Whitey Grandad

I would be difficult for the NHS to get any less efficient. Doubling the spending on it made very little difference.

I feel the same way about England as those west-country kids who support Exeter and a Premiership team. This year, I shall be supporting Spain.

I wish I could be there. I once played a cup game against the light Brigade and we were well beaten by a stronger, fitter side. Their big centre-forward (Horace) had been on tv the night before in some British Championship boxing match. Nice guys, all of them, no gloating or triumphalism.

Now you're just being silly.

Could you buy a cheap seat and then do that at every game?

It was explained to me once that clubs like Manchester United prefer to have fewer season ticket holders and more casual attendees, providing that the ground is filled. The occasional supporter will visit the club shop and fill his sacks with Ryan Giggs duvet covers and Wayne Rooney mugs whereas the regular supporter mike only buy a pie and a pint, if they're lucky.

It's a telling point that every season ticket holder was sent a copy of the charter in the post but not an invitation to renew their ticket.

Dav, there's a job for you at ACAS.

No it doesn't. Borrowing money to pay for unnecessary jobs is economic stupidity. You don't pay VAT on food and many other essentials. The public sector has been holding back economic growth for far too long. Borrowing fortunes to subsidise it is and then calling that growth is just a mirage.

I seem to remember the original building cost was of the order of £32m. It's more than just a stadium at the moment with all sorts of offfices and things and I'm led to believe is self-financing at the original price.

There is some truth in that. I had to take three screenshots and paste them together, and I still can't seem to get it full-size!

For the record, this is the email that I received on 7th June at 12:06. http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz178/robrawl/Saints1.jpg

I don't think there is any link on the customer database between season ticket holder and their email address.

How many times must you ring a premium rate line?

I think the problem is that there aren't enough flags about. I've seen a few but they obviously aren't working. I saw one house that only had five in the garden FFS.

Yes, bottom right of page 71. '... while Andrew Surman is due to join Sheffield United for £1.2m.'

Steady on! We don't know how many people received this email (which I am happy to forward to anyone remotely interested). I receive sporadic communications from the club, be they by post or email, and I suspect that I only received this one because I had signed up to some obscure newsletter in the past. I tend to agree with Stu, that this email was part of a general ticketing update and not specifically aimed at existing season-ticket holders.

It is credit, but a licence is not needed if credit is not extended beyond three months, or customers are allowed to pay their bills in four or fewer payments within 12 months.

Presumably the club would need a Consumer Credit Licence?

It could be worse. At least we're not French.

Well let's just say that the number of season tickets is unlikely to have been increased by this approach.

I received an email on 7th June at 11:55: 'Season and Match Day packages announced'. This was from sender@eshot.me on behalf of SFC Marketing (marketing@saintsfc.co.uk). I think this was only because I had previously registered for Saints news and not because I was a season-ticket holder last season. I don't remember giving my email address when I bought the tickets, and I don't think the club ever asks for them. It told me 'Season tickets will go on sale at 9am on Tuesday 1st June' even though the email was the following Monday.

I love it! Give me more.

Amongst over 10,000 people there are bound to be some who are undecided about renewing because of any number of perfectly valid reasons. In the past they have always received an invitation to renew through the post around March/April time and a lot of these will not have ready access to the internet. You cannot expect them to telephone the ticket office every week for three months to find out what is happening. We have regularly received all sorts of mailshots and irrelevant supporters' charters so it must have been a deliberate decision not to send out blanket renewal invitations. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

It would be impolite to sit on it.