The Kraken

You think? I'd genuinely be massively surprised if that turns out to be the case. We shall see; I'd say 15K at those prices would be very decent.

Doubtful. 7,000 turned up for the memorial Cup last year. Which (given we once got over 30K for the former Ted Bates trophy) suggests that something was pretty awry with either the pricing or the format. Yet this year we have the same format, and a 50% price rise, so it doesn't seem as if there have been any lessons learnt.

No-one is really disagreeing with that though. The point is that the communication from the club as to what constitutes "valid ID" has been non-exsitent. Also that this lad, after going down to the stadium and talking to ticket staff, then proceeded with the exact steps they laid down for him to prove his student status. And after providing exactly what they asked for was then told that, in fact, the club requires something different from him.

I think there's still a potential for a points deduction for the failed CVA1. Neil Allen tweeted from the meeting: pn_neil_allen: Birch; Football League want amendment if CVA goes thru it is still ‘at their discretion’ whether to grant golden share. This was passed. So the FL still have it in their power to refuse the Golden Share. Or, similarly to what happened with us, to apply a points penalty on the club and refuse to grant the golden share unless any claim or appeal is forfeited. Which gets around the fact that its a loophole in their own rulebook.

Given that we only had 7,000 or so in attendance last year, I'd suggest they got the pricing wrong then too. £25 a ticket is way out IMO and I think we'll do well to get more than 5,000 through the gates.

I stayed away from renewal prices; the ones I quoted were for new sales only. For the reason that you'd expect matchday prices to be slightly more expensive than the most expensive comparitive season ticket price (otherwise there's no point buying a new season ticket, you'd just as well go game by game).

Precisely. A fairly sensible policy by the club, but (again) very poor in actually communicating the changing requirements to a customer who has to go to the ticket office in the first place to prove eligibility.

You have to assume that the season ticket price per game will be slightly cheaper than the matchday ticket price. New (adult) sales of STs per location are as follows: Family: £555, 19 games, £29.21 per game Wings/goals: £600, £31.58 per game Itchen & Kingsland: £670, £35.26 per game Kingsland Premium: £720, £37.89 per game Itchen Premium: £780, £41.05 per game Now that's just a rough benchmark as there will be different price categories (A-C) depending on the opposition, but I imagine a pound or so above those prices would be the Cat C price, with Cat B and Cat A a little higher in each case.

I think these prices are far too high. For league games I'm expecting a range of £35 to £45 for the cheapest tickets; more for the Itchen and Kingsland Premium seating in the Cat A games. I think matchday ticket prices are going to come as a real shock to some people.

FC, I think we get the idea. Its the actual putting it into practise that doesn't seem to stack up. You previously suggested a range of season ticket prices, from £300 to £800, with the more expensive tickets subsidising the lower price tickets. Well, we already have that range, up to £780 per season in the Itchen and Kingsland Premium, plus newly introduced season tickets (Club Lounge Membership) costing well over £1,000. So with that in mind, to accommodate your suggestion, we would either just be introducing a lower price band of tickets, or introducing tickets that cost up to £1,500 to cover the lower price range. I just don't see it as realistic to do either of those. I really think you're looking at this from an idealistic point of view, in that you're simply trying to look at ways to drive up attendances to fill an expanded stadium. You're looking at ways for how we could take a gamble, build a stadium, and then how we could fill it. As I've said before, I think this is the wrong way round of looking at it. We first surely need to have a good idea of how many more customers want to come within the current pricing scheme and, if necessary and financially viable to do so, expand the stadium to fit that need. Previous years in the Premier League have shown us that, apart from one season following the cup final where we sold out pretty much every week, the three other seasons had a significant number of games where we did not sell out the home allocation (something like 8, 8 and 6 games per season where we had less than 31K crowds, whereas we only had 1 in season 2003/04). That suggests that its not a complete given that we will sell out every single game this season coming. With that in mind, we surely need to make sure we can fill the current stadium to a higher degree than we've ever done in our history before making any definitive plans to put in more seats. Because, with your model and benchmarks given, I can't see any other way to accomplish it other than adding 10,000 or so seats and then offering cheaper prices to fill them. I know you don't want to see it that way, but with the price benchmarks you've provided that's the only way it can work.

