Southampton Football Club have announced the prices for season tickets for their return to the Premier League in season 2012/13 and there have been a few changes to the category's
Saints have clearly thought out their strategy for ticket prices next season, firstly for individual tickets they will be returning to the old format of different category games, however instead of gold silver and bronze they will now be called A, B & C with five games being in A Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd & Liverpool and seven in each of the other categories, purs surprisingly being relegated to only a B class from their gold status last time we were in the top flight.
The other change is in dividing up areas, the Itchen & Kingsland will go from two categories, ie centre & Wings, to three, Premium, Centre & Wings, basically self explanatory with Premium being those seats that are dead centre.
So how do the prices compare, to take the kingsland as an example, bearing in mind that prices in the Itchen & Chapel will be the same as the prices in the Wings, they are as follows.
Premium Centre £675 (Equivalent to £35.52 a game)
Centre £625 ( £32.89 a game)
Wings/goals £575 (£30.26 a game)
For new applications the prices are.
Premium Centre £720 (£37.89)
Centre £670 (£35.26)
Wings/Goals £600 (£31.57)
There are other prices for concessions etc that are far more detailed to go into on here.
But there will be a installment plan for those that cant afford to pay it all in one go, if we take the wings goal stand as an example the renewal installment plan works out as follows 25% down in June for existing holders then £50 is added to the remaining balance and divided into six monthly instalments ie £143 deposit, then £431 + £50 =£481 divided by six = £71.87 per month, the plan for new season ticket holders is similar, but the downpayment is in July followed by five installments rather than six.
How does this compare to other clubs, in truth it sits somewhere towards the top end of the middle, Fulham, Norwich & Swansea are as you would expect significantly cheaper, whilst Arsenal Chelsea and Spurs are much higher, our prices arent set to attract season ticket holders through price, but to attract them through savings on what will be quite expensive matchday tickets with the most expensive match day seat in the A category perhaps heading towards the £45- £50 mark.
In many respects its a pricing policy that at the bottom end will please the fans in the cheaper seats £575 and £30 a game is perhaps a reasonable figure to watch Premier football, but for those in the Premium category its quite a price hike around £150 on last seasons prices, perhaps aimed at driving some out to the cheaper seats thus freeing up the centre seats for the Category A games when premium prices can be charged to the day trippers, in short there are pros and cons for these season ticket prices, whilst some holes can be picked in them on one hand, on the other there are also plenty of positives, yes its expensive to watch premier football, but thats a debate for another time.
The real plus point though is that they are allowing season ticket holders plenty of time to renew, on line sales start on June 6th for two weeks and then on 20th June they add the option of telephone or in person until June 30th, again the strategy is clear, rightly or wrongly they are pushing supporters into renewing online for obvious reasons, not least cost.
New applications will then be entertained on line and telephone only from July2nd -9th and then from the 9th till 31st July they can also be bought in person.
Strangely though season ticket sales of any description will end on 31st July some 18 days before the season starts, given that excitement builds in those final days before the season starts, this is usually prime selling time for new season tickets, yet we are stopping dead almost three weeks before the season kicks off, im sure there is a good reason.