This is the headline that some cynics have been waiting to see for 6 years now and it would be remiss of me not to use it on this occasion, but before any Portsdown Hillbillies get excited it is not what you think !

Saints are rolling out their plans for the Return To St Mary's and they have revealed that the stadium is now totally cashless !

Some will say that has been the case since 2014 when Nicola Cortese, a man who had grand plans for Champions League domination left and seemingly took the bottomless bucket of cash needed to do that with him.

But this is not that, Saints have announced that St Marys will be a cashless stadium, if you want to buy anything in the Stadium Megastore it is now card only, likewise at the ticket office, you can no longer stroll up and wave a few grand at them in used banknotes and walk away with a fistful of season tickets.

Presumably this will also extend to matchday's when those who want a pint a burger or even just a cup of tea will now have to get the plastic out and wave it in the air like they just don't care that they have just broken our transfer record with a round of beers.

On a serious note there will be more announcement's soon about how the return of supporters will be facilitated and what that will mean to the usual matchday routine for fans at the stadium.

In the meantime here are the details they have brought out today.

Cashless: One of the initial changes that will be in place is that St Mary's is becoming a fully cashless stadium, meaning that all payments can be made by card only.

Stadium Store opening times: The Stadium Store, which will now be cashless, will reopen from tomorrow(Saturday) with fans able to pick up Saints merchandise and buy Season Tickets from the store between 10am-4pm from Monday to Saturday.

Ticket Office opening times: The Ticket Office has already reopened with fans able to call 02381 780780 between 10am-4pm on Tuesday's and Wednesday's, or request a call back by filling in this form.

Photo: Action Images

Chesham_Saint added 12:14 - Aug 21 Does this include the programme vendors?
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ItchenNorth added 12:56 - Aug 21 I can't remember the last time I had cash or went to a cash machine for anything. It's all contactless or mobile payments everywhere now. The only cash I need on match day is for the Itchen Bridge, which if the council had and foresight with, should have made contactless as well a few years back !
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athripp added 15:10 - Aug 21 I fear the end of the printed programme as we knew them. Livingstone in the Scots Prem have gone for an online one only and you can bet that will be the way forward. Awful!!
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the_saint added 16:59 - Aug 21 I just hope all the charity buckets have card machines noticed a few beggars in town have contactless machines now bless them
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NewburySaint added 22:13 - Aug 21 re your comment about Cortese, the same could be said about after chairman Gao’s arrival.......
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wibbersda added 13:04 - Aug 22 @ItchenNorth I remember when it was built and they stated the charge would only be for 25 years, and here we are 44 years later and still paying!
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SaintBrock added 13:07 - Aug 23 Nothing worth buying anyway.
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