After five successive Premier League sell outs at St Mary's this season it looks like there will be far less at St Mary's for the visit of West Bromwich Albion.

Saints fans have packed St Mary's this season, but that is not going to be the case tonight with plenty of seats available in the home sections for the visit of West Bromwich Albion, add to that the fact that the Baggies only took 1,700 tickets and are yet to sell out of those with the two returned blocks not having been put on sale by Saints and it looks like being the lowest crowd of the season so far, with possibly the chance it could end up with being the worst crowd of the season come May.

As it stands this morning I would suggest that the gate will struggle to reach 29,000 !

So why will it be so low after five full houses ?

The answer is that literally all the reasons not to attend a game have aligned today, the first being it being a 5.30pm Saturday evening kick off, this is perhaps the most hated of kick offs for the supporters who actually attend games, it impinges on the entire day, the supporter base is broad, but for those with families it is truly a nightmare as it wipes out Saturday evening spent with the family.

Away fans dont like it either, it is bad enough for West Brom supporters today and far worse when a team have to travel a greater distance, but even today the first Albion fan back in North Birmingham will be lucky to be home before 11 pm unless they avoid the traffic leaving Southampton.

A second reason as to why tonight's attendance will be poor is the opposition, sorry to West Brom fans, but with the utmost respect your side is one of the least attractive to Saints fans in the Premier League, although i'm sure that the position is reversed when we visit the Hawthorns.

Thirdly is the form Saints are in, despite an enjoyable match against Newcastle lst weekend when we scored twice in a four goal game. the Saints supporters are still perceiving that we are a poor side, in fairness I don't think that is fair on our team, we showed that we can score goals and today's game could give us the chance to find our form.

Fourthly is cost, although Saints have worked hard to make prices affordable for kids and indeed offers for various games, including this one where those who buy a ticket for the Burnley game can get a ticket for this one at half price.

But the price of a Premier league ticket is still too high, cheapest normal admission price for this game is £33 rising to £46 and that is too much for a game that is live on television at this time on a Saturday.

Football clubs have to adopt a more proactive pricing structure with the ability to adapt when unattractive fixtures are selected for TV , yes Saints have tried to do that to a degree, but to get the offer for this game, it still means shelling out £50 for the two tickets and although an individual may be able to afford that, for those that take other members of their family its a big outlay in one go.

Sadly fixture changes are a fact of life and have been a part of football for over a quarter of a century now, longer when you take in the limited live games that used to be televised in the 1980's so the majority of fans these days wre brought up on games not all being rigidly 3pm on a Saturday.

In the long term the situation needs to be looked at otherwise there will be a lot more games like this evenings where there are empty seats and that is something that is not attracive to the broadcasters who are selling the Premier League around the World as THE League with all the trimmings including packed vibrant stadiums, the reality is becoming far different.

Photo: Action Images

halftimeorange added 11:18 - Oct 21 I'll buy into your points. The weather might further reduce numbers attending. The EPL doesn't care one jot having sold its soul to Sky and BT. Making Newcastle fans travel down here for a 16.00 kick-off shows the lack of respect for travelling supporters except those who can afford flights where available. Individual clubs can't do much about it because reducing the price of unsold seats would only alienate ST holders and those that have paid full price. I, like many others, (I believe) yearn for a return to regular 15.00 matches on a Saturday and, where the journey is a long one, I can accept a middle of the day kick-off. Until the popularity of football wanes or supporters unite nationally and have a weekend where nobody turns up for any games, nothing will change.

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underweststand added 10:12 - Oct 22 Agreed. Those of us with long memories and even shorter hair recall the days when the novelty of an evening fixture was a pleasant change from the regular gametimes, but nowadays , a lot fewer buses ..with even more reduced timetables and the near prohibitive cost of rail fares make these games less attractive to attend - aside from the negative football itself. For a club with a long tradition....the tradition of a regular 3 pm kick-off still lingers as the highpoint of the week regardless of the weather. Those hardly Albion fans trecking back to Brum in the wake of hurricane Ryan wont feel any happier to think they may have lost the game to Boufal's contribution to Goal of the Season. Saints may have gained 3 points and a bit more TV Money, but taking the kids to SMS on a night like that will hopefully be a rare occurance in future.

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SaintBrock added 15:58 - Oct 22 Brian was not a hurricane, surely you meant to say Hurricane Boufal! Brian was just a storm in a teacup.
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