Is Cortese deliberately trying to annoy the fans.

[Wurzel]

Not telesales but I have worked in Insurance, and done internal sales. The flaw in your plan is that the people wilthout season tickets won't make 23 "contacts" a season. Also, what else is there to upsell? Saints have tried getting involved in the finance/insurance industries and massively failed. When I was in Insurance we sold Healthcare but I had the option to upsell personal accident insurance, home, car etc... what could the club realistically upsell?

 

Buy a season ticket and the club has your membership for a year and your commitment, they have your commitment that you will turn up 23 times a year onto their selling ground, buy their programmes, burgers, beers, megastore etc etc...

 

Businesses would much prefer to have you in their shop to upsell other products, rather than using unskilled call centre operatives.

 

Agree that not many will make 23 contacts but most would make more than 1.

 

I used to have a ST for 3 or 4 seasons. I never once bought a programme, once (never again) bought a burger and twice had a beer inside SMS (always had a drink but drank in pubs not SMS). There's plenty of things they could promote, like say a 50% one off voucher to be used against those items to get someone who doesn't ever buy them to try them. Or just announcing a special offer on a certain range in the mega store only. Or "do you travel to away games, have you ever tried our coaches?" type questioning. It could be even simple survey taking like a "how are we doing" type, or "nominate your player of the month?" or if they want really good customer service " what guest ale would you like us to stock?". They couldn't do any of that in the ground on matchdays without either printing off 1000s of leaflets or causing horrendous queues at the turnstile.

 

And all done at your expense as it's done whilst you're at the ticket office or on your phone bill whilst booking tickets.

[dune]

What are these perks ? marketing season tickets is surely a nailed on must

 

You'd have thought so, it's happened every time before and even as a non st holder I used to receive red hot saints stuff etc and didn't the club used to advertise in the city centre?

[SaintRichmond]

What are these perks ? marketing season tickets is surely a nailed on must

 

For example, renew your ST early, and you get it "cheaper" If you don't, you pay FULL PRICE

 

In that sense it is a "perk" ie Less Money Outlay

[saint_mears]

For example, renew your ST early, and you get it "cheaper" If you don't, you pay FULL PRICE

 

In that sense it is a "perk" ie Less Money Outlay

 

Thats a perk ! crikey i hope thats not what the thinking is

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Agree that not many will make 23 contacts but most would make more than 1.

 

I used to have a ST for 3 or 4 seasons. I never once bought a programme, once (never again) bought a burger and twice had a beer inside SMS (always had a drink but drank in pubs not SMS). There's plenty of things they could promote, like say a 50% one off voucher to be used against those items to get someone who doesn't ever buy them to try them. Or just announcing a special offer on a certain range in the mega store only. Or "do you travel to away games, have you ever tried our coaches?" type questioning. It could be even simple survey taking like a "how are we doing" type, or "nominate your player of the month?" or if they want really good customer service " what guest ale would you like us to stock?". They couldn't do any of that in the ground on matchdays without either printing off 1000s of leaflets or causing horrendous queues at the turnstile.

 

And all done at your expense as it's done whilst you're at the ticket office or on your phone bill whilst booking tickets.

 

Surveying and Sales - Get the Academy boys in the concourse speaking to people ( doesn't have to be at the turnstiles ) , fans would enjoy interacting with the Academy players, it's free labour and a valuable customer service tool and data capture. They could also promote and sell coach tickets etc for away travel, take payments direct from the till at one of the kiosks.

 

One thing I have never understood is why SFC and most clubs never sell any merchandise in the concourses, although it's of no interest to me ( obviously ) , I don't understand why they don't sell merchandise in each kiosk and the outside perimiter of the stadium, selling flags, jester hats, vuvuzelas ( lol ) , t-shirts and other cheap matchday merchandise. Don't even need any further resourcing, sell them through the food bars inside and stick a table up outside and get Academy players on them.

 

There are ways to upsell, but I don't think there is anything the club can upsell over the phone, even coach travel, everyone ( including season ticket holders ) has to make contact to buy an away ticket, it's at that point the club should sell the travel club as an add-on to that specific purchase. Is pointless trying to sell a ticket to Hartlepool away when they are buying a ticket for Charlton at home.

