How many season tickets???

So how many did we sell in the end????

Can't see it mentioned anywhere (sorry if it is on a thread somewhere).

I can only assume we've sold less or the same as last season, otherwise it would've been announced.

I heard it was slightly down on last season, not sure if true or not.

based on the inefficent way they were sold, sent out, books wrong i expect the ticket office is still trying to work it out

"we have sent out 17000 books but only 14500 paid for" could be the way of the conversation

bring back Dave Luker

I can only assume we've sold less or the same as last season, otherwise it would've been announced.

Yes last season the OS were highlighting sales in excess of 13,000 as soaring.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2096359,00.html

This year not a dickie bird from the Ministry of Truth. Can't really believe season ticket sales haven't exceeded 13K after promotion. Maybe we don't need a 60K seater stadium after all.

If they havent announced it then you can guarantee it's down on last season

Yes last season the OS were highlighting sales in excess of 13,000 as soaring.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2096359,00.html

 

This year not a dickie bird from the Ministry of Truth. Can't really believe season ticket sales haven't exceeded 13K after promotion. Maybe we don't need a 60K seater stadium after all.

........nice thought, but maybe we ought to get this one filled up to 32,000 before thinking too far ahead....

Didn`t NC say something in his programme notes for the Leeds game that he was impressed with the amount of ST`s sold or words to that effect??

It can't possibly be down can it ? I mean the club knows we'll pay for anything, right ? And go out of our way to throw the cash together in a recession to watch a team that wasn't selling out last season when winning all the time... and giving us a two week period to renew, charging to park, manually collect the tickets, hoiking up the amount it costs by over 70% for some of the longest serving fans, removing free U-8 STs everywhere except the Chapel, etc.

I wonder if last year's FREE U-8 tickets were counted in the 13k... cos I know of 4 people who had one and never used it who just don't have one anymore. We weren't making any money off them, but they made the numbers look better. Maybe that's where the shortfall is ?

I still can't believe there are people who genuinely think the club is being run as a business to maximise revenues - it's clearly just the adhoc ramblings of a banker with no retail, footballing or customer service experience pretty much making it up as he goes. Still, at least he's giving us access to a wad of cash and his eccentricities don't affect the on-field stuff (well, not since Pardew got fired), so I'll live with it.

Didn`t NC say something in his programme notes for the Leeds game that he was impressed with the amount of ST`s sold or words to that effect??

I think he said he was impressed that anybody had managed to buy a season ticket within the 2 week renewal period after all the other obstructive factors had been put in the way

So how many did we sell in the end????

 

Can't see it mentioned anywhere (sorry if it is on a thread somewhere).

Valid question... but I can see this being twisted into a "You're being anti Cortese" fest on the assumption that in asking the question, you're actually trying to make some mythical point about season ticket sale not being as much as expected...

It can't possibly be down can it ? I mean the club knows we'll pay for anything, right ? And go out of our way to throw the cash together in a recession to watch a team that wasn't selling out last season when winning all the time... and giving us a two week period to renew, charging to park, manually collect the tickets, hoiking up the amount it costs by over 70% for some of the longest serving fans, removing free U-8 STs everywhere except the Chapel, etc.

 

I wonder if last year's FREE U-8 tickets were counted in the 13k... cos I know of 4 people who had one and never used it who just don't have one anymore. We weren't making any money off them, but they made the numbers look better. Maybe that's where the shortfall is ?

 

I still can't believe there are people who genuinely think the club is being run as a business to maximise revenues - it's clearly just the adhoc ramblings of a banker with no retail, footballing or customer service experience pretty much making it up as he goes. Still, at least he's giving us access to a wad of cash and his eccentricities don't affect the on-field stuff (well, not since Pardew got fired), so I'll live with it.

That sort of " free ticket marketing " is a bit of a gimmick to get some bums on seats... but in the long term, a new fan who really gets bitten will become a "paying fan " in the future, regardless of the price of the ticket. Even when we were struggling in L1, it did get our home gates up to around the levels of the teams who got promoted.

