It couldn't be worse than the Dell (St. Mary's Stadium (Southampton FC))

Member Name: AllyPally1991

Product:	St. Mary's Stadium (Southampton FC)
Date:	13/08/08 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Large capacity

Disadvantages: distance from train station

St Mary's stadium is the home of Southampton F.C, a football team languishing in the second tier of English football after 30 years in the top flight ended in 2005. It has been the home of Southampton since 2001, when they moved from the dilapidated Dell (which was, quite simply, the worst stadium that I've ever seen in my entire life).

I am a neutral when it comes to Southampton FC - I do not support them, however I moved to the south coast in 2000 and my dad has adopted the club as his own (after all, they are marginally more successful than his home club of Hartlepool FC) and as such, I have gone with him to a fair few number of games. I watch out for their scores, but I am hardly a die-hard fan.

As a stadium, St Mary's fills all of the basic requirements. It has a pitch, seats, and entrances. There are a number of pubs quite close which are open on most match days (I'll explain the exception later) and the Eagle, which is the one I normally go to, is on the way from the train station and welcomes opposition fans.

Getting to the stadium is very easy - it's about a mile from Southampton Central train station, and there are tons of good bus connections for getting around. However, that mile walk can seem very long after they've lost, and the train line runs incredibly close to the ground - it would seem logical to build a small train station next to the ground that's only open on matchday, in a manner similar to Fratton station for Portsmouth FC.

Speaking of Portsmouth brings me to the exception I mentioned before about the pubs - if you're going to a South Coast derby match (Southampton vs Portsmouth), which is quite rare nowadays, do not expect to get into any pubs, shops, clubs or banks for the day - the derby is one of the most vicious in the English leagues, and the entire town comes to a virtual standstill on the day. There hasn't been a derby since 2005, but rest assured the next will be as passionate and violent as ever.

That brings me to the actual ground. From the outside the ground has brilliant stature and is quite impressive (if you can ignore the dominating gas towers which surround it) and the location of the club shop is good and easily accessible.

Inside the grounds there are all the basic necessities - toilets, food stalls, programme stalls - but nothing else. However, you're going to see a football match, not an opera, so you shouldn't expect anything else, whatever ground you go to.

The ground can hold over 32,000 spectators - over double the capacity of the Dell, which in the days of all seated stadiums only held 15,000. Whilst in the premiership years this would be filled to capacity, nowadays it is quite often only 2/3 full, with an average attendance of around 25.000, which is not too bad for the Championship.

My dad's season ticket seat was on the itchen stand, the main stand at the club. The away fans sit in the corner, on the Northam stand, right next to the most vocal selection of Southampton fans. There is a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium, although the fans only seem to know 4 songs ("When The Saints Go Marching In", "Oh, (insert players name) X2, he used to be a scummer but he's alright now", yelling insults at the goalie, and "When I was Just a Little Boy" with some lyrical changes. Oh, and "Come On You Reds", but I don't think there's any team in the country that play in red and don't chant that!)

Summary: Good stadium, now just needs a Premier League team to fill it again!