stevegrant

American Express charge the highest fees, IIRC...

Oh, and of course if they'd announced the prices earlier, fans could have paid their instalments before the season started... no full payment = no season ticket sent out + club have part of your money anyway.

But the club are not giving you money, so that example is flawed. All you would be running off with is a book with a few vouchers in, which would be rendered worthless if the club instructed turnstile operators to refuse entry to anybody holding specific tickets. They managed to prevent any of the Daily Echo's sports reporters from gaining access to St Mary's for three months, and that wasn't affecting revenues at all...

Only with foreign clubs.

I'm sure he won't be withdrawing any cash from the business for as long as he owns it, but there's absolutely no way he won't be selling for a profit in the future if he can. That's why he invested, it was an absolute bargain with near-guaranteed profit in the medium-to-long-term if the club is run well and gets promoted.

Just had it confirmed, the £3 booking fee will apply to away tickets as well. Christ.

As far as I was aware, Calderon's contract at Brighton doesn't expire until the end of June.

Ron, some fair points, but I'm struggling to see who "wins" in this situation. The club will lose a number of season ticket holders solely because of this decision. They may gain season ticket holders elsewhere, but there's surely a higher probability of an existing season ticket holder renewing than someone buying a "new" season ticket.

Every year they've run the installment scheme, with the exception of last season, it has been done through an external finance company. As a result, the club get the money up front - albeit with the finance company taking a cut. As part of that cut, it's then their responsibility to chase up late or defaulted payments. Obviously if they want to run it the way they did last season, whereby they take card details from those who want to use the scheme, they then run the risk that they just don't get the money for various reasons.

No, the booking fee doesn't apply to season tickets, only matchday tickets.

£277 is right... bottom-right corner of this graphic:

Correct, it is £3 per transaction, not £3 per ticket. The point still stands, though, that someone buying a single ticket for a game would be better off taking their chances in the queue at 2.30pm on the day of the game than buying in advance.

Until things eventually go pear-shaped for him at Spurs and the large swathes of Spurs support in the press get their teeth into him and don't let go...

Thankyou Scudamore, you clearly have far more patience than I do! Knew it was around somewhere but couldn't put my finger on it. Firstly, the debt was £23m (we can all be pedantic arses to prove a point, you see, you're not unique), and I would be amazed if Liebherr wasn't looking to retrieve the £15m or so he put in to settle those debts further down the line. That's the idea of "investment", that you get a positive return from it in the future. At the moment, we have no new training facilities. To my knowledge, building work at Staplewood was due to commence some time in March, but as yet contracts are yet to be signed. While the accounts will now be a lot later when they are eventually submitted to Companies House due to the much looser regulations on private limited companies, I'll be amazed if they don't show SFC at least breaking even for this financial period. The crowds have been much higher than expected, added to the revenue from two cup runs, which has allowed them the freedom to spend a bit more on the playing squad.

And yet you continue to believe the unsubstantiated rumour that the Echo just make stuff up, and refuse to take up their offer of a tour of the newsroom so you can see exactly what goes on there for yourself. Something of a hypocrite, wouldn't you say?

No, but I generally take a dim view of those who make a point of being obtuse with their comments and arguments, which you do without fail.

On attendances and ticket revenue that will dwarf that of every other club in this division next season. Liebherr hasn't been bankrolling our spending, it's all money we've generated by getting more than 20,000 people through the turnstiles every other week - with the added bonus of the two cup runs that have supplemented that income.

What actually was your point? You seem to change it at every possible opportunity... I've come to the conclusion that you're just a WUM.

Pretty sure it's been a fairly open secret that there's a 5-year plan to get back to the Premier League. As for the bonus, it surely goes without saying that he'd be on one for success within that timeframe - I've heard fairly consistent details from a number of sources that I trust, sources that will naturally remain anonymous.

Some might say even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day

Do you not think it somewhat odd that Radio Solent (and Blackmore in particular) seem to be the ones who get all of the club exclusives? Whether you appreciate his knowledge of the game or not (I don't listen to any radio station, so wouldn't really know), he tends to be on the money with a lot of the stories that have come out of the club in the last year or so. There's a reason for that - he has a very good contact within the club who is either very close to Cortese or is Cortese himself.

I'm sure I remember the "Platinum" games at St Mary's being £38... I love your blind optimism but what makes you think that Cortese will still be here by the time we're looking to increase capacity? Considering his irritation at us missing out on promotion this season, I think it's fair to say that the original five-year plan has been reduced somewhat. He's on a massive bonus if we get to the Premier League (not Premiership, see, we can all be pedantic arses), IMO he wants to get his hands on that and get the hell out of here as soon as he can.

How is that in any way different from believing that: a) everything Cortese says publicly is the truth and not even a slight variation of the truth (let alone an all-out lie), b) everything the Echo ever prints is a lie that they have made up to try to stitch up the football club (even when the actual source of the story stands by it); both of which you are 100% guilty of? On the second point, by the way, Adam Blackmore was ****ing himself laughing at people on here giving the Echo all the grief for the Pardew out/Liebherr not at the game story that he broke - couldn't believe his luck. Oh, and he still stands by it.

A little from A... In the past, the club used to have a box on the season ticket renewal form which would automatically renew the season ticket for the following season - understandable that this wasn't considered a year ago with the short timescales involved, but also arguably a missed trick.

Not true. Every year since he's been at the club, it has been Luker who has put together the pricing package for both season and matchday tickets, which have then been discussed and rubber-stamped by the board. The season ticket situation is far from the only thing which has led to poor communication from the club recently. Totally agree, no issue with the price at all. I don't think the £125 thing has had much bearing on peoples' views, really - anyone with half a brain knew that wasn't a realistic prospect - why would the club chuck away more than £1m in near-guaranteed revenues when they're trying to run the club in a sustainable manner? The main problem for me is that there's no obvious reason why these prices couldn't have been announced a month or more ago, thereby giving everyone more time to get the money together. Giving people 30 days at the renewal price makes the process seem really rushed - it's not as if the ticket office have been rushed off their feet with work since the end of the season, and there's no special announcement that the prices are linked to. It's all rather baffling, and certainly isn't the first time that's been the case with SFC this season.