Northam End to be home fans only + safe standing (new updates)

[Ken Tone]

This plan will disrupt *all* the family stand,  plus several blocks of the Kingsland ... both the ones that will actually be used by away fans and those occupied by old codgers like me who will find ourselves right next to away fans , and will therefore want to move elsewhere, losing contact with other ST holders I've sat near for years. Similarly quite a few Chapel ST holders will be unhappy to be next to the abuse of away fans. Then there will be further disruption for fans moving in/out of Northam and Itchen North. In effect maybe a third (?) of fans will be moving. Also many of us will have to find new routes to/from the ground.

St Mary's was obviously built with the expectation that the Chapel would be the main home end. Why can't the safe standing be introduced there? Again some fans would need to move , but not as many, and the away fans could stay where they are.

[franniesTache]

51 minutes ago, OldNick said:

Whilst we will never have a Kop that is revered by the media (it cheesed me off when they booed our national anthem, and then the commentators went quiet so we could hear them sing YNWA) it would be amazing to have an end that generates a real noise. Also putting the away fans on the sides takes their influence away to a degree.

It strikes me that you may be one who thinks entertainment at a football match is flicking V's at the opposition and not look at the game, my apologies if not the case.

 

I'm completely the opposite to that, that's why i'd prefer the itchen north to be over 25, so all the little try hards can bugger off back to the Northam and do their shit bantz there instead.

 

As for having an end that generates real noise it's never really been like that for saints, even when we had the Milton the noise was different to the west terrace or under the east.

Maybe the bikeshed would be the one example of a noisy end we had but that was pretty short lived in all honesty.

What will happen with "The Red Wall" is that it'll be 90mins of dogshit anti pompey songs and OWTS that will make me want to stab myself in the ears with blunt objects. Much like our away followings are at the moment to be honest.

Maybe if they made the back rows of the chapel safe standing then i'd be in favour of the northam as a home end, because i'd be far enough away from the "bantz" to not care, but at the moment the away fans provide a nice buffer to the cringe

[eurosaint]

I’ve been in Kingsland block 29 since day one with a group of people I’ve known since the Dell days. As I live on IoW I can escape at FT heading south through the industrial estate to the bus area. Everything was hunky dory but now it’s all going to change!

Questions :

Will there be a net between 28 & 29 ?

Will access through the industrial estate remain ?

Hopefully the club will be transparent on this before releasing season tickets as I might well pack it in if it goes against me….

 

[SaintsLoyal]

16 hours ago, eurosaint said:

I’ve been in Kingsland block 29 since day one with a group of people I’ve known since the Dell days. As I live on IoW I can escape at FT heading south through the industrial estate to the bus area. Everything was hunky dory but now it’s all going to change!

Questions :

Will there be a net between 28 & 29 ?

Will access through the industrial estate remain ?

Hopefully the club will be transparent on this before releasing season tickets as I might well pack it in if it goes against me….

 

I know others the same as you and they’re not happy with what’s being planned.

They don’t believe that moving away fans will achieve what they think and the hassle to long term season ticket holders isn’t welcome.

 

[Ken Tone]

18 hours ago, eurosaint said:

I’ve been in Kingsland block 29 since day one with a group of people I’ve known since the Dell days. As I live on IoW I can escape at FT heading south through the industrial estate to the bus area. Everything was hunky dory but now it’s all going to change!

Questions :

Will there be a net between 28 & 29 ?

Will access through the industrial estate remain ?

Hopefully the club will be transparent on this before releasing season tickets as I might well pack it in if it goes against me….

 

And for cup games with a big away allocation , will they move home fans out of block 29? I also sit in 29. Am really pissed off!

[Daft Kerplunk]

This is one of those situations where a change is very much needed, and the thinking behind how it is now wasn’t the best. Apart from the clear fact that it will be annoying for some, and change routines for a chunk of people, most objections can be overcome, and actually could be better. For one thing, it’ll much easier to contain fans in those rare cases where it is required along Melbourne Street. 

