have ambitions (and the resources required) to see it towards the upper reaches of the top flight, it would be worth planning for infrastructure improvements earlier rather than later. As they have already done with the training ground and academy.

What evidence do you think would suffice...? - 30k+ averages for four consecutive seasons - Many games selling out long in advance of the game - Huge numbers of unique customers on the ticketing database Oh, wait a minute, we have that evidence. Impossible to have evidence of 40k crowds in a 32k seater stadium, so the above is as close as you are going to get.

Can anyone give the date when these "debts" have to be paid back by? No, the accounts make no mention of that.

That is nonsense, many games sold out long in advance of the day of the match. That season the club averaged 31,699 in a 32,689 seater stadium, when you take into account segregation that shows supply was struggling to cope with demand, for what was essentially a mid table campaign for a club that wasn't spending money on the team.

As I previously explained to you, you are assuming clubs like Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea etc are currently at their maximum. That is simply not the case, they are restricted by their stadium and if they all had 60k stadiums they could fill them.

#996 holds the answer (at least it did before you edited it)

Have you listened to the interview and seen the two links? These are noises coming out of the club, not just optimistic/deluded fans. Not pointless at all, this is a forum to discuss Saints related topics. There are noises of stadium development or even relocation if needed coming from those running the club. Not just idle fan gossip from the optimistic/deluded as some claim.

Have you listened to the interview and seen the two links? These are noises coming out of the club, not just optimistic/deluded fans. This is the kit thread remember. We still have a month of kit speculation fun until we find out what it looks like!

For those that think it isn't going to happen listen to this from 37 minutes onwards... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8565914.stm Or read the fan dinner threads by Spudgun, LadySaint etc? http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?26889-Dinner-with-Nicola-Cortese Or seen Cortese meet actions with words by building a state of the art training ground and category one academy? http://web3.newforest.gov.uk/planningonline/acolnetcgi.gov?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=173436

If you think it isn't going to happen and is just idle fan gossip, I'm guessing you haven't listened to this from 37 minutes onwards...? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8565914.stm Or the fan dinner threads by Spudgun, LadySaints etc? http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?26889-Dinner-with-Nicola-Cortese Or seen Cortese back up words with actions by building a state of the art training ground and category one academy? http://web3.newforest.gov.uk/planningonline/acolnetcgi.gov?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=173436

Why didn't Saints? Many games sold out, and the average was over 30k every year in the Premier League at St Mary's (including the relegation season). Had St Mary's been for example 46k when Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Tottenham etc turn up do you think sales would never pass the 32k mark? Saints have had 30k+ attendances whilst being a League One team with League One players, to think it wouldn't be higher if Saints had Premier League players in their squad and were playing a Premier League team is more deluded than any of the pessimistic fans are accusing me of being.

That is the point of hypothetical. Saints have been a top 8 side as recently as 2003, so is it really that hard to imagine? Football infrastructure is long term and the club will aim to benefit from any capacity increases of many decades. Football can change a lot in that time, just compare the top flight today with that of 20 or 30 years ago.

Imagine Saints were in the Premier League having previously finished 8th the season before, with a owner that was investing in the team (unlike any other point in Saints history) and that St Mary's had a capacity of 46,000. The larger stadium would allow for more flexible pricing structures and cheaper tickets in some areas of the stadium. Of course there are many other factors involved (such as when the game is, if on TV or not, state of the league at the time etc), but have a guess how many would go to each of these games... Man Utd = Arsenal = Chelsea = Liverpool = Sunderland = Tottenham = Man City = Newcastle = Everton = Aston Villa = QPR = Wolves = Stoke = Fulham = Bolton = Norwich = Blackburn = West Brom = Wigan = Then work out the average for the 19 games = I find it hard to believe anyone can seriously argue it wouldn't be more than any of these averages... 2004–05: 30,610 2003–04: 31,699 2002–03: 30,680 2001–02: 30,633

What happened to the positive hypochondriac of 25th May 2011? http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?30430-Some-interesting-Cortese-info

A little flawed logic there. Have you considered the club didn't need to do much in 2010/11 transfer wise, because it was so successful with transfers (and the agents concerned) in 2009/10? The club had no need to rebuild during 2010/11 as it did in the 2009 summer window and January 2010 window. The squad was already largely in place, as shown by it achieving promotion.

How do you know that?

Well if the club used the same policy with agents since the summer of 2009, it achieved success in the market from 2009 to 2011. So why not using the same strategy from 2011 onwards? Yes, you may not get some players, yes you may **** off the odd agent, but it it is a very big player pond and if you really want a quality player and have the cash there is plenty out there.

again... Irrelevant if Saints ended up with another player that helped acheive the clubs goal of promotion for a price it felt was appropriate, rather than an inflated one with large agent fees attached.

I think you will find the club is now in a higher league, and thus closer to its target than it was 12 months ago.

Irrelevant if Saints ended up with another player that helped acheive the clubs goal of promotion for a price it felt was appropriate, rather than an inflated one with large agent fees attached.

Since the takeover in Summer 2009... Joined the club José Fonte Guly do Prado Lambert, Rickie Butterfield, Danny Seaborne, Danny Martin, Aaron Puncheon, Jason Stephens, Jack Stephens, Dale Barnard, Lee Harding, Dan Connolly, David Forte, Jonathan Hammond, Dean Chaplow, Richard Jaïdi, Radhi Dickson, Ryan Richardson, Frazer Papa Waigo Otsemobor, Jon Bignall, Nicholas Antonio, Michail Signed a contract extension or pro deal Lallana, Adam Doble, Ryan Lallana, Adam Bialkowski, Bartosz Davis, Kelvin Dean, Harlee Isgrove, Lloyd Reeves, Ben Hoskins, Sam Robinson, Andy Jaïdi, Radhi Connolly, David Chamberlain, Alex Not to mention numerous other youth team players joining the club and/or signing pro deals. Pretty much all these things would have been done with agents! So Nicola Cortese hasn't done that badly with agent considering it all resulted in a promotion and a strong squad to start as a base to work from this summer for a Championship campaign.

tbf you don't have to live in Burnley, to play for Burnley. Lots of nice places to live nearby and very close to Manchester.