Ticket Chaos Tonight (the after)

[Lord Bracknell]

What was the actual attendance in the end?

Uncounted.

 

[Spider]

What was the actual attendance in the end?

2,571 but I don't know how they came up with that figure. Presumably just counted tickets sold, and as there was no STH I guess that would be pretty accurate.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

The official attendence would not have included those who passed through the turnstiles or gates without tickets - meaning that the true crowd figure was actually even higher than the official one.

 

[Giraffe's Son]

What a complete farce. In my view the club has not been on top of the ticketing system since they made redundant the two long serving members of the ticket staff. Doing this and only having fresh staff was a joke. The systems are rubbish, the staff are minimal and often appear to be completely overloaded.

If you take the last two farces together with the joke of writing to all season ticket holders and asking them if they want a season ticket when they already have one, not once but TWICE!!! then surely this smacks of incompetence. I also know from a friends experience (I am a STH) that some days it is virtually impossible to get through on the phone, the internet system is restricted and whilst the staff try their best there just isn't enough of them.

What does Ken Brown do?? Perhaps rather than walking around like a mouse before kick off he should stay at the ticket office and get his bloody hands dirty.

The crowd tonight was 2,500, and 20% of them missed the start. To put that into persective thats the same as nearly 20,000 people missing the start at Wembley due to them not having enough people to put tickets in envelopes!!!

And this for a crowd of 2,500!!!! Unbeleivable. I am utterly astonished.

The whole thing needs a complete overhaul, as I am certain that I could take a team of just three competent staff from my own business, together with a basic database and run it better than this.

And finally, why is it when things go right DK is there to comment and when things go badly its someone else..... when you are having a go at Ken Brown, just remember who appointed him as well.

 

[scooter1]

the rest of the crowd managed to turn up in time why the f*** couldn't they just get there earlier or get their tickets sooner. Always the clubs fault when dumbasses can't organise themselves!

I'll pick on your quote as its the first idiots response!!

We booked and paid for our tickets(5 of them) last Thursday and were told they would be posted first class to arrive by the weekend at the latest. No sign at the weekend, or Monday, or in fact yesterday morning.
We eventually got through by phone on Tuesday afternoon and Patrick told us not to worry we can pick them up at the ground, the booth will be open right up until after kick-off for those running a little late. At no point did he mention that there may have been a last minute rush for tickets and it would be busy. We made it to the ground in plenty of time to see the queue backed up almost the carpark, with little movement so we did the decent thing and joined the back.

So dickhead, we were organised!!! Unfortunatley the club let us down last night. It won't deter me from going to more games but in future i'll do the 5 mile drive into the centre of town, find a parking space at an exorbitant rate and collect my tickets from the shop(just so i'm totally organised)

 

[Brovion]

I assume that all you posters moaning about the chaos tonight have seen the apology on the official website.

Anyone who has stated that they have the right to turn up when they want rather than when is practical deserved what they got. For others who suffered, surely it is clear the problem was mainly due to the extra number sold on the back of a great result on Saturday.

I have supported BHA for over 30 years and can remember having to queue for tickets for big games (eg Derby in the League cup in 76) by attending reserve games when there was 33500 attending the game. Don't remember many people complaining then. Probably the same for the cup final. I know Barnet is not a big game but at the end of the day, we are a small club run on a shoestring and are not geared up to respond like Ticketmaster. The club are going to address the issues so hopefully problems will not arise again. On that note, can you not consider the thread closed and start a new one praising the team on the start to this campaign.

Furthermore, any dickhead making a comparison to Hillsborough should remember that a large chunk of the problem there was ticketless fans being let in (to prevent crushing outside). Hardly in the same league!

I'm sorry but most of that is rubbish or irrelevant. I too queued to get into a reserve game to get tickets for a League Cup match. The difference then was that there was THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND of us, which was pretty much the capacity of the Goldstone at the time. We are currently talking about TWO AND A HALF thousand which is well under half the Withdean capacity. The whole problem was caused by a few hundred, that's all, a few hundred people who decided at pretty much the last minute that they'd like to go and see the match. I know there's been a few geeks, no-life anoraks and club arselickers on here saying we should have ordered our tickets last Christmas and turned up just after lunch, but not everyone has that luxury.

And more pertinently this is now the 21st century. There is more to do with our spare time than pay a LOT or money to sit in an open stand in over-regulated stadium. We weren't playing Man U, as a casual customer I EXPECT to buy a ticket without having to wait in a queue, and for such a low-grade game I EXPECT to turn up about 15/20 minutes before kick-off to pick up my ticket. If we WERE playing Man U at a sold-out Withdean I might be prepared to cut our noddy, shoddy, poorly-run, two-bob club a bit of slack. But Barnet? No way. So yes, I do expect the club to respond like Ticketmaster, or at least the local cinema. Being the 21st Century the technology exists and it's dirt-cheap.

