Whitey Grandad

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?

Yes, indeed you do. At present it's 'only' a £100 securing deposit. The actual pay date depends upon government approval for the return of fans next season. Never a dull moment supporting Saints That's one of the reasons that I enjoyed playing football. Compared with other sports even when you're being stuffed 9-0 you still get to see a lot of the action.

Somehow I don't think that Lallana is the answer to all our problems.

I've just spoken to a nice young man at the ticket office but before that I had a quick look at the offerings for new season tickets and almost all of blocks 30 and 32 were locked out. It turns out that the club have reserved these blocks for those who might be ok with a move across. He said that the new luxury seats will be the same width as the existing ones but other than that, no change. Apart that is from the offer of being ripped off for food and drink in the lounge downstairs which I respectfully declined with "not a chance". I asked him who these seats were aimed at but didn't get a clear reply. You might have thought that the ticket sellers would have been well briefed on the new offering. Whatever, I have two reservations one row further up and thirty seats across so I shall see more of our first half action and less of the second half comebacks. The deposit came out of the credit that they are holding for me. I asked about those who had some credit but would now decide not to renew and he said that there should be a refund. Or they could simply leave the credit there for some strange reason.

Don't be so silly.

No it wasn't. HTH

And what would we do with the cash? We don't score enough goals as things stand now.

At this rate we shall struggle to put out a team next season.

That's why there's one painted there

My situation is that I go along with my grandson who is now 18. Previously I took my daughter and we had our first Season Tickets when she was a young teenager which makes it around the late 1990s. I kept the seats even when she was away at Reading University and she would come home regularly in order to go to matches. When she had moved away from us I kept paying for the tickets so that I could retain the seat position and so that I could take 'friends and family' My grandson has just finished his A-levels and has yet to decide on whether he will be going to university next year and where it might be so renewal is not certain at the moment. If I am being forced to move seats anyway then there is no incentive for me to renew. This seems to me like a shot in the foot. If you or anyone else has been affected by these issues then I urge you to send an email to tickets@saintsfc.co.uk