Virgin Media are to subsidise ticket prices for two away games as a reward to the Saints away supporters this season which has despite the poor form been tremendous..
Some Saints supporters have been critical of Virgin Media for the £10 subsidy that they gave to all away fans at St Mary's, they say that it should be given to Saints fans not the other Premier League teams.
However what many don't understand is that this initiative was not part of Virgin Media's sponsorship of Saints, but because of their involvement with the Football Supporters Federation who have led an initiative called Twenty's Plenty which calls for away tickets to be capped at £20 for every game in the Premier League.
So far this has only been partially successful, the FSF managed to get the Premier League clubs to agree to a three year trial at a £30 maximum per adult ticket, in this respect partial success has been a great leap forward.
Now in the final year of this initiative, from the beginning Virgin Media were supportive and as part of their sponsorship of the FSF agreed to subsidise every team's away fans once a season to the tune of £10 meaning that at least once game was £20.
It was natural that they should want that to happen at St Mary's the home of the club they sponsor, however that has led to some confusion, on the plus side many away fans who visit us think that Saints are groundbreaking in offering them these cheap tickets, on the down side some of our less enlightened fans moan at the club and say we should have cheap tickets every away game from Virgin.
Over the past three seasons Virgin Media have always ensured that Saints get a little more than the rest, one subsidised game as part of the FSF deal and at least one more as part of their support of Saints, they have also also subsidised home games in both the cups and friendlies as well as travel.
This is not a case of toadying up to the club and doing their PR for them, this is part of a national initiative and to be blunt if you are one of those that has never heard of Twenty's Plenty or at least don't understand it then you really should find out more as it affects you as a supporter and if you travel away it has saved you a fair bit over the last two years.
It was only a little over 2 years ago that we were paying over £50 a ticket to visit Chelsea and not much less for our visits to a number of other clubs, it was a rare event to pay less than £40 for an away day that was already expensive when you took in the cost of travel and food and drink.
More about the Football Supporters Federation as well as Twenty's Plenty can be found using the link below.
In the meantime Saints & Virgin Media have announced that two away games this season will be subsidised, the trips to Chelsea & Newcastle United and they have also announced that the club and Virgin Media have also been reviewing wider partnership initiatives for fans.
As part of this review, Virgin Media and the club are actively discussing new ways to reward Saints’ fans for their dedicated support, and Saints fans will be updated as soon as the plans are finalised.
The games chosen are Saints 650 mile round trip to Newcastle United on Saturday 20th April, and the New Year clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge now moved from New Years Day to an evening kick off Wednesday 2nd January.
These are perhaps two games that will see mainly the hard core making the trip and are in my opinion well chosen.