Whitey Grandad

But doesn’t it make your skin go orange?

No intrigue intended or implied, I apologise if I have misled anybody. No, it’s not complicated, but what is perhaps hard to understand is why they would take such a gamble without doing diligent market research first.

🤫 I never intended to imply that any of it was secret, but perhaps the reason that he felt able to have such a discussion with me was because he felt that I was a model of discretion? He had done his research before calling and knew my background which meant that we were able to discuss the business reasons behind this plan freely and openly. So here’s my take on it. These views are mine alone and I wouldn’t want to misrepresent anybody. The club wants to make more money out of match day attendance and they consider that we have one of the lowest pricing structures in the Premier League. The central Kingsland is viewed as a premium location that is in high demand and they feel that it should be generating more income. That then raises the question of where that extra money is going to come from. When you strip it down this move is nothing other than a monster price hike dressed up with a bit of padding. So who is going to buy into it? Are the present occupants going to grimace and bear it, in which case they have succeeded in their heist, or are we all going to shuffle along and see these seats gobbled up by supporters from elsewhere in the stadium? In principle these seats can only be occupied by Saints supporters but are there several hundred out there who are so desperate that they are willing to pay a thousand pounds a year to watch what is on offer? It was clear from our chat that Mr. AC-J does understand the history and background of a club such as ours and understands my sentiments but my response was to quote Sir Humphrey Appleby and say, “Very brave”. The point is that if you consider that you are sitting in the best position in the stadium then any move elsewhere is a downgrade. Having moved from that position there is then no incentive to hang onto your Season Ticket from one year to the next. Friendships that have been built over decades have be trashed and if you let your ticket go you can always get always get another one some other time. Maybe. I feel that the club have concentrated on comparing Southampton FC with other Premier League clubs and have not considered how what they offer compares with other demands on our wallets. £2000 a year for two tickets would go quite some way elsewhere. You could get a fortnight’s all-inclusive cruise for that. Maybe membership of a golf club but I wouldn’t know. I’m not old enough to play golf I can understand the drive to get more revenue but there’s only so much juice you can squeeze out of a lemon.

Nah, got to be Pizza, surely.

At least he wouldn’t be playing against us

Amen to that. We are all brothers and sisters under the same blue sky.

Because that’s not my style, it’s not so much that I can’t, and I would have cleared it with him first. I would like to find out a little bit more about the background to all this. I know what the headline reasons are but I like to dig deeper.

There is some rule about shorts colour, it has to match the socks or something.

Thanks. Bloody iPad autocorrect!

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call out of the blue this morning from Mr. Anthony Cole-Johnson and we had a very pleasant and friendly forty minute chat. We covered all aspects of supporting a provincial football club and discussed the various pricing structures. Without going into details the situation is that the club are seeking to maximise their revenue from all aspects of attendance and they view the central Kingsland as prime real estate that could be milked for higher revenue. I reiterated my view that this extra revenue is unlikely to come from the current occupants of these seats. How many of theses will buy into a forced relocation remains to be seen and time will show which of us is right. The situation reminds me of the old staple of movie plots. The evil oil/property/chemical company seeking the forced eviction of sitting tenants in order to exploit their prized location.

Hmm... “short term stays”. Is there a reason for that?

The quickest way to save money would be getting rid of Mr. Anthony Cole-Johnson.

They can't all be telling the truth and they can't all be lying. I wonder what really happened?

This fellow Jim Gay sounds reasonable. I might just give him a call and get some more background to all this.

CTDAJFU?

I received an answer to my email today. Hi <cantankerous_old_git>,<long_suffering_wife> Many thanks for your email. I understand how you are feeling about the changes to block 31, and please be assured that we are feeding this information back to the Management team and our Sales Director Anthony Cole-Johnson. To provide a little more clarity around the changes and indeed pricing - Over several seasons been proud to freeze the price of general admission season tickets, whilst extending concessional rates up to 25-year-olds, and to all those fans aged over 65 where previously they were not offered. We have reduced for many the cost of coming to football at St Mary’s over the years, and have tried to be more accessible than ever, hence the £399 season ticket in the Chapel, and a £19 ticket seasonally in the Family Stand for U11s. The introduction of the new Kingsland Plus as a season ticket is designed to offer an enhanced general admission experience for those wishing to choose something different from our usual hospitality. Indeed, we have priced it fairly to similar seats at other Premier League clubs. Your seat in block 31 will be reserved for you. To confirm the adult renewing is £999, with concessions priced at £929. If however you feel, after reflection, this isn’t for you I can arrange for a member of the ticket office to contact you and look at alternative options in Blocks 30 and 32 where the adult renewal price is £737 and £660 for concessions. I appreciate from reading your email that you sit within a small group and we can with our ticket office to accommodate where possible, should you choose to look at alternative options. Additionally, we have just released renewal information for all block which can be seen here: https://www.southamptonfc.com/season-tickets I understand that you are disappointed, and to be clear if I can be of any assistance or facilitate a call with our ticket office please do not hesitate to let me know. Kind regards, Jim Jim Gay Supporter Services Manager Southampton FC T: 02380 711980

But would they be as effective with the brutality removed from their game?

The more details the bigger the lie. Usually.

Indeed. If he shook your hand you’d count your fingers afterwards.

I spoke to a young lady in the ticket office today and asked whether it would be downloaded tickets or the smart cards for next season. From what I could gather the outcome depends on the government relaxation of controls but the intention is to send out cards at some stage in the season.

And instead he played McCarthy for the last refs games.

Yep. We live in uncertain times but we're trying to follow rules that haven't been drawn up yet.

Is that the type that makes you miss open goals?

It would appear so from an email I received. It says "your tickets will be available to download 72 hours before the game. That is going to cause a lot of practical problems.

Anthony Cole-Johnson, is that you?