Rorschach

I am not employed by the club. I am not even a season ticket holder anymore. But this pretty much matches what was said to me on the phone so I'm not surprised. Other than the free tickets thing which wasn't mentioned. As I've said on 2 of my 4 posts I think this is the wrong decision on price and seating. I think it will have a longer term detrimental affect as well. I also have my doubts about the reasoning behind the free kids tickets if I'm honest. I am presuming an under 12 would need to be accompanied so in fact it's kind of a way to get more adult tickets sold in the knowledge hardly anyone is going right now. I don't really know how it works. I might be being cynical.

Can't really comment on that. I sent 2 mails and got offered a call. I said yes. I'm done ...

One final post - I have broken my own long standing rule of read but never post ! I am not a club employee - but to continue my hypothetical what if I mailed the club and took them up on their offer of a phone call ? Then thought I would share that ? Regardless - as I said - I think it's a poor decision. I am no longer a season ticket holder but I went through many years of having to move - it should never happen.

Yawn - predictable response - if not accurate. I'll go back to saying nothing ...

Afternoon - I'm going to post below a hypothetical scenario that a club such as Saints may currently find themselves in. I am not saying any of the below is true - I am just speculating. As this is my first, and probably only, post I'll just say I am not employed by Saints ! I am not even a current season ticket holder - though I was once. Hypothetical situation in response to a ticketed cup tie - * the club (with support of police) requested that the time of kick off was moved from 17.30 - this was refused. TV I presume. * due timing of kick off this was categorised as a Cat A game requiring full/maximum policing - not sure this might have been the case regardless. * Policing and Stewarding costs have gone up since 01/01 - I think the number is £40ph for PC - I suggest the club may not be getting value for money for those costs especially at games such as this. This is agreed and a scenario where catering staff were abused recently might be quoted where initially Police did not respond and once they did they asked/told the catering staff to announce to the 50+ waiting fans/abusers the kiosk would be shut. They refused to do it themselves. The club raised this afterwards. Basic Police Scotland aim is to get fans in and out with minimal fuss or interaction. This has long been the case and is unacceptable in my opinion. * Home fan/season ticket attendance is considerably down when Old Firm visit - 38% and 44% on last two games - I am not surprised by this and the toxic atmosphere at these games does not help (see above). * The gate money for a televised cup game may not be as high as thought under current deal. This is not helped by the money split that involves halving ticket sales and then the costs coming from Saints share only - as I understand it. * Based on above 2 final points a decision might be made to relocate home fans to the West stand and the ticket price - there is an acceptance this is largely financial. I don't think there is a complete lack of understanding on how fans feel but it looks and feels rubbish regardless. * The club may have asked to issue vouchers to inconvenienced fans off a future game or future season tickets. This may have been refused by Scottish Football authorities as cup games are under SFA. As an aside Saints got a warning about how ticketing for Galatasaray was done from UEFA (via SFA I think). * The club may have wanted to issue a statement covering above and more immediately after the arrangements were announced but held off and may now be seeking legal advice before issuing. I have no insight if the above is true or not. And there may be more. But it does give a little bit of a different angle on things. Personally I still think it is a poor decision. I went to many games in the past where we were relocated and I didn't think it was right then and I still don't. You need to take care of your own fans first and foremost. I hope if any of the above were true the club might be able to communicate that soon to at least help understanding.