The Real Estate around St Mary’s chat

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, EssEffCee said:

Where are these people who aren't going now then?

Where are they every year we are not in the premier league.

[Saint Fan CaM]

They’ve gotta think big. Imagine a monorail circling the City from West Quay/Bargate quarter to the train station to the cruise terminals to St. Mary’s and a new waterside leisure hub. Massive increase in tourism attraction. Job creation, especially with new restaurants/hotel/monkey-chicken petting zoo (lol). Seriously, this is the level of ambition I’d like to see SCC/Dragan etc aiming for.

[Divergent]

Alan Whitehead, ex Southampton Council leader and MP proposed a monorail around the centre of Southampton around 50 years ago. Shame few others shared his imagination and ambition for the city. 

[Matthew Le God]

54 minutes ago, Divergent said:

Alan Whitehead, ex Southampton Council leader and MP proposed a monorail around the centre of Southampton around 50 years ago. Shame few others shared his imagination and ambition for the city. 

Edited Friday at 21:18 by Matthew Le God

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 hours ago, Divergent said:

Alan Whitehead, ex Southampton Council leader and MP proposed a monorail around the centre of Southampton around 50 years ago. Shame few others shared his imagination and ambition for the city. 

Apparently council faction in-fighting got in the way sadly. It would put Southampton back on the map way ahead of all the other South coast cities, but it’ll not happen in my lifetime unfortunately.

[Verbal]

Honestly didn't realise there was any real estate around St Mary's. I must have a word with my realtor. 

[Patrick Bateman]

3 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

They’ve gotta think big. Imagine a monorail circling the City from West Quay/Bargate quarter to the train station to the cruise terminals to St. Mary’s and a new waterside leisure hub. Massive increase in tourism attraction. Job creation, especially with new restaurants/hotel/monkey-chicken petting zoo (lol). Seriously, this is the level of ambition I’d like to see SCC/Dragan etc aiming for.

Get the Hythe Ferry running again too - could stop in that redeveloped area on match days too ... 

[bpsaint]

17 hours ago, RedArmy said:

Me too. Next to the train station and hotels, not much residential stuff around there either so good for curfews. 
 

But this council has zero ambition. 

That site is too small for a decent 10-12k multi use arena unfortunately, despite its perfect location near the train station. It’s landlocked too by electrical substations on two sides so the shape of the land wouldn’t allow for it.

The land at what was Leisure World however is plenty big enough, and not much further away.

[Whitey Grandad]

8 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Apparently council faction in-fighting got in the way sadly. It would put Southampton back on the map way ahead of all the other South coast cities, but it’ll not happen in my lifetime unfortunately.

It was defeated in Westminster by a three line whip. Just let the implications of that settle in for a moment. 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

9 hours ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Get the Hythe Ferry running again too - could stop in that redeveloped area on match days too ... 

I heard that the army from Marchwood base offered to fix the pier for free as they would treat it as training, but they were turned down by the piers owners. I’m fuming if this is true. 

[Soton7]

There was the potential to link the city centre to the docks which would have created so much investment into the area. Ocean village is literally high rises stacked onto high rises, the area is so poor in comparison to other waterfront cities. 

it’s painful to admit but Portsmouth waterfront is so much better. The council and its developers have done a great job there. The new development at Southsea is clean, tidy and well designed (ignoring Clarence parade!). It links Gunwharf Quays, there’s a vast range of pubs, shops and restaurants and a constant footfall along the way. It actually feels decent and there’s good transport links. Liverpool is similar- they have maximised their biggest asset (the waterfront) and turned this into their main hub which attracts lots and lots of investment. 
To get anywhere near to that level, we’d need billions of pounds pumped in. But there’s no investment, no vision and the council has sold off half the land anyway. We are years and years behind Portsmouth and Liverpool’s waterfront. And in the current economic climate, there’s limited chances of anything improving.

Edited Saturday at 10:49 by Soton7

[BarberSaint]

6 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It was defeated in Westminster by a three line whip. Just let the implications of that settle in for a moment. 

Westminster was full of ex-Pompey, or what then? Why object to what Southampton did?

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

Westminster was full of ex-Pompey, or what then? Why object to what Southampton did?

Exactly. More central government interference. 

[AlexLaw76]

On 07/08/2026 at 07:11, SuperSAINT said:

Is there a thread already?

