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St Marys Upgrades


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Despite the result determined by a dubious penalty, a great night last night. The Ings goal one of the best moments of the season.

 

What a fantastic new ground the Spuds have, and a few improvements to the supporter experience Saints could easily add at St Marys for stadium comfort :

 

- Wifi that works for all everywhere in a football stadium

- A PA system that is audible for all in the stadium

 

And the big one - the standing room 'seats' that we keep being told the club are monitoring for its legalities. The lower tier where we were located was all this design and it was so much better standing (with a handrail in front of each row of seats).

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Yeah was a great experience, I particularly enjoyed seeing people still entering the ground on 35 minutes because of their ‘no bag’ policy and the single bag drop off point, which then resulted in a queue of hundreds of people an hour after the final whistle. Also was a big fan of the random metal barriers dotted across the exit walkway from the away end which is great for 5900 people to get pushed up against and have to climb under as they leave. Aesthetically amazing, logistically work to be done.

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God our fans are saps, Spurs gave up one of the classic grounds in the country to replace it with a soulless mega structure that looks more like West Quay than a football ground, it was full of tourists holding megastore bags and utterly silent. Most of the Spurs fans i know hate the place.

 

I'd prefer to have the Dell back than have wifi that worked. Football is already gentrified enough, why do people want to ruin it further?

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God our fans are saps, Spurs gave up one of the classic grounds in the country to replace it with a soulless mega structure that looks more like West Quay than a football ground, it was full of tourists holding megastore bags and utterly silent. Most of the Spurs fans i know hate the place.

 

I'd prefer to have the Dell back than have wifi that worked. Football is already gentrified enough, why do people want to ruin it further?

 

Some might say a stadium full of mouth frothing, drunken white men wanting to fight each other is how football should be, personally applaud the clubs for providing exceptional facilities for our visiting overseas supporters. Last night I posed for photos with a large group of lovely Korean spurs fans, I held a loft a "Son, can I have you shirt" placard and with as we held aloft half and half scarves with the Korea flag. Their friendliness was heart warming and they LOVED the fact I wasn't too bothered about the result as the half time refreshments were magnificent, the wifi exception and to cap it all I have Son in my fantasy team. Its fair to say the match day experience was one of the best I've ever experienced.

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A classic ground, unless as an away fan you had that lovely police / security pod thing hanging over you and reducing the view...

 

Exactly how it should be, if you've got a sh*t view in part of the ground stick the away fans there. Surely that's what all clubs should be doing?

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Yeah was a great experience, I particularly enjoyed seeing people still entering the ground on 35 minutes because of their ‘no bag’ policy and the single bag drop off point, which then resulted in a queue of hundreds of people an hour after the final whistle. Also was a big fan of the random metal barriers dotted across the exit walkway from the away end which is great for 5900 people to get pushed up against and have to climb under as they leave. Aesthetically amazing, logistically work to be done.

 

Yup - agree. Also why do they make the away fans walk so far round the houses from the home end to the next corner? And bloody hell, Seven Sisters is a trek from the ground, found that out the hard way after the game...!

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Some might say a stadium full of mouth frothing, drunken white men wanting to fight each other is how football should be, personally applaud the clubs for providing exceptional facilities for our visiting overseas supporters. Last night I posed for photos with a large group of lovely Korean spurs fans, I held a loft a "Son, can I have you shirt" placard and with as we held aloft half and half scarves with the Korea flag. Their friendliness was heart warming and they LOVED the fact I wasn't too bothered about the result as the half time refreshments were magnificent, the wifi exception and to cap it all I have Son in my fantasy team. Its fair to say the match day experience was one of the best I've ever experienced.

 

[emoji23]

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Northumberland Park 15 minute walk from ground, was better option afterwards trains every 5mins to either Liverpool st or Stratford, and you could if you wanted change at Tottenham Hale for Victoria line, I was back in Wellington outside Waterloo at 22.45 after leaving ground at final whistle

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Northumberland Park 15 minute walk from ground, was better option afterwards trains every 5mins to either Liverpool st or Stratford, and you could if you wanted change at Tottenham Hale for Victoria line, I was back in Wellington outside Waterloo at 22.45 after leaving ground at final whistle

 

Yeah - we made a terrible decision to walk to seven sisters.

