Turkish

Really? 180,000 Saints fans cant go to game every week because of work, finances, the opposition etc?

There was a 2 year waiting list for season tickets at The Del. and We could have sold some games out twice over. When could you say that about SMS? How long has our waiting list been there at it's peak?

It didn't though and Saints weren't one of the grounds on the 2018 bid. This has nothing to do with it. Leeds have historically had big crowds and are one of the top 10 clubs in the country. Saints are not.

By not going to game, clearly.

Exactly, if a club and city the size of Leeds cant sell out why would a city like Southampton, half the size? and neither of them are on about spending 36m to expand theirs.

Why do only just over 10% of this turn out for most games now then?

Dont you think every other club has this as well? If every club based their capacity on causal fans they'd all have 200,000 capacity stadiums. Leeds is a huge city and draw fans from large towns like Wakefield, York, Harrogate, even a bloke in Doncaster said there were loads of Leeds fans there, why dont they need a 100,000 staidum based on their catchment are and potential for casual fans?

Wont we have any lunchtime live on TV kick offs in the premier league then?

NO i dont, fans that might come along once in a blue moon are all well and good but we need a guarentee that we could fill it regularly, with season ticket holders and members prepared to come along regularly rather than the mate of a mate who might come if there is nothing better to do.

Brillaint!! So for 1/2 the games we'll sell little more than we do already and have 10000 empty seats. Well worth expanding.

What are you on about you loon? Here are Evertons crowds in the premier league years. http://www.toffeeweb.com/history/records/attendances.asp Clown.

# I wasn't coming up with a payback model, just saying we would need to sell out 100 games to cover the cost. It's nothing to do with a payback model. It's everything to do with the FACT that there is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that we can fill a 44k stadium regularly. Not a shread of it. We can all say what we think we might need but the cold hard facts are that there are No waiting list for season ticket holders and never has been. No thousands of fans having the gate shut on them every week and never has been. Until we have that 32,000 is sufficent.

The typical TSW cop out. Unless you're deluded happy clappy mong you must be a skate FFS. I dont think we are a small club, but we aren't one of the biggest clubs in the country. Only 4 clubs are getting 44k or more and whilst Spurs and Chelsea can argue its due to restricted capacity are we as big as them? Aston Villa and Everton are far bigger clubs than us and only averaging 33k and 29k respectively this season. Why do people think we will suddenly get 44k? Still what do i know, i must be skate for not believing there are 20,000 fans just waiting to come to SMS every week once we get promoted.

What is there then? Spurs are expanding from 36,000 to 50,000 and have a 20,000 odd waiting list for season tickets. That is the sort of evidence we need. We cant even fill SMS regularly at the moment. If Cortese expands without having at least couple of season of selling out every week and turning thousands away he is as mental and deluded as some of you on here.

Sensible to pay £36m for something you have zero evidence is needed? I think not.

There is no such thing as a gift in business, it would have to be payed back at some point. In any case do you think the family would think the gift was a bit ungratefully recieved if it is not being used most weeks?

The point is that people who wanted one usually got one, they just had to make an effort by getting it earlier. As pointed out, there wasn't endless threads of people begging for tickets on TSW, there wasn't thousands of phone calls from hopeful fans wanting tickets to see us play Bolton, only to be left disapointed. It wasn't like the Dell where we had a waiting list for season ticket holders 2 years long and we could sell out games twice over. I know it wasn't, Mrs Turkish was working at the club at the time. And MLG reckons this is because 12,000 fans just didn't bother trying because they didn't think they'd get one. It's absolute nonsense, 32,000 just about met demand and will do again should be we get back to the premier league. Unless we have waiting lists for season tickets and thousands of disapointed faces every week then anyone who thinks we need to expand is mental.

because people said on the other thread they had "no problem" getting tickets for small clubs. Stop reading only what you want to read.

£36m to expand. At the current price of £30 per ticket it would bring in £360k additional revenue per game. To just cover the cost we would need to sell out for 100 games to cover to cost. 19 home games a season in the premier league mean it would take 6 season, selling out EVERY GAME to recover the outlay.

How do you know it will be improved, not just expanded? We would get around 35-40k for the big games. For most games such as Bolton, Stoke, Fulham etc though there would be around 10,000 empty seats. WE've already seen on the other thread that it was "no problem" getting tickets for these games. Rather than expanding to 44k and spending £36m, why not just put the price up by a fiver? if it still sells out put it up by another fiver. Until you're selling 32,000 ticket for £40 each, rather than 35,000 for £30, without having to shell out £36m for the honour. This will also put the value of the business up, all this income with very little debt. Rather than a little more income with a massive debt.

Did 12,000 not bother trying to get tickets for this one?

It's not being improved, it's being expanded. All it will provide is more debt to a new buyer to take on. Going on that basis then why not expand to 100,000, it'll make the club worth more and they can get the money back when they sell up. You are wrong. people have said on the other thread they had "no problem" getting tickets for smaller games but bigger ones could be more difficult. It was easy.

I dont know anyone who wanted a ticket for most games and didn't get one. I also dont know anyone who didn't bother because they just assumed they wouldn't get one. I dont remember S4E being full of fans not bothering to get tickets and complaining about SMS being too small. Which is odd, considering there are meant to be thousands of them.

So you are telling me that in 2004 the second the final ticket was sold not one of these 12,000 chomping at the bit to fill a bigger stadium attempted to buy one? Are you telling me 12,000 didn't bother getting tickets, becoming members etc to see a team in its best period since 1985? But now, with a bigger staidum will be desperate for tickets every week to make it worthwhile to expand? We regularly have 8,000 empty seats now, top of the league, availbility isn't a problem now, so where are they? The missing 20,000 you claim are desperate to see us play. So how do you propse the money is recouped? We've proven on the other thread we cold potentiall sell out for 5 big games a season but it was EASY to get tickets for smaller games with a 32k capacity. How do you propose the Liebherrs get their £36m investment back for 12,000 seats which will be largely empty for 3/4s of the games in a season.

No they haven't. They have proved me right. A number of people have struggled for the bigger games. We are in agreement that we'd sell out and probably fill c35-40k for those ones. People have said they DIDNT struggle for the smaller games. Proving that in our peak it was still easy to get tickets for these games. Why would anyone spend £36m for the additional reveune of selling out 5 times a season for the big games? at even £50 a ticket this would only generate £3m a yearadditional income, it would take 12 years to just clear the debt off!! It would be maddness.