I think he said he was impressed that anybody had managed to buy a season ticket within the 2 week renewal period after all the other obstructive factors had been put in the way

Oh yes. That was it. However, the tickets prices were announced at the beginning of June and the two week renewal period finished IIRC on July 15th. Not sure that this was much of a problem/obstruction though.

Apparently we've sold 36K season tickets, some kind of admin cock up. It hasn't been apparent at the Leeds game because of holidays, however NC is livid and (horses) heads will roll apparently.

I can't tell you where I got this information but it is as near to the top as you can get.

The advice is to get there early for the next home game as possession in 3/5ths of the law. Either that prepare to squidge up and go for a "one cheek on, one cheek off" strategy.

Oh yes. That was it. However, the tickets prices were announced at the beginning of June and the two week renewal period finished IIRC on July 15th. Not sure that this was much of a problem/obstruction though.

And the people who already had foreign holidays booked between the 1st July and 15th July were meant to cancel them so they could queue up at SMS with proof of identity, age and inside leg measurement, and manually collect the tickets which couldn't be collected until weeks later anyway.

Valid question... but I can see this being twisted into a "You're being anti Cortese" fest on the assumption that in asking the question, you're actually trying to make some mythical point about season ticket sale not being as much as expected...

Howdy Daren.

Was a serious question in that at this time of the season the number of season tickets sold sometimes takes on a life of its own in the minds of supporters (even I get a tad emotional/impressed when I hear we're near to selling out, or taking 3,000 away!!!!!).

Called the Leeds game right a couple of weeks back in that I thought the attendance would be 25,000+ (and not the 22,000 people were worrying about), and just wondered how many season tickets we had sold.

Was concerned we'd only sell about as many as last year (given price rises, changes to age groups and general selling strategy), but am worried it might not even be that. For me season tickets underpin attendances and always like to see SMS as full as possible.

The Leeds attendance was decent, just hope season ticket sales aren't that bad and that performances on the pitch tempt others to come and pay on the day.

It always annoyed me how quickly the Echo jumped to attack the club for raising the age of Senior season tickets without mentioning that last year's Under 8 Free Season ticket had been extended to Under-12's.

My younger brother and sister (both had season tickets last year and would not have had they had to pay, as a result they are both now in love with the club (their birthday list consisted of the Saints home kit, Saints away kit and a Saints teddy bear) and are delighted to still have a season ticket this year.

They may be young but I expect that the majority of fans at SMS that pay for tickets now were once taken to a game a young child and haven't looked back since.

It can't possibly be down can it ? I mean the club knows we'll pay for anything, right ? And go out of our way to throw the cash together in a recession to watch a team that wasn't selling out last season when winning all the time... and giving us a two week period to renew, charging to park, manually collect the tickets, hoiking up the amount it costs by over 70% for some of the longest serving fans, removing free U-8 STs everywhere except the Chapel, etc.

 

I wonder if last year's FREE U-8 tickets were counted in the 13k... cos I know of 4 people who had one and never used it who just don't have one anymore. We weren't making any money off them, but they made the numbers look better. Maybe that's where the shortfall is ?

 

I still can't believe there are people who genuinely think the club is being run as a business to maximise revenues - it's clearly just the adhoc ramblings of a banker with no retail, footballing or customer service experience pretty much making it up as he goes. Still, at least he's giving us access to a wad of cash and his eccentricities don't affect the on-field stuff (well, not since Pardew got fired), so I'll live with it.

At last someone on here can see through the nonsense that has been talked about the present executive. Hooray !!

Abuse please as usual.

it's clearly just the adhoc ramblings of a banker with no retail, footballing or customer service experience pretty much making it up as he goes. Still, at least he's giving us access to a wad of cash and his eccentricities don't affect the on-field stuff (well, not since Pardew got fired), so I'll live with it.

If he gets results like we have been having (on and off the pitch) without 'any retail, footballing or customer service experience' ..., cant wait to see how we will do when he 'gets some' - ;-)

Maybe... folk should also factor in the current economic climate before we read too much into ST sales whatever they may be.

If he gets results like we have been having (on and off the pitch) without 'any retail, footballing or customer service experience' ..., cant wait to see how we will do when he 'gets some' - ;-)

 

Maybe... folk should also factor in the current economic climate before we read too much into ST sales whatever they may be.

