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Plenty Of Tickets Left For Grimsby Game
Tuesday, 28th Feb 2023 09:52

Despite the cheap prices and the renewed optimism after the sacking of Nathan Jones, it seems that there is little enthusiasm for the visit of Grimsby Town on Wednesday evening and the Mariners might actually have the advantage in terms of vocal support.

Despite the boot of over 4,000 away supporters travelling South from Grimsby , it looks like the FA Cup 5th round match against the Mariners will be our lowest crowd of the season.

This will be our 6th cup tie at St Mary's this season and despite cheap prices in all of them, the crowds have not been brilliant for a Premier League club of our size.

The first game of this sequence against Sheffield Wednesday saw a respectable 20, 457 in attendance and the second game, in the next round of the Carabao Cup saw 17.385 watch us beat Lincoln, given this was the first game back after the World Cup break this was a disappointment.

Next up was Manchester City in the Carabao cup again, surprisingly only 22,996 were in attendance and that included 3,000 City supporters, it seemed at that game that our regular fans had deserted us, there was a big proportion of the crowd more casual Saints supporters than those who went on a regular basis.

You could understand why the combination of Nathan Jones & the probability of being slaughtered put a few people off, but in the next round of the Carabao cup, the semi final first leg there were no real excuses, we were playing for a place at Wembley, the score was 0-0 in a two legged tie as we kicked off yet there were a couple of thousand seats unsold.

A few days later Blackpool arrived to be despatched in the FA Cup and it was a respectable 20, 665 in attendance, so that being the case it is surprising how few tickets have been sold for the Grimsby Town game.

With a little over 24 hours left before the game I estimate that Saints have sold barely 12,000 tickets, with areas of the ground closed as they have been in previous games, it is hard to be accurate, but given the number of seats available in the central areas of the Kingsland, I am not going to be far out.

This means that even with the help of Grimsby supporters who have so far sold over 4,000 tickets, we are still short of that 17k against Lincoln.

So given that this is a 5th round tie which gives us a great chance to reach the last 16 and with a good draw the FA Cup semi final, it is strange that a large proportion of our supporters cannot find any enthusiasm for this game, despite the fact that on paper it is our most likely game to win of the entire season.

I often quote Bill Shankly who said "If you can't support us when we are losing, don't bother when we are winning" but it seems some of our fans can't be bothered even when we have a good chance of winning.

Of course this is not a great season, I appreciate that, but this game is a chance of a good win and a shot at glory.

It can't be the cost of going, you can still buy tickets at £17.50 for an adult and £7.50 for under 18's, to put that in perspective that is cheaper than the £20 that Grimsby will charge to watch them in League 2 and around the price that National League clubs including Eastleigh will charge. Indeed Wrexham who are the poster boys of the National League charge £19.

I hope there is a last minute rush, as mentioned it is £17.50 for an adult at the moment and only £7.50 for a child, but these prices rise by £2,50 on matchday, so best to get them today if you are going to have a late decision to go.

Yes it is on TV , but that is no substitute for the experience of being at the game itself.

The real downside though will be that although we will outnumber the Grimsby Fans by about 3 to 1, they will have their 4,000 bunched together and in their biggest game since 1996 in the FA Cup, they are not staying at home to watch it on TV, indeed it is around two thirds of their average home support of around the 6k mark.

They sit 16th in league Two and have still made the effort.

I am not having a go at anyone here, we all make our choices as to how we support the club and the level of support that we give, I am just surprised and a little disappointed that given the low prices, the recent change of manager and most importantly the chance of progressing in the competition that the turn out so far looks to be so poor.

Photo: Action Images



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WestSussexSaint added 11:07 - Feb 28
The one factor you didn’t mention was the early kick off. As a ST holder who doesn’t live locally in the City there is simply no way for me to finish work and get to the ground in time for the 7.15 kick off. I know Grimsby fans will have travelled a long way but I expect most will have taken the day off to do so anyway. I expect it was TV that influenced the move away from the traditional 7.45 midweek kick off time. Another example of TV screwing the fans who want to see the match live.
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andoverpedro added 11:38 - Feb 28
Getting to Southampton for an early kick off 7.15 doesnt work even when its a 7.45pm many are still out side as the roads into Southampton from surrounding areas north Hampshire and Berkshire are a nightmare. Also its live on the TV and as has been shown in other games Saints dont look too clever against lower league opposition which is a worry for next season in the championship ??. I think given the dross of this season all season ticket holders should have been given a free ticket .
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SaintNick added 12:56 - Feb 28
West Sussex Saint. The traditional evening kick off time used to be 7.30pm it was TV that changed it to 7.45 and then 8pm

7.15 is early, but if people finish work at 5pm it is drivable or by train, given that most of our fanbase live in a maximum radius of 30 -35 miles from the ground max

Andoverpedro You say we dont look cleaver against lower League opposition, but the fact is that in all of the games, Cambridge, Sheffield Wednesday, Lincoln & Blackpool we have firstly won and secondly done so with pretty much a second string side, so it is no barometer of our chances next season in the Championship should we go down.

I said in another thread that Saints are not in control of ticket prices for this one, they have to charge a price agreed by the other club, so if we did give everyone a free ticket then it would actually cost the club a fair bit as they would have to split the actual price into three and pay both the away side and the FA from that price
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SAINTSNIL added 15:09 - Feb 28
As Bill Shankly was such a great man,I have decided to take his advice....
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cocklebreath added 16:02 - Feb 28
I drive down from Basingstoke for the Newcastle semi final, we left at 5pm and finally got parked at 7.15pm it was a nightmare. Tomorrow we’ll be getting the train as the early kick off means we’ll be able to get the 10pm train home.
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ItchenNorth added 17:30 - Feb 28
In a city of about 350,000. With a catchment area north of 500,000. This is rubbish support.

Who cares what the football is like at present. This is our team, our club!

I get it. It is midweek. It's a earlier kick off. Some will have legitimate reasons, but bloody hell, the rest of you!

Support your team. The team you supposedly support.

COYR
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Block8 added 09:56 - Mar 1
Nick it is hard for people who are on low incomes with the cost of living crisis, I am lucky enough not to be too badly affected but it is a real concern for some!
Also to ItchenNorth, the addition of mass TV coverage enables many "fans" from one area to claim support for a team miles away, there are probably as many, if not more, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool etc.. fans amongst the 500,000 catchment as there are Saints fans. Remember you no longer have to go to a game to claim to be a fan.
Apologies to all of the people who would be there if they could but it is true.
By the way it's only really live if you are there!
Whoever is there, lets cheer the team on, they need all the help they can get!
COYR
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barry_sanchez added 21:09 - Mar 1
Years of selling and not replacing, its a c*nt of a club from top to bottom, why go?
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darthvader added 23:55 - Mar 1
Nick. I went. Paid my money with three others. One of them a first timer they said the referree mustve been corrupted to put grimsby through like that. Tried to explain about var, . They said they will never go again and asked what's the point when you got people in a studio deciding who will win ?..i wish i stayed in the warm. The club is a shambles
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