Saints Stadium Closure!!!

i genuinly feel sorry for them.

we have had hard times over the years, did they care? nope...
do i care that they are now having hard times? in many ways i shouldnt, the fact they went down and struggled doesnt concern me but i do feel for their 'genuine fans' that will be affected by this...

Best news I've heard all week - Do I feel for them ? ..... Nope I think it's really funny .... Bring on Aldershot as Hampshires no2 club...

so they will open the corners if they draw the cup winners then thats for sure

my my my ..ive written about how they used to throw penny's to us in th 70's and as rug did they care about us as their talented manager( Laurie the Mac enema..sorry enemy- either will do) mixed old established stars with fresh young talent and took them to cup finals, as we fought relegation battles and went from one financial crisis to another, having to play their old cast off players....hmm what goes around comes around. Therefore I will feel sorry for them as it could all turnaround again one day

lets all av a giggle, lets all ava giggle la la la la laaah, la la la laah, lets all ava giggle etc etc etc

The Stains fans seem to forget that for years their Premier League ground had a capacity of only 15,210!! When we are at Wembley in the Community shiled they will be 'dreaming' of a Carling Cup tie at Exeter City!! How the mighty have fallen.

"I think it may be a little unwise to gloat when Pompey Still had a lower average attendance than Saints did last year and even without the corners the capacity is larger than Fratton! Jesus_02." Yep ... Fair comment Jesus.. I'd all forgotten it's the size of the ground that gains team points in the league not the results of games

my opinion clearly outweighed here... possibly as i have only know southampton to be better than pompey for a few years, before thew started going into decline. Administration is not something i would wish on any club, being froced into cost cutting measures becuase of financial trouble is the same. I would much rather beat them on the pitch than beat them becuase of our (very very VERY) good chairman.

I'm going to gloat for a while if I may, especially as someone pointed out that on Facebook the scum are trying to break away from what is known as the Portsmouth district on their National breakdown

ho ho ho!!!! what excellent news!!!

personally i'm not bothered what they do. However i feel it's wrong that with so much money in the game smaller clubs have to struggle to exist. There are many clubs on the breadline whilst the rich just keep getting richer, the wealth needs to be shared around a bit more. Transfer tribunals for instance should favour the smaller selling clubs over the bigger buying ones. All to often a big club will take a small one to a tribunal just to get a cheaper transfer fee.

Apparently the fans have also appealed that the seats be turned around so they don't have to face the pitch!!!!!

Yeah, laugh while we can, while at the same time hoping it won't happen to us! Not that we will be at St Mary's (unless walking past it to Fratton park). I was actually born in St Mary's come to think of it. Not in a closed corner though. Don't they get in the way of the doctors and nurses? Or does the scum just get sluiced away.

Well, regulars will know my view on the Saints 'rivalry' so I won't fuel this debate by going over old ground. What I will say is that that there for the grace of god (Harry?) goes Pompey. The fate of clubs is largely indiscriminate. It wasn’t so long ago that we suffered at the hands of questionable ownership, and surely had we not been an island we would already have our own super stadium and likely also at a time when income wouldn’t have supported it. It just so happens that Saints got a triple whammy given they were misfortunate enough to have what appears to be selfish owners and prolonged poor form on the pitch resulting in a league position that didn’t look attractive to serious financial investment. I don’t think Saints fans are any different from us and I certainly don’t wish financial hardship on any team especially one of the South’s leading teams. If Saints go bust then the ramifications for Pompey could be considerable. In this instance, I would not bet against some form of union between the two clubs, or an outright takeover. From a financial perspective, having a stadium somewhere along the M27 with a regular attendance north of 35,000 would surely be more attractive to a perspective owner than investing in a local stadium with doubts that it could regularly hit 25,000. Also, living near the M4, equally close to Pompey and Saints I can say without a doubt that Saints are far more popular here than Pompey. I was the sole Pompey fan in my office, with at least 10 Saints fans around me… (and ironically my office is in the shadow of the Madjeski stadium). My point being is that a combined team would have a true catchment area covering most of Hampshire and surrounding counties. As it is, opinions polarize towards Saints or Pompey, but remove these polarizations and combined the catchment will involve a much larger non polarized audience. Sure some old faithful fans will be lost in the transition but I wouldn’t expect that to amount to more than a couple of thousand at each club. Clearly I am not proposing we do an MK Dons, just pointing out that money is green not blue or red …

Very brave words indeed Chris, but I am afraid I do not agree with what you have put. Portsmouth and Southampton are two very different cities with very different people in them, even though they are so close together.

If the worse case (or best to some people) senario happened and the scummers went bust then they would have to start from scratch again. Selling off the stadium to make way for housing or offices would financially sort the team out and a new Scummers Fc would be born.

I can honestly say that I could never see the two teams forming as there would be too much hatred between the fans. Portsmouth may not have so many fans spread out through Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey as Southampton but maybe that is because the people from Portsmouth prefer to stay there. It's a very strong community which is probably not a bad thing.

Are fans that switch from Southampton to Portsmouth even real fans?? Will they just not switch back if the fate twists the other way??

As hard as it is to bite the lip, no one should want to see them get too clobbered. There's a saying out here which is " be even more gracious in victory than in defeat " and there have been very dark times around Fratton in the past. Besides, I'd rather we get a chance to clobber 'em on the pitch !

Simon, I see it more as an acquisition of a rival's customer base - after which the original product (eg Southampton) will be cancelled and the surviving entity (Pompey) sells more product to the acquired customers. There is plenty of precedent for it even amongst customers (fans) with huge affinity to the original brand/product. But either way, let's hope I am wrong.