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Saints Only club in Premier League......


terrasaint

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Doesn't matter when the season tickets go on sale, it is dependant on whether you can afford one. All the talk about feel good factor etc. does not make any difference, if you haven't the money to buy one then you will not be buying one. Personally I wish to keep my money in my pocket for as long as possible, rather than sitting in the bank account of the club's. As soon as season tickets go on sale, and if i can afford to buy one, i will. Things are tight at the moment, and no doubt like many others I can not afford to pay silly money towards a season ticket. Get the pricing right is the main priority. Not puting season tickets on sale early, or hoping to make more money out of buy on the day etc. can backfire big time if you can't get support for lesser teams, and or you are having a mare, and no one wants to go and watch!

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You've just brought up an entirely different argument. Price has nothing to do with what we're talking about.

 

Whatever the price of season tickets are; whether they are £100 or £600. I maintain that we could sell more in total by getting them on sale as soon as possible after clinching promotion to capitalise on the feelgood factor at that time. I maintain we could sell more in total by having a longer sales window.

 

You clearly don't. You think we're like Apple, and a shorter sales window will actually increase the amount of season tickets we sell. That's fine if that's your opinion. But quite clearly, world leaders such as Man United, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool etc disagree with you, as they don't go for a shorter sales window. they maximise sales by maximising the amount of time in which they can make sales. I'll choose to accept their method as the most efficient one, and not SFC's "Steve Jobs" equivalent.

 

I was going to post this a while ago and I have no idea whether it is or isnt, but last season there is an argument that Cortese was spot on and made more money for the club but providing a short sales window, no installements and no half season tickets (Althought they did do the final ten or something).

 

Did we make more money doing it his way......very possibly

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One argument I totally don't get is that Cortese doesn't like season tickets because the club makes more on a match-by-match basis.

 

In that case, just alter the price. Make it dearer to buy a season ticket than 19 individual match tickets. Fair enough, I guess.

 

My sense is that the marketing/sales side of the operation is just a bit crap. Not the worst thing in the world, I can live with it. But it's not some brilliant co-ordinated strategy about narrowing a slaes window to sell more ticktes. It's just a bit crap.

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Tsk, Kracken you should know by now that any post that doesn't give credit to the chairman is people with an axe to grind.

 

I actually don't give a f*ck that we don't know how much tickets are yet, unless it's above my cut off point for football then I'll get one, but then I am loaded so have loads of spare cash. However not everyone is as fortunate (aka driven, Motivated, successful and ambitious) as me so will need to know how much they have to spend, if it's an installments plan how much they have to budget monthly etc. Frank "the voices of reason" Cousin comments about "tough sh*t if you can't afford it" "you know this time of year you need to spend £500-£700" are dismissive and arrogant in the extreme. £500-£700 is not an insignificant sum for most people so it would be nice for them to know as soon a posssible how much it's going to cost. It's called customer service, something the club has lacked since Luker quit.

 

Oi, voice of reason was one of my old log ins, along with words of wisdom.

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I was going to post this a while ago and I have no idea whether it is or isnt, but last season there is an argument that Cortese was spot on and made more money for the club but providing a short sales window, no installements and no half season tickets (Althought they did do the final ten or something).

 

Did we make more money doing it his way......very possibly

 

 

 

Possibly made more money per ticket but not neccessarily sold the most tickets we could have. But impossible to prove apart from fact that pretty much no other club does it our way.

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Seems to me there is a clear policy not to include any of next season's income in this year's financials. Prudent, but doesn't prevent announcing what the prices will be when they do eventually go on sale.

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Maybe, just maybe, we're taking a wee bit longer to make sure we get our pricing right because, of all the clubs in the premier league next season we're the team who hasn't been there for the longest period of time by some distance.

 

Reading and West Ham had the advantage of dusting off their recent Premier League ticketing policies and the other teams simply had to rollover their existing prices.

 

Saints are the only team having to create a policy from square one and I'm sure Cortese's priority is to make sure the policy is right rather than rushing it out for the sake of it.

 

All very simple business principles.

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Maybe, just maybe, we're taking a wee bit longer to make sure we get our pricing right because, of all the clubs in the premier league next season we're the team who hasn't been there for the longest period of time by some distance.

 

Reading and West Ham had the advantage of dusting off their recent Premier League ticketing policies and the other teams simply had to rollover their existing prices.

