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Can we use season ticket renewals to oust Lowe?


SaintBobby
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Just the bare bones here of an idea...

 

1. We have about 9,000 season ticket holders.

 

2. A good number of these people won't renew because of the Lowe-Wilde chairmanships. (group A)

 

3. A good number of people will renew - despite being strongly opposed to the Lowe-Wilde chairmanships. (group B)

 

4. Obviously, there are still a good number of people who will renew regardless (or will not renew regardless) of Lowe-Wilde and/or which division we're in.

 

5. To use financial muscle to remove Lowe-Wilde, we need to unite the people in group A and group B. This would probably amount to - I don't know - 3,000+ season ticket holders?

 

6. The board are at their weakest - financially - vis-a-vis the fans at the point of season ticket renewal. It's all very well for me to join a demo, or boycott the next home game or whatever - but the truth is that the club got my hard-earned wonga ages ago. They don't directly care if I turn up now or not.

 

7. The board have a helluva problem in setting terms for season ticket renewal anyway. Even if the board were suddenly taken over by angels, what price should be set, when and why? Slash prices because we'll probably be in League One? Or try and hit loyalists for a cash fix now to fend off financial meltdown?

 

8. As/when/if the new season ticket prices are set and renewals invited, we should get as many people as possible to renew with a post-dated cheque (dated, say, July 1st 2009) with a covering letter saying that the cheque will be cancelled if Lowe and Wilde are still in charge on June 30th, but will otherwise be honoured.

 

9. Some respected fan group - e.g. this forum, a Saints trust, the demo organisers or whatever - need to become the proactive "depository" for the names, membership numbers etc of the "protestors".

 

10. This database of hundreds/thousands of names can then be used (without infringing the data protection rights of the signatories) to generate both (a) media coverage and (b) influence on major SLH shareholders and the financial institutions to which we are in hoc.

 

11. Lowe and Wilde are forced from office on the basis of crude, but real, cash numbers.

 

12. Saints begin their assent up the league ladder and win the Champions League in 2014.

 

Ok...#12 is a little optimistic, but maybe #11 is achievable?

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I started a similar thread recently on this very topic - http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=9584

 

You have managed to set-out the idea very well, although frankly trying to get groups A + B together is going to be tough and a concerted effort is not in the nature of this fragmented club now.

 

The key to this subject IMO is slightly different to yours of getting Lowe and Wilde out (although that would happen as a result). For example, I would not care that Lowe and Wilde were in power IF the strategies were working...IF the PLC status was going to attract investment. It is these two essential issues that need to be resolved. And the ONLY way they will be resolved now at this late stage is for SLH to enter administration - this will end the PLC and effectively end an era of extremely poor governance (by Lowe and Wilde).

 

It will be risky - there are no guarantees - but once done, it will be exciting once again and a new team will be worthy of support (because they will NEED our support to succeed). The process can be started as you suggest by ST holders not renewing until late June/July. It will take balls of steel from all ST holders to do this and the aftermath will not be pretty, but drastic surgery is now needed - protests, marches, banners etc are not going to change things this time IMO, as Lowe and Co are entrenched.

 

I'm reminded of nature and how natural fires cleanse the ground and allow new green shoots to grow. RISE UP ST HOLDERS! Let's start the real revolution at SFC - let's rid ourselves of the structure that has brought this once great club to its knees. Let's provide the opportunity for new hope to sweep through the club, for if we don't we will surely see the death of the club anyway in the not too distant future.

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Just the bare bones here of an idea...

 

1. We have about 9,000 season ticket holders.

 

2. A good number of these people won't renew because of the Lowe-Wilde chairmanships. (group A)

 

3. A good number of people will renew - despite being strongly opposed to the Lowe-Wilde chairmanships. (group B)

 

4. Obviously, there are still a good number of people who will renew regardless (or will not renew regardless) of Lowe-Wilde and/or which division we're in.

 

5. To use financial muscle to remove Lowe-Wilde, we need to unite the people in group A and group B. This would probably amount to - I don't know - 3,000+ season ticket holders?

 

6. The board are at their weakest - financially - vis-a-vis the fans at the point of season ticket renewal. It's all very well for me to join a demo, or boycott the next home game or whatever - but the truth is that the club got my hard-earned wonga ages ago. They don't directly care if I turn up now or not.

 

7. The board have a helluva problem in setting terms for season ticket renewal anyway. Even if the board were suddenly taken over by angels, what price should be set, when and why? Slash prices because we'll probably be in League One? Or try and hit loyalists for a cash fix now to fend off financial meltdown?

 

8. As/when/if the new season ticket prices are set and renewals invited, we should get as many people as possible to renew with a post-dated cheque (dated, say, July 1st 2009) with a covering letter saying that the cheque will be cancelled if Lowe and Wilde are still in charge on June 30th, but will otherwise be honoured.

 

9. Some respected fan group - e.g. this forum, a Saints trust, the demo organisers or whatever - need to become the proactive "depository" for the names, membership numbers etc of the "protestors".

 

10. This database of hundreds/thousands of names can then be used (without infringing the data protection rights of the signatories) to generate both (a) media coverage and (b) influence on major SLH shareholders and the financial institutions to which we are in hoc.

 

11. Lowe and Wilde are forced from office on the basis of crude, but real, cash numbers.

 

12. Saints begin their assent up the league ladder and win the Champions League in 2014.

 

Ok...#12 is a little optimistic, but maybe #11 is achievable?