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And the big one - the standing room 'seats' that we keep being told the club are monitoring for its legalities. The lower tier where we were located was all this design and it was so much better standing (with a handrail in front of each row of seats).

 

Which made an ideal launch pad for those celebrating Danny Ings goal ;)

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In true Saintsweb fashion the thread has gone away from my OP and an interest in the reaction to the standing in the lower tier; and why our club seem to stall on what I see as an improvement for the Northam / Itchen North (?) at St Marys

 

Well, of course, there'll never encourage standing in front of the corp boxes so rules out Itchen North ever seeing change and if safe standing is ever introduced for home fans it will probably be in the Chapel to entice fans to make that the "Kop" many go on about.

 

But safe standing is still not lawful in PL stadiums, the club aren't going to change to rail seating if it may never be permitted. Spurs did it because they were constructing a new stadium with the possibility of it being introduced in the future and so saving a later expense (ballsache). Wolves are going ahead and converting some seating to rail seats but they are presently reconfiguring Molineux.

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Spurs did it because they were constructing a new stadium with the possibility of it being introduced in the future and so saving a later expense (ballsache).

 

Not sure I get your comment here - it's not a possibility for the future - it's in place and therefore the precedent is set

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Not sure I get your comment here - it's not a possibility for the future - it's in place and therefore the precedent is set

 

But, officially, you're not permitted to stand in them (of course many do as in other seating areas), spurs just saw it worthwhile jumping the gun as rail seating is now looking likely to be given the go-ahead soon. They should still enforce sitting in them until then.

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It's a nice ground, but maybe too nice, does make it a big soulless.

 

That said, at least they made it vaguely unique. It's their ground, some nice touches like the cockerel.

 

Ours is sadly rubbish. Done cheap at a time when clubs were doing generic boring designs. We may not need a bigger stadium but I wish we'd do something with it to give it more character and make it a Southampton stadium rather than "that same ****ty stadium middlesbrough, derby, leicester have". If you're building a home for 100 years + at least do something interesting with it.

 

What gives stadiums a 'soul'? Fans make the atmosphere at a game, not the architecture.

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God our fans are saps, Spurs gave up one of the classic grounds in the country to replace it with a soulless mega structure that looks more like West Quay than a football ground, it was full of tourists holding megastore bags and utterly silent. Most of the Spurs fans i know hate the place.

 

I'd prefer to have the Dell back than have wifi that worked. Football is already gentrified enough, why do people want to ruin it further?

 

Agree with this, don't like the ground at all, soulless NFL stadium, and last thing we want is bl00dy Wi-Fi for the vloggers to tap into and live their experience through a phone for social media likes.

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It's a nice ground, but maybe too nice, does make it a big soulless.

 

That said, at least they made it vaguely unique. It's their ground, some nice touches like the cockerel.

 

Ours is sadly rubbish. Done cheap at a time when clubs were doing generic boring designs. We may not need a bigger stadium but I wish we'd do something with it to give it more character and make it a Southampton stadium rather than "that same ****ty stadium middlesbrough, derby, leicester have". If you're building a home for 100 years + at least do something interesting with it.

 

I don't know if this is controversial or not, but I prefer St Mary's to other more modern "unique" stadiums of a similar size, such as the AMEX or Huddersfield. I also prefer SMS to larger stadiums such as the Etihad, Olympic stadium or Emirates. In my mind, the fact that its a bit **** and boring is what makes it ours. As Saints fans we should be proud of it and try and make the atmosphere better - it has the potential to be better/louder than all of those listed above.

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What gives stadiums a 'soul'? Fans make the atmosphere at a game, not the architecture.

TBF it’s predictable that you can’t understand the difference between, for example, West Ham at Upton Park compared to West Ham at Olympic Stadium. Doesn’t make it less of a thing, mind. Stadium design and configuration (and sometimes sheer size) has a distinct effect on the atmosphere and therefore what gets defined as the ‘soul’ of the place.

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I don't know if this is controversial or not, but I prefer St Mary's to other more modern "unique" stadiums of a similar size, such as the AMEX or Huddersfield. I also prefer SMS to larger stadiums such as the Etihad, Olympic stadium or Emirates. In my mind, the fact that its a bit **** and boring is what makes it ours. As Saints fans we should be proud of it and try and make the atmosphere better - it has the potential to be better/louder than all of those listed above.

