Daren W

No, I'm actually at the games... You ought to try it before you start ****ing slinging accusations around...

Sorry, did I sleep through June? Are we seriously moaning about no summer transfer news when it's barely June?? Insane....

Valid points about tickets and market forces "owns" a seat, but let's not forget one thing, this is a two way street, season tickets are tickets that are paid for up front. You show me any entertainment industry where tickets are sold up front like this, it's a market based on loyalty. People seem to missing this point, even with installments, by December at most, you are paying up front. All this talk of credit is muddying the waters, if the club expect people to pay for a whole season up front then they really should offer some sort of price plan, be it installments or half season tickets. They're really not doing us that much of a favour, we are buying their product, they're not giving it away... All the club has managed to do is dilute the season ticket database and annoy fans just because they are too lazy to police their seating. If fans are defaulting and still using their tickets then make it impossible to do, barcode the tickets, don't just take away the payment method from people who who need it. By any way shape or form, if at least 10% don't renew then that's sizeable....

I'm actually starting to get really ****ed off with all of this, both the action and the reaction... The club has behaved disgracefully. It's torn up it's own fans charter, lied and given fans no warning whatsoever that a valid payment option would be removed. The way some fans have mocked those people, who could quite easily have save money over the last few months but had been assured a valid payment option would be kept, is disgraceful. There are fans out there who are perfectly responsible with money but find themselves, funnily enough in the summer, with holidays to pay for etc not able to just magic £300-£400 out of their backsides. That's bad enough but the club has given them a month to find it else the prices go up. If you still haven't managed to magic that money up then you have until the 6th of August and then you won't get a season ticket at all! The club could have solved all of this by either a) Telling fans in January that they were not going to renewing the payment plan option or b) Offering half season tickets (no credit option there) The underlying threat here is that the club ripped up it's own fans charter, this pathetic excuse that it was "Last year's charter" is shocking, it's effectively saying, we have a commitment to you, but it's on a rolling basis and subject to change. How can you take anything they say seriously knowing they could renege on their word at any notice? To all those smart arses telling us to get a credit card, go game by game, stop moaning, stop rocking the boat, stop exerting your right to freedom of speech, I say this; don't come moaning to us then the club does something that annoys you. Please don't get upset if they do something that winds you up as we'll not listen. If you can't offer a sympathetic ear to people who are genuinely affected by this and genuinely upset at not being able to sit in their seat and renew their ticket, then don't speak at all... To all of those talking of boycotting and staging demonstrations, grow up. I may be unhappy at the tearing up of the fans charter and the stealth tax on tickets but lets not forget that we very nearly didn't have a club and if we have to pay more to ensure our club not just survives but flourishes, then so be it. We can't expect Leibherr to splash out millions of his own money into the club and then baulk at paying an extra £50 ourselves. This is going to be an amazing season and I for one won't miss for anything. I won't boycott the club, won't slag off Cortese or miss a game. I will however criticise the club if they do wrong and praise it when it does right. What they have done with prices is wrong but everything else they've done is right and to boycott the club for one mistake is an immense over-reaction.... If we don't learn from the past we're destined to make the same mistakes in the future. We allowed Lowe to mismanage the club to the point of oblivion and Pompey fans buried their heads in the sand when their sugar daddy mismanaged their club. The club ballsed up and need to answer to a sizeable section of the fanbase for their actions but lets not get too hysterical eh?

Actually no... If you haven't paid by 6th of August you cannot have a season ticket. I get paid on the 15th so it's game by game for me...

Nick it's not about popularity or even having fans on the board (a massive mistake) it's about doing the right thing by the fee paying customers. What point is success on the pitch if a scetion of the fanbase isn't there to experience it. Where does it say that we can't have sucsess on the pitch and off it? Where does it say it's either one or the other? The club has managed to salvage defeat from the jaws of victory with a poorly thought ticketing scheme that has alienated a sizeable part of the fanbase...

So you're saying his job is to make the club successful but where do the fans fit into this successful future? Are some of the people who supported this club through thick and thin expendable? Do we not care about them? I'll say it again, if Lowe had pulled this stunt then people would be up in arms, why is it acceptable now? The answer is it, it isn't. We're on a journey and I'm looking forward to next season, it's just a shame that some people are getting left behind purely because right now they can't afford it and because of that will be paying a lot more than everybody else.....

