Pay on the day and ticket exchange a must for next year

[Rugrat]

Indeed, which is why the club don't do systems development, and why the ticketing system is the very same as that supplied to clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Everton, Rangers and Leeds.

On that subject, I'm pretty sure when looking around other instances of our ticketing system in the past I found at least one that had a ticket exchange component, which would make me believe we have the capability but, for whatever reason, has not been enabled.

If I received the approach you detail, completely out of the blue, I'm not sure I'd be spending too much time responding either.

Yes our ticketing system is outsourced, and expensive for what it is in my opinion. Maybe the club do have the functionality and chosen not to enable it but that is surprising, given that the exchange only activates once all other seats are sold and would clearly be providing incremental revenue and higher levels of satisfaction.

As for not responding to a cold contact that shows a remarkable lack of commercial savvy in my opinion. I'm sure the club get approached with many ideas, most of which may be non starters but there will be some that are worthy of some level of consideration and the fact that it doesn't come through some personal introduction shouldn't mean it gets zero consideration. I'd be horrified if I thought my Commercial team (when I had one!) were operating like that

 

[Bozza]

Yes our ticketing system is outsourced, and expensive for what it is in my opinion. Maybe the club do have the functionality and chosen not to enable it but that is surprising, given that the exchange only activates once all other seats are sold and would clearly be providing incremental revenue and higher levels of satisfaction.

As for not responding to a cold contact that shows a remarkable lack of commercial savvy in my opinion. I'm sure the club get approached with many ideas, most of which may be non starters but there will be some that are worthy of some level of consideration and the fact that it doesn't come through some personal introduction shouldn't mean it gets zero consideration. I'd be horrified if I thought my Commercial team (when I had one!) were operating like that

I get the impression that the club are still quite stretched given the rapid growth that has taken place in a relatively short period of time. Alongside the strong likelihood that they do already have a fully integrated single-supplier ticket exchange function in hand, then I'm not sure what consideration you expected. A courtesy 'thanks but no thanks' is about as much as you're entitled to, IMO.

 

[Rugrat]

Resale/excahnge of tickets to football matches is illegal without the express consent of the rightsholders, even at face value. If the club permitted this in a blanket way then they'd lose any legal teeth to prosecute touts in future.

Also most propreitary ticketing stystems are pretty much locked down - adding an interface may not be so easy - uite feasible that the writers of Albion's system will not provie support for if external interfaces that they've not sold are attached. Outrageous, but quite likely!

Unsure of your first point ... if I am the STH and I am agreeing for the club to sell on my seat I'd have thought (with the right disclaimers, T&C's) they could cover that.

Your second point is well made and likely the reason why we don't have one. Interfacing isn't a problem but the contract the club have with the ticketing provider won't allow it

 

[Rugrat]

I get the impression that the club are still quite stretched given the rapid growth that has taken place in a relatively short period of time. Alongside the strong likelihood that they do already have a fully integrated single-supplier ticket exchange function in hand, then I'm not sure what consideration you expected. A courtesy 'thanks but no thanks' is about as much as you're entitled to, IMO.

Agree the club are likely to be fully stretched for the foreseeable, the proposal required minimal involvement.

If they already have one that they can switch on then I agree it goes into the "waste of time, move on" pile ... doesn't mean I won't be a little sensitive about it but I'm pretty pragmatic and understand that. My instinct tells me a little different, if they have one then why not switch on? There is no logical reason not to unless it's an administrative burden, in which case they don't have one!!!

Anyway I don't want to labour the point ... hopefully they'll have one up and running soon

 

[Storer 68]

Agree 100% ... but if such a facility were available via the club website, it was promoted, it was simple to use and the non attending STH were able to get a cash credit then I assume many would use such a facility, at least they would have the opportunity to do so.

It may well be something that's being worked on for all I know. As I said they didn't reply to my three emails and I've seen nothing announced to say they are but no disputing the fact that they might be. I'd be bloody surprised if they weren't tbh

But you can do that NOW. Just ring up the club, tell them you are a STH and can't make game X and they will cancel your ticket for that particular game, credit your account, and make the seat available for general sale for that game.. I know they can do this because I've done it

 

[SeagullSongs]

What I would like to see is this:

Everyone with a fan number gets sent a card - like our season tickets - but with nothing pre-loaded.
You can then sell your tickets to other fans completely online for face value. The club could charge a 1% admin fee or similar to make back the cost of the cards.

 

[sparkie]

Would be great if the club could market a simple android/iphone app on which you could purchase tickets if available on the day of the match ( for collection ).

 

[Bozza]

My problem with the club systems are that I have 3 (or is it more?) completely disconnected accounts with different usernames and probably different passwords. Probably different password strength rules too...

