Paul barber in haywards heath 18th july (MID SUSSEX SEAGULLS)

[Smithy]

So, any news?

 

[Superphil]

What was the answer to the questions about his mistakes?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

i'll start a collection

Cheers. It's tough at the moment.

 

[backson]

Could you please ask Barber whether he has already made two mistakes;

(1) Chelsea game - not sold out (and there are only 14,000 Albion tickets to sell)
Too expensive for a friendly?
Moving STH from their seats?

(2) Increase of £4.00 per ticket for the 'casual fan' - can than really be justified?

Q1 is interesting, but to be honest, it can't be answered until we've had a few days of selling to non season ticket holders.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

(1) Only 2500 Chelsea tickets now on sale, does that mean its all but sold out?

(2) £4 for public transport from as far as HH, Shoreham and Seaford (?). Sounds like a bargain to me, would cost you more if you had to buy a train/bus ticket, even from Brighton it's going to cost near enough that much, and if you use a bus and a train it would be more. For those who drive in for matches, then it's £4 to park and get bussed to the ground.

Somehow I don't think he, or any right minded person would see either of those 2 points as mistakes. Maybe it should be you who asks him those questions, just so he can put your mind at rest.

(1) As of yesterday morning, according to the Ticket Office, there were in excess of 3,000 tickets left for the Chelsea game.

So in around 2.1/2 weeks we have sold less than 11,000 tickets for a game against the Europen Champions. Pretty poor IMO, but why? IMO it's the pricing and moving of STH from their normal seats.

Of course it will sell out in the end - it will go on general sale, but just who will be buying those tickets? We have in excess of 22,000 STH - less than half have so far bought tickets.

Read the 'Chelsea' thread, and see how many STH are not going.

(2) As far as day-to-day match day prices are concerned, it's a big percentage increase, and with 4 people in the car that's £16.00 for the Park and Ride.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

So did Mr Barber have anything of interest to say last night?

 

[Arthur]

Of course it will sell out in the end - it will go on general sale, but just who will be buying those tickets?

Surely if it sells out then the club has priced it correctly regardless of who buys the tickets?

 

[Bozza]

Of course it will sell out in the end - it will go on general sale, but just who will be buying those tickets? We have in excess of 22,000 STH - less than half have so far bought tickets.

Chelsea have sold out the WSU and would gladly have taken more tickets. For that reason, I would be surprised if home tickets go on a literal general sale as Chelsea fans will snap them up in numbers and I don't believe the club nor the police want that. (It is accepted, of course, that there'll be a sprinkling of Chelsea fans as things stand)

 

[Superphil]

(1) As of yesterday morning, according to the Ticket Office, there were in excess of 3,000 tickets left for the Chelsea game.

So in around 2.1/2 weeks we have sold less than 11,000 tickets for a game against the Europen Champions. Pretty poor IMO, but why? IMO it's the pricing and moving of STH from their normal seats.

Of course it will sell out in the end - it will go on general sale, but just who will be buying those tickets? We have in excess of 22,000 STH - less than half have so far bought tickets.

Read the 'Chelsea' thread, and see how many STH are not going.

(2) As far as day-to-day match day prices are concerned, it's a big percentage increase, and with 4 people in the car that's £16.00 for the Park and Ride.

(1) a hundred (maybe 200 or even 300) or so people on a message board say they are not going, hardly going to impact is it, not with several thousand seats not in use anyway. I wonder how many season ticket holders are going? I know of 5.

(2) it's not a match day increase if you factor in that public transport is included. One way or another you were, or should have been, paying to get to the Amex last season, this season it will cost most people less than if they had to pay their own bus and/or train fares. For those in P&R each person in the car will be getting the bus, which is what the cost is for, effectively the parking is free. The alternative is to find somewhere to park in or near Brighton, pay if you have to, then pay for bus/train/taxi to the ground. For 4 people that would still cost £4 a head. Furthermore, it might discourage people from trying to park in local residential areas to try and avoid paying parking/bus/train costs, as it is all in.

We are all in this together, the stadium cannot succeed if people don't accept and adopt the transport policy. Last season supporters of this club mugged the club week in week out by jumping on trains without tickets. Now they have done something that not only protects them, but benefits just about every fan on match day, unless maybe you live in Falmer, or use a 1901 parking permit.

 

[middletoenail]

So does anyone have any information from the Barber Q & A, or are we going to have another Chelsea binfest?