Guided Missile

We're supporters of a football club, FFS, not prospective buyers of a flat pack wardrobe. If many of our fans are like you and can't see that there is a difference between a shop selling cheap furniture and a club that is meant to be the heart and soul of the community, then the inhabitants of Southampton will end up with the football club they deserve...

Actually, I know Keith House quite well and he told me that EBC were prepared to approve the stadium and associated sports facilities but it was the shopping/multiplex cinema part that they refused to permit, so Lowe pulled the plug on the application (ie didn't resubmit with amendments) and pursued St. Marys instead. Eastleigh were worried about the effect that additional shops and a cinema would have on the "vibrant" Eastleigh Town Centre.

Independent, The (London), Oct 26, 1998 Plans to construct a new 25,000-seat stadium at Stoneham, near junction five of the M27 and close to Southampton airport, have been under discussion for eight years but last week, Eastleigh Council, the authority within which the proposed site lies, effectively refused permission for the project by rejecting proposals for commercial facilities that would accompany the stadium. "It is all very well saying "yes" to community facilities and stadia if you say "no" to the financial engine to create them," Lowe said in Saturday's programme notes. The council, while not opposing a "community stadium" - for athletics, gymnastics and county sports events as well as football - in principle, have rejected plans by Southampton Leisure Holdings plc (the company that owns the football club) to build a supermarket and multiplex cinema alongside their proposed new ground at Stoneham to add commercial viability to the plan. The Dell - maximum capacity, 15,000 - is simply not big enough to sustain a Premiership football club, with all its attendant financial demands for transfer fees and wages, in the current era, and Lowe, a businessman with a background in the City, is now looking to an alternative site, a disused gasworks, in the St Mary's area of the city. "We will submit a detailed planning application within two to three weeks as part of an ongoing process designed to deliver a new stadium as soon as is humanly possible," Lowe said.

...returned last week from a short business trip from Mumbai. Touched by the concern on this site, but please reserve it for the mostly, Indian victims of the carnage. I'll return to Mumbai when I need to. Westerners staying away, will prolong the damage to the many low paid Indians that work in the hotels and restaurants, that serve the visitors so well. Lovely people who could not be more friendly, particularly when your waiter has the chance to discuss cricket and the fantastic young team they have at the moment.

John, I'll keep this simple so that you will understand. You have made it clear that for one reason or another, you have chosen not to support Southampton Football Club, the main reason being that Lowe is involved in the company that owns the team. You contend that despite choosing not to support the club, you are still a supporter. I have no interest in what you do with your life and money. What I fail to see is why you and other posters should take "offense" when I state that you are not a Saints supporter because you do nothing to support the club. Personally, coming on this site or going down the pub and moaning about the club and it's board, does not, IMHO, count as supporting the club. So, apart from this, please tell me what you do with your life that counts as supporting Southampton Football Club. My guess is you won't get further than the fact that you p1$$ and complain a lot...

The point is that you are not supporting your team. You have every right and no need to justify the reasons why you are not supporting your team, but FFS, don't try and call yourself a supporter and then point out how you are not supporting the team. It's makes you look pathetic.

9 points away from a playoff place with over half the season to go. Thank God you don't give team talks...mine would be about how not one team in the league has looked better than us, with the Wolves fans and manager admitting they were lucky, against 10 men.

I'm not too sure about Final Fantasy on ps3, but here's a story about FA Cup Final Fantasy. The game looks quite expensive: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/article81810.ece

Explain how spending money on an asset (even an intangible asset, such as a player) translates into a loss on the P & L account????

A number of Saints fans will be standing in the cold, cheering the team on, tomorrow night. A win may be the start of a promotion push. It happened at Crystal Palace and it could happen with us. There is nothing to fear from any other team in this division, and certainly not from any club outside the automatic promotion spots. Am I the only person who hopes that tickets for the playoff final at Wembley are restricted to either ST holders or people that have attended two or more games this season? Because I don't know if I could sit next to anyone at Wembley, who has promoted boycotts and hoped the team lost. I'd rather give any spare tickets I could get hold of, to those who were unable to afford to go...

