Ticket Queues and Falmer

[Lord Bracknell]

I don't want to prolong the debate about the hassle that we've all had with ticketing for the Play-Off final. But there is one point that seems to have been overlooked in everything that's been said so far.

The reason that we've had all of the grief about ticketing is simple. It's because our Club doesn't have a proper stadium.

The only permanent ticket office we have is a cramped corner of a small shop in Queens Road - with two computer terminals. This is obviously hopelessly inadequate as a means of selling 31,000 tickets in a few days. So the Club had to resort to using a few tin boxes in a yard somewhere on the outskirts of town. Tin boxes that have NO computer terminals.

Why weren't season ticket holders or AMS members given any priority? Simple. The tin boxes at Withdean had no way of verifying whether or not the person buying the tickets was a season ticket holder. And the Queens Road outlet needed to be made available for anybody who wanted to pay by credit card.

If Queens Road had been reserved for season ticket holders only, how would those people have been able to purchase tickets to sit along side friends and family who wanted to go to the game, but weren't themselves season ticket holders? And how would non-season ticket holders have been able to pay by credit card? And can Queens Road deal with a queue of 5,000 people? Would it have felt like you were getting any sort of "priority" as a season ticket holder? Let alone AMS members.

So we had the queues at Withdean - with no technology to support the process.

Imagine things at Falmer. A state of the art stadium, equipped with efficient systems to sell tens of thousands of tickets to all categories of purchasers (including on-line buyers). Loads of computer terminals, all serving the purpose.

We all know that Withdean is a hopeless place to watch football in. It's also a hopeless base to run the commercial activities of a a football club from.

So don't look around for someone in the office to blame for all this. If you must blame someone, try people whose surnames begin with "A" or "B", who are (thankfully) no longer with us.

And keep the campaign for Falmer going. It really does matter.

 

[Hilton]

Well said

 

[B.M.F]

I am with you on that one Brackers

 

[b.w.2.]

Sorry, but this is utter nonsense... I normally have the utmost respect for what you say, but...

All the club had to do to give priority for season ticket holders, etc. and their friends and family was to make Sat, and maybe Sun for season ticket holders only (just like Bristol City did)... if necessary, sell from Queens road only... remainder of tickets on general sale at QR and Withdean afterwards...

A fcuk-up by our present board, and not those whose names shall not be mentioned... you sound like a politician balaming the party that left office a significant number of years ago...

 

[sullyupthewing]

Brillant post maybe that will shut the moaning whinging gits up who are doing there best(wankers) to spoil the whole party

 

[Lord Bracknell]

All the club had to do to give priority for season ticket holders, etc. and their friends and family was to make Sat, and maybe Sun for season ticket holders only (just like Bristol City did)... if necessary, sell from Queens road only... remainder of tickets on general sale at QR and Withdean afterwards...

"Like Bristol City did"? What? Limit season ticket holders to two tickets each?

"Sell to season ticket holders from Queens Road only"? 5,000 people queuing in central Brighton?

"General sale at QR and Withdean afterwards"? No tickets available to people who are at work?

And all this would be a BETTER way to sell tickets?

 

[FG aka Football Genius.]

totally disagree Lord B think we shall have to agree to differ enough said

 

[Lord Bracknell]

totally disagree Lord B think we shall have to agree to differ enough said

Fair do's. I'm comfortable disagreeing with you, FG.

 

[Happy Seagull]

If Sat and Sun had been Season ticket holders only and you could only get limited tickets then you'd not be able to sit with certain friends or family.

Also it took 4hours to get served at the clubshop when there were only about 300 people in front of me. I dread to think if it had been 5000

 

[JAMC]

I remember the fiasco last year with the Wolves play off final tickets.
Front page of the local rag, stories of shambles etc etc.
People in the que given vouchers and told to go home and come back the next day etc etc.
It seems to be run of the mill year in year out...

So I don't think it's been that bad as where Bhafc have been concerned.

And before you ask!
No, I'm not a Wolves supporter!!

 

[b.w.2.]

Dear LB... please don't get over-defensive... in response...

"Like Bristol City did"? What? Limit season ticket holders to two tickets each?... No... allow them 3 or 4 per STH...

"Sell to season ticket holders from Queens Road only"? 5,000 people queuing in central Brighton?... they wouldn't go all at once if they had up to 2 days, which would be reasonable...

"General sale at QR and Withdean afterwards"? No tickets available to people who are at work?... open early / stay open in the evening (as they are planning to do anyway!!)... they are probably forcing many priority group fans into missing work just to get a ticket with their current flawed ticketing scheme...