I should add that having experienced difficulties before in buying tickets on the day of the game, and delays in picking them up I didn't bother with last night. Sounds like I made the right decision as the experience would have soured the result for me.

 

[El Presidente]

Whatever the reasons behind this a League 1 club should not be in the position where it cannot cope with a late surge in ticket sales.

Nobody can dispute that surely?

You would expecet a CONFERENCE club to be able to deal with 250 ticket purchases on the day of the match, and if the Albion hierarchy rest on their laurels on this one that's what we will be in a few years, as the floating fans will float elsewhere.

 

[Questions]

If that was only 200 in the queue then it was good to see an overall attendence of 9800.

 

[El Presidente]

I assume that all you posters moaning about the chaos tonight have seen the apology on the official website.

Anyone who has stated that they have the right to turn up when they want rather than when is practical deserved what they got. For others who suffered, surely it is clear the problem was mainly due to the extra number sold on the back of a great result on Saturday.

I have supported BHA for over 30 years and can remember having to queue for tickets for big games (eg Derby in the League cup in 76) by attending reserve games when there was 33500 attending the game. Don't remember many people complaining then. Probably the same for the cup final. I know Barnet is not a big game but at the end of the day, we are a small club run on a shoestring and are not geared up to respond like Ticketmaster. The club are going to address the issues so hopefully problems will not arise again. On that note, can you not consider the thread closed and start a new one praising the team on the start to this campaign.

Furthermore, any dickhead making a comparison to Hillsborough should remember that a large chunk of the problem there was ticketless fans being let in (to prevent crushing outside). Hardly in the same league!

What a pile of elephant wank.

1. Many of us turned up after work, which finishes at a fixed time, rather than 'when they want'

2. It was Barnet in the Crap Cup, not a big match. We have all done the hours in terms of queueing, and people accept it happens for some fixtures, not for one where the crowd is 2,500

3. The frustration is that we did play very well at Crewe and the same for 45 minutes yesterday, and the feegood factor has been laid to waste. As diehards we want more bums on seats just as much as the club does, the Albion is a labour of love, and you don't like something you love behaving in such an amateurish matter.

4. The tickets were there last night, but NOT in alphabetical order, and it does not take more than a couple of minutes to estimate how many there were due for collection. At a rate of distribution of 1 ticket per minute, it would have taken 5 hours to sort out tickets for 300 fans from the ONE person given the task.

5. This is NSC, and therefore BINFESTERY would still be the order of the day if we had stuffed Real Madrid 5-0 with a Joe Gatting hat trick and two for Doug Loft.

 

[Mendoza]

I dont know what the ticket breakdown was, but I dont think there would have been much more than 400 non season ticket holders that purchased a ticket.

Of those, more than half of them would have already had their ticket and didnt need to queue up.

This has left about 2000 season ticket holders going to the game. All of which, if they club hadnt taken away the FREE cup game, would not have had to queue up for tickets. So they added to the queue, creating the long line.

Every seat was up for sale, with roughly 900 sold by Friday.

The crowd was estimated at 2500, So since Friday 1500ish have purchased a ticket, and obviously, nothing would have been able to have been posted on Monday, meaning they had to be collected from the ground, or were purchased in the ticket office in person.

I think on a normal league match day, when season ticket holders have their tickets in advance, there will be less than 300 tickets being collected at the ground, where as yesterday there would have been closer to 1000. And as people have suggested only one collection point was available, this seems to be the biggest problem.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I dont know what the ticket breakdown was, but I dont think there would have been much more than 400 non season ticket holders that purchased a ticket.

Of those, more than half of them would have already had their ticket and didnt need to queue up.

This has left about 2000 season ticket holders going to the game. All of which, if they club hadnt taken away the FREE cup game, would not have had to queue up for tickets. So they added to the queue, creating the long line.

Every seat was up for sale, with roughly 900 sold by Friday.

The crowd was estimated at 2500, So since Friday 1500ish have purchased a ticket, and obviously, nothing would have been able to have been posted on Monday, meaning they had to be collected from the ground, or were purchased in the ticket office in person.

I think on a normal league match day, when season ticket holders have their tickets in advance, there will be less than 300 tickets being collected at the ground, where as yesterday there would have been closer to 1000. And as people have suggested only one collection point was available, this seems to be the biggest problem.

The organisation was a farce, we are outside the club and we have worked out the rough ticket figures and your other thread shows lots of ways to get 500 plus people tickets quickly and safely.

The club were lucky that no one was hurt as once Virgo scored the crowd outside realised they were not getting in until half time. Both safety stewards and the police watched from a distance as the crowd got more hostile. It was good old polite british q'ing mentality that saved the day, not the organisation of the situation.

Ken Brown stopped the situatuion from getting worse by getting the gates open. This in not the way to run an efficent club and the fact I hear this is not the first time shows an overhaul or review is needed.

