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Loosing Our South Coast "USP"?


Fatboy40

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Interesting discussion topic.

 

Brighton are also building well, already have their new stadium and training ground and are well backed by American Express - they signed a new multi year deal worth over £100m recently. Also have a big catchment area both to attract fans and young players. Being close to Gatwick also an advantage, whilst Brighton is a nice city to live in.

 

Definitely competition and if we were to get relegated and then experience severe financial problems then it could be a long road back.

 

Good competition, certainly.

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So that's us, Bournemouth and Brighton on the South Coast all investing in stadium and/or training facilities with an eye to the future competing to be top dog in the area.

 

Hang on though, wasn't there a fourth "big club" on the South Coast. Name escapes me for a moment. Whatever happened to them?

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So that's us, Bournemouth and Brighton on the South Coast all investing in stadium and/or training facilities with an eye to the future competing to be top dog in the area.

 

Hang on though, wasn't there a fourth "big club" on the South Coast. Name escapes me for a moment. Whatever happened to them?

 

Heard they have given up on football and now dedicate themselves full time to fücking fish and punching horses.

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Interesting discussion topic.

 

Brighton are also building well, already have their new stadium and training ground and are well backed by American Express - they signed a new multi year deal worth over £100m recently. Also have a big catchment area both to attract fans and young players. Being close to Gatwick also an advantage, whilst Brighton is a nice city to live in.

 

Definitely competition and if we were to get relegated and then experience severe financial problems then it could be a long road back.

 

Good competition, certainly.

 

Disagree on that. Gatwick is only 20 mins drive closer to Brighton that we are to Heathrow, not something potential players will really care about (and even that's assuming they don't take a direct flight/connection to SOU). Brighton is nice but hardly any more appealing than the New Forest if you're stinking rich. London might hold more appeal as a City but not Brighton.

 

Ultimately it will come down to the same basic question. Who's paying the most money and will I get are they a stepping stone onto even more money. Ironically, our USP for signing decent players used to be the fact that we sold them to Liverpool.

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You would think they would do something about bringing their ground up to at least Championship standard first.......

 

Quite.

 

Won't get built anyway, just like all their stadium expansions.

 

Empire built on sand. If they go down, they're done... and the buckets will come out again.

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Disagree on that. Gatwick is only 20 mins drive closer to Brighton that we are to Heathrow, not something potential players will really care about (and even that's assuming they don't take a direct flight/connection to SOU). Brighton is nice but hardly any more appealing than the New Forest if you're stinking rich. London might hold more appeal as a City but not Brighton.

 

Ultimately it will come down to the same basic question. Who's paying the most money and will I get are they a stepping stone onto even more money. Ironically, our USP for signing decent players used to be the fact that we sold them to Liverpool.

70 miles vs 30 so not sure thats 20mins. Brighton to Gateick is 40 mins in the car so very convenient.

 

Equally not sure that mid 20s lads are overly bothered by forestry and wildlife.

 

Many would prefer a range of restaurant options and a more cosmopolitan feel. Outside of London only Brighton can offer that in the south (and is near to London as well).

 

Agree it comes down to cash but for most of the last 50 years Brighton/Bournemouth vs Saints wouldnt even be a debate. Now it is.

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You would think they would do something about bringing their ground up to at least Championship standard first.......

 

They have to get their training ground done first. The land near the stadium on which they will build the new stadium is owned by Bournemouth council and will be given to them in a land swap, part of the land which they will give to the council in return is where the current training is located. So they first have to move the training ground to be able to release that land to the council and in return get the land on which they will build the new stadium.

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70 miles vs 30 so not sure thats 20mins. Brighton to Gateick is 40 mins in the car so very convenient.

 

Equally not sure that mid 20s lads are overly bothered by forestry and wildlife.

 

Many would prefer a range of restaurant options and a more cosmopolitan feel. Outside of London only Brighton can offer that in the south (and is near to London as well).

 

Agree it comes down to cash but for most of the last 50 years Brighton/Bournemouth vs Saints wouldnt even be a debate. Now it is.

 

That’s why most of our lot live in Winchester which is around 40 minutes to terminal 5

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Frankly, considering location and the relative wealth of the area it's amazing that we have been the only club to have this infrastructure on the South coast for so long. A massive population and catchment area with great potential, it puts the folly of the Skates position into even greater focus seeing how they squandered their great opportunity to consolidate 10-12 years ago.

 

Both Bournemouth and Brighton have built very astutely. In Bournemouth's case, why build a new stadium when the main money is from TV, Sponsorship and player sales? Maximising their academy and fundamental infrastructure is far more sensible then the tens of millions it would take to add 10-15k capacity to their home ground. The Stadium would bring some extra income but compared to the previously mentioned three factors it clearly isn't an immediate priority.

Edited by Colinjb
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Both Bournemouth and Brighton have built very astutely. In Bournemouth's case, why build a new stadium when the main money is from TV, Sponsorship and player sales? Maximising their academy and fundamental infrastructure is far more sensible then the tens of millions it would take to add 10-15k capacity to their home ground. The Stadium would bring some extra income but compared to the previously mentioned three factors it clearly isn't an immediate priority.

 

I'd say you're right and having an unusually small PL ground may have worked to their advantage, probably a bit of a shock for some of the primadonnas more used to the big stage and the small away support may help.

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Let's see how they cope after Brooks, Wilson, Cook, Ake et al and even Howe get poached by the big boys. It happened to us and we're still recovering from crappy attempts to replace our better players.

 

Trouble now is they're players that aren't quite big enough for the top clubs, and the middling clubs that might want them can't afford the £40million+ it would take.

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Trouble now is they're players that aren't quite big enough for the top clubs, and the middling clubs that might want them can't afford the £40million+ it would take.

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when Howe leaves. The pundits are always telling us what a wonderful manager he is and, you have to admit that he's done a good job there.

 

He couldn't hack it at Burnley but you would think that, if he's got any ambition, he'll go if a "big" club comes calling.

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Let's see how they cope after Brooks, Wilson, Cook, Ake et al and even Howe get poached by the big boys. It happened to us and we're still recovering from crappy attempts to replace our better players.

 

Well they're doing a good job at keeping them so far. If Wilson and Ake played for Saints they'd already be sold. Pretty sure they recently put Wilson on £100,000 a week.

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70 miles vs 30 so not sure thats 20mins. Brighton to Gateick is 40 mins in the car so very convenient.

 

Equally not sure that mid 20s lads are overly bothered by forestry and wildlife.

 

Many would prefer a range of restaurant options and a more cosmopolitan feel. Outside of London only Brighton can offer that in the south (and is near to London as well).

 

Agree it comes down to cash but for most of the last 50 years Brighton/Bournemouth vs Saints wouldnt even be a debate. Now it is.

 

I don’t think it’s any factor whatsoever personally. We’ve had players go on strike to go and live in places like Sunderland, it’s all about the level of football and the money.

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Quite.

 

Won't get built anyway, just like all their stadium expansions.

 

Empire built on sand. If they go down, they're done... and the buckets will come out again.

 

They do need to expand the stadium in an attempt to grow the local support, otherwise as soon as Howe goes their done....

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It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when Howe leaves. The pundits are always telling us what a wonderful manager he is and, you have to admit that he's done a good job there.

 

He couldn't hack it at Burnley but you would think that, if he's got any ambition, he'll go if a "big" club comes calling.

 

They would be ****ed if Howe goes, it’s very much a Fergie type situation down there where he controls everything. I’ve heard he would only leave for ‘a big London club’ though.

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