I'm sure if you got rid of all the fancy stuff; flame throwers, music, shouty PA person etc, it would give more opportunity for singing....more time for it before kick off and other times. Perhaps songs would start to come back. I'd take that sort of atmosphere over pyrotechnics any day.

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Agree with this, don't like the ground at all, soulless NFL stadium, and last thing we want is bl00dy Wi-Fi for the vloggers to tap into and live their experience through a phone for social media likes.

 

Not sure what you mean by ‘NFL stadium’? Some of the ones I’ve been to have been louder than anything I’ve heard at the football. You cannot hear yourself think in some of them.

 

Apart from looking ‘flashy’ and ‘corporate’, the underlying acoustics and architecture of the new WHL are perfectly suited to creating an atmosphere (unlike the Olympic Stadium). The issue has less to do with the stadium and more to do with the fact that when you move from a capacity of ~35K to ~60K, you’re going to attract more daytrippers and tourists (and frankly let’s not overegg or exaggerate the atmosphere of the old WHL in recent years). Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge are classic stadiums but the atmospheres there have been getting progressively worse.

Edited by shurlock
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I thought the ground is fantastic and if you go via Northumberland Park (as others have advised) it's a relative breeze for such a large stadium. The safe standing was such a pleasant change to the usual ghastly seats/standing we are given. I loved the Dell and everything that goes with the old days, but if you brought that back now there would be uproar amongst the modern fans. I could use my mobile phone at half time (a first), the TV screens were a bit big, I had a great view. They need to up their catering a bit as no pies at half time.

 

Back to the OPs original point. I would strongly advocate replacing the Northam with safe standing but push the away fans into the corner a bit more. We all know that Rupert slimmed down the seats at St Marys to increase the capacity so the overall capacity would have to drop a little. However a 30,000 stadium is fine for the catchment. Beyond that you have to attract tourists and they cannot be guaranteed. That wouldn't be expensive, neither would pumping up the wifi/mobile signal. I also think an easy win is to push the turnstiles to the back of the car park the same as the Rosebowl and Twickenham. his would provide a lot more space. Probably increase the take on concessions as well.

 

For me the number 1 would be to put a station right next to the ground. What a difference that would make.

 

None of this will happen of course.

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A station at St Mary's has been discussed previously, and was considered when the stadium was built. In fact the old Northam station was on the line behind the Kingsland. The council has safeguarded the option of reopening the docks line to the old Terminus station by acquiring land alongside the line for a new station at Ocean Village. But there are a number of problems with doing this. Apart from the cost of fully electrifying the line and building two stations, the curve heading back to the Central station has been filled in. So the trains would have to head north. Not ideal.

 

For me the best solution would have been to have put a match day only station on the mainline north of Northam bridge, where the traincare depot is now. Would only have been a short walk from SMS and crowds could have been easily managed. I know that South West Trains were not keen on this option as the extra stop would disrupt the timetable - ignoring all passenger considerations. South Western Railways don't seem to understand the concept of a timetable, and won't be around for much longer anyway.

 

My guess is that the topic will only be reconsidered in the event of an England or GB and Ireland World Cup bid being successful. SMS would be in the frame for hosting matches. Which would put extending SMS back on the agenda and force transport issues to be reconsidered.

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Agree with this, don't like the ground at all, soulless NFL stadium, and last thing we want is bl00dy Wi-Fi for the vloggers to tap into and live their experience through a phone for social media likes.

 

Who cares if you want it or not. If they've paid their money they're perfectly entitled to sit and do their thing for their own amusememt/incentive.

 

I doubt they're interfering with your experience.

Get over yourself.

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Thought stadium was very impressive, but too vast meaning their supporters voices sounded weak. Although a bit small, thought toilet facilities were excellent and the bar service pretty good too. Pint and a pie for £5 was not too bad. WiFi good. Screens good. Only niggle was not enough tables/shelving to rest your pint on while eating.

 

The coach trip home was a nightmare...heavy traffic getting away from the ground and then a diversion off the motorway meant I didn’t get home until 2pm!

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Thought stadium was very impressive, but too vast meaning their supporters voices sounded weak. Although a bit small, thought toilet facilities were excellent and the bar service pretty good too. Pint and a pie for £5 was not too bad. WiFi good. Screens good. Only niggle was not enough tables/shelving to rest your pint on while eating.

