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1 hour ago, Pat McGroin said:

Who decided it was a good idea to put the vast majority of media content from the club behind a pay wall. Do you think that is conducive to bringing in new fans. 

Would the pay wall not be best reserved for games only?

Exactly. I don't think restricting interviews etc to paying members is doing Saints any favours & alienating the fans that used to see the interviews free like most other teams.

Have no problem having to pay for replay of full game or highlights but surely interviews help fans get a picture of what's happening & why.

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5 hours ago, andrew said:

Whatever club it is, some fans are more equal than others.

There's an easy way to make this right, assuming three quarters ticket holders and one quarter pay at the gate. 

3 draws for season ticket holders followed by 1 draw for pay at the gate. 

That is a very simple and workable much fairer way of doing things. 

I was a season ticket holder for near 30 years and before McD always paid at the gate, hardly missed a game home or away. Purchased family season tickets and endless saints tops etc. 

Have moved to the Highlands now so season ticket just not viable but will attend as many games as I can. 

So having spent way in excess of 20 grand attending just home matches, there is no way to benefit from saints £15,000, hospitality give away. 

I know there are plenty others like me that have had tickets for years and moved away or have always just paid at the gate. 

I think it's fine for season ticket holders to be given first dibbs on match tickets and a discount in the club shop but with such an unprecedented saints give away to leave out those that pay at the gate is disgraceful. 

Whilst a great initiative it is also another own goal that has not been thought through properly. 

Saints need to correct this or they are going to alienate another bunch of supporters. 

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Geezo Gus, damned if they do and damned if they don’t. All the non season ticket holders I have spoken to think this is a great idea and certainly don’t feel alienated by it. Just imagine the uproar if it was one of the Old/New firms fans who always manage to get tickets in the home end who won it .

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1 hour ago, Ginger Bakers rebel army said:

There's an easy way to make this right, assuming three quarters ticket holders and one quarter pay at the gate. 

3 draws for season ticket holders followed by 1 draw for pay at the gate. 

That is a very simple and workable much fairer way of doing things. 

I was a season ticket holder for near 30 years and before McD always paid at the gate, hardly missed a game home or away. Purchased family season tickets and endless saints tops etc. 

Have moved to the Highlands now so season ticket just not viable but will attend as many games as I can. 

So having spent way in excess of 20 grand attending just home matches, there is no way to benefit from saints £15,000, hospitality give away. 

I know there are plenty others like me that have had tickets for years and moved away or have always just paid at the gate. 

I think it's fine for season ticket holders to be given first dibbs on match tickets and a discount in the club shop but with such an unprecedented saints give away to leave out those that pay at the gate is disgraceful. 

Whilst a great initiative it is also another own goal that has not been thought through properly. 

Saints need to correct this or they are going to alienate another bunch of supporters. 

Ach maybe a season ticket holder winner will treat you as one of their three guests.

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1 hour ago, Tranmere Saintee said:

Geezo Gus, damned if they do and damned if they don’t. All the non season ticket holders I have spoken to think this is a great idea and certainly don’t feel alienated by it. Just imagine the uproar if it was one of the Old/New firms fans who always manage to get tickets in the home end who won it .

There's some great things going on Phil and getting in 2/3 exciting signings will cheer everyone up. 

However I can't get away from the thought that there are better ways to do some things. 

In this case an announcement along the following would make all the difference. 

"In addition to our fantastic new initiative for hospitality for season ticket holders the Directors are pleased to announce a fantastic new initiative for our supporters who pay at the gate. 

Each time a supporter pays at the gate they will be presented with a raffle ticket. Each ticket will go into a monthly draw for a free season ticket for for the following season. 

The club values the contribution made by our pay at the gate fans and we hope this exciting new initiative will lead to some of our pay at the gate fans enjoying the benefits of a season ticket. 

The Directors "

This would not cost a lot and would be great for those that benefit from it and would show that the Directors also care about all supporters. 

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1 hour ago, Ginger Bakers rebel army said:

There's some great things going on Phil and getting in 2/3 exciting signings will cheer everyone up. 

However I can't get away from the thought that there are better ways to do some things. 

In this case an announcement along the following would make all the difference. 

"In addition to our fantastic new initiative for hospitality for season ticket holders the Directors are pleased to announce a fantastic new initiative for our supporters who pay at the gate. 

