The trip to Goodison Park on 18th May for what will be the last ever competitive fixture at the ground, will see some extra security precautions put in place for visiting Southampton supporters, but are they needed ?
As you can imagine Southampton's penultimate game of the season away to Everton at Goodison Park will be an emotional day for Toffee's fans, the Merseyside club have a massive supporter base and virtually every single one of them will be desperate to be inside that stadium for the last time.
Add to that articles that have appeared from Southampton FC of late regarding those fans who buy tickets for away games on their own supporter number but pass them on for those who do not have enough qualifying away games and you can see why the ticket sales for Saints fans making the trip will be a lot more stringent than usual.
The club statement for the sale of the 2,976 tickets we will receive read as follows.
"With the high profile surrounding this game, we will be forcing the final 500 tickets sold, as well as a random 500 tickets, to be collected from Goodison Park with photographic ID. Supporters selected for collection, will receive details around the process via email, by Friday 2nd May. As a reminder, away tickets should not be passed or sold on and should be used only by the named assigned to the ticket at the time of purchase. The club reserves the right to withhold any tickets that are being collected by someone not matching these details."
On the first hand you can see why Saints are doing this, in short they are covering two bases, firstly making sure that those supporters who have been attending the bulk of games this season get the chance to buy tickets and secondly to prevent those who are a little more unscrupulous from selling them on at a profit to Everton supporters who will be willing to pay big money.
So it seems that with the first half of the tickets that the club trust that those fans who qualify in the first days of the sale, will want to see their team in action, if you have been to all the games, you want to be at this one, the final away game of the season.
But once the true hard core away fans have bought their tickets, we go into the grey area where some fans might be tempted to sell on their ticket, this is why the last 500 that go on sale will need to be picked up in person at Goodison with photographic ID.
In short the message is this, we think the first 2,500 will want to go and we are not sure that the next 500 who qualify, especially if it goes on sale to season ticket holders who haven't been to an away game, as unlikely as that is going to be, that they don't get the ticket in advance to sell on. But just in case, we will also force 500 random tickets to be picked up.
On the face of it you can see why Saints are doing this, however have the logistics been looked into properly.
With the game being a noon kick off on Sunday the 18th it is likely that a fair chunk of the travelling Southampton support will be going up on the day, that means if you are going by coach then you will need to leave at 5am at the latest, the club's official coaches leave St Mary's at 4.15 am.
With a coach journey including a stop at the services taking 5 -6 hours at best, that means a large chunk of the Saints support will be arriving at the ground at around 10am and more to the point all arriving together,
After a long coach journey they will not have time to stop and have a bite to eat or a drink, they will have to go straight to the ground and pick up their tickets..
With 1,000 people having to do this in a very short space of time that will create congestion at the ticket office at Goodison, once the tickets are collected they will have to then queue up to get into the ground and then these 1,000 will be joined by the other 2,000 who haven't had the hassle of having to take photo ID.
Given the thousands of Everton fans who will be milling around Goodison Park and desperate to get in, I would hope that the place where the tickets are to be picked up would be in a secure position next to the away turnstiles, lets be blunt here, there will be those that will lets say be making an offer that can't be refused to Saints fans with tickets, you would hope that the safety of Southampton fans would be the first priority.
I have no problem with Saints taking measures to prevent ticket touting, however I think it is a little over the top asking so many people to pick up tickets in person up at Goodison in such a short period of time, I think it could cause more problems than it stops.
Another solution could have been to give supporters the option to pick up their tickets either late Saturday afternoon on the day before, or indeed for those travelling by coach, at the stadium at 4-00am before the coach departs, both of these would not only make it easier for Saints supporters facing a long journey, but also reduce congestion both at the ticket office at Goodison and at the turnstiles.