SAINTS have admitted they need to be “more inventive” when it comes to ticket prices for next season.

The club’s matchday prices have been widely blamed for the low attendances at St Mary’s this season.

When Saints did slash the ticket costs, they were rewarded with a season’s best gate of 26,580 for the 2-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on December 20.

Though there was a large visiting support for what was a crucial relegation battle – Forest brought 2,170 fans – there was still more than 24,000 Saints fans.

That was way up on the St Mary’s average league crowd of 21,418 last season and also up on the average of 23,638 in 2006/07 when Saints were in the top ten for most the season and ended up in the play-offs.

Due to the success of the Forest ‘experiment’ with regards to slashing ticket prices, Saints box office manager David Luker insists the club might do something similar again this season.

But out of loyalty to their existing 10,000 or so season ticket holders, it is not something they can repeat too often.

“We don’t want to annoy our season ticket holders,” said Luker, “especially not when season ticket renewal forms will be going out around March time.

“But the Forest game showed that when you price the product correctly people will come.

“We didn’t get an awful lot of feedback on the reduced prices but the proof of the pudding was in the fact that an extra 11,000 people turned up.

“We got some positive feedback but there was a concern among some season ticket holders that they were missing out financially, which with a one-off game like that wasn’t the case.

“I wouldn’t rule it out happening again this season, but we have to be careful how we do it.”

Of course, the matchday ticket prices at St Mary’s are not the only reason for the reduced attendances this season.

There is no doubt some people are staying away as a protest against chairman Rupert Lowe’s return to the club last May aided by the man who helped oust him in the summer of 2006, Michael Wilde.

The gloomy economic situation has also not helped matters, or for that matter Saints’ position in the Championship.

Luker continued: “I cannot do anything about the current board, the previous board, the credit crunch or the team.

“But what I can do as box office manager is look at more inventive pricing for next season.

“We need to be more inventive as a club.

“That’s my personal view, it’s not something we’ve discussed internally yet.

“We need more people coming to watch the games so we need to look at our prices.

“The Forest game showed that people will come if the game is priced right.

“We have a huge supporter base, and we need to try and attract as many people as possible.

“Some people have fallen out of love with the product, and we need to get them back.

“Some people have got out of the habit of going to games. Getting out of the habit is easy – getting that habit back is not so easy.”

One Northam End season ticket holder, who did not wish to be named, told the Echo: “I’d like to see bums on seats as much as anyone, but general discounts can be incredibly unfair on season ticket holders.

“I’m all for discounting tickets to bring fans through the turnstiles, but please give us a token gesture as well – vouchers for the Megastore or anything would do!

“Otherwise, many will reconsider pledging their loyalty to the club at the start of each season, especially in the current economic climate.”

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