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Comment | This Team Deserves Your Support
at 20:44:44
Allow me to put in a point of view as a student-age Saints fan - I've followed the team since the late 90s (my first live match was a 3-1 win vs Wimbledon in December '98 - 2 goals for Ostenstad and 1 for Kachloul, still have my match programme and newspaper match report cutouts!) as I was too young to really be into football before then.
In practical terms I've not been able to get to many Saints games for the last couple of years - I'm at uni in the North East, and furthermore I'm on a year abroad at the moment. Getting to St Marys from Germany isn't too easy! :D Absence has made the heart grow fonder though, I guess you could say, and I'm proud to support my team and tell anyone who'll listen that my Saints are on the up again!
It's difficult to comment without speaking to lots of people 'on the ground', but I somehow sense that there's a connection between club and city which could be strengthened a bit. There's no doubt that the many less 'die-hard' fans want to see Saints taking on the big guns, and as others have said I'm sure the fans will be back in numbers if we can get back to the Prem any time soon.
When I'm down South, I only live a few miles out of town, but getting to the ground is time-consuming and a bit of a pain - and it costs! And since student tickets outside of the Family Enclosure cost £22+ unless there's some offer on or it's a cup-tie - and more on the day - that sort of price means you really do have to pick and choose your games, even if you're down South more often than I am!
Something can be done about the travel issue though, or at least the cost - let me give you an example of a system that works. I went to a VfB Stuttgart game a couple of months ago and not only was the ticket €25 (again about £22!) to see a very good Bundesliga game with 55,000 other fans, but my travel to and from the ground, using a frequent and effective bus/tram/subway network, was included in the price of the ticket. I was based about 45 minutes from the ground back then, so this was no small thing!
What I'm saying is very much from a young fan's perspective - I can't comment for dads, families etc and there are others better placed than I am to do so! But as a student, I know how much I can buy with £25-30 - the cost of a ticket plus the travel costs, without even thinking about the programme or a half-time snack - and the answer is quite a lot of stuff. For me, that sort of money represents my weekly bill on food and drinks. I can only guess I'm not alone either!
If I was still based in Southampton I'd try to get to a few games, but again, I couldn't get to more than maybe one or two games per month - I simply couldn't afford to! Or rather, I couldn't justify that expense - it's a hard thing to have to say but the ticket prices make it really difficult for people like me to make Saints games any more than an occasional treat... |
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