 

 

http://www.sthu.co.uk

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am i right in saying that you can purchase a season ticket at any point during the season? if so perhaps the 9000 season ticket holders could be persuaded to promise not to buy until lowe and wilde have departed.

some sort of list could be drawn up of the people willing to buy a season ticket if a change happens and this could be presented to any potential buyers of the club to let them know that they will have the backing of the fans.

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I won't be renewing my ST because of economic reasons, namely I am skint and because the country is now in a depression I am only likely to get more skint. Therefore, regrettably I have had to take the decision to cut out all non-essential spending and that has got to mean football as well. This season I will have spent more than £1,000 supporting Saints all in all (travel, ST, away days, hotels etc) and I can not justify this next season. It is gutting. I will try to get to as many games as possible but I doubt it will be more than a handful, and only when I have spare cash at the end of the week.

 

That there will be an added benefit of one less ST sold on Rupert's chart then good, but the reason I will not be renewing is primarily because I can't afford to.

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re: Post Dated Cheques:

 

Mrs Neil works for a building society and informs me that writing a post dated cheque is illegal. She also said that there is nothing stopping the payee presenting said cheque to their bank and if that bank does not notice the wrong date they will put it in the system. If you have sufficient funds in your account then there is every chance that the cash will be withdrawn. If you don't then you will be hit with bank charges.

 

I only post this as a warning - you write a post dated cheque at your risk, it might still be cashed.

 

I fall into the should we/shouldn't we 'b' category. We have prime position seats at the moment and are loathe to give them up, yet, nothing has really encouraged us to consider renewing yet - the team are playing some mediocre football and there seems little liklihood that there will be any improvement if the current situation is left as it is (ie the head coach/playing youth over experience/crazy decisions made at boardroom level).

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re: Post Dated Cheques:

 

Mrs Neil works for a building society and informs me that writing a post dated cheque is illegal. She also said that there is nothing stopping the payee presenting said cheque to their bank and if that bank does not notice the wrong date they will put it in the system. If you have sufficient funds in your account then there is every chance that the cash will be withdrawn. If you don't then you will be hit with bank charges.

 

I only post this as a warning - you write a post dated cheque at your risk, it might still be cashed.

 

I fall into the should we/shouldn't we 'b' category. We have prime position seats at the moment and are loathe to give them up, yet, nothing has really encouraged us to consider renewing yet - the team are playing some mediocre football and there seems little liklihood that there will be any improvement if the current situation is left as it is (ie the head coach/playing youth over experience/crazy decisions made at boardroom level).

 

 

Anyway you should never accept a post dated cheque because if the drawer snuffs it or goes bankrupt it becomes obsolete. Only currently dated cheques with an agreement not to present them until a certain date are good practice if you want to be kind to someone.

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am i right in saying that you can purchase a season ticket at any point during the season? if so perhaps the 9000 season ticket holders could be persuaded to promise not to buy until lowe and wilde have departed.

some sort of list could be drawn up of the people willing to buy a season ticket if a change happens and this could be presented to any potential buyers of the club to let them know that they will have the backing of the fans.

 

 

i think though that 5/7 K supporters will renew under most circumstances.

Saints are like smoking and drugs, you know it's nocive but you can't give it up that easily.

Those 5/7K will provide the funds to carry on (probably in L1) next season with

a very mediocre team and a player/coach salary budget of around 3 million for the year. There will be no Saga,Surman,Morgan,Euell,Skacel,Davies,Lallana or McGoldrick (silver lining eh) and we will be just as awful as this season but we may find someone who can actually score and do quite well.

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Just the bare bones here of an idea...

 

 

8. As/when/if the new season ticket prices are set and renewals invited, we should get as many people as possible to renew with a post-dated cheque (dated, say, July 1st 2009) with a covering letter saying that the cheque will be cancelled if Lowe and Wilde are still in charge on June 30th, but will otherwise be honoured.

 

 

Needs to be earlier than June 30. In the recession, most fans who want to renew will want to pay early bird prices.

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I think all the Season Ticket holders should fill out the renewal forms in full and just send them back with "Please contact me when Lowe and Wilde are no longer connected in any way to the club" writen in the payment details section.

 

Brilliant idea!

 

As many season tickets holders do not visit this site but probably read the Echo, get this suggestion into the Echo asap.

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Apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, but I glanced at a number of threads whilst I was at work earlier.

 

Did someone manage to get a refund on the unused part of their season ticket? If it's possible, then the obvious trick is for all season ticket holders wishing to boycott to request refunds. Having to write out a few refund cheques would make Lowe extremely nervous.

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Apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, but I glanced at a number of threads whilst I was at work earlier.

 

Did someone manage to get a refund on the unused part of their season ticket? If it's possible, then the obvious trick is for all season ticket holders wishing to boycott to request refunds. Having to write out a few refund cheques would make Lowe extremely nervous.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. How do we go about getting ST refunds NOW?

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Apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, but I glanced at a number of threads whilst I was at work earlier.

 

Did someone manage to get a refund on the unused part of their season ticket? If it's possible, then the obvious trick is for all season ticket holders wishing to boycott to request refunds. Having to write out a few refund cheques would make Lowe extremely nervous.

 

The chap who sat next to me in Itchen Block 10 got a refund after a couple of games. The next time I saw him was at the Swansea game a couple of weeks ago. Don't know how much he got back but he said he got a cheque without a covering letter or compliment slip.

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