 

IMO it is much easier to sell when someone is in your shop rather than on the phone, St Marys is their shop and they should concentrate on getting as many people through the doors as possible.

 

Just my opinion, right or wrong.

Edited 1 July, 2010 by Dave Benson Phillips

[The Kraken]

But fans won't pay top whack for League 1 football.

 

All the people who are in the " I will pay anything, as long as I get to see Saints play " group will have a season ticket ( minus the people who were forced out )

 

That leaves the fans who won't pay for success, they want to go and watch football, but at a good price and there needs to be offers etc. £25 for League 1 game does not provide value for money to people in this group. It might be acceptable to all of you in the core 'ardent fan' group, but after beer, programme, bus etc you are looking at £40 for a League 1 game.

 

Also, I really don't think we spent much over our revenue, with maybe the exception being the initial signings ( which would have been factored into the purchase price )

 

The ardent fans might 'pay extra for the good of the team' , but the ones which the club are relying on to come in and fill the ground most definately won't.

 

It won't work, it's a stupid and naive business decision and if it does work I will happily admit I am wrong.

 

I'm not sure I agree with your first point. I'm speaking purely my opinion as someone who over the years has been to anywhere between 5 and 15 home games a season, but prices this year are roughly the same as last year (give or take a quid or two plus the infernal booking tax, of course). However, I don't think the price change will deter that many fans from coming, so long as the team are performing and we're in one of the top two league places. Sure, there will be the odd midweeek game or two that will have lower attendances but in the main I really think we'll see significantly increased gates from last year. Ticket booking fees will be circumvented either by more people popping to the ground after work or buying tickets in bulk so to spread the cost. There will be some, of course, who won't go because of cost but I think this number will be significantly outnumbered by those who want to be part of a promotion push. Of course, if the team aren't performing, I expect lower gates than last year and some proper fan unrest.

 

I very much agree with your point that we haven't spent too much over revenue, and have actually always said this. When we bought Lambert, Hammond etc at the start of the season it was conveniently forgotten by the "in NC we trust" brigade that just 1 or 2 months prior to those purchases we had just sold £3m worth of talent (Surman, McGoldrick, Rasiak et al) from what was already a below average squad. Add in the FA Cup full house and TV rights from the Pompey game, plus the Wembley final (an attendance of nearly 74,000 would have netted us at least £1M in ticket sales alone), plus various other high gates (MK Dons semi final etc) and our revenues would have been well up from the budgeted figures, hence we could shell out for Fonte and Barnyard in the New Year.

 

It will be interesting to see how this all ends up. Cortese could very easily end up with egg all over his face. Then again, if we're top of the league and crowds are in the mid to high twenty thousands, he'll look like a genius. Only time will tell, but one thing is sure; the PR surrounding all this has been an inexcusable, unmitigated disaster.

[Big Bad Bob]

it was conveniently forgotten by the "in NC we trust" brigade that just 1 or 2 months prior to those purchases we had just sold £3m worth of talent (Surman, McGoldrick, Rasiak et al) from what was already a below average squad.

 

Umm, weren't they sold by the Administrators to cover the club's running costs?

 

ML would never have seen this money as it would have been earmarked for the people Saints owed money to!

Edited 1 July, 2010 by Big Bad Bob
apostrophe catastrophe

[Wurzel]

Surveying and Sales - Get the Academy boys in the concourse speaking to people ( doesn't have to be at the turnstiles ) , fans would enjoy interacting with the Academy players, it's free labour and a valuable customer service tool and data capture. They could also promote and sell coach tickets etc for away travel, take payments direct from the till at one of the kiosks.

 

One thing I have never understood is why SFC and most clubs never sell any merchandise in the concourses, although it's of no interest to me ( obviously ) , I don't understand why they don't sell merchandise in each kiosk and the outside perimiter of the stadium, selling flags, jester hats, vuvuzelas ( lol ) , t-shirts and other cheap matchday merchandise. Don't even need any further resourcing, sell them through the food bars inside and stick a table up outside and get Academy players on them.

