Premiership stadiums getting bigger, hope we don't get left behind

Maybe but I was surprised West Ham have sold 52,000 STs next season

just shows was reasonable pricing can do.

You only have to look at how many fans (a lot of which are not season ticket holders) that got tickets for the FA cup game at SMS against Palace because it was reasonably priced.

Personally I think WHU have shown that if you price season tickets with in reach of the majority then you'll sell loads. If you had £300 adult STs and £99 for kids then even the arch cynic in me believes we would effortlessly sell out 40k every week with what? 3/4k away fans?

You'd like to think so, but I do wonder how many teams would bring a larger away allocation if it was offered - Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and Bournemouth. Maybe West Ham and Palace if they were going well. The first few listed can sell huge numbers.

Attendances aren't as important anymore now massive tv deals are here, I'm sure they help but they're not as important as I say.

Attendances aren't as important anymore now massive tv deals are here, I'm sure they help but they're not as important as I say.

Quite true, in terms of finances. However, in the image conscious world of PL football perception is everything and at present our image is more Stoke City than Man City. Even with our exceptional form on the pitch we are still largely ignored by a media currently indulging in an orgasmic feeding frenzy over a bang average bunch of cockneys who have just got themselves a new ground. Are you starting to see how this works?

We don't have a historically high profile name (like say Man U) so we need to look the part in order to convince players, managers, new fans and the media that we have indeed arrived at the PL top table. A new or improved stadium would go a long way to creating this perception. Yes, it's a bit 'look at me', but you have to stand out from the crowd these days and we are wanting to expand our fanbase internationally as well as locally and look at the bounce effect WHU have got solely from a new stadium. Yes, our circumstances are different to theirs but we could surely increase our attendances, probably considerably, if we had a nice big flash stadium to put people in and at a cost to expand SMS of roughly this summers transfer budget, or about four $Longs!

Quite true, in terms of finances. However, in the image conscious world of PL football perception is everything and at present our image is more Stoke City than Man City. Even with our exceptional form on the pitch we are still largely ignored by a media currently indulging in an orgasmic feeding frenzy over a bang average bunch of cockneys who have just got themselves a new ground. Are you starting to see how this works?

 

We don't have a historically high profile name (like say Man U) so we need to look the part in order to convince players, managers, new fans and the media that we have indeed arrived at the PL top table. A new or improved stadium would go a long way to creating this perception. Yes, it's a bit 'look at me', but you have to stand out from the crowd these days and we are wanting to expand our fanbase internationally as well as locally and look at the bounce effect WHU have got solely from a new stadium. Yes, our circumstances are different to theirs but we could surely increase our attendances, probably considerably, if we had a nice big flash stadium to put people in and at a cost to expand SMS of roughly this summers transfer budget, or about four $Longs!

WHU are the new media darlings, they've already decieded the narrative before they've even achieved anything, the programmes they made about them leaving the Boelyn were laughable. I'll bet you nobody else will get anything near that if they move ground.

WHU are the new media darlings, they've already decieded the narrative before they've even achieved anything, the programmes they made about them leaving the Boelyn were laughable. I'll bet you nobody else will get anything near that if they move ground.

Quite right. Entirely possible they could be talking about a "new stadium curse" come November. WHU are as capable of finishing 16th as finishing 6th, just like plenty of other clubs. Like us.

Let's not crown them the great new megaclub just yet.

Saints need to expand the stadium with the tv monies and drop the ticket price if they must to fill it.

One day the tv monies will end. When that happens we will be left with a 32k stadium and those who have expanded to 50k, 60k, 70k will be there with their larger match day revenues and saints will be back in a stadium bringing in 30% of the big clubs as the major share of our income (bar sales). We are on top now, the prem is on top now... build for the future.

On another note. Their are league 2 and 1 clubs that have stadiums of a comparable size to saints. Thats my view. I'd take worse football for a few years to build something special and fund it with the tv monies... I mean hell, we appear to just bank them anyway...

Quite right. Entirely possible they could be talking about a "new stadium curse" come November. WHU are as capable of finishing 16th as finishing 6th, just like plenty of other clubs. Like us.

 

Let's not crown them the great new megaclub just yet.

The new spurs stadium should propel them to the next level. Are any other clubs in the Premier League talking about new stadiums besides Spurs and Chelsea?

Saints need to expand the stadium with the tv monies and drop the ticket price if they must to fill it.

 

One day the tv monies will end. When that happens we will be left with a 32k stadium and those who have expanded to 50k, 60k, 70k will be there with their larger match day revenues and saints will be back in a stadium bringing in 30% of the big clubs as the major share of our income (bar sales). We are on top now, the prem is on top now... build for the future.

 

On another note. Their are league 2 and 1 clubs that have stadiums of a comparable size to saints. Thats my view. I'd take worse football for a few years to build something special and fund it with the tv monies... I mean hell, we appear to just bank them anyway...

Which league 2 club has a stadium comparable to SMS in size?

Interesting debate. Football is becoming more of a consumer sports pastime rather than the old tribal addiction. We need to think in the American model way if we are to maximise the use of a 50,000 stadium and attract more fair weather fans. Ticket prices have to tumble for 20% of the seats .... etc etc and refreshments and facilities have to be more attractive... etc etc the "experience" has to improve.

