Six months ago Saints travelled to Ipswich Town in the Premier League and received nearly 3,000 tickets for their travelling fans, priced at £30 for adults, now in the Championship Ipswich have reduced that allocation to 2,000 and are charging £43.

In the Premier League there is an agreement in place that all clubs have to allocate 3,000 tickets to the away clubs or 10% of capacity whichever is the lower and that the adult price is capped at £30.

Below the Premier League as we are now there is no such agreement in place, therefor some clubs take advantage of this.

Two years ago, Southampton took the spirit of the Premier League agreement into the Championship, allowing clubs to have 3,000 tickets if they wanted them and at £30.

When we last played Ipswich in the Championship the normal price for a ticket in the away section was £34, now it has increased by a whopping 30%.

Two seasons ago clubs in the Championship, although there is no formal agreement in place regarding ticket pricing & allocation, clubs could agree reciprocal agreements, although some clubs were more open to this than others.

Now the mood amongst Saints supporters is that we should be looking to reach agreements with others clubs and if they don't want to play ball and give us reduced allocations and inflated prices, then we should replicate that at St Mary's when that club plays there.

That would mean that when Ipswich play at Southampton they should have a reduced allocation of 2,000 and be charged £43, a little unfair on the Ipswich travelling supporters, whom I would guess would themselves favour a reciprocal agreement.

Especially after they have found their own club has upped the prices for tickets this season and they are paying around 10% more to watch their team in the Championship, than they did last season in the the Premier League and as mentioned substantially more than they did two years ago in the same division.

Saints get stick from some supporters for their ticket system, but in truth they have been fair with their ticket pricing over the past decade, yes it is expensive to watch football, but that is a different argument.

However the point need to be made that clubs need to care about their fans and reach reciprocal agreements and that means clubs standing firm and saying that we will treat you as you treat us, overcharge us and give us a reduced allocation and we will do the same to you.

That is not as easy as it sounds, the price of a ticket is quite easy to do, although there could be a rule in place as there used to be in the Premier League that you cannot charge an away supporter more than a home supporter for a ticket in a similar stand and that could mean a dual ticket pricing in the away section.

Wrexham for instance is a category A fixture and the away section at St Mary's is half in the Kingsland Stand and the rest in the Chapel corner, that would mean that we could potentially charge £40 for those fans in the Kingsland, but only £30 for those next to the Chapel.

Then there is the ability to split the away section,, when it was in the Northam, the club had the ability to reduce or indeed increase the away allocation, they could block off in the concourses and in the stands.

Last season in the Premier League this was never tested, every club took and sold the 3,000 available.

What we don't know is whether Saints have the ability for clubs who do not take the full away allocation, to sell those seats to home supporters, as we did in the Northam End, or whether we will see an away section with potentially just 1,000 fans in it and 2,000 empty seats that cannot be sold to home fans due to logistical reasons.

Certainly the away section seems to have fixed barriers, so it will be interesting to see if it has the ability to adapt.

But the mood of fans is clear, for clubs like Ipswich who in fairness seem to be only charging us the price that they are fleecing their own fans for a similar seat, we should treat them the same, even if that means 1,000 empty seats.

All Photos Via Reuters

lemmsy added 10:25 - Jul 23 I’m personally not anti SR , obviously they have made mistakes but this not a rant against them for the sake of it.I think this would be an ideal opportunity for the club to subsidise the tickets for Ipswich away, partially as a big thank you for last year’s fantastic away support in the face of adversity .Obviously this will help financially but would also create a new bond going forward, remember when Ralph bought everyone a beer.

0

Colburn added 11:40 - Jul 23 Agreed, give them the same extortionate prices and only 2000 tickets..
0

Bowlercow added 12:31 - Jul 23 If the barrier between the Chapel and Kingsland can be moved to allow the sale of returned tickets that's fine If not how big a job would it be to install a flexible system We could possibly use the front to back seat covers as the did in the Kingsland
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls