Saints fans should be prepared for prices to rise back in the championship.
Saints are back in the Championship and alongside the increase in quality of football will come an increase in the price of a ticket, but we should be neither surprised nor too upset (depending on the rises)
The last time Saints were back in the championship prices were slightly higher per game than they are now, back then a seat in the centre cost £26 per game and in the wings/goals £22 compared to £25/£22 now, although of course back then there was no surcharge for bookings on line or on the day of the match.
This means that a rise of sorts is inevitable to bring prices back up to the level they were in our last sojourn in this division, that means a minimum of £2 increase per ticket per game, although this would bring centre stand seats to a higher figure than before.
Its hard to get a direct comparison from other clubs as some operate a tiered pricing structure depending on the game, as Saints have done in the past, for example an Adult ticket at Doncaster Rovers can vary between £15 & £28 depending on the tier,
Ipswich appear to be one of the most expensive, again they categorised their matches, in the Cobbold Uppper section, the stand where away fans were accomodated, a ticket in the wings cost between £30 & £33 for an adult increasing to £31 & £36 in the centre. Perhaps thats why they have seen attendances drop by over 1,200 this season in a downward spiral thats been going on the last couple of seasons.
A browse around the Champioship reveals that Ipswich are at the high end of the scale and that although many do operate a tiered system with some category C games as low as £15, the average price for a ticket seems to be around the £25 mark.
Saints of course were amongst the most expensive in league One, this being the case its natural that our prices would have been higher than some in the Championship already, but although there are some that would say that we should keep the prices the same I would say there is a little scope for an increase back to at least the levels they were before and perhaps slightly higher (maybe £1)
If we want to see investment in the squad then we do need to help fund it and the question Saints fans have to ask themselves is are they willing to pay a little bit more to see a little bit better quality ? It doesnt sound much but on this seasons average a £2 increase across the board would bring in around another £1 million pounds revenue and at Championship Level that funds one good aquisition to the squad.
But the key is to place any rise in the right perception to the supporters, last season the manner in which the prices and tickets were announced cost the Club a lot of goodwill, yes 22k was the best average in the division, but it was only a 5% increase on the previous seasons gates and given the feel good factor in place after Wembley etc and the fact that season ticket numbers increased by somewhere between 15 - 20% this wasnt a great increase given our success on the field.
This is now a great chance to bring supporters together, the fanbase expects an increase, if the club presents it in the right way then it can be a positive thing and keep the momentum going from our promotion success, as I have often said the disapointment about the crowds is that they rarely increased right up until the last day of the season, the club should be looking to encourage as many of the casual supporters who showed up for the Walsall game to attend on a more frequent basis, both by making season tickets attractive to buy but by also encouraging more day ticket sales, I dont know many supporters who would really want us to be the cheapest in the division, we want to see investment in the team, but conversely I think that most would be happy at seeing prices pegged at slightly higher than the average and that means around the £26 per game level maximum.
In the grand scale of things these are still high prices for a ticket to see a football match, however they are the going rates and that being the case we need to be able to compete financially with the other clubs, over the last season I have seen many statements about helping Markus live his dreamof getting Saints into the premier, Markus put his hand in his pocket, as we get into the serious business of getting promotion to the premier, we supporters too need to put our hands into our pockets as well.