The merger proposals had fallen through, but at the extraordinary general meeting in June 1897, the members were informed that "the committee had a ground in view".

in the dell that is not far from the County Ground, and nearer West Station and the town, and at the present time it is a narrow valley with a stone culvert running along the bottom.

[6][7] The dell was stripped of vegetation and the stream channelled into a conduit with work started on the embankment, which survives behind property to the north of Commercial Road but was never used, and the viaduct which was part built but later demolished.

The project was abandoned at this point and agreement reached to connect to the London and South Western Railway at Shawford Junction with running rights into Southampton.

George Thomas, a fish merchant who had been appointed as a director of the limited company when it was formed in the summer of 1896, who lived in Shirley, saw the potential of the cleared site and purchased the land from the D.N.S.R.

By the beginning of the 1898–99 season, Thomas had incurred expenditure of between £7,500 and £9,000 on acquiring and clearing the site, and erecting the new stands and had agreed an initial three-year lease to the football club at a rental of £250 p.a.

The first goal at the stadium was scored by Watty Keay, with the others from Abe Hartley, Jim McKenzie and Tom Smith, as Southampton won 4–1.

On 30 November 1940, a German bomb fell on the stadium during the Blitz, creating an 18-foot crater in the Milton Road penalty area.

In March 1941, an explosion of munitions stored at the ground caused a major fire in the West Stand although this was rebuilt soon afterwards.

The attendance record was broken on 8 October 1969, when 31,044 watched Southampton lose 3–0 to a Manchester United team which included George Best and Bobby Charlton.

In the 1980s, there were several changes at the ground, with the makeshift chocolate boxes at the Milton Road end being replaced by a new stand used for family ticket holders a two level concrete structure.

By the mid-1990s it seemed as if the search was over as the club announced plans to move to a new stadium at Monks Brook playing fields near the village of North Stoneham, Eastleigh.

The dispute was resolved when the chairman, Rupert Lowe, declared new plans for the club to move to a new 32,000-seat stadium, for a cost of £32 million, on Brittania Road on the banks of the River Itchen.

On 4 April 2001, the first ever Football Aid event took place at the Dell (including former players Jimmy Case and Peter Rodrigues).