moonraker

Because I am a Saints fan. I also watch my local non league team, Bath City and Bath Rugby, and occasionally go to Brizzle Rovers with a couple of mates, but Saints will always be my priority. I know I am fortunate to be able to afford to enjoy all of this.

I do not believe there is a single super metric for assessing our potential for bigger attendances. Whilst I accept that a healthy season ticket waiting list would add to the body of evidence for potential increased attendances it is as you state one of many. Taking any criteria in isolation does not further the discussion. That being said I think there are three others that in my view carry similar weight as season ticket waiting list; Catchment area, on field success (subjective in its own right) and historic trends. My view is that whilst we cannot claim exclusive attractiveness to the whole central south and south west, we do, I would contend, offer more than all the other clubs in these areas, the vast majority of clubs (in the prem) who have increased their capacity have seen a corresponding increase in attendances, our current on field performance is very encouraging, and for a club of our size we are as established and stable as a prem club could ask to be. So in conclusion there is not a single super metric, as a business the club need to assess all of the evidence (metrics) to assess the potential for growing our attendance and weigh that against the increased potential for commercial growth.

Waiting lists as has been argued above are no indication of future potential. How long was the waiting list when we were at The Dell? We now have an average attendance double our Dell average, many said 25000 was enough, well we built 32000 and in the main whilst in the Prem they have come.

I never stated we could attract Brizzle fans, but up to Bath we can. In the 80s I used a regular coach from Bath always full. There was also a pub in West Lavington that acted as a ticket agent band ran a coach. Build it and they will come.

Ipswich has about half the population of Southampton. I gave reasons why Bristol's club struggle with support. If city could establish themselves in the prem they would in all likelihood, but for their stadium 27k, double their attendances.

Of the teams you reference only one is premiership side, Bristol as is much of the West Country is as much a Rugby area as football, 4 of the top 5 Rugby clubs for attendances are in the West Country, there are also a lot of "plastics" possibly i would contend because neither of Bristol's two clubs have been able to break out of the Lower leagues.

By your parochial criteria Everton and Liverpool should only be attracting crowds of 25k ish. I live in Bath and know a couple of dozen saints fans here, and i don't go out looking for them. Saints catchment is pretty big, their is no real competition to the West or North West until Bristol, Brighton are the nearest competition to the East with the exception of plague island. I believe we could easily build a 40k crowd if we were to continue to play attractive and entertaining football.

Never doubted that Jack was a premiership player, yes he has had a few dreadful moments, but he is an intelligent player who has passion and the ability to wind up opponents. He was excellent when he came on today.

Sad news, condolences to all of Minsk's family and friends.

Shout for Stevens great performance so far

United continuous fouls need to be punished

United are a better team than spuds, we need to adjust, their counter is very dangerous

Our next manager is not on that list

Amused by the wording of the BBC article “Armstrong's goal pipped Harvey Elliott's strike, the Liverpool teenager marking his return after five months out with a fine goal in their 3-1 win over Cardiff City.” He more than pipped him with 33% more votes.

Sadly there are still those who will do this, tough I have noticed a trend especially when interviewed by the media that they request anonymity. The majority of the brave gammonarty now hide less they expose themselves for the fools they have been taken for.

Not much about Tory Islamophobia I note. The current Tory party, their media friends and their sheep like members are pathetic, keep Bozo in power and we can all watch and enjoy the death of a 1000 cuts for this disreputable excuse for a political party.

About as well as all the other Brexit Benefits, JRMs 50 years to see the benefits is slowly ticking down, I cant wait for the great celebrations in 2072, I will be 115 years old and will be dancing in the streets.

That no surprise , he rarely knows what day of the week it is. Listening to a debate on the radio about the parties and there are still some hard nosed Tories who claim it is just "Boris Bashing". So, as many of us have always known, the party of Law and Order is not quite so hot on Law and Order when its one of their own.

What people had 40 years ago is as irrelevant as what they had 100 years ago. Expectations are not bad, entitlement now there is a different problem so gloriously evidenced by our current leadership. I do agree that people must take responsibility for themselves and in the main I believe they do, you said people are "stacked with debt" also true to a point, 91% of this is property debt, and the ridiculous cost of housing drives this, expecting to have a house is hardly irresponsible. Without expectations and satisfying those expectations through credit and peoples willingness to use it the economy would be in a far worse state, it is expectation that drives a market economy and the more market driven a governments policies are the greater the level of expectation. PS. I have zero debt

That's a relative term, the people of these islands judge their quality of life based on their personal experiences and expectations. Neither you, I or 99% of the posters on this board have any conception of how the 95% of people who, by your criteria have a worse quality of life. I may be making a big assumption, but I assume you are using a Western Cultural criteria that values what is important to Western Capitalist Economies. This is not a universal value system and fails to consider many of the far more nuanced criteria that we all value but often fail to acknowledge that contribute to ones quality of life. There are undoubtedly far to many people living in poverty facing a daily battle to survive i our world, this does not excuse the 11 years of Tory government that has undoubtedly made many more of our own peoples lives far harder than when they came to power in 2010 and hence has reduced the overall quality of life in the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This current Conservative administration is rotten to the core. All they and their dwindling band of looney snowflake right wing supporters have left is deflection, no morals, ethics or dignity. I would never have imagined that our once proud and great nation could end up in the hands of such a divisive, dishonest incompetent rabble.

That was not what was written, what was written is that it is easier for those countries to become republics. I would bet that over the next 10 - 30 years the vast majority of countries that currently have QEII as their constitutional head of state will become republics. I have no issue with QEII or indeed Charles, however I believe that we need to move on from a constitutional monarchy, FPTP and an unelected second chamber, , the whole "political" system in the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is more antiquated and less fit for purpose than Fratton Park.

There seems to be a a number of posters who are only capable of viewing the world from their own overtly suspicious perspective. Whether it’s Kat and her 20%, new owners in general or some of our players, or geopolitical events. It is perfectly reasonable to question things but when presented with evidence or qualified views they don’t seem capable of taking these into consideration, famously a certain leader of Germany suffered from this form of myopia. I have a absolutely no insider knowledge so rely on my experience of people, media, club and fans comments to form my opinion. For what it’s worth I believe this will be a good move for the club and that Kats 20% is all about her fathers legacy, no dodgy deals no profiteering.

Such a sad tale, thought Sam would become a Saints stalwart

With age my dislike for other clubs has mellowed, (one obvious Div 3 club excepted) but I still struggle to see any good in Spurs, Everton and now Newcastle.