So Parsons mentioned it last night & I recall Dragan hinting about his secret pet project a year or so ago?

Given the importance of commercial money in regards to spending, this could be massive thing for the club.

Anyone know much about what we’re discussing with the council?

This will probably be filed in a cabinet at SMS, in the same place as Gao's 5 pledges.

[SW11_Saint]

On 07/08/2026 at 10:40, Midfield_General said:

Except even further away from town and in the middle of a dilapidated industrial estate. 

That’s literally what regeneration projects are about…

[SW11_Saint]

On 07/08/2026 at 09:27, Badger said:

Big mistake and shame Saints didn’t buy the gas site if they’ve any great intentions of expanding. 
 

All IMHO (as one poster would always say) of course. 

The former gasworks is part of the redevelopment. 

[Midfield_General]

11 hours ago, SW11_Saint said:

That’s literally what regeneration projects are about…

Not really in this instance, because those plans as published don’t include the regeneration of most of the rest of the industrial estates that surround the rest of the stadium, and a load of shitty industrial estates with a strip of development down the water on one side still leaves you with a load of shitty industrial estates. 

Town Quay was in a nicer part of town, closer to the city centre and had a working passenger ferry terminal that naturally attracted volumes of people before and after they travelled and could also ship people straight into the development from the waterside and the Isle of Wight, and it still failed. To buy the land and do the scale of redevelopment that would actually make the St Mary’s area worth travelling to from town for anyone not just going there for the football on a match day would take hundreds and hundreds of millions and about 25 years. 

As a comparison, the 67 acre King’s Cross development and regeneration in London took 20 years, cost £3 billion and wasn’t being managed by divs like Southampton City Council. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Whitey Grandad]

7 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Not really in this instance, because those plans as published don’t include the regeneration of most of the rest of the industrial estates that surround the rest of the stadium, and a load of shitty industrial estates with a strip of development down the water on one side still leaves you with a load of shitty industrial estates. 

Town Quay was in a nicer part of town, closer to the city centre and had a working passenger ferry terminal that could ship people straight in from the waterside and the Isle of Wight, and it still failed. To buy the land and do the scale of redevelopment that would actually make the St Mary’s area worth travelling to from town for anyone not just going there for the football on a match day would take hundreds and hundreds of millions and about 25 years. 

As a comparison, the 67 acre King’s Cross development and regeneration in London took 20 years, cost £3 billion and wasn’t being managed by divs like Southampton City Council. 

I remember at the time it was said that we couldn't build a stadium in the Town Quay area was because it is reclaimed land. 

[Saint_lambden]

Designer shopping outlet 

[Midfield_General]

The spectacular waterfront development will end up being a Bella Italia and an All Bar One and they'll both close after a year because people only ever went to them every other Saturday afternoon or Tuesday nights from 6-7.45pm. 

 

(And a thriving monkey petting zoo obvs)

[Pamplemousse]

Let's hope that any plans also include some sort of light rail network

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Saint_lambden said:

Designer shopping outlet 

Confirmed that's the plan or your opinon? 

[Saint_lambden]

33 minutes ago, Dman said:

Confirmed that's the plan or your opinon? 

Heard a whisper that’s one of the options so it’s what I’m hoping for now to save the Mrs dragging me to Swindon or fucking Portsmouth instead. 

[Whitey Grandad]

54 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Let's hope that any plans also include some sort of light rail network

There are no tram systems south of Croydon that I can see.

For many years Hampshire had extensive plans for a light rail/tram system but Westminster always stamped on them. Any investment always goes to the north because the Tories know that we'll always vote for them and Labour knows that we'll never vote for them.

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, Pamplemousse said:

Let's hope that any plans also include some sort of light rail network

Average cost: £15m per km for the most basic system such as those built in developing nations. On top of the hundreds of millions any development would already need. 

I hope someone buys BBD soon, it sounds like Dragan's going to need the money. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Saint_lambden said:

Heard a whisper that’s one of the options so it’s what I’m hoping for now to save the Mrs dragging me to Swindon or fucking Portsmouth instead. 

Fair. 

Intresting proposal. If done right, it has the potential to massively dent the Portsmouth economy given they have little more to visit there than Gunwharf 😃

You'd imagine it would be fairly catastrophic to West quay and the rest of town though. Would also be a nightmare for cars heading in / out.