[Albion] Club selling your seat, is this right?

drew · Tuesday at 9:26 AM

DarrenFreemansPerm said:
What more are you hoping for? My friend hasn’t been able to attend every game due to having to look after his kids, a couple of times it was a last minute decision which meant the ticket exchange wasn’t used, he missed the Man City game as his train was cancelled.
Now, with very little warning, they’ve sold his seat for games he was planning to attend. He’s contacted the club to ask why, and to see if his tickets can be reinstated for those fixtures and he’s been told no.
That’s the story, nothing to hide, just a bit crappy from the club to be honest. He’s absolutely gutted.

You still don't say how many games or if this was also occurring last season (I assume he hasn't just acquired two kids in the close season). How far does he have to travel to games? As someone else pointed out, if he feels aggrieved (and I'm sure he does) then put a full complaint into the club and request details of exactly how often they tried to contact him!!!

BN9 BHA · Tuesday at 9:26 AM

rippleman said:
Loyal long-term fans - OUT

Football tourists - IN

It's all about the money stoopid!

Away fans -IN (the home stands)
Five Southampton fans ejected near me in the WSU at the recent match :annoyed:

nickbrighton · Tuesday at 9:28 AM

The more I read this thread the more I am convinced the the OP and therefore we do not have the full story from OPs friend here. If this is exactly as it seems from OP, the the club would seem to be way out of order.
However, from what I can see no one else has had this happen to them, or knows anyone else that has had it happen to. It appears that despite there probably being hundreds of other ST holders in similar position, the club are ignoring those and singling out this one person in particular. That would make no sense, the club would surely just run a report on attendances and do a blanket action. \its simply too time consuming to have picked one person individually from 26 000 and investigate attendance and then take action after sending ONE email. The club simply havent ever AFAIK operated like that

That leads me to conclude that there is something we dont know that has caused the club to take this action. What that may be we dont know, but I am not willing to condem the club before getting an idea of what actually happened.

Its not the clubs fault that the email wasnt read, Thats down to the STH not checking his emails properly. Its akin to receiving a load of junk post and just chucking it in the bin without having a quick look through to see if there are actual proper letters in there among the leaflets and generic mail to "the resident of" and then complaining you threw away an important letter

Stuart Munday · Tuesday at 9:28 AM

Brian Fantana said:
This.

The club 100% aren't taking this level of action for a handful of matches this season not attended or not listed.

As soon as a thread starts with ‘a friend of mine’ we don’t know if we are getting all of the facts.

Black Rod · Tuesday at 9:29 AM

Remove the requirement that a ticket can only be shared with someone willing to pay £35 odd to be a MyAlbion+ Member and you will have more seats filled, higher spend on food and drink, better atmosphere, improved optics on TV from a stadium no longer littered with empty seats and no need to send out vaguely threatening emails about non attendance

For a Premier League club who ticket revenue represents a tiny, tiny fraction of income, it is mad to want to milk this cow. Or more likely, harvest the data of everyone and anyone coming into the stadium

Diablo · Tuesday at 9:34 AM

Black Rod said:
Remove the requirement that a ticket can only be shared with someone willing to pay £35 odd to be a MyAlbion+ Member and you will have more seats filled, higher spend on food and drink, better atmosphere, improved optics on TV from a stadium no longer littered with empty seats and no need to send out vaguely threatening emails about non attendance

For a Premier League club who ticket revenue represents a tiny, tiny fraction of income, it is mad to want to milk this cow. Or more likely, harvest the data of everyone and anyone coming into the stadium

That is the common sense option........Sadly common sense went out of the window years ago with the invention of forms to fill in, quangos to deal with forms and then more and more layers of rules and regulations in all walks of life.

chaileyjem · Tuesday at 9:34 AM

rippleman said:
Loyal long-term fans - OUT

Football tourists - IN

It's all about the money stoopid!

It might well be at clubs who are withdrawing concessions for kids or OAPs (Man Utd or West Ham or Spurs.) - or those charge fees and interest for paying season tickets monthly, or those that charged £95 for a European game - instead of about that or less for three. (The Albion) - or an owner who’s spending millions improving the concourse / fan zones so you can drink or eat out of the rain (the Albion) . Or reward long term fans with ability to buy away and cup tickets (the Albion again)
And charge less for tea and pints than most clubs or even pubs (the Albion again). And is the only club (bar Brentford) owned and looked after by a fan who invests his own ££ in the club.

Yes they send out the odd moany email though. And have plenty of fans on here at least who can’t see the wood from the trees.

ROSM · Tuesday at 9:55 AM

Weststander said:
I don’t blame you.

