The Kraken

Depends how you quantify relatively recently. Since 1998 Africa has had at least 5 entrants into the World Cup finals (that rose to 6 for the 2010 finals). But I think you're right in a sense, when it was only a couple of African teams qualifying there was little other value for African teams. And perhaps that's still true with only 6 teams qualifying even now (Europe has more or less the same number of countries but in 2010 had 13 qualifying teams). The ACN does get bad press here because its held in winter during the season, rather than in the summer off-season (but that's dictated by temperature I guess, so unlikely to change).

Dell-sized mentality morons.

I'm intrigued why some of our fans are determined to invent new "innovative" ways to sell tickets to justify a bigger stadium. There seems to be a need on here to create all manner of different sales methods in order to justify increasing stadium capacity and then filling it. We've had the proposed idea of a broader range of prices; the German model of creating cheaper tickets subsidised by a range of more expensive ones. We've had the proposal of dynamic pricing. And now we've got the proposition of selling more tickets to away fans than is standard. I'm led to think; why? Why do we need to be so ground-breaking to justify a bigger stadium? Why are we looking to do things that pretty much no other club in the top ten is looking to do (the exact same top ten clubs that we're trying to join and emulate)? Why are we completely different to the others? The other clubs that are looking to expand their stadiums (Tottenham, Reading, Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City etc etc); are they considering the same things as this? Are Man City thinking of increasing to a 60K ground and proposing doubling the size of their away end to 6,000, because that is 10% of capacity? If not, why aren't they considering it? Why is it such a good idea for us, but seemingly not for other sides? Also, big sides like Everton and Villa had attendances last season well below capacity; thousands of empty seats for various games. Why did they not increase the away allocation to 10% or whatever? If it's such a plausible idea, why didn't Everton or Villa do it? I'm all for the club looking at new and inventive methods, if they work and if they make sense. But they haven't done that so far though, our pricing and ticketing strategy is pretty much the same now as it has ever been. So I always find it a little baffling that all these new "creative" ideas come forth. The sides that have sold more away tickets than the regulations dictate are, from what I can see, the likes of Fulham, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn. Pompey have done it. QPR have done it in the lower leagues. Not exactly the sides we should be looking to copy, surely? And I'm still to see an abundance of top ten Premier League sides doing it. Why?

A few more details from the Telegraph report by Matt Scott (again, knows his stuff about Pompey) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/portsmouth/9603676/League-looks-to-Portsmouth-fans-as-Balram-Chainrai-bid-stalls.html

And, after all that, the budget of actually running the club. The very same budget which was previously supposed to be being financed by the parachute payments recently received, which will now be diverted to PKF's running and court costs. The takeover saga thread may be at an end soon. The "how long until the PST implode" thread that follows it; well that may not last that long either, actually.

Yep, 2-1 in each game.

Rangers almost got to the Champions League final in 1993. They got through the knockouts to the last 8, when it split into two groups of four. The top team from each group made the final, Rangers came second in their group by 1 point.

Just for clarity.... There is a lot of supposition in that article. The author (David Conn, who knows his stuff) does not say the bid had been rejected. He's said that the Football League have doubts about Portpin. So, until it's confirmed one way or the other this is just a journalist putting two and two together; he may well be right, he may well be wrong. All in it doesn't sound good for Portpin, and really that can only be good for football as the man is an utter disgrace. However he will fight this all the way, there's no doubt about that, and that will be a long and very costly exercise; one which the PST can barely afford.

None. This game is one of the worst I've ever seen.

You've missed that there's a massive difference between being one of the biggest clubs in the world and one of the best clubs in the world. Celtic and Rangers are huge clubs globally. In terms of ability they will always be completely limited by the Scottish league. If they played in the Premier League they would have the opportunity to push on and become one of the biggest and best clubs in Britain and Europe. Without that, they will still be among the biggest but nowhere near the best.

No they shouldn't. It should never, ever be allowed IMO. We play in the English league, not a British one (and no, I don't believe Cardiff and Swansea etc should be in our leagues either but that's a ship that sailed a long, long time ago).

How odd.

My Sky is down so its just the rubbish England game for me. Is Bale playing on the right?

Where have I mentioned anything about building a massive away end? Show me where I've said that. I've said the exact opposite; that our away end should stay exactly where it is and at exactly the same size. But yes; the idea of building a stadium for now is that you future-proof it. You build for how many you'll need over a distinct period, so you don't over-reach yourself and build too many seats that you can't fill.

