The9

I'd say there's plenty of conjecture in assuming someone I have never met and have no knowledge of who has posted on this forum claiming to have heard from Umbro about the launch date is telling the truth... and also there's the possibility the NDAs might have a time, not just a date on them so midnight wouldn't be the case. Let's hope though, I just want to see it so I can get on with being stupidly excited about the World Cup.

Just because I like doing things like this... There seems to be some similarity between Cortese and Cauterise ? : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauterization

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the rumour on this thread, from an Umbro source, just to save people with their clicky-clicky... if the OS ST announcement is anything to go by it'll be just before midnight tonight - and of course all Non Disclosure Agreements will be dated with tomorrow(?)'s date so it could be everywhere by 00:05 anyway. At the very least if that IS the NDA date I'd expect the ITKer with the kit in his possession to be on here with photos by then... As soon as it's launched someone (or five someones) will launch a new thread anyway, no point in coming back on this one for it.

Just for the record, having said all along I would like to get an ST but can't afford it at that kind of notice, I wandered into my bank to set up some accounts on Saturday, and walked out having extended a bank loan until 2014, and went straight from there to St Mary's to renew for me and the missus. My choice was to pay the club what I regard a reasonable amount for an ST up front by June 30th, or pay one of the forms of Cortese Tax - either the £70 for "new ST" non-renewals (but I was an ST holder last year, why should I?), or the match by match rates with booking fees for online (why?) or telephone (hmmm), or the walk-up tax on the day. Had there been an instalment plan I'd have gone on that, as anything up to 20% on £328 over 6 months is really neither here nor there, so it's not really about getting credit, it's about having the choice to pay conveniently, and customer service. As I have no intention of rewarding Mr Cortese for his supporter-unfriendly policies, and due to the timing of the ST announcement had little option, I have effectively chosen to give the additional income raised from the lack of instalment plan to my bank rather than lump it and be forced into giving it to the club match-by-match and be further inconvenience by queues and travelling to the TO. After all, the bank were helpful, supportive and flexible. The club has merely instigated resentment where there did not need to be any and put me in a difficult position. It was almost as difficult as coming to grips with StuRomseySaint as a rational, reasonable, motivated human being with the nous and ability to disprove the club's claims. Much respect to you for your remarkable patience in fielding the same questions over and over and over, Stuey.

If someone had said 12 months ago then we wouldn't be having this discussion. A lot of the issue is that the problem could have been completely avoided with earlier notice of the change allowing people to find the money in plenty of time and budget efficiently, and that's also the reasoning for people thinking the club are choosing to maximise on the day payments - because if they WANTED, they could have told people and they wouldn't have been forced into scrambling to find other payment methods.

I'm pretty certain we haven't got rid of any players who we'd need in August. The difference to this year compared to the other examples you've given is that we have a solid squad capable of competing in this league right now. It's the other 23 teams who need to worry about this, we've already got the solid foundation and only need to add a few players to improve further, not to become remotely competitive, as was the case when we were defenceless under Burley and teamless last summer. And as everyone else will and has pointed out, its barely June, everyone's on holiday and most player trading will occur after contract expiries on July 1st, and then in the loan market in September for some, once the trickledown effect from settled squads in the Prem/CCC occurs. Looks like a lame "look at me" post, and exactly the kind of thing that gets you your reputation as a moaner and wind-up merchant.

Hey *I* had green shorts too. Couldn't match him for green socks though.

I'll take that bet...

Sorry, should have been clearer, all the 2010/11 Tailored By kits, the England one is a 2009/11 shirt.

The "someone else" who got the winner in the QF was Ben, though as is traditional in these matters, I didn't bother asking anyone's usernames I already knew who JustMike, Baj, Spades, Arizona, Robsk II and MiniBarcelonaSaint were, so who were t'others. There were cameos in a watching capacity from Michelle and Mornington Crescent too, thy pitched up quite late on. And yes, Mini, I DID mean it !