 

There are ways to upsell, but I don't think there is anything the club can upsell over the phone, even coach travel, everyone ( including season ticket holders ) has to make contact to buy an away ticket, it's at that point the club should sell the travel club as an add-on to that specific purchase. Is pointless trying to sell a ticket to Hartlepool away when they are buying a ticket for Charlton at home.

 

IMO it is much easier to sell when someone is in your shop rather than on the phone, St Marys is their shop and they should concentrate on getting as many people through the doors as possible.

 

Just my opinion, right or wrong.

 

The away travel was just an example, but they wouldn't be selling it at that point, just making sure people are aware of it. It's too late trying to sell them a coach they are unaware of to take them to Hartlepool when buying their Hartlepool ticket, I'd guess most people know how they are getting to an away game and who with before they get their match ticket. So you bring it to their attention well before.

 

I like the selling merchandise inside the stadium idea - that could be a real money spinner. Megastore is often crowded enough on matchdays to put people off bothering. But if little Jimmy spots someone waving a foam hand inside the ground and wants one Dad can no longer say "you can't have one, we'd have to go outside to the shop and they won't let us back in" because little Jimmy will say "but you can get me one where you get your beer". Forget the adults, pester power aimed at kids could bring in loads. Plus it would be good to be able wander downstairs and browse through Mick Channons Autobiography during boring spells in the game ;-)

 

Like the idea of academy players surveying random fans in the concourse as well. Although one reservation - having seen 1000s of players giving (or trying to give) after match interviews over the years they are likely to be pretty one sided conversations LoL

 

(That's my 3 strikes and out for the day)

[The Kraken]

Umm, weren't they sold by the Administrators to cover the club's running costs?

 

ML would never have seen this money as it would have been earmarked for the people Saints owed money to!

 

Some of the money did indeed go to running the club (the DMG money I recall was the vital lifeline we needed while Mickey Fiasco kept kicking tyres). However, I don't think that all of the £3M would have been spent (Surman was sold on July 1st to Wolves, ML's buyout was completed on 8th July). In any case the transfers would surely have had an effect on either the price of the club to ML or the need to apportion working capital back (i.e. transfer funds received) back into the depleted playing squad.

[Crispypie]

So how much did ML spend on buying the club?

[The Kraken]

So how much did ML spend on buying the club?

 

I haven't seen it in the public domain but I believe a figure of around £13M was being hawked around at the time.

[stevegrant]

I haven't seen it in the public domain but I believe a figure of around £13M was being hawked around at the time.

It seems to be somewhere between £13m and £16m, from what I can gather. I wouldn't expect the full price to ever be revealed.

[Chez]

Buy a ST the club has contact with you once a year, apart from that you just turn up and watch. Buy 23 separate tickets and tha'ts 23 "contact" occasions they can try and sell you something else on top. It could catch on with other clubs if it works.

what a load of ********. Fans come to the website and to the stadium so there is plenty of contact with the club. Besides, fans won't pay £575 (23x£25) (not including booking fees) to watch every game. No chance. But even if they did what else have they got to sell?

 

I wonder what the average number of games non season ticket holders go to. 5, 6 maybe? Certainly no where near the 14 that makes it more cost effective to have a season ticket.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

what a load of ********. Fans come to the website and to the stadium so there is plenty of contact with the club. Besides, fans won't pay £575 (23x£25) (not including booking fees) to watch every game. No chance. But even if they did what else have they got to sell?

 

I wonder what the average number of games non season ticket holders go to. 5, 6 maybe? Certainly no where near the 14 that makes it more cost effective to have a season ticket.

 

It would actually be more than 14 games, because obviously bear in mind the average spend at the ground as well, so if someone has a season ticket, they are buying food and merchandise 23 times as well ( 9 times more than the non-ST break even point ), thus increasing their spend. So infact it is probably 16 or 17 games to make it cost effective for the club to have casual fans as opposed to STH's.

 

Is the average attendance of a casual fan going to be 17 games? It won't even be half that.

[saint1977]

Is there any chance that we could just see where we are in terms of ST sales by August and how well we fare on the pitch? If we're 7th in December and 15,000 gates then yes, some of the points being made might be valid. I just can't believe people are getting in such a state.

