The Kraken

Reading have cashed in on the euphoria of promotion by flogging season tickets early; they have today passed through the 15,000 mark. And they're not even yet on general sale. in other words, reading have capitalised on the feelgood factor at the end of the season to snap up customers. The 15,000 mark will also have an effect on attracting even more customers. Do you really disagree that our way of selling tickets won't have a detrimental effect compared to if we had taken Reading's example? There's no way of knowing, of course, so its all speculation. But I don't think its outrageous to suggest the Royals have got it spot on, and we potnetially haven't.

Or announcing when they will go on sale. Or announcing whether there will be a payment plan. Or announcing what the details of the payment plan will be. Personally, even if the FY is the reason, IMO its a poor reason. Effectively sacrificing the opportunity to maximise season ticket sales so that the accounting can be a little bit cleaner? Not for me.

This. Its amazing the lengths people will go to, to try and justify a minor club policy which can quite clearly and quite easily be improved.

The point is though; it often IS an impulse purchase for some people. Many people will think one way or the other, should I or shouldn't I, so any advantage that can be gained to get them on board should be taken IMO. You have the diehards who will buy a season ticket come what may, and will budget accordingly. But there is also a large potential market who may buy in to the wave of good feeling going around. Look at Reading, 15,000 season tickets sold already; they had nowhere near that figure last season, but they have used their promotion as a brilliant marketing tool to take advantage of the enthusiasm the fans have at the back end of the season. We, instead, wait for things to calm down entirely before getting season tickets out on sale. Now, there's no way of knowing for sure either way, but I'd be much more confident to suggest that the amount of customers we'll attract by the last-minute sales method is less than the number of sales we'd have made than by selling season tickets in the same manner that all other clubs do it. Its a proven, tried and tested method, which is why its altogether baffling we still go against the grain in such a manner. Saying "it doesn't matter, we're loaded, we can afford to be different", as others have said, doesn't do it for me.

Sorry, I don't buy that. Most people (myself included) can recognise the many good things the club have done, whilst also asking questions of what seems to be a very questionable method of selling season tickets. This is not an effort to undermine the club, or the CEO, for goodness sake. I'll happily admit its a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things. But I see nothing wrong at all with asking some pertinent questions about why the club are so determined to pursue a method of sales so out of kilter with the market norm (i.e. every single one of our league rivals). Why the club are insistent upon following a sales method for which it is very difficult to identify the benefits of from purely a business point of view. And one which clearly (and needlessly) affects/annoys/infuriates to some degree a section (however minor) of the potential customer base, and which clearly can be seen could negatively affect sales.

Makes sense to have Liverpool as a major cruise liner start point. If it does all go through, perhaps it could prompt our town planners into actually doing something more positive to attract visitors to the city, rather than planning for endless amounts of new housing and retail.

Should just get on with it and do it then. He'll have little or no sell on value anyway, and the sooner its done the sooner he's off the wage bill.

By that token, do you assume that every other club (i.e. all of them in this division) are desperate for money, and that is why they have put season tickets on sale already? The fact that we do things differently to everyone else doesn't mean that we're pioneering, or guarantee that we're right. It doesn't in itself suggest the club is badly run either. It does make season tickets more difficult to purchase, that is for sure, and can probably be argued that season ticket sales are diminished to some extent. People can make up their own minds whether that's good business sense or not; offset against whatever potential reason they wish to choose for this tactic of a reduced sales window. I could care less about the way we sell season tickets. I cared when the payment plan was suddenly reduced a couple of years ago wihtout warning, because it made it more difficult for some fans to buy an ST, and left others unable to do so. I would like the club to show sustainable growth and the ability to outgrow its own surroundings; and I consider season ticket sales to be a very good benchmark of whether that's possible. So I'd like to see the number of sales maximised. But in general, I'd just like to see buying tickets for the club made just a little bit easier; its not exactly hard, admittedly, but the fact the club goes out of its way to keep a veil of secrecy around things in the face of all other clubs being thoroughly accessible is (to me anyway) an off-putting sales tactic.

Maybe until it makes sense to do so?

Its not indicative of anything, other than it is a strange business practise completely at odds with all of our rivals for which no reasonable reason can be put forward for why the club sgould act in this manner as a sound business methodology. I also like to think most of our fan base are able to comprehend the distinction between our owners' wealth and the football club's wealth; but given your post, perhaps not.

Sorry yes. I should have noticed that the reason we're not selling season tickets yet is actually indicative of the the fact that we are richer than the likes of Man United, Man City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Everton, Sunderland, and all of the rest. They are only selling tickets now as they are desperate for the cash. We on the other hand don't need that income. That can be the only logical reason that we haven't sold season tickets yet and won't for another 3 or 4 weeks.

They REALLY aren't, Dave.

That's 100% true, is it? In every single case? We don't miss out on any sales, at all, by keeping it all hush hush and then providing a short window for sales? There's a damned good reason that season tickets go on sale early at every other club; not only to get the money in the bank, but also to maximise sales. Being as we haven't got a bottomless pit of money and are competing against other clubs with much more resource than us, its a legitimate question to ask why we aren't trying to maximise our sales.

They were going to press on with the Steve Bull stand straight away, but shelved plans for it back in January. Instead they will be spending (some of) the money earmarked on upgrading their training facilities (apparently budgetting £6M plus for it) so they can achieve category 1 status. Interesting to note that the stand just put in will cost £18M.

We already have that option (and have played it) with Guly in the AM role.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2782391,00.html Full article. Radhi Jaidi is taking up a figurehead role.

Why not? Plenty of our players gained new, improved contracts as we moved through the leagues, usually a fair bit before their current deal expired.

Whoever we bring in, I absolutely can't see that it would be done on a "No. 1, No. 2" basis. It will surely be that we bring in a keeper and all talk will be about competition for the first team place. So, with that in mind, it would be Kelvin's place to lose. And there's always the factor that any new keeper may need some time to settle in (as de Gea did at Man United) so it would be a bit stupid to label the new keeper as the new number 1 only to then revert to last year's first choice. It would be crazy to sign a new keeper just as a No. 2, but equally so to deprive KD of the chance to make the spot his own. I think we'll get a keeper equal to or better than KD, but he'll have to earn his place.

Grant Holt has just put in a transfer request at Norwich; the club have quickly rejected it.

You must have missed the part where I said I disagreed with him too, so I'm not exactly following your logic. Internet chum, f*ck me.

Just wondered what caused such a reaction to someone suggesting where one football club might finish in relation to another club next season; seemed a bit over the top to me. You carry on though.

Wow. Do you think you would you would have kicked up such an unnecessary stink if Delldays had predicted we'd finish above West Ham? Close seasons are always going to be about speculation. especially before we know who will sign who. I happen to disagree with DD, I think even if West ham do go up they'll still be in the sh*t financially and won't be massively in he transfer market, BFS I reckon will have to largely work with what he has. Whether that's correct or not, who knows and time will tell, but I don't see why its a point to get all uppity about.