 

The coach trip home was a nightmare...heavy traffic getting away from the ground and then a diversion off the motorway meant I didn’t get home until 2pm!

2pm, f*cking hell did they go via John 'o Grots?
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I thought the ground is fantastic and if you go via Northumberland Park (as others have advised) it's a relative breeze for such a large stadium. The safe standing was such a pleasant change to the usual ghastly seats/standing we are given. I loved the Dell and everything that goes with the old days, but if you brought that back now there would be uproar amongst the modern fans. I could use my mobile phone at half time (a first), the TV screens were a bit big, I had a great view. They need to up their catering a bit as no pies at half time.

 

Back to the OPs original point. I would strongly advocate replacing the Northam with safe standing but push the away fans into the corner a bit more. We all know that Rupert slimmed down the seats at St Marys to increase the capacity so the overall capacity would have to drop a little. However a 30,000 stadium is fine for the catchment. Beyond that you have to attract tourists and they cannot be guaranteed. That wouldn't be expensive, neither would pumping up the wifi/mobile signal. I also think an easy win is to push the turnstiles to the back of the car park the same as the Rosebowl and Twickenham. his would provide a lot more space. Probably increase the take on concessions as well.

 

For me the number 1 would be to put a station right next to the ground. What a difference that would make.

 

None of this will happen of course.

 

I never heard this before. It makes sense though, and explains why I often find it a bit cramped at SMS if I'm in a sitting section.

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Biggest niggle for me is the concourse at St Mary's. Stop me if you've heard this one before but the customer service in there is terrible and I am not a fussy person.

 

What they need to do is:

 

- Take back control of it. It feels like a badly run franchise at the moment designed to make money and not give a toss about the product.

- Get some local produce in. Local beer and foods. So much choice around locally and I'm sure local breweries and food producers would love to get involved.

- Employ staff who want to work for SFC. They seem to have zero interest and would be happier flipping burgers at McDonalds. I suspect many are agency.

- If you're going to advertise an offer or scheme, tell the staff about it. Big sign saying "Order your half-time pint voucher here" above the bar but none of the staff know it's there or what it means.

- Expect that at half time you're going to have customers entering the concourse ready to purchase beverages! This should not be a surprise and it should be catered for. At the moment it isn't. It's a shambles.

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And bloody hell, Seven Sisters is a trek from the ground, found that out the hard way after the game...!

I'm pretty sure that hasn't changed since the new ground was built, tbf ;)

 

I've often found that it's a bit of a roll of the dice as to which station to use to get away from Tottenham, I used Northumberland Park on Wednesday and that was fine to get back to Liverpool Street (train was pretty much empty, weirdly, seemed most people using that station were going north), but I've done Seven Sisters and even waited at White Hart Lane overground station before (albeit after one of the NFL games) and it's much of a muchness, really. It's not great whichever way you go, but I would probably say that driving is the worst way!

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I never heard this before. It makes sense though, and explains why I often find it a bit cramped at SMS if I'm in a sitting section.
I took a school trip to see the ground being built and this was something we were told. Seats and leg room an inch smaller, resulting in a few thousand extra seats.

 

Somebody more informed will probably debunk this theory, but it does seem a classic Lowe trick, and St Mary's is definitely more cramped. Or I'm getting fatter [emoji50]

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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I took a school trip to see the ground being built and this was something we were told. Seats and leg room an inch smaller, resulting in a few thousand extra seats.

 

Somebody more informed will probably debunk this theory, but it does seem a classic Lowe trick, and St Mary's is definitely more cramped. Or I'm getting fatter [emoji50]

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Don’t know for sure, but there must be some kind of building regs that govern leg room? I am 6ft tall so not huge, but have always had trouble with stadium seating and leg room on planes. I don’t know if they go for an average leg room?

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I'm pretty sure that hasn't changed since the new ground was built, tbf ;)

 

I've often found that it's a bit of a roll of the dice as to which station to use to get away from Tottenham, I used Northumberland Park on Wednesday and that was fine to get back to Liverpool Street (train was pretty much empty, weirdly, seemed most people using that station were going north), but I've done Seven Sisters and even waited at White Hart Lane overground station before (albeit after one of the NFL games) and it's much of a muchness, really. It's not great whichever way you go, but I would probably say that driving is the worst way!

