Saints Chairman Ralph Krueger has set down the criteria needed to be met if Saints are to consider expanding St Mary's

Ralph Krueger has said that although the club is ruling nothing out, Saints will not be looking to expand St Mary's Stadium until certain criteria has been met.

Speaking to the Daily Echo Krueger said.

“I think when we go through a full season with 100 per cent occupancy then you can have those conversations,” he said.

“We’re still not there. We’re at 93 per cent or 94 per cent. There will be permanent renovations going on within the building.

“We have some plans if they fit into our budget still to make some changes in some of the hospitality areas of the club, but at the moment we see next season as a primary focus is to sustain the football growth and the final product on the field, and the cosmetics of the club are a secondary focus and they will happen over time, but that’s more a bigger picture, three-to-five-year kind of development.

“We’re permanently trying to fix things here, but we won’t be making any major steps in the stadium until the timing’s right.

“I see 2016-17 there will be a lot more invested in the stadium than in this season. We’re pretty happy. It’s a great place to play.”

Again a measured take on the situation from Krueger and his board and the truth is that apart from a couple of matches it hasn't been that hard to get a ticket for a Premier league game as long as you have booked at least a week in advance.

Perhaps this has been helped by many clubs not taking full allocations that has meant that an extra 1,500 tickets have usually been available for Saints fans, but in the main these seats haven't been fully sold suggesting that the capacity at the moment is about right.

However that is probably due to the price of tickets at St Mary's, although they have remained static for this season, in our first two years back in the Premier League supporters saw hefty increases on the previous seasons.

If the club want to expand the stadium they need to expand the supporter base, or at least make attending games more regularly affordable for supporters, the way to do that is by building a season ticket base that is not dependent on results, the big question is why club's like Norwich and even Brighton have bigger season ticket numbers than us ?

The answer is competitive pricing especially on early renewals and making sure there are good payment plans available to attract those who cannot afford to buy a ticket in one lump sum.

We missed a chance to do that this coming season when the opportunity was there to really offer a cheap season ticket and expand the numbers drastically, but there is always next season.

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 14:27 - Jun 22 Loyalty is the key factor with football fans, those that cling to Liverpools glory years whilst pleading that their mums great aunt Mertle lived in a small village outside of Bootle will cling to those reasons for glory hunting for years. It will take a generation of success (or at least a few trophies) to grow the fan base substantially . Either that or a substantial effort would need to be made to make the stadium a great place to go irrespective of the football. While they have tinkered with the beer and food, in all honesty it’s still a distant second to any highstreet pub. For no I can only imagine the owners concentrating on extracting the most out of those that already go. And 94% aint bad in that respect.

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Whatsforpud added 14:32 - Jun 22 Can't see us expanding the stadium. For all his faults, Rupert Lowe presided over the building of the right-sized stadium for the club. When visiting teams have returned a block of tickets, we invariably were unable to fill that block ourselves. I prefer to disappoint some wanting a ticket for the big games, rather than having a quarter-empty stadium for the 'lesser' teams. Have to hand it to Sunderland - similar size place to Southampton, but usually getting 40k+ with a struggling team.

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helpineedsomebody added 14:49 - Jun 22 the only reason st marys is not full is becouse the corperate area is far to expensive & they are being very greedy no value what so ever . if i was to pay that sort of money i would want jamie to cook it for me not a load of students from the local technical colledge. as for upgrading st marys & adding new facilaties are they just waiting for the new tv deal which comes in 2 seasons time when each club will be getting over 200million pounds per season + what on earth are they going to spend there money on or put it another way do you have all your asets in the bank or on the playing field i know what i would like

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Zambucco added 15:45 - Jun 22 I can see the reason for caution, I think our egos would love to have a 45k seater stadium. But we need to expand our fanbase, we need to be close to capacity most games, we need to increase desire. But I would question 100% capacity, does any team achieve that, I know United and Arsenal were at 99% Personally I'd like to see more money spent on the public areas, I must say I think our bars and food courts are pretty dowdy compared to most other clubs. A lick of brighter paint for a start. Do something about the queues and the quality of the food and drink that is offered too. We've already got a very good reputation with visiting fans, now let's improve upon this.

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Bazz added 18:32 - Jun 22 I feel a little uneasy about this, surely it is up to the club to attract the fans in and if those potential fans struggle to get in then it's a catch 22 situation, club wants to see the fans fill the stadium and the fans want to be sure of a seat......
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ItchenNorth added 19:11 - Jun 22 It's simple maths for me. Increase the capacity, lower the ticket prices across the board to ensure the larger stadium is full. If they do the math turnover could be equivalent to currently charging £30+ per ticket yet the supporter base increases, it also starts bringing in another generation that can't afford the cost as current prices. Currently the average age of a season ticket holder in the Prem is around 40, where as 20 years ago this was nearer 25! You only have to look at the German model to see this working!

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redwight added 19:54 - Jun 22 Safe standing must surely be just a question of time. This will increase capacity to an extent, although probably not by that much. It would be interesting to see some figures on this.
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SaintBrock added 22:22 - Jun 23 There is no chance at all that we will ever fill our current capacity every week as the catchment area is far too small and just made smaller by Bournemouth's success. Like many others before him by setting completely unrealistic aims Krueger has been able to kick the whole notion of expansion into the long grass for long enough to ensure it won't happen on his watch. This has been running for as long as the Lyndhurst By-pass fiasco with no better chance of realisation.

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