Whitey Grandad

Usually most of the crew are over 60.

Orcward to describe, really.

As far as Saints are concerned nobody seems to know. It all came in with the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 since when men and women have to be treated equally. Age concessions have to be the same for both sexes so some institutions start at 60 to make men the same as women and some at 65 to make women the same as men.

Seems fair to me. Provided that the club can have your ticket back if you don't make it to the end of the season.

No need for the insults. The reason the pension age for men was set at 65 is that not many were expected to reach it. Until you get old you will never understand the effects that ageing has on your ability to earn a living. But this is beside the point. For some time the club has been willing, for whatever reason, to offer reduced prices to various age groups. They have now restricted the scope of these reductions at the same time as increasing all prices for what is after only the Championship. You cannot expect those most affected not to complain about it.

Of course it's different. It's older and it has a reduced life expectancy.

Unless you're a woman, and many are. (This is going round in circles)

As in 'the age of englightenment'? (yes, I know, we've all done it)

Times change and we change with them. In 1943 the name of the dog had nothing to do with being offensive to people of a different skin colour and was derived from the latin word 'niger' which means 'black' and is the root of the french 'noire' and the spanish 'negro'. In fact, I remember as a child coming across the phrase 'n****r black' and there was nothing pejorative about it. However, this word is offensive to some people and I can understand why it is not used today. I would feel happier about this if certain american comedians and others were also to stop using it.

??? I was within the age group and was therefore perfectly entitled to receive it, and would still do so at many other clubs. The second point is that it is not generally possible nor desirable for older people to continue working.

But what about those who are? Who will speak up for them? Of course it is marketing. The club needs the income from the older supporter. Even Old Trafford gives concessions (over 65) and a season ticket on the halfway line is £380. (I would dearly love to retire but I struggle on through all sorts of physical problems because my money has been stolen and frittered by a government for which I did not vote)

It's a question of marketing policy. Many businesses give reduced prices to pensioners, even my local fish & chip shops. The big gripe against Saints is the change from 60 to 65 at the same time as whopping great price increases.

We may be baby boomers but that doesn't mean that we have lived through boom times. All that we have achieved has been done through our own hard work, and those that did put money away towards their old age have had it stolen by the previous government.

So that ice floats. If it didn't, ponds would freeze from the bottom up and all the fish would die. HTH

Means testing of any sort is invidious. For the last few seasons at least the club has given a concession to this particular age group, presumably because they recognise that they form an important and valuable part of their support and did not reduce their income from other supporters. For some reason they have changed their minds and it remains to be seen what effect this will have on their overall income. They are, of course, perfectly entitled to do this but we should not be surprised if crowd figures are lower next season. There are some other strange marketing decisions such as discouraging people from turning up on the day by charging extra for these tickets.

There's a lot more to the 'matchday experience' than that.

I don't believe that anybody has suggested that you should?

Away games are a completely different experience.

Then why do you consider it 'odd' if someone prefers sitting there to the corners?

It's always easy to find specific examples that disprove the general. For every wealthy council chief executive who's taken early retirement there a 63 year old retired female cleaner. Whichever way you look at it these are whopping great price rises that make the club one of the most expensive in the division. You are correct in saying that every seat cost the club the same. Provided that every game is not a sell-out then it is in the interests of the club to get as much money in as possible and a large part of this is going to be from selling reduced-price tickets to the more elderly. Despite what you might think it is a lot more difficult for someone over 60 to get a job and many are physically less capable of doing so.

Well that's where we are different. In most arenas or theatres some seats are seen as more desirable than others, hence the price variations. The worst seat I have ever had at any football ground anywhere was for the home cup game against Shrewsbury when I was sitting at the southern end of the Itchen stand facing straight along the track behind the Chapel goal.

Where I sit is important to me, if not to you. If I had to move I would not get a season ticket. £16 is not cheap for the championship. There are many clubs which are cheaper, even in the Premiership.

I have just checked and I paid £522 each in 2005 and am being asked for £515 now. That was six years ago and we've had inflation, VAT and an enormous recession since then. In 2006 they were £493, in 2008 £420. I can't find 2007. These were all full prices without concessions.

You can get into Premiership grounds next season for less than that. Aldershot, for example, £9.35 a match seated, £7.40 concessions. If you don't mind standing it's £8.48, £6.42 concessions.

Nobody has been subsidising anybody. Everybody has paid something towards their seat. You could just as easily say that those in the expensive seats are subsidising those in the cheaper ones.