This seems to be what it comes down to...

[Nodge70]

southamptons average attendences in the last 5 seasons have been, 20,423, 17849, 21,253, 23, 556, and 23, 613. when they were in the premier league they we up in the late 20's early 30's if that is tiny what does that make ours!
my point about luton is not that we will plummet into the conference but i think there maybe a certain rose tintedness about the administration bit, we were (if rumours true) , very close to going completely belly up last time. they punched above their weight for many years and were a small community club (which is what most seem to want!) then , dodgy finances aside (which again have been hinted at!)they have struggled to stay afloat through local businessmen and celebrity fans!

Palace is probably the better comparison you are right.

for hte record i too belive the administration talk is scaremongering.

Not sure if you read the post, but I mentioned pre St Mary's, where they averaged 14,000. Don't recall saying tiny either but prepared to be corrected!

[3London]

Southampton's fan base was tiny prior to the move to St Mary's and has [B]narrowed to almost pre St Mary's levels during [/B]their decline with huge swathes of the ground being closed on matchdays. The wealthy benefactor was only interested ONCE they were in administration. Pardew only came on board AFTER they exited admin and knew he had a pot of cash to play with.

Luton is NOT a relevant example at all. You can draw almost identical correlations between ourselves and Palace in terms of stadium, team performance, dodgy chairmen, attendances and financial meltdowns over the past 50 years.

17,000 is the lowest in 8 years the ground was only partially closed for one season and not a whole one at that, anyway, i don't really giive a toss about southampton