Saints look set to register their lowest crowd of the season so far and perhaps for the duration of it as Burnley arrive in town.
Saints three home matches so far in the Premier League have attracted an average of 30,242, however that average could drop to under 30k for the first time in top flight football since the move to St Mary's after the visit of Burnley.
The opening day fixture against Watford was encouraging with 31,488 in attendance but that included 3,000 away fans, in fact given the far less number of travelling supporters for the visit of Sunderland and the crowd of 30,152 was a decent number, but for Swansea the crowd dropped below the 30k mark to 29,087 and for Burnley on Sunday it could be even less.
Indeed if Burnley bring down less than 1,000 fans, the gate could be nearer 28k than 29k.
It would be easy to put this down to this game and indeed the two preceedng it being perhaps the least attractive of the fixture list and in the case of Burnley and Swansea being on a Sunday, but that would be taking a simplistic view and one that has perhaps lead to the situation that we are now in, that is of having the best team we have had in over three decades yet we have falling attendances.
The first reason could be that with the Europa League campaign there are just too many home games at present, there is some credence to that, but the fixture on Sunday willbe our first home game in four weeks so there has been plenty of time to save up and indeed in the next five weeks we only have one Premier League fixture at home the visit of Chelsea.
Yes there will be a game in the Europa League against Inter Milan at St Mary's and also a League Cup tie against Sunderland, but both of these games are at cheap prices and in the case of Sunderland not likely to be anywhere near a sell out.
So why are there so many empty seats at St Mary's, it cant be due to a lack of success on the field, this is our best period since 1985. In some respects it can't be cost, after all prices have remained the same for the past three years and crowds have been bigger.
For all intents and purposes with the last three seasons we have had we should be no only selling out St Mary's but doing so comfortably and with a waiting list for season tickets and that being the case the talk should be about stadium expansion and not why we are not selling out.
This game should be a chance for those who can't get along to St Mary's regularly to be able to do so, yet as the bulk of the regular non season ticket holders spurn this game, there are few who want to take their place.
In my opinion there are two reasons why crowds have been disappointing this season.
The first is that ticket prices are two high, yes prices have been held for the last three seasons, but for the three years before that they were increased far and above the inflation rate to a point which caused some supporters financial hardship if they wanted to go regularly.
The club is making strides with regard to ticket pricing and offers etc, but the stark truth is that they have needed to make reductions in ticket prices.
It is all about perception as we will come on to, but at the moment supporters perceive the prices to be too high and that is why there are empty seats, for Sunday's game the cheapest general admission adult price is £33, that is a lot of money especially when the game is televised.
For a game like this it should be an opportunity for families to go, however for a family of four to go on Sunday, even if they went in the family section it would cost somewhere around £80 -£90 depending on the age of the kids, whilst tickets for kids are cheap at St Mary's adult prices are not.
The club needs to implement a more pro active ticket pricing system that rewards season ticket holders (In fairness they are starting to do this) but also within parameters ,sells individual tickets at cheaper prices, for instance by selling in blocks of tickets, ie if you say buy a Chelsea ticket at full price you can buy a Burnley Ticket at £28 or perhaps by buying Chelsea and Liverpool you could buy Burnley at £20.
Ths is the type of thing they do in the States and older fans will remember that in the Kevin Keegan days the club would sell tickets in blocks of three to encourage fans to attend the less attractive games.
Of course games on Sunday and for TV do not help matters, but if the club have 23,000 season ticket holders and Burnley bring 1,000 fans, the reality is that from a remaining supporter base of over 40,000, only around 10% of that base will buy an individual ticket on Sunday.
Those figures tell us that the club is not yet getting things right.
The last and perhaps underestimated reason is perception, supporters have to perceive that things are going well and this summer did not see that, after the departure of Ronald Koeman supporters perceive the club as a selling club and one that does not want to keep hold of its assets.
This is not quite correct from two points, firstly few clubs can hold on to players when a bigger richer club comes knocking at the door, players want more money than Saints can afford and they also want a better chance of honours etc, the clubs only fault here has been that it has been too successful in buying players and improving them.
So that gives fans the perception (wrongly) that the club is not ambitious, again the club has made strides here, but they clearly not enough.
In the respect of tickets, the club has to gie the fans the perception they are getting a bargain, a game like Burnley should have built in price reductions from the moment the fixture list is published, it doesn't take a genius to work out that this game would be poorly attended.
In short though the club has to make it easy for fans to attend games, the perception of those Saints fans wanting to travel in the Europa League is that the club are making it hard for them to do so.
Yes perhaps some of it is regulatory, but the majority of what they have done with regard to Europa League away tickets is not covered them with glory, many fans have not yet received their tickets with only six days to go to the game and this in itself gives supporters perception that the club and it is the club that is seen as at fault by the supporters, does not care(actually that statement is too soft) does not give a toss, about the fans.
The club needs to look and listen at the fans who are moaning or not coming and address the problems, if they do that then St Mary's can be filled, if they just bask in the glory then crowds will drop and continue to do so.