Too samey for me; they pretty much all just seem to follow a very set template and don't deviate much. The fit of them is decent (I have a couple for 5 a side) but they are a bit too all the same. Although if they just did a very basic and simple red and white striped shirt, that would be decent.

If I misquoted you I aplologise. I didn't mean to, and to be honest I didn't think I did. But I do very much disagree with the notion of giving away any more tickets than we absolutely have to, under any circumstances. There we go.

Ha ha, I'm the thick one?!!!! You can't even understand what I clearly wrote. Just f*ck off pal, if that's all you've got.

Wes, please just take it that I think giving any extra seats to away fans than we have to would be a mistake. It wouldn't be a good idea. I disagree with that notion. Just to be clear. There are many reasons why I don't think we should; as there are for many/all of the clubs that TDD has listed above. If you feel its a good idea, then good for you. I feel the opposite. Leave it there, shall we? And your plan means giving away more tickets than we need to. Its a proportion of capacity but its unnecessary; we don't have to do it, so I don't think we should either. That's not twisting your words; it really isn't.

Yes. League rules state 10% or 3,000 away seats, whichever is the lowest. Any proportion argument would be entirely voluntary; we'd be under no obligation to do so in a bigger stadium and quite frankly, as I've explained, I think it would very unwise to do so.

Do you fail to understand that I disagree with this concept? Do you really? I disagree with it. I think the away supporters should be capped at 3,000. Whatever our size stadium is. I think we should build to the demand of the home fans only, and get that right. I do not think we should fill potential shortfalls with extra away fans. It's not a hard concept to grasp.

How am I twisting it? I don't think we should cater for more away fans than we have to. Pretty much no other club inside the top ten does that. And we currently have around 10% simply because we have a 32K stadium. I wouldn't want us to give any more away. So I'm not twisting anything; if we need a bigger stadium we should build one but keep the away allocation at 3,000. Find out how many extra home fans we need and build for that. It's quite simple; I think your 10% proportion is entirely unnecessary. This is hard work.

We'll definitely get a new kit as our deals with Umbro have all been one year deals (for the home kits anyway). And our overall deal with Umbro ends this year, I believe. I've always quite liked Nike kits so it would be good to sign up with them (not that it really matters, I only wear Saints kit for 5 a side). With solid red this year I feel it will be a welcome return to stripes next season. Hope so, anyway. *waits for The9 to show up*

Dear me. It clearly isn't "just me" talking about it; otherwise why is Wes suggesting increasing the proportion of away fans in a bigger stadium? Even you yourself said "I don't see how having 4,000 away fans in a 40,000 stadium can be a "much bigger advantage" than having 3,000 in a 30,000 seater." How is that not considering building more seats for away fans? I don't mind having a conversation or even being proved wrong (as I often am), but come on now.

Sorry for not responding immediately to you, but alas I've been to the gym. In future I'll remember to put my social schedule to one side to provide answers to random faceless people online. My point to you about the Dell was to highlight that "success" in whatever guide is no immediate guarantee of filling a stadium; even one much smaller as we had at the Dell. Success in those guises (top 2, Europe) wasn't enough on its own when we were in the 80s and had a team filled with the European footballer of the year. And neither was a massive catchment area. If you can be arsed to read the other drivel I've written at the top of this page, you'll see exactly where I stand on how many future fans we might expect to see; so your statement that I've "ignored the 30% more fans" is obviously complete nonsense. As for your last paragraph, ok then! As for Wes, if he looks in my previous response to him I've already answered his direct question and given reasons why, so there's really no need to repeat it, is there?

As I said, it's not something the typical top ten clubs do, and IMO not something we should strive to do either. Much better to work out how many seats we need to cater for increased home attendance and leave it at that. Otherwise where do you stop? The likes of Tottenham, Man United, Arsenal etc would likely fill an away allocation of 10,000 or more if it was offered to them. For the likes of Fulham at Craven Cottage, who already have sh*t loads of empty seats, its perhaps worth their while filling them one way or the other. For us, building a whole load of extra seats and then needing additional away fans just to fill them makes no business logic to me. At all. but then, if that what floats your boat and you think its a good idea, good luck to you.