This is for the benefit of the bigger picture. We need to have our fans at both ends for the majority of games. It’s about what will be created, not what exists now. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

21 hours ago, Ken Tone said:

St Mary's was obviously built with the expectation that the Chapel would be the main home end. Why can't the safe standing be introduced there? Again some fans would need to move , but not as many, and the away fans could stay where they are.

I think it’s a question of getting the away fans into a corner as well. That being the case, their proposal is the only viable option. 

[SaintsLoyal]

Call me a traditionalist, but having away fans behind a goal is part of football. I think it’s terrible that away fans get shoved around other parts with Newcastle being the worst. As we’ve seen this season with many home wins, the away fans behind the goal means nothing.

The whole thing seems to have already been agreed by just a handful of dreamy fans with no consideration to many long term season ticket holders. A day out at football is being ruined with way too much needless garbage, like a naff light show pre game. The tiresome brass band and their death march. Fans  go to watch a football match and if you want to see anything else go to Disney land

oh btw fans went to the northam end on stadium opening to be next to the away fans.

Edited February 29 by SaintsLoyal

[Lymington Saint]

Relax. The club are flying a kite. This is not happening any time soon. Council and Police have not agreed it and are unlikely to do so.

[Wurzel]

3 hours ago, Lymington Saint said:

Relax. The club are flying a kite. This is not happening any time soon. Council and Police have not agreed it and are unlikely to do so.

Of course it will happen.

As I've pointed out before, 400 apartments are being built where the old gas tanks were. The last place police and council will want coaches and away fans congregating is the Britannia Rd/Northam Rd area as they do at the moment.

[Block 5]

I'm looking forward to the red & white wall; it'll be totally awesome..... with smoke, flares, and world class tifos. 

[Saint_clark]

50 minutes ago, Block 5 said:

I'm looking forward to the red & white wall; it'll be totally awesome..... with smoke, flares, and world class tifos. 

The side of the stadium outside the kingsland also makes for a great battleground, with the Northam lads at one end and the away fans at the other.

[gio1saints]

I’m still surprised that we get 30,000 people to home matches. The minimum the adults are paying is something like £20-£25 and more for posh seats. Walk around the stadium prematch there’s queues to buy £55 replica tops ( now half price!) people eating £12 bowls of food with there £6 pint in hand..

Simultaneously theres people in Southampton rely on food banks, live on the streets. Child poverty in Southampton is high. The number of local kids going into higher education well below national average.
 

The incongruity of those two facts is uncomfortable were you to think on it for too long.  
 

If the new Northam is going to happen, I hope that it puts the work of the Saints Foundation square centre as a net end beneficiary from it.
 

I’d like to think that would help coalesce support for it from all us- the Saints fans who can choose to afford to go the SMS, buy the pies, the shirts, the beers - and the many of our city that simply do not have that choice. 
 

If done in that way I’d hope support would be overwhelmingly high. 

[sfc4prem]

2 hours ago, gio1saints said:

I’m still surprised that we get 30,000 people to home matches. The minimum the adults are paying is something like £20-£25 and more for posh seats. Walk around the stadium prematch there’s queues to buy £55 replica tops ( now half price!) people eating £12 bowls of food with there £6 pint in hand..

Simultaneously theres people in Southampton rely on food banks, live on the streets. Child poverty in Southampton is high. The number of local kids going into higher education well below national average.
 

The incongruity of those two facts is uncomfortable were you to think on it for too long.  

The working-class mans' game, no more.

[AlexLaw76]

2 hours ago, gio1saints said:

I’m still surprised that we get 30,000 people to home matches. The minimum the adults are paying is something like £20-£25 and more for posh seats. Walk around the stadium prematch there’s queues to buy £55 replica tops ( now half price!) people eating £12 bowls of food with there £6 pint in hand..

 

Just as well, something has to pay the wages of a striker who will offer not a jot of output this season

[franniesTache]

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere.

The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans.

You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going.

Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

[SotonianWill]

41 minutes ago, franniesTache said:

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere.