 

The difference with the walk to Seven Sisters is that with a crowd of 30,000 it was an easy walk as the numbers had pretty well thinned out by the time you got to the station and you could go straight in. Now it is effectively a queue from stadium to station along very crowded pavements and then you have to wait at the staion entrance. From final whistle it was exactly an hour for us to reach Kings Cross.

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Biggest niggle for me is the concourse at St Mary's. Stop me if you've heard this one before but the customer service in there is terrible and I am not a fussy person.

 

What they need to do is:

 

- Take back control of it. It feels like a badly run franchise at the moment designed to make money and not give a toss about the product.

- Get some local produce in. Local beer and foods. So much choice around locally and I'm sure local breweries and food producers would love to get involved.

- Employ staff who want to work for SFC. They seem to have zero interest and would be happier flipping burgers at McDonalds. I suspect many are agency.

- If you're going to advertise an offer or scheme, tell the staff about it. Big sign saying "Order your half-time pint voucher here" above the bar but none of the staff know it's there or what it means.

- Expect that at half time you're going to have customers entering the concourse ready to purchase beverages! This should not be a surprise and it should be catered for. At the moment it isn't. It's a shambles.

 

This x1000

 

Been a major bugbear of mine, and i've had numerous email conversations with the club about this, but they simply don't get it.

 

Whoever is in charge of this (and probably on a big salary) are clearly not a football fan and have never attended a game. Catering for football fans is completely different to other jobs in the hospitality industry, but it really isn't rocket science.

 

The concourse staff at St Marys are not trained, don't care and no one is in charge. Shambles is puttng it politely

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I took a school trip to see the ground being built and this was something we were told. Seats and leg room an inch smaller, resulting in a few thousand extra seats.

 

Somebody more informed will probably debunk this theory, but it does seem a classic Lowe trick, and St Mary's is definitely more cramped. Or I'm getting fatter [emoji50]

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Even in the Itchen centre knee room is non-existent for a bloke of average height and build and woe betide you if you have fat guys either side of you. Seat encroachment seems unavoidable so its best to sit down before the rest of them to secure your own space. The concourse is a disgrace and the loos so primitive that H & S could shut the whole place down if they had a mind to do so.

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The new Spurs ground is lovely to look at (inside) but my god, I’ve been 3 times and it’s got to be the quietest ground in the PL at the moment. And that is saying something.

Liked how easy it was to get a beer before the game and at half time. Decent beer too. And very well priced.

 

I dont really mind our stadium, although it desperately needs a wash! It’s a bit boring to look at but it creates a good noise, and at least it’s central. Would hate to have an out of town one like Reading or Brighton.

 

Safe standing is a must at some point. No idea how they’ll manage it. The concourses are also way too small, not sure what they can do about that either. Spurs must be the only ground where fans turn up early to get in a drink inside the ground, which is credit to them for pricing it right and making it a good place to go.

 

 

 

 

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Individuality

Architecture

Proximity to the pitch

Layered stands versus giant wall type stand

Standing areas

Cordoned off areas by away fans

 

There's loads of factors that can make a ground feel unique and create more atmosphere. Ours isn't really helping us a great deal but it's far from the worst...that's west ham.

 

I'd concur with most of that except "Layered stands versus giant wall type stand" - down the sides I'd agree, but behind the goals it should always be a single bank imo.

 

And I'd add 'acoustics', the noise doesn't carry well around St Mary's. Having said that, Spurs, and few other recent new builds, have invested heavily in the effect of acoustics but these places are still morgues. I think we just have to accept that England now has some of the most reserved and least fanatic support going to football these days, it's all too nice.

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Just watching the re-run of MOTD, Everton just been on, traditional ground, great atmosphere in the past, dead as a Dodo. They had a corner in the last couple of minutes, you could have heard a pin drop, they scored, maybe silence is the way to go. God help them once they move into their new stadium and the novelty wears off.

 

It's not the stadiums, it's the fans in them.

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I don’t understand why we can’t have progress, WiFi, some comfort etc without changing the character of football.

 

I.e. As poster above says, the catering service at St Mary’s is appalling.

 

It all starts with the club having a customer first approach. I.e. Some stadiums seem to have nailed the whole buy your half time drinks before the game, so see no reason why Saints can’t sort this, without the need for a Champagne bar.

 

I’d be v. happy if they put in great WiFi, but only turned it on at half time, so I can see how badly the skates are doing...

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