Saints fan Nick Illingsworth casts his eye over the stadium expansion question...

Ralph Krueger's comments about expanding St Mary's showed that despite his background in ice hockey he didn't intend to skate on thin ice when it comes to making improvements to St Mary's.

Over the last couple of years there have been veiled comments whispered from the club itself about plans for the stadium.

But before we consider any expansion, then first we have to show that we can fill the ground to capacity - week in and week out.

Look at Sunderland. The Stadium Of Light was expanded from 42,000 to 48,000 and their average is now 40,000.

That’s a very healthy number but the problem is that for them the popular chant ‘Your ground’s too big for you’ is reality.

Would Saints be merely extending so that the part-time supporters could get in for the big games?

And if they did so, would that dilute the atmosphere?

Certainly as we saw in the dark days of five or six years ago, blocks of empty seats in a ground does not make for a good atmosphere.

That has to impact on a team who would not be enthused by a ground with a lot of empty seats, even if the crowd was still healthy.

Before Saints consider expansion, they have to build the fan base to fill it rather than employ the Field Of Dreams scenario of building it and hoping they will come.

We have to look at clubs like Brighton who know that building a supporter base means making sure you have a big season ticket holder foundation, so that attendances are not affected by poor runs of form.

Like the Seagulls, we need to make it easy and cheap to be a season ticket holder and renew year in year out.

That means 12 monthly direct debit payment plans, and that means more benefits for season ticket holders.

The biggest threat to Saints attendances, though is television.It is possible to watch every Saints game in the Premier League home and away in various hostelries throughout the city via foreign sattellite feeds.

I know many supporters, who previously were regulars both home or away, who have barely been to a game over the past year or so.

Ralph hinted that Saints supporters need to start filling St Mary's again before the club consider expanding.

He is right. He knows what is needed. But he now needs to show he nows how to make it happen and make it possible for the supporters to do that.

The price increase for this season has not helped the cause. Football clubs have spent the last decade pushing prices up and the straw that breaks the camel’s back is near.

Saints now need to be forward thinking because once you lose a supporter, it’s hard to get him or her back.

In fairness to Saints, they have to reverse a trend developed under Nicola Cortese where the supporter was fleeced from every direction, be it price increases or car parking charges.

This was short termism at its best from a CEO who clearly had no long term plans.

Now we need to change that policy. So should St Mary’s be expanded?

The answer is ‘yes’, but only when the time is right and that time is not quite yet.

There needs to be give and take on both sides of the fence.

The club needs to give to the supporters and, in turn, the fans need to put their hands in their pockets in terms of buying tickets.

After all, how can we as supporters expect Katharina Liebherr to put her hands in her pocket if we aren’t willing to do so ourselves?

If the club do get it right, then the time to expand could be soon.

With the football Saints are playing, the stadium should be full week in week out.

The fact that it is not, and average crowds have slipped, shows that they haven’t got it right yet.