That's the problem though. I'm happy to go, hell I basically moved to Southampton from south Wales in order to watch Saints, but this stunt (and the booking fee) is SO at odds with the way I'd expect the club to extract funds from its fans that I'm really genuinely p155ed off, and considering other options. I sat through the same crap you lot have over the past few seasons, we look to be turning the corner on the pitch and with a secure future, and BANG, unnecessarily provocative and ill-advised decisions like this start eroding away at the goodwill again. How hard would it be to have put in a (free) instalment plan, put the prices up a bit in line with the VAT rise and considering our expected success (reasonable), and kept, say, online booking free, with a pay-on-the-day hike as other clubs do ? Or if they insist on getting rid of the instalments (for no good reason as far as I can see), how difficult would it have been to announce 6 months ago that the instalment plan was going ? There's room for imaginative thinking in pricing, but there should also be an inherent appreciation for fans and their desire to come back and attend week after week - and make an investment long in advance of any signings or on-field results - and those who do that should be rewarded, not marginalised. I WANT to have an ST for next season. I still want to get one. But I won't be paying any of the various types of Cortese Tax if the money's not there by June 30th.

You're about 4 days late with that one.

Hardly the sample size you're looking for, but so far I know of two people personally who have attempted to get 0% credit cards for the purpose of purchasing a Saints ST, and both have been refused, both presumably because they have no previous credit history. I know of no-one who has successfully applied for one yet. I haven't applied myself, cos my current 0% period expires in September and I'm trying to keep it for as long as possible.

Depends whether she's still wearing it or not. Also, if I'm already wearing one, what would be the point ?

And this relevant to the discussion how ? I'd much rather I was happily paid up for next season's ST and looking forward to walking this league, rather than wondering if I'll be getting to see it (or worse, not bothered if we do).

If I'm not mistake Steve was not saying "you can't get credit", he was saying "getting credit isn't a good thing and you are unlikely to appreciate the problems it can cause".

He must have missed the bit about all the additional money people who attend regularly and have emotionally invested in the club spend on merchandise compared to football tourists.

Can't argue with that one - though they could have launched an away one at the end of the season when the demand was there, and the home one now to pretty much the same effect. I'm less desperate since it became clear I won't be watching the team next season, but then again I'm interested in teams' kits I definitely won't be paying to see rather than just unlikely to be able to fund watching.

I bet a zillion quid (or someone's ST) that it's got a little triangle at the side of the shirt at the bottom, probably with some Saints anniversary year-type comment on it, all the Tailored By shirts have had that so far.

For fun, or probably for the website hits.

Renewal cost expires this month, it is literally a matter of finding £328 now, or losing your previous seat(s) and having to pay the "new" price before the first week of August, which is £70 more. Also, I have £4000 of other expenditure to pay before mid-July, other things to organise besides far-too-complicated unexpected ST arrangements, and will be out of the country for 2 weeks as well. Of course at any point in the last 6 months I'd have been fine for the cash, but they made us wait and didn't give us any option. That combination of forcing peoples' hands is why there's a belief that the club doesn't want ST holders, they want inflated cost match-by-match attendees.

That would be a massive PR disaster as it would be obvious what the motives were. This, clearly, is sucking in some as being "ok", despite the fact that the reason given by the club is proven as being spurious cobblers (by the Echo and Stu), and flies in the face of the policies adopted by the vast majority of other clubs. The only effect is to force willing would-be ST renewers to buy tickets match by match at a relatively inflated price and conveniently force them to pay the same booking charges that everyone is complaining about. I don't see anyone saying "if you don't like the booking charges get an ST" this season - because everyone knows the STs are not that feasible an option. Oh, and even 0% credit cards need paying off at some point, that's assuming people who don't have £400 spare can get the credit or don't have one already.

Good work on investigating this Stu, I am impressed by your skillz. It's a shame some people seem so keen to swallow what is frankly a load of garbage from the club for the sake of some undefined code of loyalty to Saints, when the reality is that we're (mostly) rational consumers trying to get the best deal for ourselves without doing so at the expense of the club. There's a bit of give and take, but the latest ST policy is clearly exploitative of the goodwill of those who've given the most support recently - unless they happen to have £300+ sitting about.

An effect not dissimilar to Messi's adiZero boots for the World Cup, which pointlessly vary in colour from purple to green, like the crappy pimped out chavmobile with spinning alloys of football boots...

Yeah, and he wouldn't have been playing more than 90 anyway, they planned on extending it to get everyone a game. I've started a new thread for it, much bigger news than Ferdinand's injury anyway. http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23009