Saints are introducing a scheme next season where season ticket holders may be able to sell back their seat to the club for individual games but how will it work ?

Ticketing agencies like StubHub have been working with several Premier league clubs over recent years to operate ticket resale schemes, however there are many who claim that these schemes are little more than club sanctioned touting, Spurs fans especially feel aggrieved that for many Spurs home games tickets appear on the "official" StubHub for £200, the club's response being that this is the agreed ceiling for the resale of tickets.

So how will Saints scheme operate ? Will it be run by the club or will it be operated by a third party such as StubHub.

First indications are that this could be a club run scheme, the initial details say.

The ticket resale scheme will only come into operation once a game has been declared as sold out

Upon the Club opening the scheme, you will be able to offer your seat for re-sale using the online ticketing system

No guarantee can be given that your seat will be sold

If your seat is sold, a credit will be applied to your account which can be redeemed against the cost of your 2016/17 Season Ticket

Full details on pricing will be released in the summer

This seems to indicate that this is going to be administered by the Club and if that is so it will provide a valuable service to season ticket holders who cannot attend a game and would therefore in the past have had to have paid for a game they could not attend and secondly a seat would have gone spare. The fact that Saints will apply season ticket credits rather than paying a season ticket holder lends to the fact this is not a third party scheme.

There will of course be a cost to doing so, but as long as the season ticket holder is reasonably compensated with the credits given I see that as not a problem, for instance if a £42 ticket was credited with £35 towards the following years ticket that is a reasonable amount, £30 to £35 maybe less so, under £30 could be seen as profiteering.

Overall though a Club run scheme has to be good and the electronic ticketing system means that it is a fairly simple task for the club to run in that they can cancel a season ticket card for an individual game and issue a single match ticket.

Hopefully this will encourage supporters who would normally miss a game or two and might not purchase a season ticket because of that to do so now.

StubHub and third party schemes however have come under increasing fire and I do hope that this is not being run by one of those schemes, supporters of those clubs like Spurs claim that whilst it is illegal to sell a ticket over the face value, by allowing a ticket to be resold at way over cost the club is condoning ticket touting.

I hope that Saints will merely re sell tickets to supporters on the data base for the face value with perhaps a small administration fee, I have no problem with the club making a little money out of it to cover costs.

Photo: Action Images

legod7 added 13:08 - Apr 20 This on the OS site. The last line is the most interesting : Ticket resale scheme The ticket resale scheme will only come into operation once a game has been declared as sold out Upon the Club opening the scheme, you will be able to offer your seat for re-sale using the online ticketing system No guarantee can be given that your seat will be sold If your seat is sold, a credit will be applied to your account which can be redeemed against the cost of your 2016/17 Season Ticket Full details on pricing will be released in the summer

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jdsaint added 13:11 - Apr 20 If it is as you describe, it is not going to be much use. How many games have been a complete sellout this season? For these games that have been a sellout, if I needed to give or sell my tickets to someone, I would have plenty of takers. I often can't make evening and sunday matches due to work commitments. I'd like to be able to sell on my tickets for these games but they are rarely sellouts.

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ItchenNorth added 13:26 - Apr 20 Every little helps though if you are in the situation that you can't pass onto a friend and the club can get you your money back / off !
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SaintNick added 13:44 - Apr 20 Itchennorth is right every little helps and there are those that havent anyone to sell them on to, also the game has to be a sell out otherwise the club are making a loss if they sell tickets for games that they still have tickets left for. If it is a club run scheme then it is a step in the right direction, as it will enable supporters to get some credit for games they cant go to if sold out and secondly for those sell out games it will put seats up for resale that might otherwise have been empty

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Scummer added 15:06 - Apr 20 First off, great idea if it is implemented well. Kudos to the club for organising it as an internally delivered system, and the "money off the next season ticket" approach look as if some thought has gone into making sure it is of benefit to fans and not to touts. One thing I would like to see is an email sent out to any season ticket holders sitting adjacent first. I would love the option of inviting friends and family to sit next to my son and I for the odd game. And I'm sure the same goes for our Kingsland neighbours for those games where we cannot make it.

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SanMarco added 17:56 - Apr 20 I think it is really good - an excellent 'moral' decision if they are rejecting the Stubhub daylight robbery. That is just a license for fleecing your 'fellow' fans.
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