Put bluntly hundreds of Saints season ticket holders may be unable to attend the Boxing Day Clash with Arsenal due to the pandering of the Premier League to TV.

Perhaps the one list of fixtures that should be sacred from the ravages of TV coverage should be those on Boxing Day.

Traditionally kicks offs on the 26th December are played with a lunchtime kick off, that enables fans to go to the game and then get home in plenty of time to spend the rest of their day with their families.

Boxing Day for many is a case of seeing family and friends that they did not see the day before etc, but the change of kick off time to the absurd 7.45pm means that many might not be able to attend the game due to various reasons.

Firstly of course there is the fact that many will be under pressure from their families not to go to the game and although some may still go to St Mary's and risk the wrath of their Wives, Girlfriends, many will have to bite the bullet and not attend.

Secondly there is the public transport aspect, although there are no trains, during the day there is a limited bus service during the day, but these finish at around 6pm in the evening meaning that those who do not have cars would either have to walk home or splash out on a taxi .

But it is not just these two aspects, Saints have a fair proportion of season ticket holders who live a distance from the City and for those it will mean leaving home mid afternoon and perhaps not getting back till midnight. For Arsenal fans it wll be just as bad.

Boxing Day is usually a game where you meet up before the game for a quick drink and then again after before heading for home, it has an ambience not seen at the other home games during the year, but this season it has been completely ruined this year because of the greed of the TV companies

Photo: Action Images

1962saint added 11:19 - Dec 25 Absolutely right Nick. I live 2 hours away and will not be home before midnight.Not a pleasant journey in the dark and inevitable drizzle / rain. It will be made more tolerable if we get 3 points!
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SaintNick added 11:53 - Dec 25 There are buses now for those in and around Southampton which is some help but not to those outside the city
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Libertine36 added 15:32 - Dec 25 The most rubbish kick off ever. Why did people not complain at the time?
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SaintBrock added 16:46 - Dec 25 Frankly, I doubt the BPL and Sky give a toss about the fans in England. This is obviously prime-time viewing in the US and that's all that matters to them. I fully expect the PL to be staged in the US in about 10 years time and the fact it was ever an English league will be long forgotten.
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simmo400 added 20:26 - Dec 25 Also it's likely to be another drubbing so better to stay in or pub to watch it.
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Zambucco added 09:54 - Dec 26 the irony is that all the fans not attending will be watching the match on BT Sport. I would have fully supported a boycott,
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SaintBrock added 10:21 - Dec 26 A boycott would harm our club who probably have no say in the timings anyway. The boycott should be of BT Sport but as their service is pretty much free to all their internet subscribers, fat chance of that happening.
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simmo400 added 10:48 - Dec 26 Why boycott the game ? There the ones making our club rich. Shame they don't care about the problems of transport All to do with money not practicality. Just bad luck we were selected today.
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ItchenNorth added 11:10 - Dec 26 I'm not sure I agree. Tbh a later kick off allows you to spend the day with family. A 3pm on Boxing Day would have firmly got in the way. You'll never keep everyone happy though. Where there's a will to attend there's a way I suppose.
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SanMarco added 12:21 - Dec 26 Moaning about kick off times is a bit like moaning about billionaires and bankers not paying any tax. It is the world that has been created for us over the past 30 years and it aint going to change any time soon. SaintBrock sees the way the wind is blowing. Whether it is the US or the Far East that this 'brand' is exported to we will have no say at all. I just hope we are above the line/suitability criteria when relegation is abolished - if we want an away Boxing Day clash with the Kuala Lumpur Tigers that is...

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