Have the club got this wrong?

[Captain Sensible]

After buying a ST yesterday (no its not another thread about that), I noticed the club have sold the areas for match by match last year as ST's and now have the entire south stand for match by match. I find it a bit odd that they are selling ST's in the South West corner but not behind the goal? Surely it should be the other way around?
Alot of match by match fans from last year, now have ST's. So I think the club will find it harder to sell these seats, especially for a less attractive fixture. I don't wanna see a half empty south stand next year. It might get worse if the away support only bring a few hundred and then the club have the South East to fill as well.
Anyone else think they got this a bit wrong?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I agree. I can't understand it. However I find it difficult to believe that there is not a good reason for this. Surely the club must have thought long and hard about the distribution of season tickets?

 

[brightn'ove]

so all the match by match tickets will be in the south stand?

i can live with that



i can imagine they will start selling the south if they sell out all other ST areas.

 

[Rugrat]

I guess they have to keep half of the South (East end of it) as match by match because of the increased away allocation they need to provide at Cup games ... although I'd have thought they would have kept 1000 odd available for that in the East and then sold the South to ST's. Don't understand why they aren't selling the other half of the South (West End) as ST's now

So Yes, it does seem a bit odd

 

[Lord Bracknell]

It's a bit defeatist to be arguing that the Albion can't market a few thousand tickets on a match-by-match basis. I put this question in the same category as the "Who agrees that we'll NEVER sell 10,000 season tickets?" question that was being bandied around before the stadium was completed.

 

[Captain Sensible]

It's a bit defeatist to be arguing that the Albion can't market a few thousand tickets on a match-by-match basis. I put this question in the same category as the "Who agrees that we'll NEVER sell 10,000 season tickets?" question that was being bandied around before the stadium was completed.

I'm not doubting that they can sell them, I'm sure they will but there might now be some games that we don't sell out because of increased capacity. If that's the case it means empty seats behind the goal, which no one wants to see. Also the South Stand has pretty good seats, I'm suprised match by match wasn't next to the away fans on either side and maybe the south west corner.

 

[Triggaaar]

Alot of match by match fans from last year, now have ST's.

I'm guessing that a lot still don't and it's possible that for those fans, getting seats behind the goal will be a good day out with a bit of of a Goldstone North Stand feel . It's not like we want to forget match by match fans.

 

[Captain Sensible]

I'm guessing that a lot still don't and it's possible that for those fans, getting seats behind the goal will be a good day out with a bit of of a Goldstone North Stand feel . It's not like we want to forget match by match fans.

Yep you're right, they are pretty good seats. Match by match should not be forgotten but after last season of match by match being in the WSL and ESL corners, it's a bit surprising, especially if they don't always sell out.

 

[Rugrat]

It's a bit defeatist to be arguing that the Albion can't market a few thousand tickets on a match-by-match basis. I put this question in the same category as the "Who agrees that we'll NEVER sell 10,000 season tickets?" question that was being bandied around before the stadium was completed.

My view isn't a defeatest one more that I think to have the South full of reg's would make for a better atmosphere plus there's a possibility that there will be people on a waiting list for ST's when there are seats that they could be sold

 

[supaseagull]

My main criticism of the club at present is that the stadium is meant to be a Community stadium and yet when I speak to other Secretaries and Chairman for grassroots youth soccer clubs and schools they will all tell you that the Albion done nothing for them last year.

When I tried to apply for tickets to a match for my under 10s, they wanted to charge £15 PER UNDER 10!

I sincerely hope that the club remember this for next season as alot of local youth soccer clubs around Sussex have felt quite let down by the Albion over the last season.

Compare this to Charlton... They took 120 kids from an Eastbourne team to a match last year and laid on transport for free and it wont be long til QPR and Crawley start doing similar from what I've heard.

 

[Captain Sensible]

My main criticism of the club at present is that the stadium is meant to be a Community stadium and yet when I speak to other Secretaries and Chairman for grassroots youth soccer clubs and schools they will all tell you that the Albion done nothing for them last year.

When I tried to apply for tickets to a match for my under 10s, they wanted to charge £15 PER UNDER 10!