 

Saints are the only team having to create a policy from square one and I'm sure Cortese's priority is to make sure the policy is right rather than rushing it out for the sake of it.

 

All very simple business principles.

 

So what was the excuse when we did the same thing in league one and the championship?

 

In any case Cortese said back in September he expected promotion this season, plenty of time to sort this supposedly ridiculously complicated pricing policy that no one else seems to have trouble with.

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So what was the excuse when we did the same thing in league one and the championship?

 

In any case Cortese said back in September he expected promotion this season, plenty of time to sort this supposedly ridiculously complicated pricing policy that no one else seems to have trouble with.

 

Who knows? Maybe Cortese is arsing around for the sake of it just to get the annual season ticket gripes thread up to its statutory 18 pages...

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Who knows? Maybe Cortese is arsing around for the sake of it just to get the annual season ticket gripes thread up to its statutory 18 pages...

 

So probably nothing to do with getting a premier league pricing policy spot on like you claim though then?

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NC can wait for as long as likes - I'm getting an ST. In the past, I've always been hacked off when induced to buy an ST early to get a discount and then the squad is decimated and no decent signings brought in - it always felt like..."OK we've got your money, now we can serve up rubbish football". Not since NC has been at the helm - I'm more than happy to keep hold of my money while I wait with bated breath on new arrivals.

 

Exactly. Like you, I'm perfectly happy to have the money in my bank account for a bit longer. I don't see that anybody who wishes to buy a ST will not do so because they are brought out later than anybody elses, that is just absurd. Sensible people will have budgeted for the cost, or will make arrangements to finance it one way or another. If it was payment for a holiday, which would they prefer? Payment eight weeks before they flew, or one week before?

 

This thread must be the ultimate nit-picking, a real mountain out of a molehill.

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I've not spoken to Cortese recently so I'm as ignorant on the subject matter as you are...

 

Doesn't the fact that we've has the policy of not announcing season ticket prices until June or whenever in both league one and the championship suggest that actually its nothing to do with struggling to cope with the premier league pricing policy we need to implement now, like you claim it is?

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Doesn't the fact that we've has the policy of not announcing season ticket prices until June or whenever in both league one and the championship suggest that actually its nothing to do with struggling to cope with the premier league pricing policy we need to implement now, like you claim it is?

 

"Struggling to cope"? And there was me thinking that it was only Verbal who paraphrases what I say in a way to make it sound more dramatic than the actual words used.

 

Anyway, I agree with you...the sooner this is sorted the better as I'm not sure how much longer the local economy can tolerate the sleepless nights of its collective workforce...

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Oh sh.it is this not the place to write incredibly long tomes that no one is going to read? Sorry i was just taking my lead from Frank's Cousin.

 

And by so doing, you make yourself look a right tit, as nothing you wrote had anything to do with the subject of the OP. Whether you choose to read them or not, at least Frank raises some valid points and makes an attempt to indulge in some adult debate. You? A pathetic, childish attempt to follow the Turkish/CB Fry style of debate. A collection of snide, sarcastic jibes more fitting to the primary school playground.

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"Struggling to cope"? And there was me thinking that it was only Verbal who paraphrases what I say in a way to make it sound more dramatic than the actual words used.

 

Anyway, I agree with you...the sooner this is sorted the better as I'm not sure how much longer the local economy can tolerate the sleepless nights of its collective workforce...

 

Well it was you that said the dealy might be "maybe, just maybe" down to getting the premier league pricing policy right. Given that we are following exactly the same route as we did in the championship and league one, I'd suggest that "maybe, just maybe" you're wrong.

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As you have no idea of the cash flow - strange thing to say. Go back to the fact the end of our financial year is June and to sell them now would fook us up, with regard to the income vs expenditure rules

 

Financial years typically run from the start and end of a particular month. For instance its being suggested that ours starts in June, so would run from 1st June to 31st May. Either that or it would be July, so July 1st to 30th June.

 

Last year, season tickets went on sale on July 1st, so that ties in with your theory. This year, however, its been suggested that tickets will start on sale some time in June. If that turns out to be the case then I don't think the FY theory holds water.

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No, Cortese is doing a cracking job but the customer service side, particularly ticket sales needs some considerable improvement.

