stev2001

Are people forgetting Newcastle got relegated with an average attendance of 48k?

22673

That's exactly how I feel.

Southampton central better disperses fans as fans would get on various different trains at different times. A local station would mean most fans wanting to get on the same train to Southampton central at he same time.

Surely that adds to the argument that if we expand and more travel by train having one local station would cause major mass queues and you'll still have to change at Southampton. So all you'd have is a station that only gets used once a fortnight that runs two lots of extra shuttle trains as itll take to long to clear the platforms otherwise. Where would these come from?

Actually I've just realised that we are looking at this as fans and not from the clubs (NCs) point of view. A large proportion of my money I spend on a match day isn't spent at SMS. I pay for parking, beer and food all in town which is great for our local economy but not for the club. Does NC really care about congestion etc. is this why he would consider a stadium move? At the JPT final I spent a lot on beer and food at Wembley. Some might dis agree but NC only cares about the club as a business with success and the premier league the main money making revenues.

What about relocating them to the stadium expansion. Of course I am joking but it's these type of, things I think are needed to make an expansion viable. If other revenues can be made from an expansion other than just bums on seats it doesn't seem as expansive to do.

Or build those into a stadium expansion giving the club more revenue. Another tier naturally gives a larger stadium footprint so the floor space needs to be used for something. Suggest it to NC. Let him build it and you can lease the floor space

They definitely need to sort out the foot bridge or build another one. I'm not sure a local station would be a great idea. Would be very expensive to build, would hardly get used on non match days and could be a nightmare when thousands are trying to get on a few trains. A bit of a walk to 4 stations where a lot will stop in pubs on the way really takes the load off of the congestion.

I don't think it would massively increase grid locking as all the parking around the stadium is already taken so the extra cars would have to park further away. I quite often park up the avenue and never have a problem getting way if I don't stop for a beer on the way out. A bit of a long walk I know but better than being stuck in a traffic jam IMO.

Well said and the more I think about it having a stadium in the city is better than an out of town location. Because of the local parking issues at st Mary forces the crowd to disperse in all directions, this is actually a good thing as you dont get as big queues of cars trying to use the same road. The same goes for the railway stations, having a choice of 4 and a 15min+ walk to get to them doesn't cause the mass stampede and queues you'd get if a station was on st Mary's door step. The same also goes for the choice of pubs available, it makes it easier to get to the bar when there is so many to choose from. All this actually makes expansion easier as the citys infrastructure could absorb the extra capacity easier than a out of town stadium with limited parking, public transport and road network.

This thread is a magical one. Having a guaranteed 17th spot. It's not whether we would be happy with 17th as I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't.

I bet if this deal was offered to all the clubs in the prem, only clubs consistently finishing in the top 10 would refuse. I'm pretty sure fulham, Wigan etc would bite your arm off. QPR spent a fortune this year and look at villa, both could still go down mathematically. Promotion survival will not be a walk in the park even if we make some great signings.

I think you are right to target 14th and I think we should too but given the chance of a guaranteed 17th I'd take that for sure. It's only 3 places lower and no risk of relegation.

We are not in the prem this season?

But this thread is about taking guaranteed survival if it meant finishing 17th or is everyone voting no really that confident we will definitely finish 16th or above?

We are going to have some major changes this season as most of our current squad haven't played in the prem, all our new signings need to fit in and start playing as a team. We will be up against well established prem teams or teams that have a season or two head start on us. I'm not sure why finishing 17th wouldn't be a great starting point for us to push on from and I don't think in our first season would show we are struggling?

There have been many teams with a much higher wage bills, bigger stadiums, higher attendances than ours who have been relegated from this league so while we are in a state of transistion I think 17th would be a great achievement. Once we have bought a few players and they have settled then we can start looking higher in the league as a goal. I'm not saying we can't do what Norwich has done this year or even better but I am also realistic that we could do what Newcastle did a few seasons back.

Yes definitely

Has anyone mentioned, Newcastle got relegated with one of the biggest stadiums in the country? We need to tread carefully and slowly grow as a football club. We need some luck and some good players next season just to stay in the league. Mid table or above would take a lot of luck and some very shrewd buying in the summer.

I'm not sure when people talk about a stadium move it is just about getting a better location. I think it has been said on here before NC is not happy with SMS as a stadium and if he had built if from scratch he would have planned it differently. Maybe this is to take advantage of commercial revenue streams more ( such as shops, office space, better conference facilities or something else completely different). Though it looks good, make no bones about it SMS is a cheaply built stadium but fit for purpose at he time ( we didnt have lots of money then). Whether it makes sense for us to build one of these uber stadiums with all the extras only NC knows. IMO I think we are better off keeping what we have in a good location and if things go well this season maybe look to add a new tier and maybe a few extras with it. 38000 seats for me feels about right for us in the prem at the moment.

I think SMS is a great location especially when you look at the long term forecast plans for the city. Those plans might be a few years off but any expansion might take a while too. Some waterfront bars with a promenade to ocean village (see link in the above post, pg134) would be awesome before and after the game.

I've seen someting about the master plan before but in a different format. The only real surprise was the industrial estate next to SMS. I always thought it was the long term plan to turn this into housing or something else. Great post thanks

Thats exactly what I was thinking and with the town depot part of the city primed for development anything is possible

Would have to be located at stoneham then next to the M3 and M27 to get rid of that volume of cars at the end of the game easily.