The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans.

You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going.

Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

I was on the left hand side - nothing from them all game. The right side was the loudest but still seemed a sh*tter version of our Itchen North / Northam set up. Maybe their “kop” simply takes potential singers away from these areas leaving little loud peoples scattered around. Or perhaps it’s acoustics as I thought our fans were fairly loud but from videos it doesn’t seem the case. 

[The Cat]

44 minutes ago, franniesTache said:

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere.

The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans.

You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going.

Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

Their safe standing seemed to only applied to the bottom part of the stand opposite. And then we had about the back 5 rows in our stand with rails which they just rammed in front of the normal seats.

To do it properly you need the seats which fold up flat like they have at Spurs and Arsenal.

People were sat down in the their safe standing section. All very strange.

[The Cat]

2 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

I was on the left hand side - nothing from them all game. The right side was the loudest but still seemed a sh*tter version of our Itchen North / Northam set up. Maybe their “kop” simply takes potential singers away from these areas leaving little loud peoples scattered around. Or perhaps it’s acoustics as I thought our fans were fairly loud but from videos it doesn’t seem the case. 

There were some funny people in that stand on the right. One bloke spent most of his time doing various types of hand gestures at us while his girlfriend sat there trying to ignore him. I don't think he watched any of the game.

Then after Aribo scored a few rushed over to the wall and started gobbing off before some pushing and shoving with the stewards.

[aintforever]

53 minutes ago, franniesTache said:

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere.

The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans.

You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going.

Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

If the club go ahead with their plan we will just end up with the people who usually sit in the Northam/Itchen corner moving to the Chapel and Kingsland corner to be near the away fans. 

The Northam will just end up like the Chapel and the club will have achieved nothing.

[Ken Tone]

4 hours ago, aintforever said:

If the club go ahead with their plan we will just end up with the people who usually sit in the Northam/Itchen corner moving to the Chapel and Kingsland corner to be near the away fans. 

The Northam will just end up like the Chapel and the club will have achieved nothing.

Nothing apart from upsetting those of us who currently sit in the Kingsland/Chapel  corner! 

[EssEffCee]

5 hours ago, The Cat said:

There were some funny people in that stand on the right. One bloke spent most of his time doing various types of hand gestures at us while his girlfriend sat there trying to ignore him. I don't think he watched any of the game.

Then after Aribo scored a few rushed over to the wall and started gobbing off before some pushing and shoving with the stewards.

That bloke was hilarious. There's always people at matches that are getting far too upset and angry over basically nothing. His Mrs looked well embarrassed.

I thought their fans were shite tbh, especially given they were doing well against one of the top sides.

[LuckyNumber7]

On 04/03/2024 at 11:47, franniesTache said:

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere.

The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans.

You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going.

Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

Wasn't at the game but tbf that safe standing area behind the goal looked half empty. Also that stand was closed for redevelopment for the first few months of the season so I'm guessing there's no ST holders in there. Probably next season that will become there main singing and standing area.

[Mattio]

On 02/03/2024 at 07:51, Block 5 said:

I'm looking forward to the red & white wall; it'll be totally awesome..... with smoke, flares, and world class tifos. 

I went to a game in Bucharest this weekend, they had a bloke orchestrating the singing at the front with a microphone and speakers along the stand. The fans also kept throwing fireworks at their own ballboys.

Maybe that's what we need for the new proper nawty red and white kop

[franniesTache]

37 minutes ago, Mattio said:

I went to a game in Bucharest this weekend, they had a bloke orchestrating the singing at the front with a microphone and speakers along the stand. The fans also kept throwing fireworks at their own ballboys.

Maybe that's what we need for the new proper nawty red and white kop

Can you imagine how shit our version of "ultras" would be?  A bunch of nippers, most of who aren't even from southampton, and who's idea of terrace culture was taken from a tik tok with badly painted signs jumping up and down in replica kits singing songs they'd nicked from Rangers or Man City that had been adapted to mention the skates 🤣

As much as i can't stand the idea the idea of ultras i'd almost like to see it to give me something to laugh at

[Wade Garrett]

The new standing area should be called the Stone Island stand.  Men in their 50s can make throat slitting gestures at people 100 yards away and do loads of bugle in the shithouse.

