The9

Just for the record, I'd like it confirmed that the back of the Northam 42 ISN'T getting any worse, it was always full of mongs when we were in the Prem as well, my ST in 2001/2 was row EE, about 50% of the people around me were certified tossers. I am now down with the polite people in Block 41 Row S, where we try to sing OWTSGMI slowly and don't join in with the spudulikes on the lamer songs.

Pro, in the sense that him "hating Pompey" is a positive thing.

I thought we were very professional from the point they were down to ten men. Scored quickly, then kept the ball. Utterly professional and I'm so very sorry all the rest of you think that's playing poorly. Carlisle didn't get a kick and we didn't trouble ourselves trying to over-commit or blow the game open, choosing to contain and mop up possession - and then not give it back for a good while. They played 4-4-1 so there was no difference in terms of breaking them down, but they didn't look close to scoring except when Fonte headed behind from an enormous hoof and one shot. N'Guessan's touch was poor, but he probably needs games.

Yawn. I blame CB Fry - and Charles Miller.

Really ? I thought we were pretty good today, a bit limited until the sending off but then once we went a goal ahead we'd quite clearly been told to keep possession and not give the ball away cheaply, and we did that perfectly, frustrating Carlisle without having to do much ourselves. Always a bit of a risk trying to kill the game off when only one goal ahead, but overall an excellent, professional performance. I know we're not used to Saints winning and controlling possession, but credit where it's due. We even had the chance to get some comedy annoying timewasting in, and we very rarely do that kind of thing to other teams.

N'Guessan was indeed pants today, and I didn't go to Exeter, but sheesh, give the guy a chance. Having said that Lallana was his usual self when he came on, what a relief ! Note to all "Chamberlain has been rubbish in the last month" idiots, he was very good today, playing in that wide right position he hasn't occupied since before the Man U game. Well what a shock...

Perhaps if the club provided some kind of Customer Charter which at least mentioned Season Ticket sales for the following season there might not be any need for criticism. Even Lowe understood getting people to buy in for the following season in March was a good idea...

Not yet...

I couldn't give a toss about it either as long as it doesn't start conveniently forgetting to ensure the availability of Season Tickets. But as we have one, in response to the demands of the Football Ombudsman, may as well have a look at what it says. Might be more interesting to compare the ticket guarantees with the 09/10 Charter, but seeing as that one made a lot of promises that immediately disappeared come the summer of 2010 I doubt there's much longevity to be found and we shouldn't assume anything in it will apply after May 2011 anyway.

This "combined" thread is absolutely hideous to read now. It is nigh-on impossible to work out who anyone is discussing. Great idea, wild-saint and whichever mod actioned it. :s And as for "Posted it twice" about Kosowski/that cnvt Nilsson - I had lost my connection and it took so long to post I even passed the "double-post" expiry time.

I don't think we've actually discussed the contents of the Customer Charter for this season (now we actually have one)... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/staticFiles/a/67/0,,10280~157450,00.pdf There's a lot of nice stuff in there about Saints Foundation, Conference facilities and replica shirts (which only says they won't price fix [despite having no other outlets selling the kit] and that shirts will have their duration marked on the tag, which means stuff all if the kit term is a single season as agreed in the Umbro contract). However, I'm mostly concerned that there's no mention whatsoever of the continued existence of Season Tickets. Given the move away from payment plans last year, it's a concern that the club doesn't feel the need to confirm even the existence of STs, never mind whether there might be a payment plan. In fact all it says about Ticketing is this : TICKETING • In a continuing effort to strive for wider access to matches, the Club will offer: - A broad range of ticket prices and hospitality prices. - Junior prices to those supporters 16 and under on 1st August 2010 in all parts of the ground. This will be further broken down into supporters aged 12 and under and 8 and under to provide a really competitive and cost effective pricing structure. - Senior prices to those supporters aged 60 or over on 1st August 2010 in all parts of the ground. - A Young Adult price to cover supporters aged 17-21. - An enlarged family enclosure for the use of families and juniors alike. This is discounted compared to other stands to encourage family attendance. - Facilities for disabled supporters and their enablers. These can be booked at the ticket office in person or by telephone. • If a match is postponed in advance of the scheduled match day, supporters will be entitled to use their ticket(s) for the rearranged match or to request a full refund. If a match is postponed after supporters are admitted to the ground, but before kick off, ticket holders will be entitled to free entry to the rearranged fixture. If a match is abandoned after kick off, ticket holders will be entitled to purchase tickets at half price for the rearranged fixture. • Refunds for tickets will be granted in exceptional circumstances only, and such requests are considered on an individual basis and any such acceptance will not be considered as granting of a precedent. • Ticket prices for cup competitions will be agreed with the opposing club and published fully using the available Club media. • Tickets can be purchased for all home and away games via the Box Office at St Mary’s, the telephone booking line and online. Tickets for all home league games can also be purchased at the WestQuay Store. • Tickets for away fixtures: On occasions, where demand is likely to outstrip supply, the club will look to operate a loyalty system based on previous away fixture attendance. At this time, supporters will be required to submit a written application for tickets, although The Club reserves the right to vary this at any time. • Travel is provided for home supporters to travel to away games. To contact The Club with any suggestions or feedback on Ticketing, email SupporterCharter@saintsfc.co.uk, putting Ticketing as the subject. No mention of not charging a Cortese Tax either, FWIW.