- Ticketing
- E-cash top-up (and, possibly, also to become the ticket exchange too)
- Seagulls Player

There should be a single authentication mechanism available (or some SSO jiggery pokery to tie together disparate systems) such that once successfully navigated a fan has secure access to all transactional activity and data held by the club. That, for me, would be a BIG win.

 

[teaboy]

I'd be interested to know how many single seats the club sell per match at the moment (including single season tickets). Most people will go to games with people they know and will want to sit together. That's why the 'friends and family' arrangement on the website exists. Any sort of ticket exchange is likely to produce a scattering of single seats. As the other tickets have already been sold there's no way to 'group' people buying the returned tickets. How popular is sitting on your own for a game likely to be? How many of these returned seats sell per match? Is the profit to the club (eg difference between ST price and sale price + fee) per ticket sold worth the effort?

 

[Scarface]

I have been told by the club that a ticket exchange will be working for next season. .

A) the ticket exchange will only become active once the game is an official sell out.
B) the software is already there, it has been tested. It will all be done on the website in the same section that we top up money to our card.
C) when you 'tick the box' to say you can't go, assuming it has sold out, your seat will be available for others to buy. You will only get a credit if someone buys your seat. The most you will get is the pro rata price you have have paid. ie, if a kid ticket and you only spent £5 on it, you will get a £5 credit to your ecash top up card. If the club sell this seat to an adult at £24 + £2 booking fee, this is where they make their money.

As for POTG. It is true it is in the planning that this cannot happen, but it could of course be changed. I can't see the club wanting to rock the boat though whilst we are getting permission for the extra seats.

I was in the club shop just before the Barnsley game and a couple of Barnsley fans were in there, not realising it was all ticket and were promptly sold seats 3 mins before.

This seems like a very simpe and logical exchange system. The STH selects games they cant go to, the club then knows they can re sell it, when someone buys it the club pockets that money and the STH gets refunded pro rata. Everybody wins! (unless the club sells an adult's ST seat as a child's ticket but we wont mention that!)

I was a little suprised to see that they would only activate it if the game was an official sell out but then I guess it would make the club more money. Re-selling seats that have already been sold before ones that havent would reduce their income. However, it might also reduce the numbers of fans using the exchange to sell their ST too as there will be less time for the club to re-sell it if they have to wait for the game to sell out first rather than weeks/months in advance.

NSC is probably not the place ... a simple interface into seagulls.co.uk isn't difficult. No paper tix ... all fans buying through exchange get a plastic card (same as STH) which is activated/deactivated on game by game basis. Initial cost of card (pennies) taken care of in first purchase admin fee

I'm sure i heard that this is what the club were going to try. All members on the database, not just STH would get a card which could be used to buy tickets quickly even by text? The card would then get activated for the particular match. Not sure how you would know which seat to go to though, maybe you would have to print out an e-ticket or something?

 

[Rugrat]

But you can do that NOW. Just ring up the club, tell them you are a STH and can't make game X and they will cancel your ticket for that particular game, credit your account, and make the seat available for general sale for that game.. I know they can do this because I've done it

Had no idea that was possible, even more surprising it's not online.

 

[teaboy]

This seems like a very simpe and logical exchange system. The STH selects games they cant go to, the club then knows they can re sell it, when someone buys it the club pockets that money and the STH gets refunded pro rata. Everybody wins! (unless the club sells an adult's ST seat as a child's ticket but we wont mention that!)

I was a little suprised to see that they would only activate it if the game was an official sell out but then I guess it would make the club more money. Re-selling seats that have already been sold before ones that havent would reduce their income. However, it might also reduce the numbers of fans using the exchange to sell their ST too as there will be less time for the club to re-sell it if they have to wait for the game to sell out first rather than weeks/months in advance.

If it's a sell-out the number of people using the exchange (however it's run) doesn't matter. The club will still make the same money from ticket sales. The ticket exchange can only ever be in the interest of the fans, not the club. There's a huge amount of admin from any sort of 'organised' system. If tickets were paper again then people would sell privately to friends/family if they couldn't go. They could even stand in the street and sell. The club make NOTHING from this, but it doesn't cost them anything either. With e-tickets every resale has to go through the club. This costs money. The amount the club will make from each sale is tiny compared to the possible costs.

 

[Rugrat]

My problem with the club systems are that I have 3 (or is it more?) completely disconnected accounts with different usernames and probably different passwords. Probably different password strength rules too...

- Ticketing
- E-cash top-up (and, possibly, also to become the ticket exchange too)
- Seagulls Player

There should be a single authentication mechanism available (or some SSO jiggery pokery to tie together disparate systems) such that once successfully navigated a fan has secure access to all transactional activity and data held by the club. That, for me, would be a BIG win.