They can then go home and have a wank whilst watching The Football Factory.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

Just having a browse over on the UI and someone has linked this - Stoke proposing similar to us regarding away fans but putting safe standing next to where they put aways in the corner (equivalent to the Chapel).

https://www.stokecityfc.com/news/2024/march/05/potters-announce-atmosphere-enhancing-plans/
 

I see they’re also letting fans have a say on the design of the new kit (though hard to believe it’s not already decided in March)

[JRM]

Once they have cleared the damage from the fire it will be interesting to see what happens with redevelopment, could be an opportunity for the club to buy more land and change the access at that end. 

[franniesTache]

1 hour ago, JRM said:

Once they have cleared the damage from the fire it will be interesting to see what happens with redevelopment, could be an opportunity for the club to buy more land and change the access at that end. 

Great opportunity to expand the Saints Gulag out the back

[cosmicjetson]

On 27/02/2024 at 18:37, Daft Kerplunk said:

Very positive that this is happening. Away fans should not be in the ends and the side is appropriate. This should in theory greatly improve atmosphere as there will be a standing end, and then some will move next to the away fans and it’ll liven up those who think going to football is for sitting on your hands and being near silent.

As for safety, it doesn’t matter where away fans are at St Mary’s because isolation can happen either side if necessary. Coaches can park in the trading estate and roads can be closed off either side to allow traffic to exit. In a way, being at the other end may lead to less confrontation as away fans will be sent on a longer walk away from the stadium and Britannia Road can be used by home fans.  The current set up is just what people are used to and change will be fine. For those old enough, away fans moved from the end to the side at the Dell, and two whole ends for home fans made it much better in terms of atmosphere when it was all seater. 

Glad you're positive about it. It means me moving from the seat I've had since the ground opened. And those trading estate roads (what's left of them after yesterday) are when a substantial number of fans make their way to/from town and where the shuttle buses go from. 

Change is just fine when you are not the one being forced to make the changes.

[Ken Tone]

Anybody heard any update on this plan? Was speaking to an ex-copper in one of the sections scheduled to become for away fans who's still convinced the police will veto it. But surely the club would have cleared with all the relevant authorities before going public? 

There's a lot of unhappy fans at our end of the Kingsland --- many of them ST holders who are wondering what we're supposed to do next season. 

[Turkish]

 

[Ken Tone]

Anybody know what this means? What away end? Are they just putting in safe standing where people are now?

[Saint Matty 76]

Don’t win today after those two results and these lot don’t deserve anything

[Saint_clark]

23 minutes ago, Ken Tone said:

Anybody know what this means? What away end? Are they just putting in safe standing where people are now?

I don't know what's confusing you about the away end, have you never noticed that we have away fans at St Mary's stadium? 

[egg]

1 minute ago, Saint_clark said:

I don't know what's confusing you about the away end, have you never noticed that we have away fans at St Mary's stadium? 

Read his post and the article again mate...

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, egg said:

Read his post and the article again mate...

They never said they were implementing safe standing and moving the away fans at the same time. It's pretty obvious that they didn't want to undertake two lots of massive ground restructuring in one off-season. 

[The Kraken]

“A total of 9500 safe standing seats”.  Surely the northam has got much fewer than 9500 seats. Stadium has 32000 in total, pitch sides have more capacity than behind the goals, even if each stand were equal it would be 8k per stand. Intriguing.

Edited April 13 by The Kraken

[bpsaint]

2 hours ago, Ken Tone said:

Anybody know what this means? What away end? Are they just putting in safe standing where people are now?

The way I’ve read it is the whole Northam will be safe standing, and the new away section wherever that may be will be safe standing too.