Yuk! rather have a small stadium with good atmosphere than a large stadium full of consumer fans stuffing their faces with chilli dogs and fries...

Yuk! rather have a small stadium with good atmosphere than a large stadium full of consumer fans stuffing their faces with chilli dogs and fries...

How about a small stadium with a mostly flat atmosphere where people moan, eat pies and drink bad beer?

I'm sure this has been brought up and discussed at great length already but I'm much rather we invested in the area surrounding St. Mary's than expand the capacity when it's not really needed at the moment.

Build a large bar on the river bank by Belvidere Road. There's a massive empty concrete slab right over the road from the Saints store. The club could run it, staff it and stock it just the same as inside. Serve food, sell programmes, Sky Sports, done. Sat outside on a roof terrace on a summers day by the river with a view of the stadium, what's not to like? It would be absolutely heaving on match days.

How about a small stadium with a mostly flat atmosphere where people moan, eat pies and drink bad beer?

Fratton ....

just shows was reasonable pricing can do.

 

You only have to look at how many fans (a lot of which are not season ticket holders) that got tickets for the FA cup game at SMS against Palace because it was reasonably priced.

A lot aren't going to be west ham fans - a bunch of people at work got them to see the top 5/10 when the come to town - it's going to be awkward when Sunderland come to town and there's 25k in the ground.

A lot aren't going to be west ham fans - a bunch of people at work got them to see the top 5/10 when the come to town - it's going to be awkward when Sunderland come to town and there's 25k in the ground.

Charlton fans have boycotted their ST renewals, I understand up to a 1000 have bought West Ham ST's. Could be an unfortunate by-product for us if we went too big and too cheap, a 1000 fishy folk in the ground every home game.

Maybe we should do a West Ham and approach the city council, offering the use of St. Marys as a music stadium to host large gigs in the South. We can then ask them to fund an increase of the stadium to 50,000

Maybe we should do a West Ham and approach the city council, offering the use of St. Marys as a music stadium to host large gigs in the South. We can then ask them to fund an increase of the stadium to 50,000

Wouldnt it be better if they built the whole new Olympic sized stadium then rented it to us for next to nothing. Then we could sell SMS as development land for a huge profit.

If you look at a list of the biggest stadiums in the country (England), 16 'club' stadiums are bigger than ours, 7 are currently not in the Premier League and 1 (Sunderland) is very lucky it is still there.

Big stadiums aren't doing a lot for the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa, Leeds, Sheff Wed.

Wouldnt it be better if they built the whole new Olympic sized stadium then rented it to us for next to nothing. Then we could sell SMS as development land for a huge profit.

That's more like it, don't think our owners have anything on our local councillors though that could help persuade them to do this for us though

If you look at a list of the biggest stadiums in the country (England), 16 'club' stadiums are bigger than ours, 7 are currently not in the Premier League and 1 (Sunderland) is very lucky it is still there.

 

Big stadiums aren't doing a lot for the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa, Leeds, Sheff Wed.

Sure they are. The clubs are just managing to do poorly despite the large stadiums, not because the large stadiums don't matter.

Attendances aren't as important anymore now massive tv deals are here, I'm sure they help but they're not as important as I say.

Plenty of clubs (let's ignore WHU!) think it's worthwhile to expand. Having just received my credit card with the season ticket on it I know why lots of people don't go! With more affordable tickets a younger crowd would help with the atmosphere too, and it's all part of the growth of the club. Having another 8000 wouldn't be massively difficult to fill with a slightly different approach (prices, sales points, advertising, larger away allocation etc.). It might make the council force them to reinstate the free buses which we had as part of planning consent before the club's financial difficulties.

Plenty of clubs (let's ignore WHU!) think it's worthwhile to expand. Having just received my credit card with the season ticket on it I know why lots of people don't go! With more affordable tickets a younger crowd would help with the atmosphere too, and it's all part of the growth of the club. Having another 8000 wouldn't be massively difficult to fill with a slightly different approach (prices, sales points, advertising, larger away allocation etc.). It might make the council force them to reinstate the free buses which we had as part of planning consent before the club's financial difficulties.

Won't lie, I'm a student. Cheaper tickets with half decent cheap beer would convince me and my friends to travel down in a large group. Drinking a fair amount and sing loudly, stupidly and drunkenly... What more could you want?

Is nobody thinking of the congested bridge?

I think you could argue that the big grounds frankly exacerbated the poisonous environment at Newcastle and Villa in particular, when the lean times came. I can't see expansion being worth the money. Besides, i think the TV money is clearly mostly going to a combination of making KL 'right' and nudging our salary structure up, as the new contracts for VVD and FF would indicate.

This is the list we need to be on and I doubt a larger stadium is the be all and end all, it's the whole package that needs working on, sponsors, global brand etc.

This is the list we need to be on and I doubt a larger stadium is the be all and end all, it's the whole package that needs working on, sponsors, global brand etc.

 

But, pretty much every club on this list has a large impressive stadium (Monaco just have money). Do you not think that has a lot to do with the club's market value and global brand potential? Same for attracting upscale sponsors who want to be associated with the more glamorous clubs. We are still perceived as gritty underdogs and that is a perception we need to change if we want to remain at our current lofty level. Doing nothing is not an option and playing our football in a stadium befitting our ambition would be a very good start IMO.