[sandwichsaint]

what a load of ********. Fans come to the website and to the stadium so there is plenty of contact with the club. Besides, fans won't pay £575 (23x£25) (not including booking fees) to watch every game. No chance. But even if they did what else have they got to sell?

 

I wonder what the average number of games non season ticket holders go to. 5, 6 maybe? Certainly no where near the 14 that makes it more cost effective to have a season ticket.

 

Not sure quite how you compute the maths but when we got to Cardiff and were flying high high under WGS ST holders had one ticket each (18-20 ST holders at that time?), plus corporates, plus players etc; then it went to memberships, they counted down the database 'games attended' and the cut off for a cup final ticket was 8 games (I know that because I had myself and my two lads exactly on 8 and Mrs Sandwich on 7 games - despite my special pleading we got three tkts rather than 4!).

 

When we were doing really well only a few thousand people had 8 or more games against their number (tho obviously balanced out in part by much larger number of ST holders).

 

On that basis there probably can't have been more than a couple of hundred last year with 14+ pay as you go attendances.... I went to 10 homes and 10 aways last season ... has NC factored in that having a ST ties a lot of your money and your time to attending home games ... without an ST you are much more able financially and everything else to attend more away games?

 

The break-even figure for non-renewers and for 'regular' walker-uppers of FOURTEEN GAMES looks massive from here ... if I had been SFS I would have tried to sell 20k STs at whatever price it took ... money in the bank.. a fairly full crowd every game... hooking in familes and groups 'for the journey' etc etc.

 

The only conclusion we can say is that we all know which is going to be the hottest seat in the stadium next season ... the one that AP sits on! Let's just hope that on the pitch we don't see an England-style crisis of over-confidence and paralysis by expectation. Any let-up in results and crowds will be smaller than last season, an extraordinary result given the feelgood end to last season.

[Chez]

It would actually be more than 14 games, because obviously bear in mind the average spend at the ground as well, so if someone has a season ticket, they are buying food and merchandise 23 times as well ( 9 times more than the non-ST break even point ), thus increasing their spend. So infact it is probably 16 or 17 games to make it cost effective for the club to have casual fans as opposed to STH's.

 

Is the average attendance of a casual fan going to be 17 games? It won't even be half that.

agreed. I doubt the average is more than 5 or 6.

 

Speaking as a season ticket holder since 1985, if I didn't renew then I'd probably stop going altogether. So my 0 games would bring the average down. However I could be watcing for another 30 years, but if the club treats me like **** then in the end I'll shrug my shoulders and say enough is enough and they can do without the £350 a year.

 

Actually its not even just treating me like ****. Its treating any Saints fans with total disrespect that ****s me off. I haven't needed to pay using staged payments, but its removal, without any notice, is such a complete stab in the back to loyal fans that have bankrolled this club for 125 years. This has ****ed me off to such a degree that I seriously wonder why I am supporting what is supposed to be a CLUB.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Edut

[Chez]

Not sure quite how you compute the maths but when we got to Cardiff and were flying high high under WGS ST holders had one ticket each (18-20 ST holders at that time?), plus corporates, plus players etc; then it went to memberships, they counted down the database 'games attended' and the cut off for a cup final ticket was 8 games (I know that because I had myself and my two lads exactly on 8 and Mrs Sandwich on 7 games - despite my special pleading we got three tkts rather than 4!).

 

When we were doing really well only a few thousand people had 8 or more games against their number (tho obviously balanced out in part by much larger number of ST holders).

 

On that basis there probably can't have been more than a couple of hundred last year with 14+ pay as you go attendances.... I went to 10 homes and 10 aways last season ... has NC factored in that having a ST ties a lot of your money and your time to attending home games ... without an ST you are much more able financially and everything else to attend more away games?

 

The break-even figure for non-renewers and for 'regular' walker-uppers of FOURTEEN GAMES looks massive from here ... if I had been SFS I would have tried to sell 20k STs at whatever price it took ... money in the bank.. a fairly full crowd every game... hooking in familes and groups 'for the journey' etc etc.

 

The only conclusion we can say is that we all know which is going to be the hottest seat in the stadium next season ... the one that AP sits on! Let's just hope that on the pitch we don't see an England-style crisis of over-confidence and paralysis by expectation. Any let-up in results and crowds will be smaller than last season, an extraordinary result given the feelgood end to last season.

