The Kraken

Not sure if this is a permanent move, but when I was at the ground yesterday the car park outside the Northam was closed for customers, with a sign saying that it was for staff only and customers needed to use the other car park by the megastore. So instead of a 1 minute walk to the ticket office it's now 3 or 4 minutes. That, and the reduction to 15 minutes for free parking, do suggest a certain agenda designed to catch customers out. I avoided the charge by parking on the road, so it's quite simple to do at quieter times. But it's a bit disappointing that I can't visit the ground, park on-site, buy my match tickets then have a look around the club shop without incurring a parking charge. It certainly doesn't do anything to encourage me to spend more money there.

Pretty sure there's a rule that, if you're due to play a particular team, you have to make some tickets available for your previous one or two home games to those opponents. As for general scouting, it would be a huge own goal to ban scouts in an effort to "hide" your own players. They, in turn, would ban your scouts and instantly you'd have no scouting network.

Not sure about that. FA Cup games, yes; it's split evenly between the two sides with a percentage going to the FA. Not heard of it for Football League though.

Some people really are a bit weird on here and don't seem able to see outside the box; just because clubs are doing something different to us, doesn't mean it's not a good idea. There are one or two good offers going on down the road, the 6 game thing is a very good idea. We, on the other hand, do absolutely nothing in the form of marketing and offers, remove the half-season ticket, and yet because Cortese used to work in a bank we're the ones who are doing it right. Very odd.

Now you sound overly-critical.

Count me out. You sound very bossy.

That's my point; there is already a cost to Saints in selling tickets, in the running of the ticket office. So all we need to try and figure out is the ADDITIONAL cost that posting out tickets incurs. As I've said, there is obviously some form of cost, which is why a ticket tax in principle is fair. I just think that £3 is overpriced for what it actually does cost.

Without knowing the actual costs it's hard to say for certain how much Saints are over-charging; however, it's quite simple to make a best guess. The first, and most obvious extra, is the cost of postage and the envelope. You also have one extra print containing the mailing address for placing in the envelope. Next, you have the additional staff time to print the tickets and place them in envelopes, seal it and post it out. Also the extra time taken to find a customer on the database prior to printing out the tickets, or manually entering a new customer's details into the database. Of course it's a minor amount of time, but if it takes an extra 30 seconds, that's an extra hour of staff pay per every 120 transactions, so there is a cost, albeit small. Finally, there are the incidental costs that we can only guess at; if they have to have supervisory staff oversee all mail-outs, dealing with any mistakes made by staff etc etc. Again minimal per transaction, but an extra cost to just selling from the TO counter. We know an envelope and stamp is not really going to cost much more than 50p. Which is why I suggested £1 to £1.50 was perhaps a fair price to pay for receiving tickets by post. I can't see how all of the above could justifiably add up to a £3 charge though, particularly as there is apparently not an extra credit card fee (and this would also be incurred by payment by card at the TO).

Doesn't necessarily mean it would suddenly become free though; Ryanair do this and still make you pay extra for the privilege.

This is exactly right. There are quite clearly additional costs involved in sending out tickets by mail as opposed to selling them from the ticket office. The "ticket tax" in itself is the fairest way to cover that extra cost without penalising those who choose to visit the ground to but their tickets. The only issue I have is with the actual cost of £3 per transaction. I'd suggest a much fairer cost would be £1 - £1.50.

You wear socks by the pool? You massive bender.

I've just been down to the ground to pick up two extra tickets; I'll be amazed if the gate is only 23K, it was a struggle to get 2 extra seats next to the regular 5 we have (in the Chapel), last year it was a doddle. Ticket office staff said it was pretty busy and "should be a good gate".

I believe its Betfred.

Really?

I struggle to take anything meaningful from pre-season games, I really do. From the 14-0 victories we used to see on our Scnado tours, right through to these, I really don't look into these any further than as a fitness and sharpness exercise. With regards to the defence, I do think Jaidi will get found out at times at this level. In the air he's still going to be as dominant as ever, but for teams/strikers that don't have to resort to lumping it he may struggle. Fonte should be fine, Harding/Dickson also, I'm still very unsure about Richardson or Butterfield and whether either are good enough for a team in the higher echelons of the Championship. I guess we'll start finding out pretty soon.

JustMike is right; all speculation is premature, whether it be now, after August, September or whatever. I don't think anyone could have predicted our run in the last 15 games last season, which was necessary to clinch promotion. All I'm saying is that it would be a bit boring if we can't/weren't to use a chat forum to engage in what might be after we've played a handful of games. Of course it holds no real sway at all over the rest of the season, but as I've said, it's a bit boring waiting for a few months before having the conversation isn't it?

Or maybe if I waited for 16 games it would be much more accurate.

How many home league games must I wait until I'm allowed to speculate (rightly or wrongly) on how we may fare for the whole season?

No-one is saying August is the be all and end all Mike, calm down. It's just an indicator to what the rest of the season MIGHT hold in store. A potential benchmark of things to come, if you like. Of course it may bear no relation whatsoever, but even still it would be a bit boring if we had to wait until May before we could actually discuss where we might finish in the league.

August will go some way to telling us quite a few things we currently can only speculate on: Has pre-season been a success; are the players as fit and as sharp as they can be? Can the likes of Lambert, Barnard, Hammond, Lallana, Seaborne make the step up to Championship level; in the case of Lambert & Lallana, can they show they are the match winners at this level that they were at League 1? Is Jaidi really past it; or can his aging legs get him through one more year at a higher level of football? Do we really look like a side who will be genuine contenders for automatic promotion; how about a play-off spot; is it likely to be a season scratching around mid-table; or are the minority of doom-sayers valid in suggesting we'll do well to avoid relegation? Of course, August alone will in no way answer those questions, but the results and perhaps more importantly the performances in those 5 games will certainly go some way to highlighting what type of season we're in for.

They also played Seattle Sounders and thrashed them 7-0. It's about getting the balance right of games that will challenge you and getting confidence levels up. You could argue that stuffing someone 7-0 (as in the games we used to have on the Scando tours) actually don't really do the defence and keeper a lot of good. But they are good for early games to get everyone playing again.

Not sure I'd pay any attention to that, it's got 28 players listed and seems to just be a listing of the entire senior squad (plus Ben Reeves and Harlee Dean). I'd expect the game to be similar to the WBA game with 3 or 4 players getting the full 90 minutes and most of the others seeing at least 60 minutes of playing time.

Ignoring stats when they don't fit your argument

NickG just got out-statted

A fair bit of journalistic licence there I feel. Headline: "Ex-Saint Wotton tips Saints for back-to-back promotions." Actual quotes: “I see no reason either why they can’t push on and compete this year too." “I think they will be absolutely fine going up a level." “They have made some good signings and I’m sure they will make a few more.” But then I guess the headline "Ex-player says some obvious things about his former club" doesn't have the same ring to it.