Saints have announced that season ticket prices have been frozen for the 2015/16 season, however this is not good news and could be seen as short sighted by those who have set these prices.
Over the past few years Saints fans have seen ticket prices rise above inflation by some rate, of course two successive promotions are the reason for most of that increased cost, but the fact still remains that Saints are one of the more expensive clubs in the Premier League when it comes to ticket prices.
Granted that they are a long way from the most expensive seat, but it could also be said that on the other side of the coin they are far away from being the cheapest and at a time when more multi millions are being pumped into the Premier league and filtering down to clubs, in this announcement of frozen prices the club seem to have taken no account into not only their increased income from the Premier league but the fact that even in this, the best season in three decades, we have still struggled to fill the stadium as was evidenced in the last two home games, yes for the Burnley game we did sell some of their tickets, but not all of them suggesting that we had reached a line.
Whilst I quite rightly criticised Aston Villa earlier in the season for the prices they charge for away supporters, the reality is also that they lookafter their own supporters and encourage them to buy season tickets, for instance to sit behind the goal in the Holte End at Villa Park could cost you as little as £430 for a season ticket with £510 for the centre lower tier a prices that is £118 lower than Saints.
So to feeze prices is not really taking a long term view of the situation in my opinion, this is a time when we should be building our supporter base, encouraging fans to become season ticket holders not based on the highs and lows the team may be experiencing on the pitch, but based on loyalty to the team and because it is a real financial incentive to be a season ticket holder.
You only need to look at Brighton to see how this is implemented and that is why they have as many if not more season ticket holders than us despite not exactly setting the Championship alight as of late.
Many supporters are clamouring for St Mary's to be extended and i can see their argument, but we cannot do that till we are selling out week in week out whoever the opposition and as the opening games of the season showed along with the recent Palace home game, we are a long way from doing that, given our League position and the season we have had, it really should be a full house whoever we play.
If it isnt then we have to look at the reason why and given our great season then it has to be financial, people cannot afford the prices or feel they are too high.
That is not to say our support isnt great, in fact it is the opposite when we compare it with clubs of a similar size and that is why Im so disappointed with the continued high season ticket price albeit it frozen, we had a great opportunity to tap into the more floating supporter and increase season ticket sales drastically.
More to the point we had the chance to tap into the supporter who is being enticed away by the lure of the live feed in the pub, the number of supporters I know who were loyal supporters home and away right through the bad years of 2005 onwards and then as we rose through the divisions again, but barely go to a game these days is significant.
Statistics show that asupporter who is a season ticket holder will spend more in revenue with the club in a season than a none season ticket holder, not just in the fact that he has paid for all the matches up front, but in terms of merchandise and food sales, yes you will get more from a supporter per game for a seat sold individually, but that amount will be surpassed by a season ticket holder's expenditure on the peripheral things.
Forward thinking clubs have realised this and concentrate on maximising season ticket sales by making the affordable and a much better deal over the season than buying individually, I have to say i do not think our pricing here is forward thinking either in terms of cost or in building a supporter fan base, we have a real feel good factor at the moment we should have cashed in on it not by squeezing out what we think fans will pay, but giving something to the supporters that will cement their loyalty and keep them coming for years.
To reduce every adult season ticket by £50 would have perhaps cost the club £750k in income, a drop in the ocean when compared with the extra millions that we as a club are seeing our Premier League & TV revenue increase by yearly, but if 200 people renewed who would not have otherwise and another 1,000 bought a season ticket because of the reduced price then that deficit would soon have been clawed back.
A look around the Premier league shows that many clubs are struggling to sell out their stadium's week in week out these days and i do not want to see Saints be one of those and the knock on effect is that if season ticket prices are staying the same then so are individual ticket prices and the empty seats at some games shows that in general the casual supporter doesn't see the current prices as value for money, that was shown recently with 4,000 seats empty for the game with Crystal Palace and we are not tackling that issue with these prices.
Yes the club have reduced the price for those who sit in the corners, but a £1.50 per game reduction isn't the difference between getting someone along to watch a game against the likes of Sunderland or West Brom or seeing them stay in their armchair or more likely watching the game on a live feed either at home or down the pub.
Football Clubs need to look at the changing market place and realise what they are competing with, for Premier league clubs it is even more difficult due to the fact that it is easy to watch the game live on your laptop or at one of a couple of dozen pubs in the city who show the live feeds, £32 to watch Burnley is a lot of money when you can watch it for free in a pub and that is the biggest problem for clubs and many Saints included have yet to realise that.
So a little disappointing news from the club in my opinion, we have not been pro active and as clubs like Middlesbrough saw a decade or so ago when they saw their crowds drop drastically, if you dont see the pattern emerging then by the time you do react it is too late.