Last week Saints put Everton tickets on sale early in order to gauge interest in the fan base with a view to taking the largest allocation, now that plan has to go out of the window with so much uncertainty about the season.
One problem that Saints and indeed all football clubs face is ticket sales, for home games it is not so much of a problem with around 2/3 of the normal seats available to home fans at St Mary's being sold as season tickets, the real issue is the sale of away tickets.
The initial suspension of fixtures is only till April 3rd, but the reality is that is highly unlikely to happen, indeed there are many who feel that the Premier League jumped the gun in cancelling fixtures this weekend, at the moment the UK is not in the critical phase and measures that are in place in Italy are not likely to be put in force here for another four weeks, if the Government's Health and Scientific advisors are right.
This means that it is unlikely that football will resume as we head into that critical phase, it is impossible to predict the exact timings and severity of the pandemic, but it is fair to say that it is hard to see the game being able to resume until the end of May at the earliest.
This being the case for the final 9 games will all have to be completely rescheduled if the Premier League decide to complete the fixtures in June/July which is likely.
That means that few Saints supporters are going to buy tickets for Everton away until they know the actual date the fixture will be played, they cannot ask fans to buy tickets for this or indeed any other away game until they know when the game will be played or indeed whether they will actually be able to travel to the game, even after the peak of the virus it could be travel bans are in place.
The Watford game on April 4th is already sold out and Everton is on sale with Manchester United and Bournemouth to follow and it is unfair to ask fans to fork out money for these games until we know what is happening.
Yes some will buy tckets anyway, but the majority will hold back, that will mean the exercise that is now being carried out to judge enthusiasm for this game is now completely null and void.
So Saints need to take the bull by the horns and be pro active and suspend away ticket sales until the future going forward is certain and not ask the loyal away fans to have to fork out money now at this trying time.
There will be plenty of time to sell tickets in the coming weeks as the situation becomes clearer and we know whether any of the remaining 9 fixtures will be played will actually be played on their original dates or whether they will be completely rescheduled.