I thought the gate against Leeds was exceptionally good, but time will tell on that one. My straw poll for the Leeds game only comes from the circle of other saints fans I talk to on a regular basis. Of those a couple were still on holiday and a couple watched the game on Sky because of commitments for the Saturday evening. Half of those were season ticket holders, so they would still be counted but there was scope for a significantly higher gate later in the season at the standard kick off time.

I don't know what the economic climate will do to ticket sales, but I cannot see it as positive. I have always noticed big gaps in the season ticket holders for the first game of the season down to holidays, so there is no reason why that should not extend to ticket sales. Saturday evening kick offs on Sky have always suffered significantly so I can only look at those Leeds figures as promising, but all we have to do is wait a few games to find out a more accurate answer.

It was mentioned on another thread that we'd sold just over 14.5k.

Apologies, I can't remember who posted or which thread.

based on the inefficent way they were sold, sent out, books wrong i expect the ticket office is still trying to work it out

"we have sent out 17000 books but only 14500 paid for" could be the way of the conversation

bring back Dave Luker

David Luker was a good guy, hadnt realised he had left.

We were one of those with 'problem' season tickets, which were issued starting at Match 9, and I was looking forward to talking to him to sort them out.

He almost went to Everton a few years ago - any idea where he has gone ?

David Luker was a good guy, hadnt realised he had left.

We were one of those with 'problem' season tickets, which were issued starting at Match 9, and I was looking forward to talking to him to sort them out.

He almost went to Everton a few years ago - any idea where he has gone ?

Was at the Rosebowl TO a few months ago.

Was at the Rosebowl TO a few months ago.

I believe he has left the Rosebowl.

How many sold this year?

N/t

Has to be down on last year given the early and mid summer debacle.

Unlike those of us with blind faith who renew with our hearts, there will have been many who'd have used their heads and watched carefully whether the whole set up was going to collapse! I suspect the optimism will start to increase now though, and with it sales.

Still, sometimes good for the hearts, I've been rewarded with the early bird renewal rate after all!

I've renewed my 3 but I know a few people sat around me who were saying they weren't going to bother renewing for varying reasons,but I'm guessing it will probably be on a par with last seasons count.

mine finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. had changed address, postcards came to my new address but STs went to old address but fortunately someone there bothered to tell me.

Plenty of seats left for Saturday's game unfortunately. Would be good to have close to a full house for Koeman's first competitive home game.

No chance we would have improved on last year.

I really wish Saints would take the lead in discounting tickets like the German sides. With the amount of money we got in through transfers plus huge tv money, ticket sales make up a tiny amount of the revenue. Can't remember which club it was in Germany but their chairman said something along the lines of "why charge €500 for a season ticket when you can charge €100? The amount we'd lose out on can be made up through 2 hours of negotiating on a transfer in or out"

Would love us to do STs for £150 for renewals and cap them at 27k or something. The club would get huge praise and recognition as well as sell out every single game.

No chance we would have improved on last year.

 

I really wish Saints would take the lead in discounting tickets like the German sides. With the amount of money we got in through transfers plus huge tv money, ticket sales make up a tiny amount of the revenue. Can't remember which club it was in Germany but their chairman said something along the lines of "why charge €500 for a season ticket when you can charge €100? The amount we'd lose out on can be made up through 2 hours of negotiating on a transfer in or out"

 

Would love us to do STs for £150 for renewals and cap them at 27k or something. The club would get huge praise and recognition as well as sell out every single game.

You've got to be kidding? That would have a massive impact on our finances. We're not Bayern Munich with their commercial income, it's not a relevant comparison.

15,000 x £600 = £9,000,000

15,000 x £300 = £4,500,000

£4.5m difference, not utterly insignificant but only the sort of money that a reserve LB would cost in today's football.

15,000 x £600 = £9,000,000

15,000 x £300 = £4,500,000

 

£4.5m difference, not utterly insignificant but only the sort of money that a reserve LB would cost in today's football.

