The Kraken

GOAL Saints get one back on 44 as Lloyd Isgrove capitalises on poor clearance to finish low. We're back in it!!

I do like the positive spin on the OS Twitter site. :lol: He's in serious danger of literally being Tommy FourPast tonight.

Wouldn't be a bad opportunity for the likes of Bart, Martin, Stephens, Dickson, Mills, Puncheon, De Ridder, Holmes, Forte and Barnard to get some game time and match sharpness before Saturday. If they all lined-up it wouldn't be too bad a side tbf.

So De Ridder is de player of de season? *gets coat and leaves*

I agree, I'm not comparing, which is why I said "this is a venture into new territory for NA, with a chairman who will expect a bit more..." And I do stand by that. NA has no personal experience of just how good his players need to be to challenge at the top of this division; you could argue that he's never managed that quality of player in his history as a manager. Does he have the calibre of player now? As I said, time will tell. I really don't know, I'm confident of a top half finish with the squad we have but until we get started and see the comparable quality around us, it's only speculation.

To be fair, this is a bit of a re-writing of history. In NA's first season in the Championship Scunny were relegated. In NA's second season back in the Championship, they finished in 20th place. The only team that finished below Scunny and stayed up were Crystal Palace, who were docked 10 points for going into administration. This is a venture into new territory for NA, with a chairman who will expect a bit more than those types of finishes. Time will tell just how well equipped we are for it.

You make a fair point regarding telephone sales for in-demand times. However, I don't see that it can be an issue for online sales. With the right type of booking system in place (which we must already have) there is surely no need to use an agency; the bookings are made directly on SFC's system, and all that is then left to do by the club is print the tickets and put them in an envelope. Which begs the question of why online sales are charged the £3 fee. I'd use the online system if it was free, but for some reason it's the same as the telephone sales charge.

I think you're missing the point. The club already have a price of ticket for those bought at the ticket office. The "ticket tax" only comes in for those tickets sent out, therefore its an extra premium for the benefit of not having to go to the TO to pick the tickets up. As such, it SHOULD be a cost that simply covers all the club's costs. It really shouldn't be used as an extra revenue-generator, otherwise it discriminates against certain customers over others. To sell any tickets, the club HAS to have a ticket office. So the fixed costs are already covered by having to have that ticket office, the staff within it, staionery etc etc. By implementing an administration fee only for mailing out tickets, what you're effectively doing is saying "we know how much we need to sell tickets at for those coming to the TO. What we now need to do is cover our costs for sending tickets out". So it's only the variable costs of sending out tickets that is needed. Now if it was a "transaction fee" as you mention, that would be different. That would surely apply to all card purchases, whether made online, by telephone, or at the ticket office itself. But I can pay for tickets at the ticket office on my card without incurring a transaction fee; the administration fee only applies to tickets being sent out. Which is why the £3 cost is deemed as unreasonably high.

The 12th man thing I think we'll have to agree to disagree. It's no more than a little "fun", not going to make them much money but if just one poor soul decides its for them, then they've brought one person closer to the club. As for direct debit and outside credit agencies, I agree. In terms of the payment plan I think the club have got the idea spot on; it's all managed in house, and there is a slight charge to pay in installments rather than up front. No problem with that at all. A shame that one person c*cked up by sending the wrong tickets out though.... The desire for half-season tickets, well that's a selfish thing on my behalf as I'll be living abroad from Xmas time onwards. But I know of quite a few people who started off with a half season ticket then moved on to a full ST. So there is clearly method there in inducing more customers, i think it was a bad move to shelve it; more so to not actually tell us they were doing it until the last minute, and more than that no explanation why. In recognition of your response, I should also outline that my original Cortese comment was (as per some of your comments) not necessarily aimed at you in particular. More the seeming trend on here to immediately slap down any dissenting voices with the type of comment "Cortese was a banker so I'm sure he knows what he's doing better than you", or the accusation of having an "agenda" (that one still baffles me). I just wish some people could see that it is actually possible to praise the club's operations and still hope for better from them within the same breath.

Notwithstanding the fact that they've since kissed and made-up, you'd be cutting your nose off to spite your face if that were your reasoning.

Well done for ignoring the majority of my post. And quite what "agenda" I have is a bit confusing; I'm perfectly capable of commenting on the good things I believe the new regime have done, just as I am capable of expressing an opinion on things I would like to see improved. I'm not sure what agenda that is, but if it makes you sleep better at night to tar me that brush, you carry on. As I originally said, there are one or two good ideas going on down there that I was highlighting, in comparison with us who don't offer any deals. The removal of the half season ticket, for example (one of which I would own right now if it still ran). The 6-game home deal, which is a good idea. And this £125 deal, while of course not bringing in buckets of money, is a good idea in that it incorporates a fan closer with the club. A big revenue maker? Of course not. But I cannot see any downside to it as a marketing activity, so fail to see any comedy in it. Despite your accusation, this isn't an "attack" on Cortese. As I said, I can recognise the many good things he's done for the club; I'm just unwilling to stick my head in the sand about some things I believe could be done better. If that's an agenda then so be it.

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?