 

FACT

 

It baffles me how some people can't take a step back and look at this without their rose tinted glasses on. Yes, everything on the pitch is going perfectly and couldn't have gone much better in the last couple of years. Though it is a 100% fact that the customer service side of things has declined in the same time period. There's nothing wrong with saying that. It doesn't mean I'm going to start a Cortese Out campaign, I'm not purposely looking for negatives, I haven't got a hidden agenda. The thing the club have lost perspective on is that the only reason the club exists is for the fans. This I feel is lost on those in charge at times.

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Well it was you that said the dealy might be "maybe, just maybe" down to getting the premier league pricing policy right. Given that we are following exactly the same route as we did in the championship and league one, I'd suggest that "maybe, just maybe" you're wrong.

 

Ok. You win. Trousers out foxed on an internet forum yet again.... ;)

 

I'll pop back in 12 pages to see how the thread is coming along

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It baffles me how some people can't take a step back and look at this without their rose tinted glasses on. Yes, everything on the pitch is going perfectly and couldn't have gone much better in the last couple of years. Though it is a 100% fact that the customer service side of things has declined in the same time period. There's nothing wrong with saying that. It doesn't mean I'm going to start a Cortese Out campaign, I'm not purposely looking for negatives, I haven't got a hidden agenda. The thing the club have lost perspective on is that the only reason the club exists is for the fans. This I feel is lost on those in charge at times.

 

Very well put. Some people take it as a massive affront when anyone dares to question any part of club operations, no matter how minor it is. And then get all uppity and claim that any such criticism is part of a deep seated cynical plot to undermine the club and de-stable things. Or bring out the old classic "we nearly didn't have a club 3 years ago...". Its childish and tedious in the extreme. And given that every single other club in our division (including world leaders in their fields) choose to operate in an entirely different manner to us in terms of season ticket sales, it is an entirely relevant question to ask.

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... would anyone say that given we were late annoucing ST rates last season, a huge wave of fans missed out on an ST? Did they feck, those that want one will get one, those that can't afford it will not - whether announced in April or June... we have owners who dont foolow the traditonal pattern... and er, so the traditional pattern is always right? I can actually see Dune now, being beaten by his missus/GF/BF/mother, telling him unless he knows exactly the cost of his ST by the end of May, the money he has not saved (because he wants the installment plan) will be claimed for the week in Benidorm instead... FFS some of you sound like kids on this.

 

1. If you cant afford it, well **** thats life

2. if you have not predicted that around this time of year you may be needing to shell out between £500-£700 notes on an ST if you want one, well you must be feckin .... (insert on appropriate word for thick as shiedt)

3. The club is not desperate for ST revenue to keep it going over the summer and it sees maximising non-st sales as the best way of maximising revenue whilst we have our 32K limit which - loyalty to those who stuck by during the dark days? What of those who boycotted during the dark days, and what the feck has that got to do with NC? STs will be available to ALL who wnat one so why worry? Its not as if there will be a cap... apart from one imposed by capacity... but those whio say this wont be a problem... are the ones so worried about this... you guys are as transparent as fricken glass when to comes to NC...

 

Do you want to go next season? Yes, do you expect a discount on renewal of your ST? Yes - you will get one. Can you use this as another pathetic griep about NC even though it has feck all baring on anything? Seems so... Jeez.....

I think that that just about sums it up

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Doesn't the fact that we've has the policy of not announcing season ticket prices until June or whenever in both league one and the championship suggest that actually its nothing to do with struggling to cope with the premier league pricing policy we need to implement now, like you claim it is?

You are quick enough to complain about people who put words in your mouth but seem quite happy to do it yourself. Trousers merely put forward a possible reason for the delay. As it happens his hypothesis probably wrong but so what - its as good as anyone else's suggestion.

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You are quick enough to complain about people who put words in your mouth but seem quite happy to do it yourself. Trousers merely put forward a possible reason for the delay. As it happens his hypothesis probably wrong but so what - its as good as anyone else's suggestion.

 

Do you speak for him? Well it wasn't reasonable because everyone knows taht is what we did in the NPC and L1.

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I don't see why people can't grasp it that those who have decided to buy a ST will do so anyway and the more sensible of them will have budgeted for that purchase, making a reasoned judgement as to what the price is likely to be.

 

I'm not sure if you're deliberately missing the point or not now.