Each time a supporter pays at the gate they will be presented with a raffle ticket. Each ticket will go into a monthly draw for a free season ticket for for the following season. 

The club values the contribution made by our pay at the gate fans and we hope this exciting new initiative will lead to some of our pay at the gate fans enjoying the benefits of a season ticket. 

The Directors "

This would not cost a lot and would be great for those that benefit from it and would show that the Directors also care about all supporters. 

Let's not complicate. The club should be congratulated on another intuitive. Anyone wanting to be included in the draw should buy a season ticket. They are value for money & the discount card'another club initiative' could just about pay for season ticket over the year.

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1 minute ago, sasha said:

“Two of your ex players are playing in America with “ wee” teams. Their chairman are investing over £100m in their clubs, are you willing to match that or better it as Saints are a big team”?

I’m not sure how that’s relevant. If these regional American clubs want to be a rich man’s play thing, hell mend them. We’ve all seen how well that plays out 

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3 minutes ago, Pat McGroin said:

I’m not sure how that’s relevant. If these regional American clubs want to be a rich man’s play thing, hell mend them. We’ve all seen how well that plays out 

Ok, tell me how it plays out please? I’m interested.

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Just now, sasha said:

Ok, tell me how it plays out please? I’m interested.

It depends on how long the guy decides he wants a play thing and keeps his money in play. It didn’t work well with David Murray and his millions in the end either and that was at a club with a huge support.

 

certainly doesn’t sound like a sensible investment, especially with players in America coming through the college scene and soccer being the 4th biggest sport in the US at best. 

 

 Where’s the money going? 

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Ah I was looking for the American that used the team as a play thing and they went under.  You did say he’ll mend them so I’m curious?

Like any successful business at times you need to be risk averse and invest if not you will stagnate and your competition will take over.

Running a football club cost neutral is fine but you then need to curb your ambition and fan expectation.

Somehow the latter since 2014 has not been in play.

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4 minutes ago, sasha said:

Ah I was looking for the American that used the team as a play thing and they went under.  You did say he’ll mend them so I’m curious?

Like any successful business at times you need to be risk averse and invest if not you will stagnate and your competition will take over.

Running a football club cost neutral is fine but you then need to curb your ambition and fan expectation.

Somehow the latter since 2014 has not been in play.

Where can saints go with investment though? Realistically throwing money at St Johnstone isn’t what’s required. We’re never going to regular finish above the Edinburgh clubs or Aberdeen so what do we achieve.

Where the club goes tits up is with PR, it doesn’t need silly money spending, just getting with the times and investing maybe £30k or whatever is required in someone that can do the job well and work on fan retention 

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21 minutes ago, sasha said:

“Two of your ex players are playing in America with “ wee” teams. Their chairman are investing over £100m in their clubs, are you willing to match that or better it as Saints are a big team”?

You want Steve brown to invest £100m?

there are lots of examples of millionaires who put money into football clubs - some successful others disastrous. None are lining up to put it into saints so I don’t see your point?

1st time I’ve heard saints being described as a big team. Tho we do have nice history compared to 1 year in America’s 3rd tier. And he’s not investing over 100m in the club

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8 hours ago, Pat McGroin said:

Who decided it was a good idea to put the vast majority of media content from the club behind a pay wall. Do you think that is conducive to bringing in new fans. 

Would the pay wall not be best reserved for games only?

I actually agree with this, although I suspect that as it is a 3rd party content producer that will be in the terms of the licence. Not ideal but it means that the people making and hosting the content get paid. I can't be bothered to look but it would be interesting to find out who actually owns the content and where the money for subscriptions goes. I expect that there's a point at which it becomes value positive for the club where their income from subscriptions or other fees outstrips lost revenue from lost turnstile revenue. 

My suggestion would be to give away a free subscription with every ST sale. The club could reimburse the media owners appropriately, and I expect that the cost would probably be covered by additional ST sales (more of an incentive than the 'saints card' IMO). Bearing in mind of course that ST sales isn't just about cash, but should result in more valuable advertising, sponsorship etc, and that once a ST sale is made it matters not if the buyer watches the odd game on Saints TV.

Of course this all only makes sense if the content on the channel is worth paying for in the first place. I'm a subscriber and although I do watch most of the content it's pretty poor fare, just what you get through other media. 

Great service for folk outside the UK though. 