That too!! Another very simple business principle that rarely gets any attention until it's too late

 

[Simster]

A bit of fag packet number crunching:

So assuming ground capacity is upped to 27,000 next season, and that season ticket take-up is 95% and that the club burns through the entire 3,000 season ticket waiting list (and that some of those want more than one season ticket), we could well find we have around 22,000 season ticket holders next season, and have to accommodate just under 3,000 away supporters, leaving only around 2,000 for general sale and comps.

If we have a good season, those 2,000 will probably just about sell for most games. So my point is this: even if a ticket exchange is put in place in time for next season (and triggered only after those initial 2,000 sell out), I very much doubt that your seat is actually likely to be re-sold in most cases owing to lack of demand. Maybe two thirds of all Premiership games or 5 or 6 Championship games would see something approaching 27,000 bums on seats?

 

[Rugrat]

The ticket exchange can only ever be in the interest of the fans, not the club.

Disagree there. They get the benefit of the fee on the sale (the difference between the purchase price and the amount refunded) plus they get all the knock on revenue (beers, pies, programmes, merchandise) from those attending that wouldn't otherwise be there. Admin is negligible once an automated process is in place. As someone else said no paper tickets, first time I buy on exchange I get a card which activates for only the game I've purchased.

Seems like they are doing it anyway ... I look forward to it

 

[Simster]

My problem with the club systems are that I have 3 (or is it more?) completely disconnected accounts with different usernames and probably different passwords. Probably different password strength rules too...

- Ticketing
- E-cash top-up (and, possibly, also to become the ticket exchange too)
- Seagulls Player

There should be a single authentication mechanism available (or some SSO jiggery pokery to tie together disparate systems) such that once successfully navigated a fan has secure access to all transactional activity and data held by the club. That, for me, would be a BIG win.

Oh, and this. Massively so. It's a bit tin pot that this hasn't happened already, IMO.

 

[Rugrat]

A bit of fag packet number crunching:

So assuming ground capacity is upped to 27,000 next season, and that season ticket take-up is 95% and that the club burns through the entire 3,000 season ticket waiting list (and that some of those want more than one season ticket), we could well find we have around 22,000 season ticket holders next season, and have to accommodate just under 3,000 away supporters, leaving only around 2,000 for general sale and comps.

If we have a good season, those 2,000 will probably just about sell for most games. So my point is this: even if a ticket exchange is put in place in time for next season (and triggered only after those initial 2,000 sell out), I very much doubt that your seat is actually likely to be re-sold in most cases owing to lack of demand. Maybe two thirds of all Premiership games or 5 or 6 Championship games would see something approaching 27,000 bums on seats?

Agree with that ... but there's zero investment needed by club so even if the exchange is only activated for a handful of games it has value. If the club needed to spend time/money developing the capability then it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[chimneys]

But you can do that NOW. Just ring up the club, tell them you are a STH and can't make game X and they will cancel your ticket for that particular game, credit your account, and make the seat available for general sale for that game.. I know they can do this because I've done it

Wow!! Makes most of the rest of this thread irrelevant as no need for a ticket exchange if the club has proved to be already happy to take the risk!

Not doubting you Storer 68, but has anyone else done this, or was this a one off oversight by the club? And what did you get back, 1/23 less an admin fee of your ST cost?

 

[middletoenail]

My problem with the club systems are that I have 3 (or is it more?) completely disconnected accounts with different usernames and probably different passwords. Probably different password strength rules too...

- Ticketing
- E-cash top-up (and, possibly, also to become the ticket exchange too)
- Seagulls Player

There should be a single authentication mechanism available (or some SSO jiggery pokery to tie together disparate systems) such that once successfully navigated a fan has secure access to all transactional activity and data held by the club. That, for me, would be a BIG win.

This wouldn't be cheap IMO, all of these systems are operated by third parties so you would probably need some sort of standalone portal to be built to pull in this info, and be serviced/supported by another vendor.

 

[Storer 68]

Wow!! Makes most of the rest of this thread irrelevant as no need for a ticket exchange if the club has proved to be already happy to take the risk!

Not doubting you Storer 68, but has anyone else done this, or was this a one off oversight by the club? And what did you get back, 1/23 less an admin fee of your ST cost?

My recollection is that the club was able to credit my season ticket account with the amount that the game would have cost me as a sth rather than the price it would have cost to buy as a single ticket. We have also been able to change full price adult season ticket holder tickets, to penssionner's prices for individual games when my brother was not able to make the game and my dad took his ticket. - all done electronically at the ticket offiec at the stadium before the game - all worked seamlessly

And what risk is there to the cluub - they just put the seat back on sale again.