 

Are we not agreeing that if you don't have a season ticket you won't be going to anywhere near the 14 games that woudl be required to equal the revenue brought in by a season ticket holder? Therefore I don;t see how having less season ticket holders will bring in more revenue this season. Even if we do really well you still won't see large numbers if fans going to 14 or 15 home games.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Are we not agreeing that if you don't have a season ticket you won't be going to anywhere near the 14 games that woudl be required to equal the revenue brought in by a season ticket holder? Therefore I don;t see how having less season ticket holders will bring in more revenue this season. Even if we do really well you still won't see large numbers if fans going to 14 or 15 home games.

 

Even if we were romping away at the top of the league, I still won't go to 14 home games. There will be at least 10 games I won't justify paying £25 for, weddings, other engagements, tv games, midweekers, crap opposition etc etc, 3 game months, games either side of away days etc and taking up the 3 or 4 corporate invites I get each season and lastly using mates season tickets who are on holiday...

 

I will probably do 6 or 7 homes next season, so they had the choice of...

 

£328

+ £6 spend per game on beer x 23 £138

 

Total - £466

 

Or if I go to 6 games ( the most likely figure )

 

Total - £168

 

So they have lost the best part of £300 from me.

 

Genius.

[Big Bad Bob]

Are we not agreeing that if you don't have a season ticket you won't be going to anywhere near the 14 games that woudl be required to equal the revenue brought in by a season ticket holder? Therefore I don;t see how having less season ticket holders will bring in more revenue this season. Even if we do really well you still won't see large numbers if fans going to 14 or 15 home games.

 

No I doubt if you will have large numbes of fans going to 14 or 15 home games but you WILL see average attendance in the mid to mid-high 20ks (that's 24k-27k).

 

OK that high may be pushing it but you will certainly see a bigger average gate than last season! I would put my 3.5 year olds scooter on that!!

[Dave Benson Phillips]

No I doubt if you will have large numbes of fans going to 14 or 15 home games but you WILL see average attendance in the mid to mid-high 20ks (that's 24k-27k).

 

OK that high may be pushing it but you will certainly see a bigger average gate than last season! I would put my 3.5 year olds scooter on that!!

 

Deal.

 

And don't forget, if the amount of season ticket holders that have not renewed don't go to 16 games next season, then Cortese has failed, regardless of the average attendance.

[John Smith]

Even if we were romping away at the top of the league, I still won't go to 14 home games. There will be at least 10 games I won't justify paying £25 for, weddings, other engagements, tv games, midweekers, crap opposition etc etc, 3 game months, games either side of away days etc and taking up the 3 or 4 corporate invites I get each season and lastly using mates season tickets who are on holiday...

 

I will probably do 6 or 7 homes next season, so they had the choice of...

 

£328

+ £6 spend per game on beer x 23 £138

 

Total - £466

 

Or if I go to 6 games ( the most likely figure )

 

Total - £168

 

So they have lost the best part of £300 from me.

 

Genius.

 

Previously, you stated that whilst a season ticke holder, you purchased a burger 'once' and was it 2 pints of beer that whole season, or even the whole time going to SMS, now you're saying that you're going to spend £6 per game, what on? Not food, not drink and not programmes. Now, I'm not having a go, but this debate has seen you go full circle. Let's take me, I park in the same place, I go to the same pub and I buy the same beer and food, then walk to the ground just in time for KO, I will possibly buy a bovril at half time if it's cold (the weather not the bovril). Anyway, the upshot of this, to me, and what I thought your orignal point was, that it was going to cost the casual fan more because it is the walk ups that buy the merchandise and the food and the beer etc, because they have the experience to resinate with. The ST holder has seen it all so many times and does it as a social thing, and probably meets his usual group outside of the ground, ie, a pub. So, isn't the original arguement more credible in that more walk ups = more revenue?