Selfishly, even at the stadium concept stage (it was a DK & Perry thing) I thought it a mistake giving away supporters an entire end. Whilst other clubs give them ‘inferior’ vantage points and keep the feckers off TV screens. So pleased TB/PB now think similarly, can’t quite believe they’re actually doing it.

Hopefully you’ll like your eventual seats, you’ll be able to cherry pick off plan. I was a stadium nomad, eventually settling on NS block D, I like it. View of the opposite goal action harder to decipher, but no grandads getting knocky about standing as an Albion forward breaks (I had that in WSL at the AEK game!).

At the time of DK and Perry the amex was originally going to be 2 sided with ends added later. Away fans were going to be lower east. When the ends were partially added (no corners) which was under TB then it was decided that the south end would be partial away fans unless demand needed a full section. Doncaster for example got 1100 tickets for the 1st game amd therefore half the south end. When we played Newcastle in the cup they got the whole end plus I think part of the east lower

Han Solo · Tuesday at 10:17 AM

nickbrighton said:
The more I read this thread the more I am convinced the the OP and therefore we do not have the full story from OPs friend here. If this is exactly as it seems from OP, the the club would seem to be way out of order.
However, from what I can see no one else has had this happen to them, or knows anyone else that has had it happen to. It appears that despite there probably being hundreds of other ST holders in similar position, the club are ignoring those and singling out this one person in particular. That would make no sense, the club would surely just run a report on attendances and do a blanket action. \its simply too time consuming to have picked one person individually from 26 000 and investigate attendance and then take action after sending ONE email. The club simply havent ever AFAIK operated like that

That leads me to conclude that there is something we dont know that has caused the club to take this action. What that may be we dont know, but I am not willing to condem the club before getting an idea of what actually happened.

Its not the clubs fault that the email wasnt read, Thats down to the STH not checking his emails properly. Its akin to receiving a load of junk post and just chucking it in the bin without having a quick look through to see if there are actual proper letters in there among the leaflets and generic mail to "the resident of" and then complaining you threw away an important letter

Must admit I read the whole thing as "I have a stoner friend who is too lazy to check his email and he now has a bit of panic and a lot of regrets."

hans kraay fan club · Tuesday at 10:42 AM

chaileyjem said:
It might well be at clubs who are withdrawing concessions for kids or OAPs (Man Utd or West Ham or Spurs.) - or those charge fees and interest for paying season tickets monthly, or those that charged £95 for a European game - instead of about that or less for three. (The Albion) - or an owner who’s spending millions improving the concourse / fan zones so you can drink or eat out of the rain (the Albion) . Or reward long term fans with ability to buy away and cup tickets (the Albion again)
And charge less for tea and pints than most clubs or even pubs (the Albion again). And is the only club (bar Brentford) owned and looked after by a fan who invests his own ££ in the club.

Yes they send out the odd moany email though. And have plenty of fans on here at least who can’t see the wood from the trees.

Yep.

sussex_guy2k2 · Tuesday at 10:50 AM

drew said:
And why should they get a free ticket ahead of people paying for a membership?

And don't dredge up the 'veterans of Goldstone' argument. The stadium sells out so there is demand. The club allow the transfer of tickets but within the terms and conditions.

It “sells out”. I don’t remember the last time I saw a full AMEX.

sussex_guy2k2 · Tuesday at 10:51 AM

Black Rod said:
Remove the requirement that a ticket can only be shared with someone willing to pay £35 odd to be a MyAlbion+ Member and you will have more seats filled, higher spend on food and drink, better atmosphere, improved optics on TV from a stadium no longer littered with empty seats and no need to send out vaguely threatening emails about non attendance

For a Premier League club who ticket revenue represents a tiny, tiny fraction of income, it is mad to want to milk this cow. Or more likely, harvest the data of everyone and anyone coming into the stadium

Exactly what I’ve been saying. Anyone who tries to argue this is simply playing the company line at the expense of fans. It’s a weird mentality.

Brian Munich · Tuesday at 10:55 AM

dsr-burnley said:
There is always the possibility that people who are not interested in the Albion now, might become interested if they get a free ticket? I know for certain the equivalent at Burnley, where a season ticket holder can lend the card to any Tom, Dick or Harry, has fringe benefits - there are three season ticket holders now who first went on my ticket as a freebie and became hooked. Chances are they wouldn't have bothered if they had had to go through the registration rigmarole.

What the club also needs to remember is that there is a possibility that Brighton may not always be at the top of the league, and may indeed drop to the Championship, and may have more seats than they can fill. If families have been alienated because there is no provision for the second child to get a ticket, or indeed for the new spouse to get a ticket, then who will fill the seats? It's important to keep the loyalty of ticket holders who will support the club through thick and thin, as well as those who will support the club when things are going well.

A bit of charity to those veterans who held season tickets at the Goldstone Ground and for all the years between wouldn't come amiss, either.

