The early bird period has already started.

I took his advice, asked the incorrectly answered question and then didn't queue at all in the shop the day after

So it has, my mistake.

bored this evening so took a closer look at capacities of sections and tickets sold in the reserved sections.

These are my figures for the various blocks

North Stand
C= 542 tickets sold
D= 523 tickets sold
E = 522 tickets sold
F= 507 tickets sold
G= 425 tickets sold

I make it 2519 tickets sold out of a possible 2787 capacity within the reserved seating area.

South Stand

C= 13 tickets sold
D= 212 tickets sold
E= 149 tickets sold
F = Corporate prawn sandwich only
G= 251 tickets sold
H= 123 tickets sold
I = 158 tickets sold

This amounts to 906 sold

Hence in just the reserved seating areas we would appear to be looking at 3425 season ticket holders at present.

This is significantly greater than the seating capacity at Knowsley road which was only 2300. So already the club will be benefiting from the greater income generating capacity of the new stadium as seats are more expensive than the terrace.

On top of these figures we need to add in people who have purchased season ticket seats in unreserved blocks of the north and south stands, also the family seating areas, the Western terrace and also the premium seat holders in the South stand.

. Looking at the Western terrace side of things. The East stand At Widnes were current season ticket holders for the new West stand will be located, has a capacity of 2443. This is pretty much filled by season ticket holders, infact i recall that early in the season someone commented that only a couple of hundred tickets for this stand go on general sale for each match.
Therefore its quite feasible to assume that we will be automatically transferring 2000 season ticket holders into the Western Terrace in the new stadium from this current season.

Chair, just as a matter of interest, do you have a link for the seat sold/available data?
How did you do it?
I want to check on our "reserved seats" to see if they are showing sold or as available.

Things is, all current season tickets will be in the 'sold' section currently. Not all of those will renew, in fact a lot of the early bird sales in the South and West stands will be people moving stands.

My old seats in the North Stand are showing as sold and they are not, so I would guess there will be a fair number like this. We won't know for sure until the renewal deadline passes.

Quote ="saint at wire"Chair, just as a matter of interest, do you have a link for the seat sold/available data? How did you do it? I want to check on our "reserved seats" to see if they are showing sold or as available.'" Just look on the official Saints website were you go to buy seat tickets and it shows you sold seats and unsold seats, complete with seat numbers www.saintssuperstore.com/matchtickets.html

Quote ="saint at wire"Chair, just as a matter of interest, do you have a link for the seat sold/available data? How did you do it? I want to check on our "reserved seats" to see if they are showing sold or as available.'" Just look on the official Saints website were you go to buy seat tickets and it shows you sold seats and unsold seats, complete with seat numbers www.saintssuperstore.com/matchtickets.html

How do you know your alledged old seats are not sold. They may have been released by you then bought by someone else.

The system at Saints will need to be set up so that if people move, their reserved seats automatically become unreserved, otherwise people will cotton onto this, and buy two seats then move, and then get two free seats.

Free seats? I think you've misunderstood.

What I mean is that because we were adding two tickets and the seats next to us were taken, we were advised to just buy early bird tickets somewhere else in the ground. So we did this online at home rather than waiting in the queues at the forums. So Saints don't as yet know the two tickets we had elsewhere in the North Stand won't be renewed, so they can't have sold them. I know this has also happened with about 14 of my extended family who have moved from the North Stand into the South.

When the renewals deadline passes, all the unrenewed season tickets will become available for purchase. Obviously the majority of people will buy season tickets for next season, buying them for Widnes and then not going to the new ground will be rare. But what will happen is people will have just bought early bird offers in other parts of the ground.

What I mean is that because we were adding two tickets and the seats next to us were taken, we were advised to just buy early bird tickets somewhere else in the ground. So we did this online at home rather than waiting in the queues at the forums. So Saints don't as yet know the two tickets we had elsewhere in the North Stand won't be renewed, so they can't have sold them. I know this has also happened with about 14 of my extended family who have moved from the North Stand into the South.

When the renewals deadline passes, all the unrenewed season tickets will become available for purchase. Obviously the majority of people will buy season tickets for next season, buying them for Widnes and then not going to the new ground will be rare. But what will happen is people will have just bought early bird offers in other parts of the ground.



So have you paid extra for early bird tickets instead of changing your two renewal tickets and buying two adjoining seats?

Yes, but not by much. Because we're changing the profile of the tickets it worked out to be just £3 dearer buying early bird family tickets rather than renewing the existing tickets and adding the extras. It wasn't worth saving £3 to stand in the queue for two hours or return to St Helens another day.

So there are 2 tickets in the North Stand reserved which will not be renewed but Saints won't be able to sell until the renewal deadline expires.

