The club's announcement about season ticket prices has brought a mixed reaction from Saints supporters who have questioned just how much benefit the majority of the club's fanbase will get.
The first thing is that it is good that the club has not put up the prices ! but after that just about the only people who will get any benefit from the new pricing structure are those who are buying a season ticket for next season who do not have one this and that is going to be relatively few.
Seat prices at St Mary's have been too high after a massive price increase instigated by the regime of former Chairman Nicola Cortese and although they haven't risen since, for most supporters they have not gone down either and that is something that should have changed.
The fact the pricing structure is wrong has been shown in quite a few games this season where there have been several thousand empty seats in the home sections of St Mary's, yes some have become available when clubs have not taken up their full away support, but the fact that these seats haven't been sold suggests that they are too dear.
Many clubs are recognising that prices are too high and have reduced
A look around the Premier league will show you that an adult buying a season ticket behind the goal at Everton will pay £485 - £525, at Stoke a comparable club in size to Saints the price is £344, at West Brom £399 , neighbours Bournemouth £480 and Watford around £400.
Compare those prices for a ticket in the Northam End at £570 for adult fans current season ticket holders there is no difference whatsoever, the only difference is that they no longer get any benefit in terms of discount on the full price apart from having their seat reserved.
The only attraction is for new applicants for a season ticket who now pay a lower price than before ie the same price as those who have been season ticket holders this season and in many cases since the stadium opened.
This is good for attracting new season ticket holders but does nothing for retention going forward, on the plus side perhaps 1,000 people will see benefit, but 20,000 will feel a little short changed.
It is good to see that the club are promoting cheap season tickets for families, it should be noted these are the same prices as last season and they did not sell all of the family centre season tickets this season, so how are they going to do it next.
All this might do is make it harder to sell seats to adults for single games approaching sell outs, we now have an extra 2,000 family seats, but if those families did not sell out the current section, how are we going to magically fill a new area. Are we going to see a big empty swathe or are families in that area going to be potentially swamped for some games by those who are not perhaps so family orientated in their behaviour at football games.
The club have tried to dress up the announcement with a big fanfare to make it seem if this is a major revamp of their ticketing structure as well as promoting cheap tickets for families, the reality is that perhaps 1,000 new season ticket holders will save around £60- £70 on what they would have paid under the new structure, whilst those who have been loyal this season and seasons before get nothing and now they have created an extra family area they have effectively restricted potential single seat sales to adults.
The club have been very pro active in the past three years to make Southampton Football Club more of the vision that Markus Liebherr had for it, but the area they have not got it right in during that time, has been the ticketing structure and I'm afraid I can see little to cheer about unless you are a new season ticket applicant.