You don’t need to give away tickets for people to become fans. It generally happens organically in a town with a reasonably high-profile club, and fans from further afield will get interested from TV appearances etc.

We’ve got a relatively low turnover of season ticket holders, and when we were in the Championship we consistently had 25K, even in the seasons we were crap. I think the club know what they’re doing.

As for Goldstone legacy fans, you realise the last match was almost 28 years ago, right? I doubt reliable records even exist given how badly the club was run at that time. The club did however give priority to Withdean STHs for seat selection when the Amex first opened. I’m guessing that the first few rows of WSU (premium views for 2nd cheapest price category) are still full of loyal Withdean-era STHs

Brian Munich · Tuesday at 11:00 AM

Brian Fantana said:
This.

The club 100% aren't taking this level of action for a handful of matches this season not attended or not listed.

I hope you’re right.

I seem to remember something a few seasons back when a fan had his ST revoked. Can’t remember the details of what he was claiming, but his story went viral on socials to the extent that the club had to issue a statement with the actual reasons. I think he’d been regularly selling his ticket on eBay or something.

Weststander · Tuesday at 11:11 AM

ROSM said:
At the time of DK and Perry the amex was originally going to be 2 sided with ends added later. Away fans were going to be lower east. When the ends were partially added (no corners) which was under TB then it was decided that the south end would be partial away fans unless demand needed a full section. Doncaster for example got 1100 tickets for the 1st game amd therefore half the south end. When we played Newcastle in the cup they got the whole end plus I think part of the east lower

I worked with DK for a long time, pre and post Amex construction. Part of his vision (and Perry's) was a complete away end. Selling their ales, an LED backdrop of their club colours inside and out (he got the idea from the Allianz Stadium in Munich), making visits to Brighton the most welcoming of all the 92. With the commercial bonus to us of selling out full away allocations ad infinitum. TB/MP carried that on, until now.

Wozza · Tuesday at 11:17 AM

Black Rod said:
Remove the requirement that a ticket can only be shared with someone willing to pay £35 odd to be a MyAlbion+ Member and you will have more seats filled, higher spend on food and drink, better atmosphere, improved optics on TV from a stadium no longer littered with empty seats and no need to send out vaguely threatening emails about non attendance

... and home matches which don't sell out.

ROSM · Tuesday at 11:17 AM

Weststander said:
I worked with DK for a long time, pre and post Amex construction. Part of his vision (and Perry's) was a complete away end. Selling their ales, an LED backdrop of their club colours inside and out (he got the idea from the Allianz Stadium in Munich), making visits to Brighton the most welcoming of all the 92. With the commercial bonus to us of selling out full away allocations ad infinitum. TB/MP carried that on, until now.

The led colouring and ales certainly worked for a while. The posters thanking away fans for travelling x miles etc is something that has been copied by so many clubs now.

In the prem, selling away ends is no longer the issue as with only 2 or 3 exceptions every team has sold out. I am very happy we move them to a side or corner as we are an outlier in having an away end now

Paulie Gualtieri · Tuesday at 11:19 AM

Weststander said:
I worked with DK for a long time, pre and post Amex construction. Part of his vision (and Perry's) was a complete away end. Selling their ales, an LED backdrop of their club colours inside and out (he got the idea from the Allianz Stadium in Munich), making visits to Brighton the most welcoming of all the 92. With the commercial bonus to us of selling out full away allocations ad infinitum. TB/MP carried that on, until now.

Wonder if they still do the away guest pints? The away colour scheme LEDs on the south concourse seems to be in operation still

Wozza · Tuesday at 11:21 AM

Weststander said:
I worked with DK for a long time, pre and post Amex construction. Part of his vision (and Perry's) was a complete away end. Selling their ales, an LED backdrop of their club colours inside and out (he got the idea from the Allianz Stadium in Munich), making visits to Brighton the most welcoming of all the 92. With the commercial bonus to us of selling out full away allocations ad infinitum. TB/MP carried that on, until now.

Deluded, really.

The travel experience (and, er, result) will always override perks like custom ales and pretty lights.

Professor Plum · Tuesday at 11:22 AM

Charles 'Charley' Charles said:
As touched upon above, I think the major issue is the not listing the tickets on the exchange. I have a similar situation with my youngest who doesn’t go to all the matches. Think you can list your ticket literally to the last minute, in the clubs eyes if you do this you have tried to ensure there isn’t an empty seat, so no action taken.

The communication aspect on the other hand does sound like it could of used a bit of work.

I listed my seat for Ipswich about 90 mins before KO and was pleasantly surprised when it sold. I’ve listed on the Exchange a good few times and the seat has usually sold. I have an aisle seat which possibly helps.

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[Albion] Club selling your seat, is this right?

Drew

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