Saints have released their ticket details for the forthcoming FA Cup match against Championship side Burnley and they have already again alienated much of the fanbase who will feel this game is overpriced.
If Southampton FC want to put off their supporters from renewing their season tickets next season, then they are certainly going the right way about it.
The hard suffering fans who have so far seen just 1 win at St Mary's in the Premier league, plus a draw are now being asked to fork out more money for the FA Cup clash with Championship club Burnley, with respect to the Lancashire side they are not the biggest draw in the division, despite their lofty League placing.
Fans stayed away in their droves for the cup tie against Swansea in the 3rd round and it seems that Saints are expecting another low attendance for this one before a ticket has been sold, once again the Kingsland stand and the corner adjoining the Northam End will be closed.
That is a two fingered salute to one of the most heavily season ticketed areas in the ground, most I knew in that stand for the Swansea game would perhaps have gone if they could have sat in their own seat, but the fact that they couldn't made the decision not to go easy for them.
Perhaps the club thought that the attendance was good against Swansea, I certainly didn't, two seasons ago for the visit of Blackpool the crowd topped 20,000 and in the following round when Grimsby arrived on a cold Monday night 27,584 turned out.
In 2022, when we played Coventry City in the 4th round, Saints priced tickets for season ticket holders and members at £10 for adults, even when they went on general sale they were only £15 for adults and only rose above that on the day of the game when they went up to £20.
30,512 packed into the ground, that was over 3,000 more than had turned up for the home game in the Premier league against Brentford a few weeks earlier.
This time out though the starting price is £20.00 for adults and £5 for under 18's, that is far too high for an adult ticket and apparently this is the discounted early bird period to reward the hard suffering season ticket holders and members, for everyone else it is £22.50, although it is unclear whether that will increase on the day of the game.
So the magic of the FA Cup is not returning to St Mary's and more to the point, there is nothing coming out of the club to explain why we find ourselves in the position that we are in or just why they seem to think that they owe their loyal supporters absolutely nothing in return for their great support this season.
A statement from CEO Phil Parsons would be nice, even if he just said :
"We are grateful for the fantastic support that we have received from the club's fans this season, they have proved that they are behind the club in thick and thin, they are perhaps amongst the best supporters in the country and therefore paying this sort of extortionate price to watch a Championship team at St Mary's will be welcomed by them as good practice for next season.
" I have seen some of our fans from the windows of the award winning lounges at St Mary's, bumped into one or two in the car park, when the stewards have been distracted, I can assure you that we have done much research in ticket pricing and we have recognised these financially tough times, of course we have, otherwise we would have charged £30 as we had originally planned if the team had won a few games over Xmas.
"Club calendars have been slashed from £11.99 to only a £1 in the club shop, just in time for Ben Brereton Diaz's page in January, Maxwel Cornet in March, even out of contract in July Jack Stephens who features in September, let no one say that we do not have our fingers on the pulse and that we don't care about the fans"
But we don't even get that, our support is once again being taken for granted.