It's interesting to see that some of the people who are blindly following Cortese are same posters who very smugly turned on people who looked to Michael Wilde as being a possible saviour. There is no doubt that Leibherr and Cortese saved this club but that doesn't mean they're above criticism. The way people fawned over Cortese's public statement was embarrassing, especially the way they justified his silence over Pardew. Had Lowe been responsible for this **** up then people would be all over it like a rash, but because it's Cortese we have the unbelievable sight of fans turning on fans, slagging them off because they don't have £323 spare after being assured by the club, via their own charter, that payment options would be available. We have fans criticising other fans saying why should the club offer fans free credit whilst completely forgetting that season tickets are fans PAYING FOR GAMES IN ADVANCE. Even with installments, you've paid up by December and are therefore paying in advance by January which is the absolute opposite of credit... Yes we're all extremely grateful for Cortese, yes we don't mind paying extra but no we don't like the arrogance of the club in regards to all of this and no we should never be afraid of criticising the club if it does something wrong... And this is wrong...

I think no one minds paying a bit more, no one expects Leibherr to pay millions whilst we balk at paying an extra £50 a year. What annoys people is the way the club have just thrust these changes on us with no warning. The £3 surcharge is just the icing on the cake and just hammers those people who've been hit by the removal of the installment plan, even more... The point here is that I doubt anyone who is complaining on here is complaining about a price increase, it's the way they've feel abandoned and ignored. It's as if they just don't care... "Can't afford £323 in one go? Tough. Oh, and can you pay an extra £3 ticket as well please?"

I'm sorry Nick but that is so ****ing condescending it's untrue... Your solution is ... Put money under a mattress??? The club has torn up its own charter and reneged on promised payment options. That is why fans are up in arms, after having PROMISED payment options the club have basically used the fans charter to wipe their backsides with. Fans are now being asked to pay money they didn't expect to have to. It's not about poor money management or people lecturing others on the fine art of accountancy, the club had promised, via their own fans charter, that fans could pay in installments. They then reneged on that and gave fans no time at all to find the money to pay it. A month to find £320? Or, better still, if you haven't paid by 6th August you cannot have a season ticket... In terms of customer service it's shocking... The club is not a savings scheme? Neither are we. We are paying for games IN ADVANCE. We are not a saving scheme either. A lot of fans are now going to pay one game at a time...

No one will fall by the wayside, they'll just go a game at a time... I'm not fussed myself, I wanted to sit with my friends but as most of they were using the installment option and are going on holiday in June/July and can't afford nearly £400 in one hit, they'll be going a game at time too... Actually I'll be better off as now I won't be going to evening games now. I work till eight so with my season ticket I'd miss the first half... Now I won't bother.

At the end of the day it's bloody football, you don't have to comment on it...

lol... You obviously never saw him....

1) Defaulted seats are up for grabs. I stated on here the case of my mate Carlo who had his season ticket taken off him for putting one foot on the red tarmac during a red mist moment. The club kept his ticket, his seat and refused to refund the money and then re-sold the seat. Carlo's wife then had to sit next to complete stranger and subsequently didn't renew the next season. So the assumption that the club would "lose" a seat if the owner default is incorrect. The seat would be up for grabs and re-sellable the moment someone defaults. The club is just being lazy.. 2) Credit. It is not a credit arrangement. You pay, say, £50 a month so by the time August comes around you'd have paid at least £150 and, if anything, still paying in advance until you get to December when you've paid it off. If the club cannot police this then the fans that pay religiously every month cannot be held responsible. This whole "credit" thing is muddying the waters here, this is not a credit arrangement. Credit implies you are getting something and paying for it later, this is NOT credit. Why are people ignoring the fact that season ticket are reverse credit and asking people to pay in advance? Even in installments you are effectively paying in advance...

Most pertinent post on the whole season ticket debacle....

Again, why are people picking and choosing what they listen to? Who said any of us can't afford it? I can, but I can't afford £323 in one hit in a month I'm flying off for ten days in Turkey when I was told the installment option was still a going concern. I'd say it was a smartsare comment when you don't pay the slightest attention to what people are actually saying. I find it offensive when some people on here are implying that those us caught on the hop by the club's tearing up of the "Fans Charter" somehow "can't afford it" Season tickets are a form of reverse credit. We are paying in ADVANCE for games. Even if you pay in installments you're paying in advance from December onwards when you've paid in full.. Why is it so hard for people to see that? Why are people so fecking arrogant that their answer to the whole problem is, get yourself in debt? The installment plan gave people a budget option, why should people get a credit card to pay for a season ticket when for years they've had an option to pay in smaller (FFS £50 a month is hardly small) installments?? And again, no one is saying they can't can't afford to go to football. They are saying they can't afford to pay up to £400 in one hit after the club removed a legitimate payment method with NO NOTICE... The attitude of some people on here has been shameful. They can afford £400 in one hit so **** anyone else who can't... The point is, if the club had told us in January that they were withdrawing this option then we wouldn't be having this conversation. The fact that they have ripped up their "Fans Charter" just one month after the season ended should be the topic of conversation here rather than smug comments about people's ability to find large sums of money at short notice when the club has PROMISED that half season tickets and installment plans would feature in their ticket options... If Lowe had done this people would be up in arms, why is it acceptable because it's Cortese?

