It has to be said that the attendance at St Mary's for the start of this season hasn't been as good as it could have been, now lets fill it out again on the back of our best result in a decade.
It times gone by a Carling Cup game at St Mary;s used to see decent crowds, the prices would be reduced and it wasn't uncommon to see crowds of double the attendance for last night's game against Bristol City, but in today's Premier league the price rise is king and not just at Saints but at many other club's, crowds have been affected by increased ticket prices that has alienated some supporters who are no longer able to afford exorbitant prices for tickets and replica shirts.
But I think its more than that, yes prices went up yet again this season, but why have the packed houses of the second half of last season not been replicated in the first few games of this, I cant believe that an extra £1.50 a ticket is making that much difference to whether someone goes or not.
To be blunt there should be more incentive to go this season than last, Saints spent £35 million in the summer, they made three key signings and made a statement of intent that they were going to step up a level and that all from players up to the boardroom believed that pushing for European qualification was possible, if you read the internet there are plenty that share this opinion, yet this hasn't manifested itself in ticket sales so far this season.
In the two home games played so far the attendance has been significantly down on the corresponding fixture last season, for the visit of Sunderland last term, arguably played on the worst weekend for attendances all season, ie 3 days before Xmas, there was a healthy 31,275 in the ground, yet for the opening first team Premier League game of this season, a first chance for many to see our £35 million's worth of talent, not to mention on the back of a good away win on the opening day, the attendance was only 29, 596, almost 2,000 down on last year's.
Similarly the second game of the season against West Ham, OK this was a televised Sunday game this year, but 28,794 was almost 3,200 short of the same game not six month's earlier.
OK I do accept that there are a lot of things that are stopping fans going to the game, not least the combination of high prices and the availability to watch the game in many of the local pubs who now show them live, but those factors were still there last season, so why the big drop, especially when you factor in the feel good factor and our good start to the season.
As I mentioned earlier the League Cup also see's a big drop, 1,300 more watched last seasons home tie with Sheffield Wednesday than turned up for last nights game with Bristol City almost exactly a year to the day.
On Saturday we host Crystal Palace, an attractive fixture in that they are as close to us in terms of distance than all but Chelsea & Fulham in this League, not to mention its on the back of a good win at Liverpool, at time of writing a quick glance of the on line ticketing system shows that there are around 1,800 tickets still available in the home sections for this one, this of course doesn't include the corporate areas which have been very bare for the opening two fixtures, when Crystal Palace last played here two seasons ago the attendance was 31,524, Ok it was on a Boxing Day which always sees a decent turn out, but if we don't see a bigger attendance on Saturday for this game than back then, there is something seriously amiss.
These are happy days to be a Saints fan in terms of ambition and League position, the team have given us something on the pitch its now time to show our support off it, if we cant sell out the normal seated areas for a game like this, then when can we ?
There is nothing better than St Mary's stadium when its packed to the rafters and there isn't an empty seat in the house, it happened for much of the second half of last season, although it helped that we played most of the big clubs during that timescale, on Saturday we had arguably our best result in the Premier League indeed any league in well over a decade, there are no excuses for this one, lets see those last remaining tickets snapped up and then we can get on with the business of beating Palace and making it a decent start to the season.