I would have thought that very few seats would be "block up" in that way though, most people who are changing seats will be doing so at the renewal price so that means there is no reason the seats shouldn't become available as soon as people renew elsewhere.

I have changed to the family area so 4 seats have been freed in the north stand which I would hope the club put back on sale straight away.

What crowds do you reckon you'll average next year?

Impossible to tell really. The club has come up with some decent, but not overly attractive season ticket prices and the stadium itself seems to be creating quite a buzz. There are always people viewing it no matter what time you go past. But it depends how well the club market it. They're doing the basics at the moment I guess, mailshots to existing season ticket holders and an advert in the local paper. They've also held forums where people can queue up for 2 hours speak to someone. But you get the sense that they aren't really pushing them as much as they could be.

I'd be disappointed if we sold less than 10,000 season tickets personally. It's a massive jump from where we are now (Roughly 5,000 I'd guess) but given that no club in Super League brings more than the odd hundred fans bar Wigan and Warrington, it's hard to see the average going too high. 12,000-13,000 ish I would guess. Anything more would be a bonus, anything less would be a complete disaster.

Can you please pm me, the north stand seats you had (row, block & seat no's) as the club has accidentally sold one of our four reserved seats and have sold seats either side of us. We might be able to swap them.

The club should be unselling the one they have sold.

We should certainly be aiming for 10,000 season ticket holders I think our figure is somewhere around 6,000 at present based on how the club dealt with the semi final allocation. The club have done significantly more than normal, they could do more but a lot is down to the public taking up the offers and trying the new facilities.

If we look at our average attendances at KR (discounting play offs) considering what pitiful amounts many away teams brought we still managed to average over 11,000 in each of 2009/2010 and that was with around 6,000 season ticket holders.

As long as the club get the away pricing right you would hope every team would bring increased support, on top of that Crusaders who brought few are also being replaced by Widnes who [ishould[/i bring significantly more, we also managed to average 16,900 against Wigan and Warrington over them two years so you would hope these would definitely sell out as should the historic first game in the new stadium (depending on who we play ideally Widnes I think).

Based on Cherry&White & SLstats when others moved into new stadiums Warrington had around a 40% increase, Hull 65% and Wigan 20%. An average of 12,000 represents just a 7% increase on KR that is a bare minimum, we should be looking for around 13,000-14,000 which would be about a 16-25% rise.

You would think!
But he has to be offered something equivalent and the optiond around where we are due to be sat are very limited. Its been two weeks now and they still haven't sorted it.

That is their problem, not yours. Your seat should be secured as Saints have advertised it publically that current season tickets have their seats secured until the renewal time is ended (on 30 September I think). They need to compensate the other person and move them, and you should insist if you haven't already done so.

IMO, obviously. But I'm a bolshy cow when I've been poorly served!

fans talking of us selling 10k season tickets are i think dreaming in la la land sadly.

If you look at RL as a whole, Wigan who have by far the largest support base, can only just crack 10k season ticket holders.

Bradford managed it by basically giving tickets away free.
The other clubs with bigger support that Saints Hull and Leeds usually get around 9k season ticket holders. Both are major cities.
Warrington have around 6k season ticket holders.

I therefore think realistically 7k is a more achievable scenario. 8k would be quite frankly amazing.

IF you look at season ticket sales, they are probably starting to slow down now as the initial rush will have passed.
In the last week for example the number of seats available for sale in the North stand only reduced by 6.

You? Bolshy?
Nooooo!

I think you have to factor in the new stadium. There are tons of people I know who never went to KR because it was such an utter dive. If they can get the floating vote back they should do well. The representative I spoke to at the forum says the club is aiming to have no fewer than 10,000 Saints fans at every single home league game. They need to really, really push the season tickets. Obviously they can't reduce the prices now, but what they could do is sell community tickets, branding them differently. For example junior rugby getting 20 tickets for £1000.

They cannot just sit back with your attitude of 8k being fine. Given how weak we're looking squad wise, we're not likely to be creating much of a positive vibe on the field, so they need to get the sales in early. If they can get 5,000 to buy season tickets for Widnes, doubling that shouldn't be impossible. I do think the prices were a mistake. Why not make the first season a big bang, sell the tickets for less than usual. Get people going and then increase them slowly.

I think the prices are more than reasonable. Also with the direct debit scheme they will be affordable to most people who have a desire to go.

Two or three seasons ago maybe but the club has recently made a media release linked to the stadium extension stating season tickets sales are 3,000 up from three years ago.

Plus with not having an attendance under 10,000 there is no way that the minimum walk-up during a season is going to be 4,000.

I'd expect Saints to average 14,000 to 15,000 next season on the back of probably three sell-outs (first game, Wigan and Warrington) with a slight drop-off the following season as the novelty factor falls away. After that to maintain attendances success will be required.