A look at the season ticket prices released sometime in the middle of last night.
I have to be very careful what I say in this review, as most will know, last season someone at the Club took such exception to comments i made regarding the installment plan that they refunded my season ticket money without explanation, given this situation I will therefore limit this article to being a comparison between last season and this and where the prices stand in comparison with the rest of the division.
To save time and space as im sure you can compare the prices of your own seats on the official club site I will compare the price for a ticket in the Kingsland Centre blocks.
The price for a season ticket renewal in the Kingsland Centre last season was £380, for this term it will cost you £515 an increase of around 35% working out at £22.40 per game, an individual match ticket will now cost £30 as opposed to £24 last season, plus of course a £2 fee if you buy a ticket on the day and any telephone or online fees that may apply depending on how you buy your ticket.
Whilst these prices are a sharp increase and at the top end of the prices in the Championship, they are not out there alone in the top end.
A quick look back shows that in our first season in the Championship in 2005/06 we operated a tiered policy where Gold games were £28 per seat and Silver £25, in 2007/08 and 08/09 we had abandoned the tiered system and that seat in the Kingsland centre would cost you £26 and perhaps its this price that Saints fans would best compare these prices to, our last seasons in this division.
Perhaps the biggest change however lies in the Under 11's category, last season kids o this age could get a fre season ticket when purchased with an adult one, now if a parent wished to avail themselves of a free ticket for their child they have to purchase their tickets in the Chapel End which is now the designated family stand, if they do not wish to do this but want to sit in other stands, then the kids ticket is no longer free but will cost £85, this means that a father and son who paid £380 for their two tickets last year would have to fork out £600 to renew in the Kingsland this year.
As mentioned the Chapel Stand is now the designated family stand and it appears that around 6,000 seats are given over to this purpose, its unclear whether those adults who previously sat in the Chapel without kids will now have to move to another part of the ground and whether for the big games individual adult tickets will be sold in the area, on one hand its good that the club are encouraging parents to take kids in this area especially when you take into account that a parent can buy his season ticket for only £380 and with a free kids ticket that means he is paying the same, but it relies heavily on parents taking up this offer and those dads & lads in other stands moving to the Chapel, if they dont it could create an area with vast swathes of empty seats that cant be filled for games where it approaches capacity.
Strangely season ticket renewals dont begin till July 1st and then season ticket holders have a 14 day period in which to renew followed by those wishing to purchase a new ticket having from 15th July till Friday August 5th to buy a ticket, like last year their will be no sales after August 5th and no half season tickets.
However the repayment plan is being re introduced, those wanting to avail themselves of it need to make a downpayment of 50% ie £257.50 for the Kingsland Centre plus an admin fee of 5% £12.88 followed by three monthly installments of approx £86 in September, October & November, on receipt of your downpayment you will be issued with the first 8 tickets of the season followed by the remainder after you have paid your final installment in November.
That in essence is the details of the ticket prices for next season, your views on them will ddepend on whether you feel that if we are going to compete in this division then we need to increase prices to be able to do so or whether you are in the camp that says that there is a recession on and that being the case and that people have lessoney for leisure persuits then such a big increase can only be detrimenta.l