Saints fans look likely to boycott Saturday's trip to Leeds United due to the exhorbitant price of the tickets.
Saints are one of the most expensive clubs in the Championship, however even their prices are dwarfed by the charges Leeds will make to Saints supporters wanting to watch their team at Elland Road on Saturday, adults will pay a whopping £36 with even the over 60's being charged £29 and Under 16's £25 making it an expensive day for those who want to take their kids.
Of course we all know who the architect of these stupid prices is, Ken Bates, a man who puts supporters slightly below dogs in the street in the footballing food chain, the problem is Leeds have categorised this an A game meaning that top prices are charged with the real irony being that if Saints are promoted thenm their is a good chance that they wont be charged this price on most of their travels next season and that perhaps puts Bates prices in perspective
If Saints do go up then they are likely to be in the cheapest price band for most clubs they visit, this would mean that even a visti to Arsenal, considered to be one of the most expensive tickets in the league would only be £35, Spurs would match £36 in their upper tier, but be a fiver less in the lower, in truth many Premier clubs will probably be cheaper to visit than Leeds for Saints next year, with only Chelsea being significantly dearer
Before the season started most Championship supporters would have put money on Leeds being the second best supported team but these prices have rippped the heart out of the core of Leeds support, last seasons average of 27,299 is over four thousand less this year standing at 23,226 as we speak and this figure in itself is lower than the two years previous when the Club were in League 1.
Perhaps this should tell Ken Bates and indeed all football administrators something and that is build a hard core of support by charging reasonable prices and making the fans feel that the club values them and that support wont desert you in a time of need.