 

[Mendoza]

You would expecet a CONFERENCE club to be able to deal with 250 ticket purchases on the day of the match, and if the Albion hierarchy rest on their laurels on this one that's what we will be in a few years, as the floating fans will float elsewhere.

we always have coped with 250 people in the past and will do in the future.
Thats because only non season ticket holders have had to queue up for tickets

Yesterday and Ipswich, Season ticket holders have had to queue for tickets as well as the non STH.

Although the gates were considerably lower than a league match day, 3 or 4, maybe more times the normal amount queued for tickets

 

[Titanic]

we always have coped with 250 people in the past and will do in the future.
Thats because only non season ticket holders have had to queue up for tickets

Yesterday and Ipswich, Season ticket holders have had to queue for tickets as well as the non STH.

Although the gates were considerably lower than a league match day, 3 or 4, maybe more times the normal amount queued for tickets

And the club KNEW this well in advance and FAILED to prepare adequately.

It was a SHAMBLES, whatever the excuses.

 

[Mendoza]

And the club KNEW this well in advance and FAILED to prepare adequately.

It was a SHAMBLES, whatever the excuses.

no one is denying that are they, we all know it was a joke, and as I said before it is more of a joke, because it happened at Ipswich friendly, AND Ken Brown was confronted with the shambles at the Fans Forum and he said it was being looked into, as well as talking about the new ticket system that got implemented at the club - but yet it still happened and got twice as bad.

 

[Ernest]

And finally, why is it when things go right DK is there to comment and when things go badly its someone else..... when you are having a go at Ken Brown, just remember who appointed him as well.

Very true

 

[Winker]

It would make sense for the club to sell tickets in other retail outlets, especially with Falmer coming up. We can't all get in to central Brighton and we don't want to pay £2 extra over the phone. The club should do some sort of franchise deals with shops in western Hove/Portslade, Worthing, Lewes etc to sell tickets directly to fans. They won't double their fanbase at this rate.

I treated myself to tickets in the North Stand last night and only got them when everyone else in the queue was let in to the South Stand. When I eventually sat down, half the pitch was obscured by a set of railings going over some steps - brilliant.

I was so p1ssed off by the whole experience that I didn't enjoy the rest of the match at all and will think twice about going back for a good while.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

It would make sense for the club to sell tickets in other retail outlets, especially with Falmer coming up. We can't all get in to central Brighton and we don't want to pay £2 extra over the phone. The club should do some sort of franchise deals with shops in western Hove/Portslade, Worthing, Lewes etc to sell tickets directly to fans. They won't double their fanbase at this rate.

I treated myself to tickets in the North Stand last night and only got them when everyone else in the queue was let in to the South Stand. When I eventually sat down, half the pitch was obscured by a set of railings going over some steps - brilliant.

I was so p1ssed off by the whole experience that I didn't enjoy the rest of the match at all and will think twice about going back for a good while.

The club can't cope with one ticket office at the moment, let alone several

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

It would make sense for the club to sell tickets in other retail outlets, especially with Falmer coming up. We can't all get in to central Brighton and we don't want to pay £2 extra over the phone. The club should do some sort of franchise deals with shops in western Hove/Portslade, Worthing, Lewes etc to sell tickets directly to fans. They won't double their fanbase at this rate.

I treated myself to tickets in the North Stand last night and only got them when everyone else in the queue was let in to the South Stand. When I eventually sat down, half the pitch was obscured by a set of railings going over some steps - brilliant.

I was so p1ssed off by the whole experience that I didn't enjoy the rest of the match at all and will think twice about going back for a good while.

I paid for a seat in the back row, when I eventually got my ticket and was let into the North stand (Stewards tried to get me to just run into the south with the crowd) 15-20 minutes into the game. My seat was taken and the stewards sent me down to one at the front.

Again I enjoyed what I saw of the first half but it ruined the game.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

All in all, it was just a shambles last night, stemming from disorganisation. If they've sold 500-600 tickets that will be collected on the night, then plan accordingly, ie. have more staff on duty. Get trestle tables out, if necessary, and alphabeticise (?) it, so that three or more people can hand them out. Instead, they had one window open and one poor sod having to find the tickets.

I got there at 7.00pm and had a 15-20 minute wait, I reckon - I turned round after I'd collected my ticket and I reckon there were 300+ people waiting.

My surname begins with H, but my ticket wasn't in the H pile - nor was it filed under my first name. It was randomly lying around the booth. The bloke was very apologetic, but if it took him a few minutes to find my one ticket, God knows how he would have coped with loads of fans.

The club and Ken Brown must learn from this - it wasn't the fans fault for turning up late, it was the club!

 

[Spider]

Since we're pretty much saying the same things now I have another (less important) question. Could the people who had got into the stadium hear the chanting of "let us in" and the increasingly angry atmosphere that was developing outside the ground, or were most people oblivious that there was ny problem outside?