SaintBobby

It wouldn't even wash its own face. It would raise nowhere near 25OK. It would be expensive to administer and you need to factor in opportunity costs. For example, some cuurent purchasers of season tickets might downgrade to mere membership and end up attending less games and handing over less money as a result. The scheme being proposed was for a 50 fee attached to a 40 discount. The club only clears a tenner per member. The admin costs are likely to be higher than this - but even if you assume that the cost would only be £5 per person to administer, you would need to sign up 50,000 members to make your suggested 250K profit. That simply isn't going to happen. There are, in practice, only a small number of fans a membership scheme would appeal to. A very high proportion of hardcore fans are already season ticket holders. Those who aren't are almost all able to get to all the games they want to go without the slightest problem (generally only home games). Those who are hardcore, but not season ticket holders, can often join a group like the London Saints Supporters Club who can help with tickets. So, those who are likely to see any real benefit in a membership scheme are nowhere near 50,000. Not 10,000. Possibly not even 1,000. And at this point, the income from a membership scheme probably doesn't even cover the administrative set-up costs, let alone the on running servicing costs. The 250K figure is just a fantasy number you've plucked out of the air. Running a scheme would cost the club money in the NPC.

It's a message board. Not a pub. Hope this helps. And I have no problem ending thoughts with saying "that'll do, it's good enough, that's okay". I don't know what pubs you go to where these words elicit extreme violence from anyone listening to them. Sounds pretty retarded to me. Your system isn't "fair"...STHs should get priority, even if they have attended one or two less away games. As I've said, your system is unnecessary anyway. Any sufficiently devoted fan will make it into any game they want, with possible excpetion of Pompey away. It's just not worth setting up a whole system to deal with one of the 46 league games.

I wouldn't back us at 5/1 to go up. I'd sat we're about a 10/1 shot. So I think the odds are mean. 5/1 on Portsmouth goign down is an excleent bet though. I'll have some of that.If they ceased ro trade, I think you'd bet your money back. If they went down becaue of a points deduction, you'd win your bet.

I said it DIDN'T upset me...just that it was a waste of money. And I outlined why I believed this to be the case.

It wouldn't upset me. It would just be a slightly stupid waste of money. The sentence you have highlighted in my post is accurate in every respect. I think it is true. And it is indeed true.

You want a "well informed debate" - indeed, would "happily engage" in one? But I'm "condescending and distatseful" in virtue of my posts being "written in a well structured format". I also have an "underlying superiority complex". And I should "tone it down". I'm not entirely clear whethe you are aspiring to be my psychologist or my mother. Or whether you are suitably qualified to fill either role! I'm surpised that you only welcome "well-mannered responses", given the rather abusive personal language you have used to describe me. Nevertheless, I shall try to meet your request rather than emulate your personalised, abusive behaviour. The issue absoultely is NOT "financial support" v "presence at games". The issue is how Saints should decide to issue scarce, very sought after away tickets (there's no real problem getting into home games). This system needs to have the features of being (a) fair in rewarding loyal fans and (b) simple and cheap to execute. The second of these is an important consideration. To take your own example to an even greater extreme...one can conceive of a Saints fan who has gone to every away game in the last five years but doesn't own a season ticket. In order to be completely fair to such a fan - or other cases such as a fan who has been to 500 away games in his life, but didn't go to any last year because he was recovering from cancer and also doesn't have a season ticket - Southampton FC could set up some committee system with appeals being possible for those disappointed by the original verdict. Applications for tickets to, say, Pompey away would be in writing and considered by the executive commitee on their merits. Every single one of 10,000 letters would be read, analysed, graded and rated. An interview process with the applicants could be considered. Perhaps marginal cases could meet Nicola Cortese and members of the Liebherr family for a four hour interview. Legal representation for applicants could be provided at the expense of the club. This is obviously a reducto ad absurdium, but just illusrates the point that total fairness is not possible. Nor indeed the club's problem. Generally speaking - only generally speaking - season ticket holder are the most loyal fans. Yes, there will be exceptions. Some season ticket holders are probably quite casual fans. There will be some non-season ticket holders who attend 40+ games a season. But, as a rule of thumb, it's a reasonable one. Hard-core fans who aren't season ticket holders do have other ways to access precious tickets. I think (although maybe wrong here) that the affilated supporters groups get a small ticket allocation for massive games. For the FA Cup final, for example, the London Saints Supporters Club were offered a block of about 30 tickets. I guess this applies to the West Country Saints too. If these arrangements have been abandoned, they should be reinstated. In short, if you're a mad keen, very loyal Saints fan in Bristol who (a) doesn't have a season ticket (b) isn't a member of the regional supporters group and © doesn't have the financial resources to secure a black market ticket to the away end at Fratton Park and (d) can't somehow pull a favour with the club or with the fanbase to secure a ticket, then, yes, you're going to miss out. Too bad. We can't make sure that the 2,324 tickets available for a particular away game go to the prefectly callibrated most loyal 2,324 fans. It's just too much like hard work. It's also essentially contestable and endlessly controversial. There isn't a "right" answer. But we probably can ensure that the 2,324 tickets are only shared out amongst, say, the most loyal 4,000 fans. And maybe a tiny handful of stragglers. That will do. That's okay. That's good enough.

