Open Day 2016 Report

On Tuesday, August 16th 2016, the SDSA organised an Open Day in the Kingsland Concourse and Dell Cafe at St Mary’s Stadium, which was a great success.

We worked with the club a bit more this year when planning the Open Day, and so we held the day in the Kingsland Concourse and made it a ticketed event (although the tickets were free) so numbers could be controlled.

At 12pm, the doors opened and the queues began to come in.  If visitors had tickets they were ticked off the list of tickets purchased, or they were asked to fill in a short form, so we knew how many had come.

Once in, visitors could chat to a number of local groups, get their face painted, sign up to become a SDSA Member, request to use 1 of our 4 disabled season tickets for a game, or sign up to take a mini stadium tour during the afternoon.  The local Under 11 team we sponsor, Riverside Rangers, were also available to chat to people.

At the other end of the Kingsland Concourse, there were refreshments and live entertainment from Lewis Smith and Red Stripez. There was also the chance to get pictures with the FA Cup (kindly loaned to us by The Football Association) and the Hampshire Junior Trophy (loaned to us by Trophyman).  The FA Cup had its minders who would jump in if anyone looked like they may break the “no touching rule”.

We had 2 draws, and tickets were available to buy.  The main draw included a 43 inch smart TV and a PS4 with 4 games, and a further 20+ prizes, and the second draw was for a laptop.

Ed Chamberlin, ex Sky Sports football presenter and new ITV horse racing presenter (and big Saints fan) opened the event, and was joined throughout the afternoon by ex-saints including Franny Benali (our Ambasador)., Matt Le Tissier, Nick Holmes, Reuben Agboola, and 1976 FA Cup winning manager Lawrie McMenemy.

Unfortunately due to an away game for Saints only 3 days away, we were unable to get a current 1st team player to make an appearance.