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Previously, you stated that whilst a season ticke holder, you purchased a burger 'once' and was it 2 pints of beer that whole season, or even the whole time going to SMS, now you're saying that you're going to spend £6 per game, what on? Not food, not drink and not programmes. Now, I'm not having a go, but this debate has seen you go full circle. Let's take me, I park in the same place, I go to the same pub and I buy the same beer and food, then walk to the ground just in time for KO, I will possibly buy a bovril at half time if it's cold (the weather not the bovril). Anyway, the upshot of this, to me, and what I thought your orignal point was, that it was going to cost the casual fan more because it is the walk ups that buy the merchandise and the food and the beer etc, because they have the experience to resinate with. The ST holder has seen it all so many times and does it as a social thing, and probably meets his usual group outside of the ground, ie, a pub. So, isn't the original arguement more credible in that more walk ups = more revenue?

 

You have mistaken me for someone else pops, as SRS, I made it clear to everyone that I go down the concourse on 36 minutes every game and always have 2 pints at half-time = £6 , I didn't even factor in the odd pie/burger that I might have.

 

They do not only lose the ticket revenue from me now, but they lose my £6 ( minimum ) spend in the stadium every match.

[Smirking_Saint]

You have mistaken me for someone else pops, as SRS, I made it clear to everyone that I go down the concourse on 36 minutes every game and always have 2 pints at half-time = £6 , I didn't even factor in the odd pie/burger that I might have.

They do not only lose the ticket revenue from me now, but they lose my £6 ( minimum ) spend in the stadium every match.

 

That'll bring it up to about £40

[John Smith]

You have mistaken me for someone else pops, as SRS, I made it clear to everyone that I go down the concourse on 36 minutes every game and always have 2 pints at half-time = £6 , I didn't even factor in the odd pie/burger that I might have.

 

They do not only lose the ticket revenue from me now, but they lose my £6 ( minimum ) spend in the stadium every match.

 

Yep, my mistake, you were agreeing with wurzel on this and it was he as a ST holder that purchased 2 beers, one burger and no programmes. Think my point still stands, particularly with your response in post #308 stating to get more sales, sell in the concourse etc. But my point is justifed against wurzels and yours being that ST holders will only do this once in a season, if you;re not a ST holder, the group is larger and more infrequent and more likely to spend.

 

Also, on this selling in the concourse, I would think it is to do with retail outlet, tax and Health and safety, theft and profitability once all of those have been achieved. Don;t want to get into a big debate, because as you correctly point out, you couldn;t think of too many clubs that do this. I think it's to do with taxes, premises fit for purpose, health and safety, minimum wage, minimum conditions etc, because at the end of the day, regulations is regulations, hence the stadium mega store outside the grounds.

 

Still, point is standing from question 2 days ago, you are creating all of this retoric to what end? I have seen in other posts that is because you want to come back and say I told you so, but really, that's why you keep going on about it. Just so I don;t have to go looking, it was the post where you outed yourself and said you had another name in the wings but wanted to use this current one so that it could be recorded that you or SRS stated this before it went belly up.

[Stattmeister]

In the words of Monty Python:

 

"What have the Romans ever done for us...?"

 

Oh yeah....

[up and away]

Can I just say I think Stu has a point here.

 

Ok, he may need a crash course in how to make friends and influence people, but that doesn't mean he's wrong.

 

There's a lot of very odd, weird and incompetent behaviour going on at SMS.

 

All things being equal, I'd expect Season Ticket numbers to be up by about 2K-3K for next season. With good management, it should be an increase of 4K-5K or more. This time last year, we had a threadbare squad and were starting with a ten point penalty. We now are clear bookies favourites to win the league and have c.45,000 fans who saw us win a Wembley trophy just a few weeks back.

 

If we haven't sold about 15K season tickets by kick off on August 7th, the club has done something pretty badly wrong. And stupidly so.

 

Nicola Cortese is obviously a very intelligent and capable man. But I don't think his (and his staff's) recent decisions bear much scrutiny.

 

Of course he has a point, but it is the balance and significance of his point of view to the total package which is totally out of kilter. For christ's sake, this is the guy who has picked us from oblivion and laid out a solid directive for us to be competing in the Premier.

The inverse point of view would be to highlight what Mussolini and Hitler did for the trains and roads respectively, it is minor in comparison to everything else.

