SAINTS have insisted they need a few years of sell-out crowds at St Mary's before they can consider extending the 32,000 stadium.

'Sold out' signs have been up at the ground for most home games since before Christmas and today's clash against West Ham is no exception.

Sceptics who thought Saints would struggle to fill a stadium more than twice the size of The Dell have been proved wrong as a feelgood factor sweeps the city.

But managing director Andrew Cowen insists the club needs a cast-iron guarantee that they will continue to pack the fans in before contemplating an extension.

And the key to that is to increase the season ticket base, which currently stands at around 17,000.

The fact that members have missed out on FA Cup semi-final tickets next weekend could result in a surge to beome season ticket holders ahead of 2003/04.

Cowen said: "When we moved from The Dell we had 8,000 season ticket holders there and we wanted to double that within two years of moving to St Mary's. Well, we have done that.

"But if you look at other Premiership grounds' capacities and season ticket holder ratios then you might expect our season ticket figure to be a bit higher.

"Look at Newcastle - virtually all their seats are taken up by season-ticket holders.

Cowen added: "We have the potential to make the stadium bigger, but we haven't got planning permission for that at present.

"When you're talking about extending the stadium you have to be sure you have a certain amount of definite seat occupancy, and that means season ticket holders.

"We would also have to engage in dialogue with the city council, and community groups around the stadium.

"And as anyone who knows the snags we encountered in relocating from The Dell is aware, that sort of dialogue is not something that can be done in five minutes."

The cost of extending the stadium would also play a large part in deciding how many extra seats to build.

"If you build an extension to your house, you can be sure that the cost of each square foot will be more than the cost of each square foot when the house was built," Cowen explained.

"It's no different at St Mary's. If we were to build an extension it would cost three or four times more for each seat than a seat cost when we built the stadium.

"You can't just speculate with regard to potential crowds when you build an extension.

"I don't think you can say it will be next year, or the year after that. You have to look at these things over a period of time."

Earlier this season the Daily Echo launched a campaign designed to raise the profile of safe standing areas - a subject currently taboo in parliament.

Saints chairman Rupert Lowe has always maintained that if the law is changed to allow safe standing areas, the club will consider creating such an area.

"Safe standing has been debated, but there's no indication from the Football Licensing Authority or the government that they are prepared to change the law and bring safe standing areas in," said Cowen.

"Should they do so, we would look at it to see if it were possible here. But if any people think that it would mean a return to terraces and terrace prices they would be mistaken."

Cowen insisted the club are keen to encourage more season ticket holders, and have launched initiatives designed to make it easier to become one.

Speaking about the Villa Park ticket allocation, he said: "It's a nice problem to have in a way, though I know there are going to be thousands of people who will be disappointed.

"But there's nothing we can do about it - it's an FA fixture, they choose the venue and they choose how to allocate the tickets.

"We have 17,000 season ticket holders and over 1,000 corporate season ticket holders, so after that it's obvious tickets are going to be pretty limited.

"We have 22,000 members, but we have made it clear all season that for cup games the first call for tickets will be season ticket holders and the second call will be members.

"We would obviously be happier if more members became season ticket holders next season, but we're aware that some might not be able to afford a one-off payment.

"We've introduced a low credit card repayment plan and also a 'not subject to status' finance plan to hopefully make it easier to spread the payments out."