Even at current petrol prices it's nowhere near £3 for me to drive a mile and a half there and back - and parking at the ticket office is free for 30 minutes. Even if it was more than £3 I'd probably collect it myself on principle. That's ONLY because I live nearby and have the opportunity to work flexibly enough that I can get there during opening hours if I need to. However, if this had been the situation 5 or 6 years ago when I was living in South Wales I'd have probably not bothered to pay the additional fee, on top of the train costs, and with my ties to the club weakened I'd never have moved down to put myself in the position to own a ST. Though I'm assuming that doesn't mean much to the club any more based on last summer's marginalisation of ST holders. It's only a transparent charge in the sense that it's transparent that it doesn't have to exist, there are hundreds of other sources of revenue that could be diverted to cover the costs - if they want to maximise revenue I'd be inclined to think charging extra for tickets for no good reason is one way of directly reducing current AND future sales, and therefore a false economy.

Funnily enough so did I - and doubled up with not paying the tax if I could possibly avoid it (which has meant mates going to pick up Cup Tickets and away tickets for me and me doing the same for them, all to avoid paying the £3). I've also completely stopped buying online, which is something I used to do a lot last season - end result is I haven't gone to as many matches, because by the time I've got the time to go to the ground (rather than just spending it on the card online), I've usually decided to spend it on other things.

Have you read any of this thread ?

His alter ego "Leandre Griffit"'s moment of fame was coming on at half time against Watford in that dismal League Cup defeat. 1-0 down at half time, we proceeded to ship another 4, though he did have one good run at one point when we were scoring one of our 2 consolations. Weirdly he actually scored 2 league goals for Saints in his 7 league appearances (2 starts). Anyone know he played 6 matches for Palace after we released him ? And one sub appearance for Leeds, and one sub and one start for Rotherham - both whilst he was on loan away from Saints ? I love Soccerbase... I think his attitude may have been adversely affected by Fabrice Fernandes' mistakes.

Duplicate...

No. Kosowski didn't play for us until we were in the Championship, he was a Burley signing. The scruffy shi1i1thouse you are probably referring to is Mikael Nilsson, my least favourite Saints player of all time. And he usually wore white boots, to go with his flag, but I don't doubt he has some gold ones in a cupboard somewhere.

I think you'll find we call it the "Cortese Tax". And I'm quite proud that it's caught on. Also, as I said, no-one is disputing the lack of credit card charge, but that's the nature of thread drift.

Isn't part of the issue that there's a cost to providing the service of a staffed ticket office whether people actually use it or not ? I can't imagine that it's cheaper to have the lights on, kettle boiling, computers at the ready and employees there 9-5 on some weekdays when we don't have a home match for a few weeks just on the off-chance that someone pitches up - though I admit I have no idea what else the ticket office staff are meant to do in their working day. Though as I now find myself suggesting that there should be additional cost for at-window callers, I think I'm going to wind my neck in... on reflection maybe what I want is for us to get rid of all additional ticket costs (except P&P at face value). It's neither here nor there to me whether the cost is added or up front, the club can do what it wants regarding pricing, provided the overall concept is fair and non-exploitative. At the moment, it seems to discriminate against people who can't get to the ground during the week, which also happens to correlate with the group easiest put off attending due to distance travelled, and they are the people with the highest per-game attending costs already due to their transport needs. Hardly "fair" and just a little short-sighted in terms of perpetuating the fan base, especially when Saints' match attendees are one of the most geographically dispersed fan bases already.

I don't think anyone's suggesting Saints have a credit card fee, btw.

This ignores that the pricing of tickets is also determined by various aspects of supply and demand such as the league we're in, how successful we're expected to be, and a variety of other determinants (like, say, how easy it is to pay for a Season Ticket in one hit with under a month's notice to find the money). We were in the same division as the season before, using the same systems and methods of ticket payment and sales for individual matches. So why did individual match prices go up AND there was suddenly an additional charge for booking when the systems were the same ?

Erm, no, the opposite in fact : they're in favour of a free market, private sector provision of the kind of services that taxes usually pay for, and lower taxation (especially for those who significantly profit from the free economy). But they don't always inherit a global economic crisis.

That would depend on whether you think the actual price for the ticket "should" include Cortese Tax or not. So far I have managed to avoid paying it even once this season because I think it's a ripoff, but looks like I'm going to have no choice for AFCB tickets (assuming I qualify), in which case why pretend the actual ticket price is "X" when you HAVE to pay more ? As for "everyone else does it", well that's why they're investigating it.

I was fuming about that at the time. I'm over it now.

Hairy.