We rely on ticket revenue and Season ticket sales, if we start discounting that then we end up without a club. As Sour Mash said, we have no real global pull in a commercial sense. Byern are raking it in via Sponsorships, global advertising deals and the like. They also have an enormous stadium and an enormous fan base, they sell out every week.

We don't.

We rely on ticket revenue and Season ticket sales, if we start discounting that then we end up without a club. As Sour Mash said, we have no real global pull in a commercial sense. Byern are raking it in via Sponsorships, global advertising deals and the like. They also have an enormous stadium and an enormous fan base, they sell out every week.

 

We don't.

Think Steve Grant made an informed comment on the matter a while back

If my memory serves me correct, I think we sold somewhere in the region of 20-22,000 season tickets last year and the suggestion is that the number has dropped to around the 16,000 mark this year.

Assuming an average of around £500 per ticket (net of Vat) this would mean a reduced income of between £2m - £3m.

A reasonable amount but, to put in context, probably less than we will pay players agents this year

It seems the club is struggling to sell tickets for the WBA game as they have been sending out emails to all registered fans imploring them to buy tickets.

I can see a crowd of around 27 -28k for the game reminiscent of the Wigan game in our first year back in the top division.

We lost that 2-0!!

15,000 x £600 = £9,000,000

15,000 x £300 = £4,500,000

 

£4.5m difference, not utterly insignificant but only the sort of money that a reserve LB would cost in today's football.

That’s never going to happen, imagine if they did? Imagine what demand would be like, there’d be a massive waiting list, plus a bun fight every time tickets were released for home games (as tickets would be, what about £15?). You’d get family members taking over ST’s even when the holder has died (as happens at Utd and L’pool). It would annoy more people who couldn’t get an ST, than are annoyed now because they are priced out. You can’t just breeze in and chop something by 50%.

To me the increase in ST and matchday prices is a mistake of epic proportions and crowd numbers, outside the biggest games, will reflect it.

We rely on ticket revenue and Season ticket sales, if we start discounting that then we end up without a club. As Sour Mash said, we have no real global pull in a commercial sense. Byern are raking it in via Sponsorships, global advertising deals and the like. They also have an enormous stadium and an enormous fan base, they sell out every week.

 

We don't.

No we don't, we rely on Sky money.

Unless football has its own property bubble burst, and by that I mean the collapse of TV deals, I very much doubt prices will change.

No we don't, we rely on Sky money.

Not just Sky, the foreign deals are the reason for the last massive increase in TV revenue.

To me the increase in ST and matchday prices is a mistake of epic proportions and crowd numbers, outside the biggest games, will reflect it.

I could not agree more. Absolutely no reason for putting the prices up again this summer whilst all around us prices remained the same or even dropped.

If you price season tickets too low in reliance on Sky money, what are you going to do if you get relegated, increase prices?

Like someone else said, it's fine if you're Dortmund/Munich/Barcelona but it's too risky if you're Saints.

If people want prices to drop they need to stop buying tickets. At the end of the day, from a business perspective, if you're selling out 80%+ of the ground then prices, by definition, are not "too" high.

I wish it were cheaper but it would need some sort of central governance to achieve. Can't expect clubs like Saints to take the risk alone.

They also have an enormous stadium and an enormous fan base, they sell out every week.

The old argument emerges! But we're never going to increase our fan base with current prices, and as others have intimated on here, people formerly with season tickets have given up, and at £600/700 a pop it's difficult to persuade new fans to buy them. People will pick and choose and any minor barrier to going, which wouldn't affect you if you had a season ticket, will kill a sale. Even if people can afford a ST (and I can, just) there begins to build up a barrier of resentment that you're being taken for a ride and I'm sure some people have given up for that reason.

For the first time in some time I went to the pre-season friendly. A tenner to see the new players I could justify, and it was great to see all the kids there (a very high percentage with shirts too). How do you keep those people coming: not at current season ticket prices you can't.

Not sure there's an easy answer, but squeezing the suckers isn't one of them.

