Abernethy Saint Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Radio just said Saints to give Sevco three stands, a trial till the end of the season, because of lack of interest from home fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Jack Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 2 minutes ago, Abernethy Saint said: Radio just said Saints to give Sevco three stands, a trial till the end of the season, because of lack of interest from home fans. Excellent decision...well done Saints. SaintJet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
templeofsaints Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Abernethy Saint said: Radio just said Saints to give Sevco three stands, a trial till the end of the season, because of lack of interest from home fans. Its on the official site. Trialled for the TFOD and TFOE cames coming up. Season ticket holders in East/Ormond to get sections of "unallocated seating" in the main stand. I've not got a problem with this but I do have an issue with the way its being handled - unallocated seating could lead to a mess on the night (ie take your kids but if you turn up late no guarantee you'll be sitting together). Also due to the corporate seats etc the E Stand ticket holders that have decent seats at the halfway line might be punted to one end or another. If the club are intent on doing this surely common sense would be to allow season ticket holders to get tickets/vouchers for seats in the main stand ahead of the game on the night. Edited January 3, 2020 by templeofsaints HOODLUM65 and TheYellowBox 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheYellowBox Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 27 minutes ago, templeofsaints said: Its on the official site. Trialled for the TFOD and TFOE cames coming up. Season ticket holders in East/Ormond to get sections of "unallocated seating" in the main stand. I've not got a problem with this but I do have an issue with the way its being handled - unallocated seating could lead to a mess on the night (ie take your kids but if you turn up late no guarantee you'll be sitting together). Also due to the corporate seats etc the E Stand ticket holders that have decent seats at the halfway line might be punted to one end or another. If the club are intent on doing this surely common sense would be to allow season ticket holders to get tickets/vouchers for seats in the main stand ahead of the game on the night. Agree with this. I understand the financials and can see that the club has tried various schemes to increase the support, but the board are irking a large portion of the core support. This will not serve to grow the home support. For this season only, impacted fans should be given discounted hospitality or free pie and bovril for these fixtures. Long term, I'd like the club to quantify the additional income and ring fence a portion of it to be dedicated to improving facilities and/or straight to youth system. That way, you keep the fans on side and 'we' can see the impact of forgoing any home advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akuram Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) These are very seldom enjoyable games anyway so I think it is a good idea. A free pie etc might be a good thank you and even some way of guaranteeing East stand a certain seat. The game against Celtic last year when we were down 5-0 at half-time certainly has put a lot of us against going to these games. I know that is the wrong attitude but that is the way it is. Saints need all the money they can get from these games as we are not in the same financial ballpark as these two. Edited January 3, 2020 by akuram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Jack Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 59 minutes ago, templeofsaints said: I've not got a problem with this but I do have an issue with the way its being handled - unallocated seating could lead to a mess on the night (ie take your kids but if you turn up late no guarantee you'll be sitting together). If the club are intent on doing this surely common sense would be to allow season ticket holders to get tickets/vouchers for seats in the main stand ahead of the game on the night. I thought that it meant that season ticket holder would then be given any unallocated seats in the West Stand...as you say, it would make sense that if you have a central east stand seat you would get a central-ish West Stand seat......might be a bit of a nightmare trying to sort this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
south inch Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Whilst I am glad to see this move described as a "trial" I am not sure that the 2 games in question will be a good test. Will we be able to sell 7,000 tickets to Celtic fans for an evening kick off in January given their team has just made an abject balls up of the latest hatefest? Will the tickets be offered for sale before the darling bhoys have a chance to stumble further against Killie or Partick? Will the game be on TV? It pains me to say it but there is more chance with the Sevco game although that is a 12 pm Sunday KO. Their fans are drooling at the mouth at the prospect of being top dogs again and the team are less likely to stumble in the meantime. Could be on TV though. Having said that I would concede that these games are as good as any for this experiment. Would not like to see it at the start of a season when fans are usually optimistic. Nonetheless, the fans who still attend the bigot brothers games are the loyalist of the loyal so I hope they are not mucked about for nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tranmere Saintee Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 To make it easier and less hassle allocating seats, move the few season ticket holders in the West stand to the East stand thus upsetting fewer loyal fans. I’m not convinced this will be the money spinner the club expect as neither half