 

Well he's got two bee's under his bonnet now, Cortese and the hardships imposed upon the modern football hooligan. Such a distinct lack of focus upon what really matters around us that the rants are difficult to take seriously.

 

Whether the club has this wrong or right, will not be determined by season tickets alone, but by the overall income to the club. Most have conveniently forgotten all those empty promises from the billy bollix to renew their season tickets once Lowe had gone. Or to be fair, what they said was that they would not be buying another season ticket whilst Lowe was there, conveniently ommiting even Carlsberg owners would suffer the same fate.

[NickG]

As long as people give a balance view and understand that in a title winning season ( as everyone is expecting ) sales should be up anyway, so anything less than an average of 23/24k is a fail in my opinion.

 

And the real test will be Dagenham and Redbridge, below 10k is going to be a real possibilty.

 

I don't expect like Dulldays to come on here and admit they were wrong you, people have seen from today that he won't put his hands up about the pre-season tour.

 

should be well over 13,000, not bad for midweek game in league 1 against Dagenham.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Nick, you are obsessed. Seriously, you've bumped up several threads saying exactly the same thing.

 

Yawn.

 

You can cream yourself over having the same amount of season ticket holders ( according to the club ) , when in reality we should have been neared 20k

[NickG]

proved my point, and once again you have looked very silly but will leave it now.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

proved my point, and once again you have looked very silly but will leave it now.

 

13,000 season ticket holders is not a million miles off what I predicted Nicky, and in my opinion does not equate to a success... as I have said all along, the club should have sold 20k season tickets.

 

Boring, obsessed, yawn.

[trousers]

13,000 season ticket holders is not a million miles off what I predicted Nicky, and in my opinion does not equate to a success... as I have said all along, the club should have sold 20k season tickets.

 

 

None of us can agree with nor dispute that as we don't have a copy of the revenue forecast spreadsheet/graph of projected season ticket sales vs projected PAYG sales that Cortese is basing his business model on.

 

His maths MUST be based on season ticket sales not taking off too much otherwise we'd have seen a late-ish sales drive over the last week or so to drive up numbers.

 

If the bean counters are happy with the forecast vs sales graph then that means we have a financially stable club. Not as 'sexy' as having "as many season ticket holders as Norwich" but then achieving financial stability was never going to be a very thrilling ride (off the pitch)

[eelpie]

That's not true. I renewed my usual ST seat. And it's possible to buy your normal seat for other matches if you are quick enough.

 

Welcome to the world of feudal ownership. What would you prefer, an efficiently run club, or the shambles that precede it?

 

That said a fans forum from time to time to get feedback from supporters would be a good thing

[miserableoldgit]

13,000 season ticket holders is not a million miles off what I predicted Nicky, and in my opinion does not equate to a success... as I have said all along, the club should have sold 20k season tickets.

 

Boring, obsessed, yawn.

 

Originally Posted by Dave Benson Phillips

You would be very lucky if season ticket sales are half of 15000

 

Are you really Andy Android??

[georgeweahscousin]

People criticising Cortese need to get a grip to be honest. This is club is in its best financial position ever.

 

What is it with some Saints fans having to find something to moan about.

[miserableoldgit]

People criticising Cortese need to get a grip to be honest. This is club is in its best financial position ever.

 

What is it with some Saints fans having to find something to moan about.

It`s quite simple. There are a number of people who think that they know how to run the club better that the people that run it now, and they are very frustrated. You can`t blame them.

[Dave Benson Phillips]

Originally Posted by Dave Benson Phillips

You would be very lucky if season ticket sales are half of 15000

 

Are you really Andy Android??

 

Did you have to post that in two threads? And both times forget the post a couple after in response to someone where I stated I was exaggerating and then I believed the figure would be about 10k.

 

If it makes you wet yourself then here you go.

 

I was wrong in my estimation, I thought it would be about 10k and it seems when all is sold and done that it will be 14k, slightly more than the total last season including half season tickets.

 

I still don't see this as a success though and regardless of the amount of season ticket holders, it doesn't escape the fact the club has shafted a percentage of its support one way or another.

[miserableoldgit]

Did you have to post that in two threads? And both times forget the post a couple after in response to someone where I stated I was exaggerating and then I believed the figure would be about 10k.