Flip side, Why should I give the club the whole season's money in one go? Answer? I won't.... There is no risk involved, the club is just being lazy and ever so slightly arrogant. Do some work, if the fan defaults nullify the ticket. The fact that they changed it from a card to a book of tickets was just a cost cutting exercise. The real future of the club is via scanned plastic cards... No scan, no game... And why should people be getting into debt for a flaming game of football? Is anyone so stupendously naive to think that that new credit card won't be used, that it won't get it's new owner even more into debt? Can't afford the MOT? Put it on the card. Need a present for little Charlie? Put it on the card.... It's a massive on goal for the club and an even bigger wedge between the haves and have nots... And before some smartarse comes up with "Well if you can't afford to go, you shouldn't go.." How many of us can really afford to go? How many of make a sacrifice here and there to make that game? If the club really doesn't value the support of the poorly off of us, what does it say about the club and football in general and where it's heading? Answer? Not much...

Very true Steve, but hold on a second here, have people forgotten that season ticket holders are paying for games in advance? Is it really asking that much to give fans some leeway in regards to how they pay for their games in advance? To say fans should get a credit card or get themselves in debt is unbelievably condescending and arrogant. Not everyone can get credit and any cards out there that people with poor credit ratings have obscene interest rates and are just not viable long term.. The fact is, if you can get credit the chances are you already have a credit card and if you already have one, do you really want or need another?? The way the club has just abandoned a section of the fanbase is really pretty shameful. Had Lowe done this there'd be demonstrations and marches but because the new regime have done it, it's excusable, hell we even have people on here slagging off those fans with a poor credit rating as if they're somehow lesser fans for not having credit.... For what it's worth I don't mind paying more, but I do resent the club tearing up their own fans charter within a month of the old season expiring. The sheer ****ing arrogance of the club in saying "Well that was last years charter, this is a new one.." is breathtaking... Fans deserve to be told that installment payment options were going to be phased out in January, to be given the option to save some money. To say you have 30 days to raise up to £400 for a single or £1,000 for a family and then say if you can raise that money by August 6th then you can't even have a season ticket is shockingly arrogant... Talk about how to kill off the feelgood factor before it had even started...

The club wouldn't lose a penny... If anything season tickets are almost a reverse form of credit, you're paying advance... Even if you pay in installments you've paid the full amount by December and therefore paid in advance of the next 5 months...

Surely the damning sign here is the online poll that shows 25% of people not renewing in a season in which we're favourites to actually win something... I don't think anyone minds an increase, I don't expect Markus to shoulder the cost himself but for the life of me I cannot see the logic of the £3 fee or the instant removal of the installment plan... If the club had said in January they would remove the installment plan option then fine, people could have put money aside but to just state you have until the end of June and then if you haven't renewed by August 6th you can't have a season ticket, is just madness! It's been said that the club has had defaulters on installment plans and that's why the option has been removed. Then get bar coded season ticket cards, no scan, no watch. To punish a whole load of existing season ticket holders is just not on...

Exactly... Another worrying point for those of us who don't have the lump sum available prior to the end of June is this... Now I get paid on the 15th of each month, if I don't pay by July 15th the club will apparently not allow me a season ticket... Madness...

Oh, so real fans have good credit ratings? Shut up you retard... The point is that the club cannot just withdraw a payment option, if they had said in January that the installment option will be withdrawn then there's no excuse for any of us but to just leave it till June (when a lot of fans, real or not, go on holiday) and say cough up the whole sum or else, is just inexcusable. I never bought into the £125, £1.25 season ticket rumour and I don't mind paying a bit more than last season as I don't believe Markus should shoulder the costs of promotion on his own, but for the life of me I cannot see how this is a good idea. Not everyone can get credit, not everyone has £390 odd pound under the mattress, it doesn't make them lesser fans it just makes them fans who were not informed by the club that a valuable payment option would be withdrawn at no notice whatsoever... What is even more inexcusable is having some fans on here mocking those who don't have a good credit rating/credit card, as being somehow lesser fans than those with Barclaycards. What vile, appalling excuses for fans you ****s are...

Family of four, rather than pay in installments, you've got to find close to £1000 in one go.... I wouldn't have minded paying more, the price is not the gripe... It's taking away an established payment option and effectively saying, "Tough ****, cough up..." Talk about how to kill off the feel good factor....

And of course, in a recession, everyone can get credit.... oh....

Major, major mistake mate. They've lost four season tickets with me and my mates. I'm on holiday in mid June and was counting on the installment plan. No installment plan, no tickets as I don't have the cash to spend £323 and go on holiday... People just don't have that sort of money handy. You can't just take away a payment option like that. Four of us all ready to sign on the dotted line and now not going to do so because the club just suddenly removed a valuable payment option... Season ticket numbers are going to plummet. Bad, bad move move Saints... no reward for the sort of support they received last season...