THE Scarlets have sold a record number of season tickets for the coming campaign, with new chief executive Mark Davies describing the news as fantastic.

With more than three weeks to go before the start of the new season, the West Wales region have already passed last year's total.

They have shifted 4,000 tickets, selling close on a thousand more, despite a disappointing 2009-10 campaign that saw them finish ninth in the Magners League.

''We must be doing something right because we have 868 more people that haven't been season ticket holders previously but are coming on board this year,'' said Davies. ''That's fantastic. We don't know if they are new people to rugby, but, anyway, they are new people to us — and a huge proportion of them are children, the region's future.''

Former Honda Motorcycles European chief Davies, who started his new job just a fortnight ago, has rapidly tuned in to the region's way of thinking, adding: ''For me, the Scarlets are a lot more than a rugby business.

''They are a club at the heart of the community, a club that represents the spirt of that community — and in many ways represents the spirit of the nation."