stevegrant

I thought the Trust were going to shepherd in a new era of transparency at Pompey?

What sort of evidence? Evidence that he's a credible bidder for FP or evidence that he isn't?

Vince is into the 30s, therefore it must be about time he cut a wide one straight to backward point.

Blimey, the rarely-seen batting point

Not too bad, I guess, but as you say it'll add up over the course of the season if you eat there every day

Can't wait to hear what the terms are. My guess: £3.25m up front, £250k a year plus a fixed percentage of any sale price in the future.

How much is the food in the executive club? Do you get anything included in the membership price?

Off to a flyer as usual

Briggs in for Griffiths from your predicted team, Ron. Leicestershire win the toss and bowl first.

No, that redevelopment is definitely happening in the timescales mentioned, I've just not seen any mentions or even speculation as to how much it's costing Al Fayed to build.

I can't find a single news article that even speculates on what the projected cost will be, let alone one with a club source quoted! Judging by the phase photos, it looks like it'll be a similar project to the one West Ham embarked upon when they rebuilt their main stand about a decade or so ago, building most of it behind the existing structure. Without demolishing the whole stand and building from the ground up, which would obviously lose capacity (and they sell out for pretty much every game these days), it's the only logical way of doing it IMO.

10.30 or 11.00 kickoff.

The guaranteed income thing has reminded me that it seems absolutely insane that we still haven't reinstated some sort of membership scheme. It's an easy £20-odd a year from thousands of supporters just for the privilege of a card with your name on and priority ahead of non-members for tickets.

Right, here's the provisional squad of 15: GK: Chris Summers DF: Kev Thornton, Adam Moore, Andy Porter, Lee Chamberlain, Mike Florit MF: Chris Knight, Stu Holloway, Scott Phillips, Andy Mintram, Jordan Florit, Ben Coombes FW: Steve Grant, Scott Griffin, Brad Smirk Apologies to those who put their names forward but aren't on the list, unfortunately 28 doesn't go into 15. I'm hoping that these games will be much more regular next season so there will be more opportunities for everyone. For those who are on the list, if any of your plans change and you cannot make the game, please let me know asap so I can bring somebody else in. I'll confirm full details in the next week or so.

Difficult to compare the cost of St Mary's and the Amex as the circumstances are polar opposites. St Mary's is built on "brownfield" land in the city with no local opposition, the Amex is on "greenfield" land in the countryside where the locals and conservationists fought tooth and nail to prevent it being built, which led to countless public inquiries and intervention by the government. In terms of the cost, we know for a fact that expansion costs significantly more than the original build (roughly £1000 per seat). Andrew Cowan went on the record nearly a decade ago to say expansion at that time would cost around £3000 per seat, and the cost of building stadia has increased significantly in the years since St Mary's was built. If another 10,000 seats were added, a figure of £50m probably wouldn't be that far out. I'm not entirely convinced timescales would allow any expansion to begin next summer, the planning process for something that substantial would surely take longer than a year.

Yes, I should have the squad sorted tomorrow. I've got a list of around 25 so need to reduce that down to 15 or 16.

Fully aware of that, but the trust have made it pretty clear that they're not interested in non-league, it's now League Two with them owning the ground or nothing.

They could, in theory, but the Football League have supposedly said they won't entertain any scenario where ownership of the ground is separated from the football club.

MLG, I'd have thought you of all people would know how to spell Pochettino...

Can't see that one making general sale. An allocation of around 2900 for a London away game at a ground we've not played at for nearly 9 years is likely to be pretty popular.

No problem with a salary at that sort of level with the revenue the club is now pulling in. Certainly an issue when he's being paid around 10% of the club's turnover in League One though, but that's been and gone now so no point being bothered about it anymore.

It's entirely conceivable that building a new stadium from the bottom up would be cheaper than adding another 10,000 to the current one, assuming you can get the land at a decent price. However, I get the impression the club are looking at the industrial land across the road from SMS for some sort of future commercial build which could bring in alternative revenue streams, so I'm not convinced we should be expecting a move away any time soon.

SMS effectively cost £1,000 per seat, and a decade ago would have cost £3,000 a seat to expand. Judging by reported build costs of other stadia in more recent years, that cost has spiralled so it's not unreasonable to believe that it could cost at least £5,000 per seat now. Adding 10,000 seats on that basis would cost a frankly ridiculous £50m, nearly double what the original build cost. At an average £35 per ticket, those 10,000 seats - if sold every game, which hasn't been the case this season anyway - would bring in around £6.5m in extra gate receipts. With cost of finance, maintenance, etc, that's a 9-10 year payback.