 

You assume that everyone, every single person, who buys a season ticket makes their decision to do so at the start of the summer and then follows through with that decision. That nobody decides "i'm going to get a season ticket" at the start of the summer but talk themselves out of it by July.

 

All I'm suggesting (and it is a suggestion as there's no evidence either way) is that, by decreasing the window of opportunity to market and sell season tickets, there are some opportunities to get potential customers on board BEFORE they decide "you know what, its not worth me getting a season ticket, I'll just go match by match". Straight after the promotion, everyone is on a high, and there MAY have been a number of people who got carried away on that wave of emotion and went and bought a season ticket. Those same people, after thinking about it for a couple of months, MAY then decide not to purchase.

 

You seem happy to suggest that this simply isn't possible or feasible. That not one, single person would do this. I disagree, in fact I think its pretty much a certainty, if only for a relatively small number of people. And there's no way to say whether either of us are correct. So there we are, I think this has been done to death and the prices are finally out now.

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As you have no idea of the cash flow - strange thing to say. Go back to the fact the end of our financial year is June and to sell them now would fook us up, with regard to the income vs expenditure rules

 

You fecking eejit. The sooner you sell something, the sooner you get paid. FACT. So for cashflow reasons, it is always best to be paid as quickly as possible - that is what I meant. And what anyone running a business understands. Get the cash in the bank as soon possible - that is whay I said 'personally' - ie. if it were MY business. No offence, like. :)

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You've just brought up an entirely different argument. Price has nothing to do with what we're talking about.

 

Whatever the price of season tickets are; whether they are £100 or £600. I maintain that we could sell more in total by getting them on sale as soon as possible after clinching promotion to capitalise on the feelgood factor at that time. I maintain we could sell more in total by having a longer sales window.

 

You clearly don't. You think we're like Apple, and a shorter sales window will actually increase the amount of season tickets we sell. That's fine if that's your opinion. But quite clearly, world leaders such as Man United, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool etc disagree with you, as they don't go for a shorter sales window. they maximise sales by maximising the amount of time in which they can make sales. I'll choose to accept their method as the most efficient one, and not SFC's "Steve Jobs" equivalent.

 

I think you misunderstand, me.

 

1. United will not sell more tickets because they are on sale longer. FACT. They have a waiting list. So their decision to sell ST's earlier is either because a) they want the money sooner, b) they want to give people as long as possible to be able to pay, c) some other reason unebknownst me. It is NOT, 100% NOT, and nothing to do with the volume they will sell. You couldn't get one if you wanted one. So to cite United as evidence that a longer window sells more is just not true. None of those clubs you list has a longer window than us to sell more tickets. The reason they do it is nothing to do with maximising sales because they all (to my current knowledge) have Season Ticket waiting lists in the many, many thousands.

 

2. You think we would have sold more if we had put ours on sale earlier. This suggests that there are people who would have bought one in the afterglow of promotion, but who have now changed their mind. Do you really believe this? I don't. That could be our one area of genuine disagreement.

 

My gut feel is that the demand for Season Tickets is fixed by those people who have the INTENTION to buy one. And not by the length of the buying opportunity. We're not talking about cars, or clothes, we're talking about a Season Ticket to see your club play at home every other week. Why does that require eight to ten weeks of buying opportunity??

 

I would accept that selling them in one day would be tough - not enough sales agents for a start. But I bet, and I would bet a lot of money on it, that if the selling windows were one month, two months or three months, the variation in sales would be neglible. The only differences will come if fan's circuamstances change (they receive a bonus, win the lottery, etc - but by the same token the same number of fans will also lose their jobs and not win the lottery)...

 

Does that not make perfect sense??

 

PS: I used Apple simply to demonstrate that sales has everything to do with DEMAND and little to do with sales opportunities if the demand doesn't change.

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You think we would have sold more if we had put ours on sale earlier. This suggests that there are people who would have bought one in the afterglow of promotion, but who have now changed their mind. Do you really believe this? I don't. That could be our one area of genuine disagreement.

In a nutshell; yes, that's why I believe. I don't for a minute believe we're losing out on thousands of potential season ticket holders; I've never said that. But I do strongly believe we will have lost out on some, yes. Whether its 1 person, 10, 100 or more, we can never ever really know, which is why I point out that its all speculation, but I do believe it to be the case, to whatever extent. You disagree, and that's fine, neither of us can be proved right in any case.

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