of the old firm seem to have sold their allocation lately going by the number of touts with fistfuls of tickets begging for sales outside the ground. There will need to be a major increase in the numbers of Police and stewards employed to allow their fans to behave however they want. HOODLUM65 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat McGroin Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 36 minutes ago, TheYellowBox said: Agree with this. I understand the financials and can see that the club has tried various schemes to increase the support, but the board are irking a large portion of the core support. This will not serve to grow the home support. For this season only, impacted fans should be given discounted hospitality or free pie and bovril for these fixtures. Long term, I'd like the club to quantify the additional income and ring fence a portion of it to be dedicated to improving facilities and/or straight to youth system. That way, you keep the fans on side and 'we' can see the impact of forgoing any home advantage. I think the decision is already quantified. We had under 1500 home fans at one Rangers game. A good portion of those would be Season Ticket holders who have already paid. Plus kids etc. If you can ram 2500-3000 extra paying punters in the East Stand, it’s absolutely worth a shot for a potential extra £100k a game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Jack Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 6 minutes ago, Tranmere Saintee said: To make it easier and less hassle allocating seats, move the few season ticket holders in the West stand to the East stand thus upsetting fewer loyal fans. I’m not convinced this will be the money spinner the club expect as neither half of the old firm seem to have sold their allocation lately going by the number of touts with fistfuls of tickets begging for sales outside the ground. There will need to be a major increase in the numbers of Police and stewards employed to allow their fans to behave however they want. Switching the stands wouldn't work because of the hospitality.. I don't know what constitutes something being a money spinner but I'm happy to accept the money when 5/6 thousand people wave a £20 in front of Saints....even if it is "them". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheYellowBox Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 9 minutes ago, Pat McGroin said: I think the decision is already quantified. We had under 1500 home fans at one Rangers game. A good portion of those would be Season Ticket holders who have already paid. Plus kids etc. If you can ram 2500-3000 extra paying punters in the East Stand, it’s absolutely worth a shot for a potential extra £100k a game. Even if we took an extra £100k, the increased police costs would eat into a reasonable chunk of that. I'd say 4 games vs OF a season would net c£150k. Still not an immaterial figure though. If we could re invest the increased revenue, we could make more in the long term. Simple things like card payments at the pie stalls would make a significantly increased revenue on all matchdays. I'd like to see saints make this work for the club instead of just going into the larger overall pot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat McGroin Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) 12 minutes ago, TheYellowBox said: Even if we took an extra £100k, the increased police costs would eat into a reasonable chunk of that. I'd say 4 games vs OF a season would net c£150k. Still not an immaterial figure though. If we could re invest the increased revenue, we could make more in the long term. Simple things like card payments at the pie stalls would make a significantly increased revenue on all matchdays. I'd like to see saints make this work for the club instead of just going into the larger overall pot. Having enough bloody pies would help. I joined the pie queue 4-5 mins before half time against County and the Main Stand was out of pies. Had no hot dogs or practically anything else. Someone appeared with a small cardboard box with some pies in it from elsewhere, but they must’ve missed out on a fair chunk of cash at nearly £3 a pop as the queue was full behind me. I suppose cash is easier to keep off the books? Easy enough to have a terminal at each till. I use Square in my business. They only charge 1.5% and money is in your account within 24 business hours. Edited January 3, 2020 by Pat McGroin garydavidson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cagey Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Was never a fan of moving to main stands but now agree it is the best thing now that fewer Saints fans are going to OF games. Plus I understand we are going to fleece them for more dosh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainstand Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 2 minutes ago, Cagey said: Was never a fan of moving to main stands but now agree it is the best thing now that fewer Saints fans are going to OF games. Plus I understand we are going to fleece them for more dosh. Don't think we can fleece them unless we fleece our own fans due to spfl rules that all fans with the same view have to pay the same. Unless they count the main stand as different from east. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cagey Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 3 minutes ago, mainstand said: Don't think we can fleece them unless we fleece our own fans due to spfl rules that all fans with the same view have to pay the same. Unless they count the main stand as different from east. Assume our pay at the gate fans will pay MS prices. Plus not many Saints fans want to go to OF games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejksjfc Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Tranmere Saintee said: To make it easier and less hassle allocating seats, move the few season ticket holders in the West stand to the East stand thus upsetting fewer loyal fans. I’m not convinced this will be the money spinner the club expect as neither half of the old firm seem to have sold their allocation lately going by the number of touts with fistfuls of tickets begging for sales outside the ground. There will need to be a major increase in the numbers of Police and stewards employed to allow their fans to behave however they want. Surely if the touts have handfuls of tickets Saints have already got the money for these. Unfortunately this decision had to come at some point but there hasn’t been anything close to a sellout for an old squirm game for quite a few years. I also think that fan movement/segregation could be more easily handled by moving the west stand fans to the east stand but that is never going to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akuram Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 30 minutes ago, ejksjfc said: Surely if the touts have handfuls of tickets Saints have already got the money for these. Unfortunately this decision had to come at some point but there hasn’t been anything close to a sellout for an old squirm game for quite a few years. I also think that fan movement/segregation could be more easily handled by moving the west stand fans to the east stand but that is never going to happen. Not possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat McGroin Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 1 hour ago, ejksjfc said: Surely if the touts have handfuls of tickets Saints have already got the money for these. Unfortunately this decision had to come at some point but there hasn’t been anything close to a sellout for an old squirm game for quite a few years. I also think that fan movement/segregation could be more easily handled by moving the west stand fans to the east stand but that is never going to happen. I pay more for my Main Stand ST. You East Stand boys can enjoy a free upgrade. I’m not for downgrading! Dave H 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Center Half Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Where is the evidence to support this East Stand have more season tickets than the Main stand! I have no real information but would think it is pretty 50/50 at the minute? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Jack Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 I would have thought the hospitality factor would prevent them doing it the other way round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Saints Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 Anyone who was at meet the chairman event will have gotten a pretty good idea how precarious our finances are. It’s documented already that some season ticket holders boycott the old firm matches, so you can’t blame the club for trying to utilise the ‘free’ seats. A bit disappointed with some fans reaction on Twitter tho... as a Saints fan I’d love if the OF were given an allocation of 200 and the rest of the stands were filled with Saints fans, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Club damned if they do damned if they don’t ... I like my season ticket seat so it’s not the best thing for me to be scrambling around the West Stand looking for a seat... but hey suck it up... you never know we may just get a result and we won’t be caring what seat our bum is sat on!! south inch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garydavidson Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 6 hours ago, south inch said: Whilst I am glad to see this move described as a "trial" I am not sure that the 2 games in question will be a good test. Will we be able to sell 7,000 tickets to Celtic fans for an evening kick off in January given their team has just made an abject balls up of the latest hatefest? Will the tickets be offered for sale before the darling bhoys have a chance to stumble further against Killie or Partick? Will the game be on TV? I have heard before that Celtic do an automatic allocation of available tickets to people who have signed up for that so I believe all the tickets will sell even if the fans don't actually go to the game. I may have got the wrong end of the stick though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Templar Saint Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 I recall that for old firm matches in the past that East Stand season ticket holders were relocated to a seat in the Main Stand. The season ticket book had the allocated main stand seat listed as well as your normal seat. One of the problems with this was your normal seat could be around the half way line but the main stand seat was up at North Stand end. Another was infiltration by auld firm fans into main stand. During this "trial" of what is a reintroduction of a previous system, surely consideration could be given to allocating seats, where possible, for East Stand Season Ticket holders. in a similar area of the main stand that they occupy in the East and issue a ticket for that seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 4 hours ago, mainstand said: Don't think we can fleece them unless we fleece our own fans due to spfl rules that all fans with the same view have to pay the same. Unless they count the main stand as different from east. Less home fans attended the Rangers game than have season tickets. Theres a genuine chance there wasnt a single home fan who paid into that game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abernethy Saint Posted January 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 21 minutes ago, RandomGuy said: Less home fans attended the Rangers game than have season tickets. Theres a genuine chance there wasnt a single home fan who paid into that game. Plenty of folk from Perth though. Never understood it. My neighbour, otherwise decent guy, from Perth, has fecking Sevco shite tattooed all over him. MySpazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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