Sadly Saints supporters did not turn out in big numbers on Saturday.

Two years ago to the very week, Saints hosted Ajax in what was then the Ted Bates trophy, around 25,000 turned out to welcome the clubs new owner and saviour Markus Liebherr and gace him a rousing reception. Make no mistake many turned out for Markus, usually the Ted Bates Trophy would attract about 15,000 for its pre season annual fixture.

Turn the clocks forward 24 months and the Markus Liebherr memorial match and less than 10,000 Saints fans came to pay their respects.

This is not a political statement aimed at the new regime, to be blunt they had lined up an interesting day, it was reasonably priced against decent opposition and with the unveiling of the new kits too boot, they had also made it quite clear that this was an occasion to honour Markus for saving the club.

No this is a question aimed at Saints supporters and asking why so many could not be bothered too turn out and show their appreciation, after a suucesful season and given the tragic death of Markus a year ago I would have expected a crowd of at least double to be in attendance, forget the problems of car parking and price increases etc, whatever a Saints supporters thoughts on them surely it was a day to put things aside and pay their respects.

Im sure their will be some who will tell me how wrong I am to have expected a bigger crowd and will point out a plethora of excuses, but two years ago the circumstances were exactly the same, yet we all turned out in droves, why did we not do that this weekend ?

Of course i have my issues with the football club, as many will know, but it is still my football club and i have no problem to raising a glass in honour of Markus, im just saddened that so many chose not to join me !  

The problem is that when you build up an event as was done on Saturday and make it quite clear what the aim of the day is for, it can leave a little sour taste when there was so many empty seats, if Markus's family where there on Saturday they must surely be disapointed that so many Saints fans have appeared ot have snubbed the game, it must put doubt into their minds about whether they should put more money into the club, after all so many Saints supporters seemed to have short memories when it came to why they should buy tickets for the game, they must question why they should bother putting their money into a foreign football club a long way from their home, when the supporters of that club seem unwilling to spend their own money to honour Markus.     

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 22:07 - Jul 24 I will be honest here, this is a fair article, and its hard for me to comment on because I am an ex-pat working overseas now. But if I was back in Southampton, I know for sure I would have turned out for this pre-season event. Just my view though and everyone as their own reasons for not being able to attend.
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splurty added 22:40 - Jul 24 Yes couldn't agree more ,I too was very dissatisfied with the VERY poor attendance at a game that was not only to give appreciation to Markus but also against two top teams and the new kits to boot .Those that were there though supported very enthusiastically and made it a good event ,let's hope next year we turn out in better numbers .THANKYOU MARKUS
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LostBoys added 03:58 - Jul 25 I was certainly expecting more. I did not think the event was well publicised and I thought it was too pricey especially for families but this is little excuse. We thoroughly enjoyed the event.
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simmo400 added 06:38 - Jul 25 I guess it was a little dissapointing but the facts are the increases. Personally i`ve spent £592 on the club this week. ie season ticket.shirt, and west brom ticket. So I feel ive more than backed the club for the season ahead. To go the £16 for saturday was just too mucn in a week. A free voucher as a season ticket holder would have gone along way for the fans i think. Money would have been made on food and drink as more would have been there. So looking forward to the West Brom game. So donr feel that fans have abandoned Marcus......just sometimes the purse strings wont quite go the whole way im afraid.

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radders added 07:57 - Jul 25 In my case, I did not go because I was on a weekend away with Girlfriend. This is by no means a snub to my football club. or to ML. I am a long standing season ticket holder and go to most away games does this make me a bad fan? No, just bad timing in the Summer Holidays which I think is the case with many more.
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Jesus_02 added 08:45 - Jul 25 This is the first home pre-season that I have missed for years. Why? because i was camping with my 3 year old and friends. I was gutted that the things clashed as the day sounded like a well plannned event with lots going on for the family. I though that more people would attend and its hard to work out why they didnt. I can only point to the economic climate, ( I struggled to justify my season ticket this year and i was not popular with my wife for buyin the new kit either). I cant help but think that more people may have turned out if they had bought their Season Tickets earlier. Overall its hard to guess what crowd will turn up, a possible reason might be the on the day charges that seem to put off a walk up crowd. Compare it to the Bayern match were the vast majority where walk ups. Perhaps the chaos that occured then is something that Cortese is trying to avoid.

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SaintNick added 09:18 - Jul 25 I take the points about holidays, sometimes we all miss games when it clashes, but that doesnt apply in general, as per my comparison with the Ajax game two years ago, simiarly back then season tickets had only gone on sale a week earlier due to only being out of admin for about 10 days
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DJI added 09:22 - Jul 25 I am with Nick on this; it was a very disappointing turnout. I also renewed my ST this month and bought a new shirt on Saturday whilst at the game. I also paid £10 to park at the Stadium as I have a bad back and didn't fancy a long walk. But I felt my money was better spent turning out to honour Markus than to go and see us play West Brom mid-week. People will always find excuses, I noticed that on Twitter on the day but I can't understand why we couldn't turn out in force to honour Markus and be thoroughly entertained to boot by three 45 minute matches played at a good tempo. Where were the "missing" 10,000 who came to the Walsall game? Must've been busy uploaded their videos of "Look at me on the pitch at St. Mary's" to YouTube and Facebook!?!

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geezershoong added 09:56 - Jul 25 I'd be very surprised if anyone but a tiny minority snubbed the event. That is a big assumption to make.
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st_mike added 10:02 - Jul 25 I too was a bit surprised by the lower than expected attendance, four of us travelled from Bournemouth and really enjoyed the afternoon, the good natured banter with the dozen or so German fans was good fun, it's what makes me proud to be a Saints fan, and makes Saints a special club. You probably have to put the attendance partly down to the recession, but it was still a bit dissapointing. Pricing might need adjusting, especially for the kids, but didn't appear excessive to me.

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BLEEDRED added 11:21 - Jul 25 Having just paid out £540 for a season ticket it was just overpriced so I save my money. a new concept needs selling to the public and there was very little advertising, unless you view the internet many will not have even known it was on . The club could have made it cheap to get in, got the fans in then next season when the format had become familiar put the prices up

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darkangelv2 added 11:24 - Jul 25 I was there and enjoyed the day too. Plenty of beer, nice weather, banter with the opposition fans etc. I was, as above disappointed at the turnout. I wondered if it was partly down to the length of the event? Matchdays generally take out 3.5hours of a fans day (average with short travelling?) - this event did demand maybe 5-6 hours out of a saturday. I thought the price was good though, the concept excellent and look forward to its return next year. Shame i couldn't hear a word Cortese was saying during that video before the 1st game. Bless you Markus. And thank you to all the Liebherr family who came.

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Capt_Koons added 11:41 - Jul 25 I think the problem was it was an event, not a match. 90 minutes against WB would have seen a bigger crowd I think.
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jonrog added 12:06 - Jul 25 I don't think the club can have it both ways they run it like a business with scant regard or appreciation of season ticket holders and fans alike. Then suddenly we are a big family club again and expected to turn out in numbers. Sorry no chance. Am I the only person who thinks that July is just too early to watch football and 6 August is far too early to start the league, but there we are again all chasing the money orchestrated by the Murdoch empire. Lets hope his sky empire loses some of its control of football.

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stmichael added 13:18 - Jul 25 I think that July is too early. I am enjoying the cricket and summer sports and frankly do not want to watch football in July. I think supporters generaly switch on in August and switch off in May. Having said that £10.00 for adults and a quid for kids with decent marketing through the local press might have made a difference. I also think the timing with season tickets etc would have made a difference. People have just had to fork out upwards of £500.00 for their season tickets. There is only so much much money you can spend on football!

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robhythe added 16:01 - Jul 25 I went to the event on saturday and enjoyed it but i can see why people didnt go! They like people to get there tickets before the day which is what i did and it cost me 19 quid not 16 !! It is different this year to a couple of years ago as then it was a huge relief that the club had been saved and also season tickets were less and people are worse of now than then! well i am anyway! money doesnt grow on trees!!! COYR

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mickyt7 added 16:55 - Jul 25 To those that attended, God Bless you and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I purposely missed the pre-match speech, I was there to honour the Organ Grinder not the ...etc.
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1teeminants added 17:17 - Jul 25 Great day out really enjoyed it although a little long. i did 'nt think it was overpriced 16 quid to watch saints play Werder Bremen and Athetico Bilbao 2 top sides !!!.come on! All four of us{including 2 kids} had a great time cant wait till next year.
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kcaj1164retsof added 19:04 - Jul 25 Sadly the truth is Saints support is not in the same league as some other clubs (outside the premier League) who can count on big support even for meaningless friendlies. Derby County have a ground extremely similar to St. Mary's and have crowds in the Championship in the high 20 thousands for home games. I will be suprised if Saints average attendence is more than 25000 for the coming campaign, even if they are winning and are in the top 6.

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cheekytom added 20:06 - Jul 25 I think it was over priced personally, but nice idea for an event though and I know my family enjoyed it.
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robhythe added 21:01 - Jul 25 To the Derby supporter ( Kcaj1164retsof) Derby just ave 26000 pretty good so if saints ave over 25000 thatl do me! Only about 3 clubs will average over 25000 !! Also wasnt impressed by Derbys away support especialy when we played them in the pay offs! We had moree go away in the midweek game!! Got to stick up for the saints support as i think it can be great!!!!!
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1teeminants added 22:18 - Jul 25 yes agree with that last comment Derbys away following for the play offs ffs was poor they couldnt sell their tickets, we had no problem shifting ours.
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dharris1990 added 00:09 - Jul 26 whilst it is sad that not a huge amount of supporters could make it to the match i think it is unfair to say that these fans 'snubbed' markus liebherr. not choosing to spend money on remembering him in the way the club has decided we should does not mean that he is not remembered. I think the vast majority of fans showed their appreciation and respect for him every match when the majority of chants that were sung were for him and I am sure this will continue next season.

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bstokesaint added 12:57 - Jul 26 I've already bought this year's kit and am saving my money this season to get to as many away games as possible. Like many others my attention turns to cricket and golf during the summer months. That said, come the first game of the season I will be fully behind the team as normal. Also this is in no way any kind of disrespect to the Liebherr's and they shouldn't see it that way. I will always feel indebted to them for what they have done for the club.

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