Matthew Le God

If Saints really are playing Durham on 19th July I doubt it will be the first team, more likely a Southampton XI using development players and the under 18's like they do every year against non league teams. The first team will probably be abroad at that point of pre-season.

Their average attendance is 3,800, so selling 1,700 for them is like Saints selling roughly 11,000 tickets for an away game. I think 1,600 tickets is quite good really and is over 3 times their highest away following up until this point.

Middlesborough have run out of parachute payments from their time in the Premier League and have already stated they are making large cutbacks to the wage bill this summer.

That is a photoshopped version of the Sunderland shirt.

The loan rules in the Football League may be changing in June, so that you can only have 4 loan players in your match day squad. This may screw Pompey if they want to boost numbers in their squad with loan players like they have this season.

No-one outside of the club/Umbro etc knows.

We can't see that. You need to actually put the image on here. Extremely unlikely someone would have access to it though.

No reason why you couldn't rename Britainia Road and the main training ground building.

A few people have started threads about renaming St Mary's, a stand, a corporate suite or a statue next to Ted Bates. I don't think any of those are appropriate. However what may be, would be to rename the main building at Staplewood training ground after him. My idea... The Markus Liebherr Pavillion...(After all, he paid for it. )

The Markus Liebherr Pavillion...After all, he paid for it.

Well the OS say he might... "Alex Chamberlain could return to the squad." As did Nigel Adkins in interview to BBC Solent.. #saintsfc Manager Nigel Adkins has hinted that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain could play some part in last league one game v Walsall. I expect he'll be on the bench.

Chamberlain will be on the bench at the very least.

I didn't say I agreed with the West Ham case (certainly not the £40m council loan), just the concept that a larger stadium means the easier it is to reduce prices, give free tickets to schools to attract future fans and give very cheap family deals etc. Saints also wouldn't be imposing themselves on anyone like West Ham are with Leyton Orient. But if the Liebherr's are going to fund any expansion (or if needs be a new stadium) themselves, I don't have an issue with that. A larger stadium will help gain a larger fanbase through ticketing schemes.

Cortese said in the BBC interview they are already looking at expanding St Mary's and if not possible they would build a new stadium. Any new stadium would have to be alot bigger than 32,000 to make it worth while, and any expansion he has in mind would be to a similar capacity. According to those at one of the fans dinners, Cortese believes through research the club have done that Saints can get 45k averages in the Premier League and would require a stadium larger than 45k to achieved that. Unlike at any other time in the clubs history Saints look like they may end up in the Premier League with an ownership with real resources behind it. Rupert Lowe never invested in the team or club and still saw St Mary's average over 30k in every season in the Premier League including the relegation season. A Saints team in the Premier League with investment in the squad from the Liebherr's, is a more attractive proposition to go to St Mary's than what Lowe ever did. Just look at what West Ham are planning with the Olympic stadium. A 60,000 stadium compared to there current 34,000 stadium and will make ticket prices extremely cheap as they have the number to play with. The more seats you have, the easier it is to reduce prices, give free tickets to schools to attract future fans and give very cheap family deals etc etc. I think we will see a stadium expansion happening relatively soon. Cortese is a very ambitious man!

No, next summer.

Use http://www.footballforumfinder.com http://upthesaddlers.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=df48884943e05e2da8daeb5d5a4e7a29

1,400 of the 1,700 allocation sold so far. http://www.saddlers.co.uk/page/News/0,,10428~2352376,00.html I think they'll sell the remaining 300 tomorrow, which should mean one of the largest attendances at St Mary's, as long as there isn't much in the way of segregation.

I doubt they would sell him for that when they turned down bigger from Norwich a few months ago.

Good idea.

Well we have had circa 30k for a few games as a 3rd tier side and already shown in four seasons in the Premier League the club can support averages of 30k+. So it isn't 20k extra you are looking for, it is about 10k (some of which would be taken up by larger away allocations).

Initially 37,000 and possibly later up to 50,000. Work begins this summer.

Nope, they are going ahead with it regardless of if they stay up or not and is costing them £40m+.

Rupert also didn't invest any money in the team to make it an attractive proposition to watch. For the first time in 125 years Saints have ownership that is investing significant amounts in the club.

The larger St Mary's gets the larger the away end becomes and more Premier League away fans will come. A 50,000 St Mary's could have 7,500 away fans for a cup game and 5,000 for a League game, so you would need 42,500 - 45,000 home fans to fill it.

Saints have already shown they can sell out for "those kinds of game". Hence why between 2001 and 2005 they averaged over 30,000 each season.