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18 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

I actually agree with this, although I suspect that as it is a 3rd party content producer that will be in the terms of the licence. Not ideal but it means that the people making and hosting the content get paid. I can't be bothered to look but it would be interesting to find out who actually owns the content and where the money for subscriptions goes. I expect that there's a point at which it becomes value positive for the club where their income from subscriptions or other fees outstrips lost revenue from lost turnstile revenue. 

My suggestion would be to give away a free subscription with every ST sale. The club could reimburse the media owners appropriately, and I expect that the cost would probably be covered by additional ST sales (more of an incentive than the 'saints card' IMO). Bearing in mind of course that ST sales isn't just about cash, but should result in more valuable advertising, sponsorship etc, and that once a ST sale is made it matters not if the buyer watches the odd game on Saints TV.

Of course this all only makes sense if the content on the channel is worth paying for in the first place. I'm a subscriber and although I do watch most of the content it's pretty poor fare, just what you get through other media. 

Great service for folk outside the UK though. 

I pay for it, I’ve never actually used it, but I would pay the same for access to games, I’m sure most would. 

 

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26 minutes ago, 541ntees said:

You want Steve brown to invest £100m?

there are lots of examples of millionaires who put money into football clubs - some successful others disastrous. None are lining up to put it into saints so I don’t see your point?

1st time I’ve heard saints being described as a big team. Tho we do have nice history compared to 1 year in America’s 3rd tier. And he’s not investing over 100m in the club

Would they compete with a 3rd teir American team?

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9 minutes ago, Pat McGroin said:

I pay for it, I’ve never actually used it, but I would pay the same for access to games, I’m sure most would. 

 

I pay for it too, I gave up watching the interviews and I don't check very often. The only reason I pay is for the away games I can't get to. 

A pay per view option could be good but I expect the media owners need a guaranteed level of income. Also I would worry that folk would stay at home rather than go to the game, which is why I thought 'free with ST' might work in shifting a few more season tickets. 

It's a welcome addition as a service though, if only because it's expected these days. 

 

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13 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

I pay for it too, I gave up watching the interviews and I don't check very often. The only reason I pay is for the away games I can't get to. 

A pay per view option could be good but I expect the media owners need a guaranteed level of income. Also I would worry that folk would stay at home rather than go to the game, which is why I thought 'free with ST' might work in shifting a few more season tickets. 

It's a welcome addition as a service though, if only because it's expected these days. 

 

I meant i’d pay for the same access to games as I get now but with interviews etc not being behind the pay wall. 

I don’t think anyone really pays for those. We’re just restricting our potential audience to silly levels 

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12 hours ago, sasha said:

Ah I was looking for the American that used the team as a play thing and they went under.  You did say he’ll mend them so I’m curious?

Like any successful business at times you need to be risk averse and invest if not you will stagnate and your competition will take over.

Running a football club cost neutral is fine but you then need to curb your ambition and fan expectation.

Somehow the latter since 2014 has not been in play.

What is your actual point here? That Steve Brown should suddenly plough a massive amount of his own money into Saints (does he even actually have that much? He's not exactly Bill Gates), just because some random club owner in America has? Why should he? He's the club's chairman, not its sugar daddy.

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13 hours ago, sasha said:

Ah I was looking for the American that used the team as a play thing and they went under.  You did say he’ll mend them so I’m curious?

Like any successful business at times you need to be risk averse and invest if not you will stagnate and your competition will take over.

Running a football club cost neutral is fine but you then need to curb your ambition and fan expectation.

Somehow the latter since 2014 has not been in play.

 

Think you'll find since 2014, and particularly this summer,  they have done very ****ing well at curbing expectations.

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£100 million ? I m not sure the Browns could put their hands on that much but even supposing they could why would they want to.

I can find information online that shows Geoff Brown on the Times Rich list valued at £52m that was in 2008 and I imagine takes into account how much his business and assets are all worth.

While wealthy the Browns aren't super wealthy they could be bank rolling a football team I don t think.

Even within Perthshire there will be wealthier families.   

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The Saints TV bit just annoys me, its £5.99 I think for a UK subscription, I don t know anyone that I see at games who subscribes though.

Its not I cant afford it , its just it seems silly, the Montrose game particularly annoyed me, I paid to get up there, paid to get in, we were crap and lost but you then put the managers and players interviews about the game on a channel I ve no access to unless I pay.

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Guest ScottMann

Yes, ploughing millions into a major business development project that has a football ground as one of it's elements is exactly the same as ploughing millions into a football club.

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