Fair enough. I tend to disagree about the student part of it. I (and some of my friends who I've previously spoken to previously about this type of thing) went to Uni; I happened to go to Bournemouth. I actually went to a fair few Bournemouth games when there, simply because they were close to where I lived, it was cheap, and it was football. The idea of travelling 30 miles to Southampton for better quality football never crossed my mind, even though Saints are obviously my own team. But that's just me; maybe some students would want to pay Premier League prices and travel 17 miles there and back to watch footy whilst ignoring the football club on their own doorstep. In any case, I think my whole point is that I don't believe there is a massive untapped market of fans that we're missing out on. We will get some new customers but, in the general scheme of things, I think any huge increase in attendances will come from attracting current fans/customers to come to St Mary's on a more regular basis. That's how we'll prove we'll need a bigger stadium IMO; not by finding a new swathe of fans who have never been to St Mary's before.

Stay on topic please. If you have no interest in the thread then don't post in it.

Of those 500 (or more as you intimate from surrounding areas); do you think they will be brand new customers? In other words, are they football fans who have never been to a game before but quite fancy it because we're in the Premier League? Or are they Southampton fans who happen to live in Pompey but haven't been bothered to turn up because they don't fancy the allure of League 1 or Championship football? Just wondering. As I see it, it's massively obvious that our attendances will rise in this division. And that we are of course now a more attractive proposition to come and watch. I just don't buy the argument that 500 people from our rival city who have never been to see football before before will suddenly come out of the woodwork now that we're in the top league. As you say, both of our opinions can be proved neither right nor wrong, but I find that idea to be a bit far fetched. 180,000 customers on our database suggests that, even with our attendances to date in the lower leagues, our outreach of supporters is not limited to the direct Southampton area. With that many people who have been to see us before, we surely already have a significant amount of fans who come from far and wide. Trying to grow the supporter base is clearly important, but I think we probably first need to encourage our customers base to come a little more often. That's how we've got a better chance of getting our attendances consistently higher IMO.

No. I don't think that at all. I've never said that. I think the opposite. Where have you got that ill-conceived view from? There may be some numbers who might do that. They will be small in comparison to the 180,000 customers we already have on the database. Most of whom don't live as far away as Weymouth, Or even Portsmouth, perhaps. It seems like you're the one stamping your feet. We are in the Premier League. Our fan base will grow. We will become a bigger club. We may well soon need a bigger stadium. That has never been in doubt. Why are you getting angry and making a number of points that don't actually go anywhere apart from stating the obvious?

Your first point was that more away fans will come to games, wasn't it? Great. 3,200 maximum away fans. As it has always been. On the other hand, apparently there are all those other neutral fans who will come to St Mary's just to watch a Premier League game will make all the difference. Because of our large catchment area. or something. I do confess, I've completely lost what you're trying to say, if it's different from the fact that our home and away attendances will increase a bit because we've gone up a division?

I'm a sucker for boredom and idiocy. Who's the bigger idiot? The idiot, or the idiot who responds to him? Go figure.

I'm still not sure if its a sensible answer or not, but I'll respond nonetheless. Away fans have got nothing to do with growing as a club. Nothing at all. So lets stop referring to them as a factor, shall we? And as we've risen a division, no doubt our home attendance will grow too? Sing hallelujah! Yeah, I think we're done.

If I've got this correct; now we are in the Premier League, more away fans will come to our home games to watch the opposition team? Is that right? Or more away fans will sneak into the home end, maybe? Either way, basing our attendance rising on a full away end or up to 500 away fans in the home end is a slightly weird justification. I'm not sure who is winning this one; stev2001 with his teenage musings or saint86 with his statements of the obvious. And people accuse Turkish et al of being trolls; these two are the worst kinds of pointless idiots you could wish to find.

Yep, I get suckered into your predictable and unfunny faux character evertime. Weird, heh?

Edit: Forget it; i'm out. Stupid discussion.

Sorry, I clearly got you confused with someone who had something interesting to say. Thanks for wasting my time.

OK. That's 1 game a season. What significant difference does that make? Against Man U we have plenty of home fans who want a ticket already. In fact, where is this even going? This is a ludicrous discussion.

I think I'm missing your argument on this. Is this Man U fans coming to Southampton to watch Sainst v Man U? Or neutral fans coming to watch Man U? I'm genuinely confused by what you mean.

Bloody hell, is this really logic? Fans will support Saints because they want to watch Man United? Have I read that wrong? I hope so.