It's not worth the candle. You may buy a membership for £50 and then go to 8 games (and get a saving of £40). This doesn't mean there's just a £10 admin "gain" for the club. You may have gone to these 8 games anyway. And the club would then have got exactly the same revenue, without having to post you some membership card and employing some bureaucratic box ticker to measure how many home games you've been to or employ a call centre to deal with people who want to use their 8th discount voucher for an away game or cup game. So, the costs for the club would be way higher than a tenner. Plus, it's pretty simple. We don't tend to sell out at SMS and this will tend to be the case next season too. If you're going to attend a decent number of home games and/or don't want the administrative hassle of booking seats for each game you want to go to, then buy a f-ing season ticket. The very best seats are available for less than £600. If you're only going to attend only a handful of home games (up to ten), then just get your life in order and book for the games you want. There was no game last season that you would have been unfairly excluded from. Walsall was a sell out but the only reason a member of the public wouldn't have got in was if they'd booked too late. A membership system doesn't solve this. We'd just have people whining that because they were a £50 member and had been for 4 years, someone at the club should have notified them that tickets were selling fast/they should receive preferential treatment and be allowed to come and go as they please/tickets went on general sale too quickly etc etc etc. I repeat. Even if you choose not to buy a season ticket, you will be able to get into every game at SMS next season as long as you are capable of runnign your life as something approaching a half-competent adult. On away tickets, the rule of priority is (and should be): 1. Hard core season ticket holders first (e.g. those who have attended 5+ away games) 2. The rest of the season ticket holders next 3. Non-season ticket holders who have attended a good number of away games next. 4. Every other human being on the planet on a first come first served basis. If you want a club badge, a club wallet and a list of club secrets, then write to the Beano and join the Dennis the Menace fanclub. If you want to watch Southampton play football, then get a grip on your life and your diary and don't bother designing highly complicated, enormously bureaucratic schemes which you want the club to carry out in order that your own specific needs and failings are catered for.

Golac?

Assuming this is correct, my question is "who was the first player sold by Saints for a six figure sum"?

a car....he hadn't passed his driving test

I don't think that's right. I'd say mid table. Full stop. 3 or 4 quality signings and we should be a serious play off/promotion contender.

Pleased with this. Usually miss first home game of the season on holiday, but can watch this one from Las Vegas (I hope!)

Hahahahaha... MMMMMHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MUPPETS.... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh...

300K to have Bullard for 16 games doesn't strike me as extortionate tbh.

Darren Anderton? Or is that blasphemy...?

This I've got to see....silver? zinc? brass?

Agreed.

My missus is Saints mad. Not only will I be at the game, her Valentine's present will be a ticket in the away end...

Fair play, you admit you got in wrong for most of the season. No shame in that. I predicted at the start of the season that we'd get 100 points and win the division, so I was a smidgen optimistic. Although I did keep arguing (often with you!) from about December onwards that we'd secure 2nd and get automatic promotion.

Is there any hard evidence that: (a) Saints do always start slowly? I know we're notorious for doing badly in game 1. But this could be a statistical fluke. is it actually the case that - over the last decade or so - our league position on, say, October 1st is measurably worse than our finishing position? Possibly, but I'm not persuaded. Does anyone actually know? (b) Is it actually the case that Saints sign new players later in the transfer window than other clubs? of course, fans of all teams want to sign great players very quickly and very cheaply. But are Saints really slower off the mark than others? Do we sign players, on average, on August 1st whereas our rivals sign players on July 1st?

That's quite a staggering U turn in your analysis from what you were actually saying last season. You had a string of complaints about the team's weaknesses and predicted, endlessly, that we'd only make the play offs. What changed your mind?

I want us to have a new kit every season and am happy to shell out the £40 or £50 to buy the new home shirt every Summer. I don't know where the assumption comes from that all fans only want a new kit every 2, 3 or 4 years.

I'm a bit worried now. I don't understand the "stars in stripes?" slogan. Or, to be more accurate, I don't understand the question mark. Given that it's 99.9% certain we will be in stripes...surely the "?" can only refer to the lingering doubt as to whether we have any stars!!!!

All Saints players who have gone on to coach here?

They'll do okay. mid table ish. c. 12th