stevegrant

Wasn't that just last season's one, which the club ran themselves, not as a proper "credit" facility, hence why it got abused? I'm sure I remember the forms for the previous years (run by external companies) all had interest charged.

From what I know (a relative amount, given that my old man's worked for a bank for more than 30 years), the credit card application works out a rough figure in terms of "available" monthly cash - after you provide your salary and any other credit commitments - and comes up with a round figure (in thousands, I think my first card - a week after I turned 18 - had a limit of £500, but not heard of any limits as low as that since) that fits into their algorithm for "affordability", which has got much stricter in the last 12-18 months. It then checks that amount against your credit rating. If it thinks you could afford the monthly repayments on the full balance (and it has to assume the worst-case scenario), it will let you have the card. If not, "access denied", etc, obviously. However, that's not a true reflection on the suitability of the applicant. While they may not be suitable for a credit card with a limit of, say, £5,000, they may be able to quite comfortably afford the repayments if the limit was £500, but the application doesn't test against that. There's no value in the credit card provider giving you a 0% deal on a credit limit that low.

Obtaining credit on a short-term deal for £328 is far easier than obtaining credit for a credit card (particularly one with a 0% balance transfer or purchases offer), where the starting limits are almost always at least £1000 (I've had a few in the last couple of years, none of which have had a starting limit of less than £8,000, each of which I've had to phone up to reduce). Obtaining credit itself isn't the issue for the vast majority of people (except those with particularly bad credit histories, defaults, CCJs, etc), it's the amount being lent. I don't think I've seen a credit card application that asks you how much credit you want, they simply give you a credit limit. If that limit is beyond your means according to your credit score, you get turned down.

They wouldn't have to do any of that. They get all of the money from the finance company at the point of the application being approved. Once that's happened, as far as the club are concerned, they're a paid-up season ticket holder. Any defaults or chasing up is the responsibility of the finance company.

All well and good having one (I had one at 18, big deal), it's another matter entirely understanding financial responsibility.

If you've nothing to actually add to the debate, I suggest you don't say anything at all. I'm rather intrigued how someone (presumably, going by your username) 20 years of age can preach to other people about the virtues of 0% credit cards. Still, it's not as if extending lines of credit to unsuitable customers hasn't got this country in trouble in the recent past...

Low-scoring but thoroughly entertaining game, I thought.

From an impartial administrator's point of view, it would be nice if you'd practice what you preach.

No real insider knowledge, just fag-packet maths really. Last year, with crap attendances and general bad feeling, we still had revenues of about £13m. The wage bill was obviously trimmed substantially in the summer with players retiring and out of contract, and then Rasiak was sold in August (his wages were probably on a par with Lambert and Hammond combined). I'd estimate our wage bill is somewhere in the region of £8m-9m... massive for League One, but arguably we have a Championship squad. We've made a net loss of about £2.5m in transfers, but attendances are much higher (nearly 80,000 extra tickets sold just in league games, plus a few well-attended cup games thrown in as well) and then the JPT revenue. I'd estimate revenues to be around the £16m mark. Of course, we are now not having to frantically pay off an overdraft with a crippling interest rate, nor are we having to pay £2-3m a year on the stadium mortgage. I'd guess at a profit of about £1m once tax has been taken into account.

Isn't there a 28-day period after the vote for objections to be raised?

When was that ever said?

The club will almost certainly make a profit this season despite having spent the best part of £3m in transfer fees - astronomical by this division's standards.

The main implementation cost of the online booking system was absorbed years ago, I think it cost upwards of £500k initially to set up with AudienceView, although I assume there is an ongoing licence and support contract with them which obviously has to be paid for. The phone lines only cost significant money on the rare occasions it's particularly busy, when they then use an external call centre in Dunstable, which obviously comes at a cost. At all other times, it's whatever the cost of running an 0800 number - no idea whether that's a fixed monthly/annual fee or on a pence-per-minute-per-call basis.

Online is almost certainly the quickest. You only get a choice of block and "level" rather than any individual row or seat (although personally I think you should be able to select a block and view a grid of all the available seats in that block and select an individual seat), and once it gets to the staff actually processing it, the card payment's already been done automatically so all that's needed is to print the ticket and put it in an envelope. One or two minutes per transaction at the very most.

In which case, why isn't it applied to tickets sold at the ticket office window as well? Presumably they're not unpaid volunteers, after all...

I think you have far too much time on your hands, Sir

Unless of course the club's plan is to send all tickets by recorded delivery...

Or they'd put tickets for a popular away game on sale on the Monday immediately after a home game...

Pretty sure it was in the pipeline back when we were in the top flight, the season tickets back then were cards with barcodes on. Then we got relegated, so they couldn't justify the relatively large expenditure (would guess at somewhere in the region of £300-500k to implement). Then the cards started getting cloned and forged, so they withdrew them completely.

You seem to be missing the point. Very few people are actually complaining about the price of the season ticket renewals. With the VAT rate returning to 17.5% and the desire of the club a year ago to price the tickets such that they sold lots in a short space of time before the season started, they were always going to go up a bit. £328 works out at just over £14 a game - fine by me.

This is pretty much where I stand. Without Liebherr's money, we wouldn't even be having this conversation because Saints would more than likely have ceased to exist 11 months ago. Cortese clearly played a role in that, and credit clearly goes to him for doing so. However, I'm sure I'm not alone in being slightly wary about some of the things he has said, done or been rumoured to have said or done.

He's taking after you in the "avoiding answering anything that might completely scupper the point you're trying to make" stakes.

Did he? What scandalous accusation did the Echo put the club's way? That their plans for Staplewood had been approved by the New Forest District Council, as shown by their publicly visible website, and as earlier publicised by Radio Solent and Sky Sports, among others? That Markus Liebherr was not at the Southend game, as first reported by Radio Solent? That Alan Pardew was on the verge of being sacked, as first reported by Radio Solent, and then by Sky and the Daily Mail? Although the old saying does suggest that the best form of defence is attack...

Yes, if they're booked via the phone or online. No idea.

Cheques are charged by banks at a flat rate, whereas other methods are charged as a percentage. Unless you're dealing with small amounts of money (which the club aren't), cheques are much cheaper to deposit in a business account at the bank.