[AlexLaw76]

What a block by Bednarek

[SaintsLoyal]

I wonder where thousands that sit in the northam are going to go ? Upper blocks to start was a good idea, but the whole lot is daft and will not achieve what’s wanted.

[gammon cheeks]

Go for it .

[beatlesaint]

14 hours ago, SaintsLoyal said:

I wonder where thousands that sit in the northam are going to go ? Upper blocks to start was a good idea, but the whole lot is daft and will not achieve what’s wanted.

Don't forget that fans in other parts of the stadium may want to go back to the old days of standing. Theres a few guys near where I sit that i'm sure will want to so there will be space for Northam people who want to continue sitting.......they're gonna position themselves near the away fans probably !

[Chez]

15 hours ago, SaintsLoyal said:

I wonder where thousands that sit in the northam are going to go ? Upper blocks to start was a good idea, but the whole lot is daft and will not achieve what’s wanted.

They can sit in one of the other three stands with seats in it or stay in the Northam and stand up. Pretty simple.

What is wanted?

[Nordic Saint]

The move from the Dell to St Mary's meant that everyone changed seats. We got over it, no problem. So have other clubs' fans, more recently, like Spurs. Plenty of clubs have moved their away section to a different part of the stadium, too, like Leeds. They're happy now that they did.

If we get promoted, the demand for seats and standing places at St Mary's will be greater than ever. Even if we don't get promoted, there will be no problem filling the stadium next season, in spite of some fans having to move.

Let's support the Club on this. This new setup is the one we should have had in the first place.

 

 

Edited April 14 by Nordic Saint

[spyinthesky]

On 02/03/2024 at 11:04, sfc4prem said:

The working-class mans' game, no more.

It cost me a 1/- (5p in new money) to go into The Dell as a nipper and probably anything between a 1d and 3d for a four page programme.

If I was feeling flush I could buy a 1d On The Ball ticket to win the match ball (if it got kicked out of the ground, the game stopped whils it was retrieved - no multi balls in those days!!

Mind you we lived in a hole on the road and ate scraps that fell off the back of coal lorry.

Those were the days.
 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

15 hours ago, SaintsLoyal said:

I wonder where thousands that sit in the northam are going to go ? Upper blocks to start was a good idea, but the whole lot is daft and will not achieve what’s wanted.

I thought you were against this from the start?

I'm very old school tbh, I'm still stuck in the 70s/80s to how I like an atmosphere at the football which was about noise as much as a bit of singing. You just don't really get that blood-curdling roar anymore (was always best in the northern grounds back then).

It's mostly rubbish these days, it was OK for the first 30mins at St Mary's yesterday but just evaporated as soon as Watford scored, our supporters are easily knocked (and from where I was sitting in the stadium, less than 2k aways were making as much noise as far more home fans around them). So I don't mind the club trying to do something to improve it, I accept football support has changed from my day but it could certainly be better. Many don't like change (or the idea of) but I think/hope most will be saying this was a good move by this time next year.

[Badger]

Does the capacity remain the same once safe standing is introduced? 
 

It was always said at The Dell that seats took up more space than that needed to stand in. Does the reverse apply ? 

Edited April 14 by Badger

[The Kraken]

46 minutes ago, Badger said:

Does the capacity remain the same once safe standing is introduced? 
 

It was always said at The Dell that seats took up space than that needed to stand in. Does the reverse apply ? 

Pretty sure the regs for safe standing are that one seated space = one standing space. Some Europeans do it differently but for English/British sides it’s the standing in front of a folded seat system.

[Ken Tone]

23 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Pretty sure the regs for safe standing are that one seated space = one standing space. Some Europeans do it differently but for English/British sides it’s the standing in front of a folded seat system.

Yes... and i think the club can decide whether to fold each seat up or down, so maybe the plan is to install all the Northam but to leave some as seats for part of the time, ie so there is some sitting available for away fans? (That's assuming the rather ambiguous announcement does mean they're being kept there for now.) I would have thought that would be a requirement? 

Then maybe return to the idea of moving the away fans later?