Season Ticket Prices Increase Tuesday, 15th Apr 2014 12:07 Saints season ticket holders were slightly disappointed to hear today that the price of watching the team next season will once again increase. The increase is minimal and works out on average at about £1 per game over the season, but I just have the feeling that Saints have missed a trick here to show that they are truly in touch with the cost that some supporters have to pay to watch the team. By putting up the prices slightly they have not really put that much more money into the coffers over the course of a season, if we have 20,000 season ticket holders taking into account concessions etc, barely £500k, not even the prize money for finishing one place higher in the Premier League. But the end result is that for a very small amount of money you have made a fair chunk of the hard core supporter base feel a little disgruntled whereas by a small decrease in prices, even as small as a £1 a game reduction it brings a feel good factor to the supporters and makes them more likely to renew or indeed take out tickets for the first time. Indeed it could be said we have a declining attendance level, although on a game by game basis its only around 800 down on last season that has to be aligned with the fact that this season has been a lot more excitement on the pitch, it doesnt take a genius to realise that if your crowds are declining off the pitch at a time when on it you are in the ascent, there is something wrong. So if we say a 4-5% increase in price will directly correlate a 4-5% decrease in sales that would immediately wipe out any extra income from increasing the prices, therefore the price rise will have had a negative effect on income, someone somewhere has not been doing their sums on this. Of course we wont lose all the income from season ticket holders who dont review, research shows that fans rarely move from one supporting group to another, ie a season ticket holder wont usually go from going every week to going once a year, but the income from a former season ticket holder does decrease dramatically, firstly there is the ticket income, instead of £650 say from a full season the ex T holder will go to around 10 games on average paying around half the money he did for his season ticket, so that is a big loss . But then there is the peripheral income, a season ticket holder is far more likely to buy a replica shirt or other merchandise, they are far more likely to habitually have a half time pint or other food etc, not to mention that their families are far more likely to buy Saints merchandise for Xmas & birthday presents. The long and short of it is that a season ticket holder could be worth around £1- 1.2k in income a year to a club, whereas a non season ticket holder will struggle to hit £500. But there are other knock on effects like advertising incomes etc which are harder to calculate. All indications so far are that the new board in place understand the supporters and the culture a lot better than our old CEO, however that does not mean they will get everything right and I think this is one area where they haven't, perhaps it will be a lesson learned and this time next year they will have a re think or perhaps they know what they are doing and that next season they will be proved right. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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