And all this would be a BETTER way to sell tickets? YES!...

PS. I am in contact with a senior official inside the club and therefore know exactly why they did what they did, and it has nothing to do with the excuses you gave... sorry, but you are wrong on this one...

 

[somerset]

And where exactly does that leave those living outside the BN post district, like 150 miles away.

Myself and several other west country geezers (all AMs and reasonably regular away followers mostly) have had to rely on the post..... not a comforting thought. And i wont know if i have got one until probably tues.... then it will be too late.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Brackers, your views are always carefully considered and worth reading, but – and I say this as someone who has probably benefited from the current arrangements (a non-season ticket holder with tickets safely in the bag) – there is no real excuse for not giving season ticket holders a day’s grace before general sale. It could have been done.

I've had a ST before, but had to give it up as I couldn't justify it financially – but if I had kept it for all five years at that dump we call our 'home', paying way over the odds to sit in all winds and weathers, I would not EXPECT a ticket out of an allocation of 31,000, I would DEMAND one.

Having said that, I'd like to have a little bet that out of (5,500-ish?) season-ticket holders, there won't in fact be many that won't have a ticket at the end of this process. In the same way that you are the most committed in paying for it, you'll also make sure you get up for the queue early enough to get one.

There's a lot of sanctimonious, self-righteous claptrap spouted about people jumping on the bandwagon - and yet these are exactly the sort of people that when certain NSC-ers say “We'd get 20-30,000” that they are talking about. The more the merrier, provided the loyal core is taken care of first.

 

[Yorkie]

I remember the fiasco last year with the Wolves play off final tickets.
Front page of the local rag, stories of shambles etc etc.
People in the que given vouchers and told to go home and come back the next day etc etc.
It seems to be run of the mill year in year out...

So I don't think it's been that bad as where Bhafc have been concerned.

And before you ask!
No, I'm not a Wolves supporter!!

I know a Wolves supporter and this was his story from last year

'I can't believe it. The post has just arrived and there's only one ticket enclosed.

There's a pre-printed note about a wrong number given. Well surely they should have checked with me (they did have my telephone number) about the query instead of just ignoring the situation and issuing the one ticket.

The problem is that all this has been done through a ticket agency and not Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I've sent a mail to the lady at the club who deals with tickets, but I'm not hopeful at all. It's not looking good.

I feel so distraught that I don't even want to go to Cardiff on my own and leave my daughter at home. I'll just have to see what the club says. But what a sorry state of affairs this is.'

(further post)

' There was an article on the BBC site yesterday about near riots when people had been camping out overnight and then others arrived first thing in the morning and charged straight to the front of the queue'


So I think we have done reasonably well considering.

 

[Gwylan]

Dear LB... please don't get over-defensive... in response...

"Like Bristol City did"? What? Limit season ticket holders to two tickets each?... No... allow them 3 or 4 per STH...

But that would mean that I couldn't sit with my 6 friends, none of whom is a season ticket holder.

"Sell to season ticket holders from Queens Road only"? 5,000 people queuing in central Brighton?... they wouldn't go all at once if they had up to 2 days, which would be reasonable...

But that would still mean 2,500 per day. And as someone else pointed out, the club had difficulty coping with a few hundred. I doubt whether the police would have allowed this as it would have been chaos.


And all this would be a BETTER way to sell tickets? YES!...

Well, no. I for one wouldn't be happy and I'm a season ticket holder. The way the club has handled it has been fine by me, we're all going to get tickets, we're all going to sit with our mates and we're all going to have great views. What's the problem?

 

[Yorkie]

Well said Gwylan. I am a season ticket holder and AMS and I am happy with the way things have gone.

Earlier, I challenged any season ticket holder to post on here if they had missed out. Apart from the postal applications, who don't know yet, there hasn't been one who has.

 

[Blue&WhiteSea]

One word - OUTSOURCEING

 

[Yorkie]

One word - OUTSOURCEING

Like Wolves did last year? and Palace this year?

They had worse problems than us.

 

[Seagull73]

I have to confess I am with Lord B on this one. I am a season ticket holder, and ended up queueing at the club shop for 8 hours to get my ticket yesterday, but that was because I wanted to use a credit card.

This club simply does not have the facilities to cope with large scale ticket selling in a short space of time, not many clubs do by what's being said about Wolves.

Most of the people I go with are STH's, and there were not many complaints from them about how it was being done either, they understood the clubs point of view. The alternative would have been let somebody like tickemaster handle it, we'd soon all be moaning about paying surcharges on the tickets.

Has anybody not managed to get a ticket yet who is a STH?

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Should have been done better.