trousers

Hi Stu - rest assured, I don't want to fall out over this as you are one of the posters I most respect on here, but I would be surprised if the lack of access to short term 0% credit applied to a "large majority of Saints fans" I'd be interested to hear where you get your "large majority" stats from (genuinely). What do you mean by 'large majority'? 55%? 70%? 80%?

But getting "0%" credit isn't a bad thing per se as long as it is managed properley by the individual. If people were advocating that taking out a (say) 36% credit card arrangement was the way to get a Saints season ticket then, yes, that would be irresponsible, but a properley managed 0% arrangement is hardly going to trouble the world financial crisis.

I'm not 'rich' by any stretch of the imagination but whenever I move from one 0% credit card to another I typically get 'offered' £11k credit limit. I would be surprised if any 'wage earner' would get offered a credit facility less than the price of an SFC season ticket

What are these "stealth" charges? All charges seems quite transparent and up front as far as I can tell.

Yes, you astutely identify me as a PAYG customer. Of course, as a consumer, I'd rather pay as little as I can get away with for any commodity that I purchase, but I equally understand the economics of running a 'self-sustaining' sporting venture (aka Southampton Football Club) and if the extra "£x" I'm being asked to 'invest' in my club means we get to the 'end game' quicker than if we trundle along on average League One income ad-infinitum then I think it is a price worth paying. I can't believe for one minute than Cortese has increased the cost of attending a Saints game as a purely vindictive exercise. He will have done it based on sound business reasoning and for this fact alone (that the club is being run on sound business principles) I am eternally grateful after the financial mis-management of the last decade....

The 'problem' with extending "lines of credit" to unsuitable customers is not really a fair comparison to ceredit worthy people taking out a 0% credit card. It is prefectly reasonable to loan 'credit worthy' people money at 0% without getting anywhere near perpetuating the 'trouble in the recent past' whereby credit was dished out willy-nilly to anyone who wanted it.

This whole 'argument' is slightly amusing as I remember posting on a "Plastic Fans Vs Real Fans" thread a year or so ago that it was the 'Pay As You Go" fans that brought more money into the club than Season Ticket holders as the former will ultimately pay more over the course of a season than the latter. I believe that Cortese has simply latched onto this fact from a business persepective and thus made it more likely that people will "Pay As You Go" rather than buy a Season Ticket. I thus applaud Cortese for his Business Acumen

I used to be a member of the German Sausage Appreciation Society (GSAS) message board a few years back. I once came second in their wurst post of the year award.

Hi - Cheers for the info - I was thinking about the one-off per match price rather than for a whole season. I think the £1,200 someone quoted above sounds about right from memory.

No, I should be the one apologising for stoking things up :-) We all love each other really.

Made me smile :-)

Anyone know roughly what the price of a corporate box at SMS was last season? Couldn't see any prices on the relevent OS page: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/MatchdayHospitality/0,,10280~1656557,00.html I suspect prices will rise next season but just need a rough idea Cheers

Ok, ok, ok.....I AGREE....!!!! I was just tossing in an alternative viewpoint in the interest of generating discussion. I'll crawl back under my stone

Ok, fair points....with which I agree. I'm just playing the ever so slightly devil's advocate card. I can't even remember the exact quote from Pardew but he did talk about building a side capable of playing in the top half of the championship THIS season, didn't he? As, yes, this could of course comprise mainly of players who show potential of being able to play at that level rather than just filling the team full of players who have already proven themselves at that level. cheers

Mungo

I was commenting on my understanding of our future purchasing strategy for the coming season Them there purchases be in the past squire....

I thought we were supposed to be building a team of "top half championship" standard rather than picking off players from teams that finished below us in the third tier of English football....?

Depends what you mean by "worse off"....if the extra cash helps our push for promotion (by financing the wages of an extra player for example) then, yes, said fans are "worse off" on a pure financial level but, on an emotional level, their lives are richer through improved performance of 'their' club....

Ask someone nicely on here to text you regular match-day updates..... For example: "14:37 - Matchday programmes withdrawn. We're all doomed"

Just to clarify (sorry, haven't read all the bumpf about it), does the £3 apply to all online/tele sales regardless of whether they are being posted or pit aside for collection on match day. I usually do the latter. Cheers

Nice idea and well volunteered sir!

Why are some people so surprised that a successful businessman and his financial advisor are trying to make as much money out of their commodity as they can? I guess some people thought Liebherr was a philanthropist rather than a businessman? I kept telling people we should have gone for Paul Allen...

From today's Charles Sale column: "The legion of unsecured creditors at Portsmouth might have a long wait - administrator Andrew Andronikou has only just wrapped up his work at Swindon after eight years. Those owed money since 2002 finally received a fraction over 20p in a pound."

End of an era. Tear in my eye. RIP

No need, the 'ticket office' are checking threads on here regularly.... ;-)