To quote the website I cut and pasted from: " The property was sold to the Wilde family in 2006 and is administered by the Wilde Family Office in Jersey. Over the last two years the property has undergone a multi-million pound restoration and refurbishment program transforming it into what is now the finest luxury boutique hotel in Jersey." Obviously they use the American spelling... ....apparently "pedant" is spelt the same in both countries, as is "the"...

As you can tell from Frank's aggrieved post, Wilde is adept at manipulating fan groups. He did it with the Saint's Trust and obviously bought Frank's undying loyalty, together with the rest of the "Save Our Saints" warriors, by buying them a pint and a pie.

Some Saints fans may wish that Wilde invested multi-millions in Southampton Leisure plc, rather than in a bed and breakfast establishment in Jersey, is what I "insinuated", Frank. I happen to think that some Saints fans actually do wish that Wilde had done that. Rather than boll0x, it is quite a reasonable wish, as he promised Saints fans that he would invest in the club. What he actually did was help destroy any shareholder value the club had, costing the club well over a million in the process, with the aborted EGM, together with Lowe and Andrew Cowen's contract settlement, a situation which he helped reverse a year or two later. As far your continued atrocious grammar and spelling, if you can't be bothered to edit your posts, I can't be bothered to read them. I don't think I can stand to read another "teh".

Frank, no disrespect, but in addition to spelling lessons, I think you need reading lessons. This is what I posted and I would appreciate if you would not misinterpret what I have posted and then call it boll0x...

Jersey, that is. Not too far away and a great place to go, to get away from the recession in the UK. I recommend you visit the the finest luxury boutique hotel in Jersey, following its multi-million pound restoration and refurbishment program. I am sure it will become the preferred destination amongst the more discerning Saints fans, some of whom may wish that the multi-millions could have been invested in our football club, as they sip champagne on the sun terrace and contemplate it's rapid descent towards administration.

I can't remember too many people complaining about having the new Saints stadium built in Eastleigh.

I take it English is your second language. I was talking about a ground share to help our club avoid administration. I wasn't talking about a merger...

When we were in the Premiership and Pompey the Championship, I knew of quite a few Southampton ST holders who supported Pompey, but liked to watch a live Premiership game every other week...

I'd still love you to explain it, as I'm not very clever...

Apparently, Milano's 120 metres above seas level, the same as Milan...

Sh!t, I have a feeling that Um did not know Milano was Italian for Milan. Steve, tell me it ain't so....

Explain...

I contend that my idea is a better one than Pompey's current brainwave: In October 2007, Portsmouth F.C. announced plans to build a 36,000 seat football stadium on the south-east corner of Horsea Island, near to the M275 motorway. Proposed stadium site looking north The proposed new stadium at Horsea Island is planned for completion in 2011. Serious logistical problems, notably the paucity of access by road and rail (the nearest railway station, Cosham, is 6 km away), need to be addressed by plans yet to be made public, but indications are that two new junctions are to be constructed off the M275 as access to the new stadium which will also facilitate development of the nearby Stamshaw area. A railway station at Wymering has also been proposed, but this would still be 3 km away from the proposed stadium. There are question marks over the proposed housing development essential to help fund the stadium. The original schematic plan published in The News when the stadium proposal was revealed clearly showed housing south of the lake impinging on the western end of the SSSI, which if correct would be a serious obstacle to planning permission. However, the most fundamental problem is the site's vulnerability to flooding. Less than 1 m above sea level, part of the site is already regularly inundated by sea water on spring tides. Moreover, in a study led by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, sea levels are predicted to rise six metres by 2100 which, if correct, would see Horsea, like the Maldive Islands, submerged before 2040.

If this happened, I'd go and watch football at St. Mary's every Saturday, TBH...

Not a real problem. St. Mary's is sold to a property holding company, which holds two long term leases to each club. On the back of the value of these leases, which are related to the attendance figures, the property holding company finances the stadium expansion to hold 42,500 and builds a railway station next to the ground with regular services to London, Portsmouth and Bournemouth on match days. The holding company benefits from concession sales and stadium events such as an Abba reunion and both clubs are insulated from the capital cost of the stadium and the chance of administration, as you can't be put into administration by the landlord and your expenditure is related to the attendance, ie less for Saints, more for Pompey.