 

If it makes you wet yourself then here you go.

 

I was wrong in my estimation, I thought it would be about 10k and it seems when all is sold and done that it will be 14k, slightly more than the total last season including half season tickets.

 

I still don't see this as a success though and regardless of the amount of season ticket holders, it doesn't escape the fact the club has shafted a percentage of its support one way or another.

So a 40% difference is "slightly more"??

[Miffy]

Did you have to post that in two threads? And both times forget the post a couple after in response to someone where I stated I was exaggerating and then I believed the figure would be about 10k.

 

If it makes you wet yourself then here you go.

 

I was wrong in my estimation, I thought it would be about 10k and it seems when all is sold and done that it will be 14k, slightly more than the total last season including half season tickets.

 

I still don't see this as a success though and regardless of the amount of season ticket holders, it doesn't escape the fact the club has shafted a percentage of its support one way or another.

 

F-kin 'ell, must this argument be on every thread.

[Third Division South Days]

13,000 season ticket holders is not a million miles off what I predicted Nicky, and in my opinion does not equate to a success... as I have said all along, the club should have sold 20k season tickets.

 

Boring, obsessed, yawn.

 

So 7000 sopporters have not renewed or declined to purchase a ST because of the withdrawal of the instalment plan?

[Dave Benson Phillips]

F-kin 'ell, must this argument be on every thread.

 

Was that aimed at me of Nicky? Because it's not me that's bumping up every season ticket thread, it's Nicky

[cadiz saint]

It does'nt take an Einstein to realise that in a recession, you are not going to sell a record number of season tickets!!

[Georgie]

13,000 season ticket holders is not a million miles off what I predicted Nicky, and in my opinion does not equate to a success... as I have said all along, the club should have sold 20k season tickets.

 

Boring, obsessed, yawn.

 

Yes boring, obsessed - that sounds like you wanting NC to fail just to say 'I told you so'. We get it, you don't like NC. Yawn, yawn, yawn

[Miffy]

Was that aimed at me of Nicky? Because it's not me that's bumping up every season ticket thread, it's Nicky

 

Its aimed at everyone whos perpetuating the subject.

 

That now includes me..... Doh!

[thesaint sfc]

If you don't like it, stop being poor. Simple as.

[trousers]

I do hate to say I told people so. Things will only get worse.

 

Look at some of the things since Cortese has been introduced.

 

- Banned the Echo ( which is the mouthpiece for SFC for alot of people who rely on it for news about the club )

- Banned Benali

- Slated legends like Le Tiss, Mac, Keegan et al

- Deliberately kept silent when all speculation about Pardew was happening.

- Deliberately keeping details of the Pre-Season tour from fans ( Echo announced 3 weeks ago they knew where it was )

- Deliberately leaving press releases until 11:20pm so The Echo cannot report it the next day, for no other reason than to p!ss the paper off at the expense of the fans.

- Charging a £3 booking fee.

- Charging a £2 matchday price.

- Most expensive tickets in the league.

- Removal of payment plan.

- Deliberate late notice of payment plan.

- Refusal to enter into engagement with supporters over issues.

- Creating a supporters charter then tearing it up, going against many of the aims in the said charter.

- Late notice of season tickets going on sale for no apparant reason.

- No Season Ticker Holder priority for cup tickets.

- Trying to pass off the no sponsorship as a gift to the fans whilst increasing other revenue streams to cover it tenfold.

 

There is just a few PR gaffs / customer fails by our whiter than white Chairman Mr Cortese in the last 2 months.

 

It amazes me that people can not put all these points together to get a picture of the sort of person we are dealing with here.

 

As it seems to be in vogue to resurrect old threads this week....this one caught my eye....

 

:-)

[hypochondriac]

As it seems to be in vogue to resurrect old threads this week....this one caught my eye....

 

:-)

 

I'm not sure what your point is?

[Colinjb]

Got to say, if he feels that promotion is going to p*ss us off, bring it on Don Nicola.

[trousers]

I'm not sure what your point is?

 

That's understandable, because I'm not making one.

 

Was simply reading the Cortese threads from a year or so ago and thought they were interesting and, perhaps, worth sharing for reflection.

 

There again...