For a club of our size, I don't think you can ever just write off millions of pounds worth of core revenue like that without some sort of clear plan to recoup that money in the long term, but at the same time they need to actually think about what they're doing. The club needs to remember that there isn't one single reason why somebody would choose to not renew a season ticket - whether it's based on price, likelihood of being able to attend all the games, the perceived direction of the club/first team, other personal circumstances, etc - some of those reasons, the club can't do anything about, but some of them are very much in their hands.

In theory, having seen a net drop of around 700 season ticket holders for 2013/14 (the actual number of people not renewing would have been much higher, but offset by new season ticket holders), you would think that the club would be concerned by that, but (to use very raw figures which won't be remotely accurate) 19,300 paying £600 is still more than 20,000 paying £575, albeit only by around £80,000 - certainly not a massive amount in that context. The problem comes with a summer like we've had, where there's been a large cloud of negativity lingering for months, right in the middle of the season ticket renewal period, and the realisation that you could buy a ticket for every single home game last season without any issue - even the Man United game went to general sale to those on the club's database. I suspect the club found the optimum price/attendance balance last season, not in terms of what would guarantee a sell-out, but in terms of what people were willing to pay. Now they've added another £2 onto every home ticket, I'm not convinced our attendances will hold up as well as they did last season, especially as the "big" games are concentrated in a clump from the end of November to New Year's Day.

While the club obviously has to factor ticket sales into its overall budget - and ticket sales make up a much bigger percentage of revenue than every one of the teams who finished above us last season, so it's vitally important - there's surely got to be a bit of room for a combination of common sense and creativity. A price freeze on season tickets would have been a start, perhaps they'll do half-season tickets at Christmas, maybe they could have encouraged early renewals with a 50% discount on the new shirt if they were going ahead with the price increase, so at least people felt they were getting something tangible for the extra £24 or whatever it was. There must be loads of little things they could come up with. Hell, why not bring back a membership scheme for first dibs on tickets after season ticket holders, for those who are willing to pay £10-20 for the privilege?

Ultimately, while many of us will do our damnedest to renew our season tickets more or less regardless of how much they try to squeeze out of us, everybody has a limit of what they deem fair and reasonable. Once the club crosses that line, I'm not sure it's entirely likely they'll ever get those fans back as season ticket holders again, and it seems far-fetched to imagine that those people would genuinely go on a per-game basis paying the going rate and end up even more out of pocket, so the overall revenue from those people still goes down.

To me the increase in ST and matchday prices is a mistake of epic proportions and crowd numbers, outside the biggest games, will reflect it.

Agreed. I can't believe I'm paying £46 (+£1 booking fee) each to watch Saints play West Brom Granted, it's the Itchen, on the halfway line, but that's a LOT of money per ticket ... with a 4 week old baby at home now, I won't be too worried about having to get a green card from my wife to go to many matches at those prices. Armchair heaven here we go

I went to the Leverkusen game with Weston and West Stand. We talked about the greed and money that is awash in football. Weston made the point that next season he may not renew as he is totally disillusioned by the way football has gone and is going. I think he won't be alone.

I went to the Leverkusen game with Weston and West Stand. We talked about the greed and money that is awash in football. Weston made the point that next season he may not renew as he is totally disillusioned by the way football has gone and is going. I think he won't be alone.

I've been feeling very similar and the feeling only grows with each year we're in the premier league. The game is ****ing rotten at its core these days

...everybody has a limit of what they deem fair and reasonable. Once the club crosses that line, I'm not sure it's entirely likely they'll ever get those fans back as season ticket holders again, and it seems far-fetched to imagine that those people would genuinely go on a per-game basis paying the going rate and end up even more out of pocket, so the overall revenue from those people still goes down.

Stop buying a season ticket and you get out of the routine. How many former season ticket holders renew at a later point - when the price will have gone up again and you won't be entitled to an early bird price either, so the price will be even more expensive than when you decided enough was enough.

We rely on ticket revenue and Season ticket sales, if we start discounting that then we end up without a club. As Sour Mash said, we have no real global pull in a commercial sense. Byern are raking it in via Sponsorships, global advertising deals and the like. They also have an enormous stadium and an enormous fan base, they sell out every week.

 

We don't.

agreed but they also have bigger costs