I sincerely hope that the club remember this for next season as alot of local youth soccer clubs around Sussex have felt quite let down by the Albion over the last season.

Compare this to Charlton... They took 120 kids from an Eastbourne team to a match last year and laid on transport for free and it wont be long til QPR and Crawley start doing similar from what I've heard.

With more match by match available and especially behind the goal, hopefully that will change.

 

[Bozza]

My main criticism of the club at present is that the stadium is meant to be a Community stadium and yet when I speak to other Secretaries and Chairman for grassroots youth soccer clubs and schools they will all tell you that the Albion done nothing for them last year.

When I tried to apply for tickets to a match for my under 10s, they wanted to charge £15 PER UNDER 10!

I sincerely hope that the club remember this for next season as alot of local youth soccer clubs around Sussex have felt quite let down by the Albion over the last season.

Compare this to Charlton... They took 120 kids from an Eastbourne team to a match last year and laid on transport for free and it wont be long til QPR and Crawley start doing similar from what I've heard.

The supply and demand situations at the Albion and Charlton are worlds apart and invalidate any direct comparison.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I sincerely hope that the club remember this for next season as alot of local youth soccer clubs around Sussex have felt quite let down by the Albion over the last season.

Out of interest - in what way ?

What were they expecting or led to believe that led to that feeling ?

 

[Seagull Steve]

We in the South West corner will become an elite bunch. We don't want the scruffy day ticket lot in with us, and the club have obviously noted our exclusivity.

 

[ees complicated no?]

Does it reallly matter? It's not as if they are going to see many goal from that end

 

[NorthStandN1A]

I would imagine that they need some of these seats for extra seat allowances for cup games, therefore making them impossible to sell as season tickets? Not sure about this, but it is what I would think is the reason?

 

[kingcole]

Yes, if we have to give 15% (of 28,000) the 4200 seats will comprise the south stand, south east and the new away section in the south end of the ESL. It's the clubs (good) policy not to sell ST's to seats where they may have to be moved.

If the away attendance is very poor, we will get the whole of the south and the south east of needed. If the away attendance is average, then we wont get the south east. If the away attendance is excellent, then we will only have half the south to sell to home phones and if it's a 15% cup game, then there will be no general sale tickets apart from those not taken up by current STH's.

Do remember, on a match by match basis next season, if the club are good to their word, the ticket exchange should be in place, meaning there will be more choice in other stands, although I suspect the ticket exchange will only activate if we are technically sold out.

As for the person who moaned about the under 10 price, I beleive if they can snag exchange tickets in the family stand, these will only be £3 next year......

 

[Simster]

The supply and demand situations at the Albion and Charlton are worlds apart and invalidate any direct comparison.

Correct, they certainly were last season - I think there was only one match that didn't officially sell out to home fans (the Cardiff game had about 50 tickets left or something). On the other hand, Charlton's average was 3,000 lower than ours, which equated to 10,000 empty seats at The Valley.

But this coming season will be different. We are not going to sell 25,000 tickets to home supporters every single match, so this is an ideal opportunity to get into the local football clubs and offer cheap tickets. Lets see how these disappointed local clubs feel after this season.

 

[Superphil]

It's the clubs intention to sell out all available season ticket seats, limiting the 'match by match' seats to the minimum required, as they did for last season. That equates to 23800 STH and 4200 seats to be divided between away fans and "match by match fans". That equates to 1400 "match by match" tickets available per game where the away fans take/use their allocation of 2800. It would also mean that for cup games where the away team takes its full 15% then there will be no tickets available until STH have decided whether to buy tickets or not. This all increase the need for the ticket exchange system IMO to ensure as many fans as possible are able to get to games with as few empty seats as possible*.

 

[k2bluesky]

I'm sure now half the south stand end will be on match by match sale to the Albion and not full of away support, we will see far less clubs who win the toss up letting us play into the North in the second half, which produced such good home results last season, spurred on by the great vocal support.
I think home form may well drop as a result, we should have kept it as it was and used ESL for extra numbers of away allocation.