Saints have sold out their allocation of just over 44,000 tickets for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley, and disappointment for those who missed out will only increase with the knowledge that there will be 20,000 empty seats.

The remaining 4,000 tickets were sold in the space of a few hours when they went on restricted general sale at 8.30 this morning with the phone lines jammed until the announcement at 1pm that they had all been sold.

It’s likely that many thousands of fans have missed out on the opportunity to attend. While there is certainly an argument that they have had every opportunity to guarantee themselves a ticket buy owning a season ticket or by buying a ticket for either of the legs of the area final against MK Dons, but with Carlisle only expected to sell just over 20,000, that should leave plenty of tickets available.

The FA are likely to come under fire for this situation -  they were the ones who oversaw the building of the new national stadium at about 50% over original budget, and yet there appears to be a lack of scope for incremental segregation of blocks and concourses built into the ground - quite an impressive but equally unsurprising oversight.

You would also have thought that, due to the build cost, they would be looking to recoup as much of that money as possible in the shortest space of time. 20,000 seats at £24 each would give them nearly £500,000 of revenue from ticket sales alone, and that’s before you factor in catering and merchandise sales.

It’s quite a staggering level of incompetence from an organisation that is supposed to have the national game and its fans at heart. The club have attempted on a number of occasions to get the Football League and the FA to reconsider, but it appears that those appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

Saints have announced the full ticket details for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley on March 28th, with an initial allocation of over 44,000 tickets.

Prices range from £24 to £58 for adults, and we’ve been given the majority of the North and South stands as well as the West end. Carlisle United, our opponents, are believed to have requested around 25,000 tickets.

Full details are on the Official Site, but we at SaintsWeb are suggesting that those who wish to be part of a “singing section” should attempt to buy tickets in Category 3 (£34) in blocks 131 to 137. Tickets go on sale to season ticket holders - who can buy two tickets each - from Monday 22nd February.

Saints have finally put season tickets on sale to supporters from 8.30 this morning.

Representing fairly significant discounts across most price bands and areas, these prices are clearly aimed at filling the ground first and foremost after the atmosphere at St Mary’s suffered quite a lot when attendances dropped to around the 14,000 mark last season. The new board are clearly looking to prevent such a situation happening again this season.

An adult renewal in the centre stands is £350 with one in the wings or in the Northam stand just £288. It’s unclear as to what’s going to happen with the Chapel stand as there appear to be no prices stated for that stand.

The club have introduced a number of new price brackets for both matchday and season ticket prices, with a heavy emphasis on adult and child pairs. An adult and 12-16 year old can get a pair of tickets in the wings or the Northam for £380 (the same price as the adult March Madness renewal last season!), which saves more than £50 from the price of buying them seperately. Similar savings can be made on an adult/8-12 year old pair, and an adult/8 year old and under pair effectively allows the child to go for free - it’s the same price as an adult ticket on its own.

Those who weren’t season ticket holders last season can also buy a new ticket from tomorrow at slightly higher prices, but they still represent decent value compared to last season’s prices.

The Saints ticket office will be open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am to 4pm on Saturdays. The telephone booking line will be open from 8.30am to 7pm, and the online booking system will be available around the clock.

Existing season ticket holders have until 31st July to claim the renewal price and to ensure they keep the same seat as last season.

With a new wave of optimism flying around the club since Markus Liebherr’s takeover, it’s expected that the sales figure will beat last season’s figure of just under 10,000, despite the drop into League One, starting with a ten-point deficit.

Saints have today announced that they are delaying the announcement of season ticket prices for next season until April due to the uncertainty as to which division we’ll be playing in.

With 12 games to go in the Championship, Saints are still three points from safety at the bottom of the table despite successive home wins against promotion-chasing opposition, but while relegation looked very likely two weeks ago, the recent form has suggested the fat lady hasn’t even cleared her throat yet.

The club has also taken the opportunity to try to take advantage of the newly-found feelgood factor after the Preston and Cardiff games by announcing some ticket deals for three of the remaining five home games this season.

Season ticket holders will be able to buy additional tickets for next Tuesday’s game against Derby for just £5 (and those who have already bought tickets can get the difference refunded) - attendances for midweek games this season have been poor, averaging around the 14,500 mark.

The crucial relegation six-pointer against bottom side Charlton Athletic on 4th April has seen tickets reduced across the board with adult tickets priced at £15 and concessions £5 for all areas of the ground. This is the same promotion that was run before Christmas for the Nottingham Forest game, which produced an attendance of nearly 27,000 - a similar attendance would obviously help the club financially, but clearly a much better result will be needed!

Finally, the match against Crystal Palace on Easter Monday has been designated a “Kids for a Quid” game. All tickets for under-16s are just £1. Again, anyone who has already bought tickets for these games can claim a refund of the difference from the ticket office.

Saints are expecting a large crowd for Saturday’s six-pointer against Nottingham Forest at St Mary’s.

With 23,500 tickets already sold for the game at the time of writing, Saturday’s attendance is already guaranteed to smash the 18,925 who saw the first home game of the season against Birmingham City, and the ticket office are bracing themselves for a large “walk-up” boost on the day of the game as well.

Prices for this game were reduced to just £15 for adults and £5 for concessions anywhere in the ground to compete with the last Saturday before Christmas shopping crowd, and fans have responded in their droves. Of course, it’s also the case that any of the 5000 members can guarantee themselves a ticket for the Manchester United FA Cup match by also buying a ticket for the Forest game, with tickets for that game due to go on a restricted general sale from Monday.

Either way, it’s a big boost to the club financially and should also act as a morale boost to the players ahead of what is going to be a crucial game for both sides. Reports have been circulating in the last few days that the game could be Forest boss Colin Calderwood’s last in charge if the result doesn’t go their way, and of course we sit only one place and four points above the drop zone with the worst home record in the Championship.

The Itchen South corner of the ground has already been re-opened for this game, and - if the demand is there - the Kingsland North corner will be the next to re-open. The ticket office are currently projecting a 27,000-strong attendance.

Saints only have 450 tickets left from the initial allocation of 2156 for the trip to the Madejski Stadium in two weeks time.

David Luker, head of Supporter Services at SFC, told me that the club has applied to Reading for an additional allocation which could see us take a total allocation of up to 4000 tickets, but this is dependent upon a decision by Reading’s safety officer.

Therefore, for those who have been considering making the relatively short trip up the A34 to that game but who haven’t yet got tickets, I would recommend getting them pretty quickly. It’s likely that the majority of those 450 tickets will be sold before kick-off today and there is no guarantee that more tickets will be forthcoming.

Update: There are now just a handful of the initial allocation remaining, and an extra allocation of 1500 will be arriving at the Ticket Office tomorrow.