Bigger Ground please Mr Lowe ??

[GlosterSaint]

Saints have no plans to extend the Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium in the foreseeable future.
The prospect of adding extra seats was one of the main issues in The Saint's phone-in to chairman Rupert Lowe and managing director Andrew Cowen.

With virtually every home game sold out last season, many fans have been hoping the capacity may soon be increased.
The stadium was designed to make that possible but it would be hugely expensive.

The club are continuing to monitor the situation and may do it at some point - but not yet.
Lowe said: "This is a burning question and one we get asked a lot.

"It was hard enough to finance the building of a structure which, unlike a hotel, gets used only a couple of dozen times a year.
"We initially thought that 25,000 seats might be enough but opted for 32,000 in the end and have been delighted by the support we have received.

"It was built at a cost of approximately £1,000 a seat but it would cost substantially more than that to expand it.
"It was designed so that we can build on but we would have to spend around £3,500 a seat.

"That means it would cost somewhere between £15m and £17.5m to add an extra 5,000 seats.
"It was hard enough to raise the finance for the original building at £1,000 a seat and it would be even more difficult to get the money at the higher rate.

"However we are keeping the situation under constant review and may consider it if our season ticket base gets to 25,000.
"That is probably the maximum we could go to without shutting out too many people as happened at The Dell.

"If we get to that figure with a waiting list for season tickets then we could probably go to the bank and persuade them that it was viable.
"In an ideal world it is something we would like to do but it would be ill-advised to build speculatively. We don't want to fall off the tightrope and damage the club."

Even if Saints did decide to expand and managed to raise the cash, there would still be other time-consuming issues to resolve.
Cowen added: "There is already congestion on the footbridge after games so we would need to take measures to improve access.
"We would have to go through the full planning procedure and carry out the building work so it is not something which could happen overnight."

The Q&A session proved so popular that the pair stayed on air for an extra half hour to take more questions from the fans.
It is now likely to become a regular event on The Saint which now broadcasts on 107.8FM as well as Sky digital 899.

Supporters covered a wide range of topics concerning the stadium, not just the potential expansion.
Another burning issue was smoking with Lowe and Cowen disagreeing on the way forward.

Lowe would like to ban it at the stadium altogether but Cowen is in favour of continuing allow fans to light up on the concourses.
The current system will remain in force next season and Cowen explained: "A significant chunk of our fan base smoke and we have to make provision for them.

"It is the lesser of two evils to allow them to do it at half-time on the concourses but not up in the seats.
"If you are a non-smoker you do not want smoke wafting up at you for 45 minutes at a stretch. It is also easy to enforce and a clear distinction for people.
"But there is no easy answer. Non-smokers want the whole stadium to be no smoking while smokers will want it everywhere."

Lowe added: "I would ban it everywhere. It is unhealthy and very damaging to young people who want to come to the stadium.
"But we are a democratic club. We gave supporters the chance to express their views at the last fans' meeting and I was soundly defeated with something like 31 of the 33 delegates wanting to keep the status quo."

Other callers complained about the public address system and the pair are both very aware that it leaves something to be desired.
It has improved since the introduction of extra speakers at ground level but it does need to be enhanced.

Cowen said: "The PA system is not perfect and certainly using a mobile microphone does not show it as its best.
"But to upgrade it would cost well north of £200,000. when we have that sort of cash available then we will do it but it won't happen in this close season."

Lowe added: "It is a constant matter of debate and we have a bit of banter between us over this. But when we built the stadium we had to make sure the numbers stacked up.
"We are aware it needs to be boosted and will do it as soon as we can."
Cowen joked: "There you have it, vote Lowe and have no cigarettes and decent speakers!"

Other stadium issues raised included the toilets, the food kiosks and standing areas.
On kiosks, cowen said: "When we moved into the stadium we were handling around 9,000 transactions per game now on average it is 14,000.

"We are at the stage where the kiosks are working to capacity but I study the CCTV footage and it is very seldom there are still queues when the second half kicks off.
"Obviously we are anxious to make sure as many fans eat and drink as want to but no stadium in the country is set up to serve 32,000 simultaneously in the space of 15 minutes.

"Similarly the toilets could take that many people at once but we comfortably exceed the minimum requirements set down by law
"As far as standing areas are concerned, we are in favour of a debate but there is no sign that the law will be changed.

"At present all Premier League stadia have to be all-seater and as stadium operators we have to enforce the law.
"We would like to offer people the choice but I don't think there is the political will to make it happen.
"Even if it did, it would need a massive engineering job at the stadium because the angle for terracing is much shallower than that for seating."