Season ticket sales up

By Jason Harris
September 5 2002

Saracens announced on Thursday that sales of season tickets for Vicarage Road have increased 11.5% on the total of 3,801 last season.

The new total of 4,237 is a boost for the club after their disappointing 2001-02 campaign. Sarries claim that 12% of all tickets sold were bought online via their official web site www.saracens.com, a 106% increase over the previous year.

Saracens' Managing Director Tim Lawler told the official web site "This is clearly a positive step. Last season we saw about one in ten season tickets holders choose not to renew, but we managed to balance this effect by driving matchday sales quite effectively to hold our position as one of the top three best supported Premiership clubs despite team form.

Lawler also said that a lot of behind-the-scenes work was carried out at the Saracens offices over the summer to tap into the large dormant support in the Watford and north London areas and he conluded by saying "Make no mistake, Premier Rugby is a cracking spectacle and with the evolution of the end-of-season deciding games, the new format ensures there are simply no meaningless matches in the Zurich Premiership and that’s exactly what fans want."

Saracens open their doors for the first time this season on Sunday when fellow 2001-02 surprise strugglers Bath are the visitors. Kick off is at 3pm.