[Albion] Club cancelling ST due to non-attendance

dsr-burnley · Dec 30, 2024

Bozza said:
There's another case here:

Edit: not sure that link is working, so here's a copy and paste of the appropriate text:

"I have 2 season tickets.. I got in fine because I go to every game.. but my son who has to work most weekends doesn't get to go to every game because he would like to keep his job... last night he was refused entry because the club had sold his ticket to someone else.. but they still accepted the money I paid them for the ticket as well.. so basically they have been paid twice for the same seat... something very wrong here"

I wonder if that can be genuine? It's surely illegal to sell a seat twice and not even inform the buyer that he has been gazumped. It seems unlikely that they could go that far down the line of anti-customer service.

(I wonder if garages could try this on? They are sometimes known for dodgy dealing. Sell someone a car, and then when he turns up to collect it, tell him they have sold it to someone else, and no, he can't have his money back.)

amexer · Tuesday at 8:04 PM

byf1 said:
We also received this same passive aggressive email and it didn't anger me because now I expect this kind of thing from the Albion who are no longer about the fans and are all about making every single penny they can at any cost possible.

This most certainly is not the club I fell in love with, were a total shadow of what we were in every sense of the word, especially in regards to how we treat it's loyal fan base and with every little move they make like this from charging people a fiver to get in the ground if their phone dies to not being able to share your season ticket for free my feelings of distain grow.

In general I enjoy watching the Albion and my love of football is the same but my deep routed pride and love for us is gone forever i'm afraid and that's sad as they've managed to build a wedge between the fan base, the very heart and soul of the football club.

Feel a bit similar but after 30 years cant see myself not going to Albion. However long ago accepted the longer we are in the PL the more it is just about money . There are far more empty seats since ability to pass tickets was ended. Has got to stage where club happy if you dont attend and put on exchange as they make a further £10/15; and maybe more with additional sale of membership.. I have had case of son passing his seat on to his mother at a cost of £20ish, Dropping my phone in car park before game and getting charged £5 to replace ticket. People charged £3ish to print a ticket at home which cost club nothing. With clubs like Arsenal and Spurs removing concessions and Man Utd charging a min £65 for matchday tickets Albion have a lot of catching up with greed of PL. football. but dont worry PB will look for every opportunity. Even Seagull travel now charge far more than other coach trips.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Tuesday at 8:28 PM

amexer said:
Feel a bit similar but after 30 years cant see myself not going to Albion. However long ago accepted the longer we are in the PL the more it is just about money . There are far more empty seats since ability to pass tickets was ended. Has got to stage where club happy if you dont attend and put on exchange as they make a further £10/15; and maybe more with additional sale of membership.. I have had case of son passing his seat on to his mother at a cost of £20ish, Dropping my phone in car park before game and getting charged £5 to replace ticket. People charged £3ish to print a ticket at home which cost club nothing. With clubs like Arsenal and Spurs removing concessions and Man Utd charging a min £65 for matchday tickets Albion have a lot of catching up with greed of PL. football. but dont worry PB will look for every opportunity. Even Seagull travel now charge far more than other coach trips.

Here is another take.

We no longer get gates of 2500 at Gillingham or 6000 at Withdean.

We are no longer in divisions 3 and 4.

We are no longer on telly once a year whether we want to watch or not.

We are no longer owned by Dick Tight and his tiny pot that he can't even piss in.

If you want to survive in a rewarding but hostile environment, you have to wear the right gear, have the right equipment, and know what the f*** you are doing.

That includes protecting the business.

Anyone who doesn't understand that or doesn't like it, Lewes, Crawley, Worthing and other amateur outfits are available for a cheery pint, PotG and possibly even a free car park.

Godspeed.

Thunder Bolt · Tuesday at 8:29 PM

dsr-burnley said:
I wonder if that can be genuine? It's surely illegal to sell a seat twice and not even inform the buyer that he has been gazumped. It seems unlikely that they could go that far down the line of anti-customer service.

(I wonder if garages could try this on? They are sometimes known for dodgy dealing. Sell someone a car, and then when he turns up to collect it, tell him they have sold it to someone else, and no, he can't have his money back.)

The op said similar happened, where the club said they’d sent an email, and upon searching for it, found it in their junk folder. It seems quite possible.

amexer · Tuesday at 8:59 PM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Here is another take.

We no longer get gates of 2500 at Gillingham or 6000 at Withdean.

We are no longer in divisions 3 and 4.

We are no longer on telly once a year whether we want to watch or not.

We are no longer owned by Dick Tight and his tiny pot that he can't even piss in.

If you want to survive in a rewarding but hostile environment, you have to wear the right gear, have the right equipment, and know what the f*** you are doing.

That includes protecting the business.

Anyone who doesn't understand that or doesn't like it, Lewes, Crawley, Worthing and other amateur outfits are available for a cheery pint, PotG and possibly even a free car park.

Godspeed.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Tuesday at 9:00 PM

Excellent post :thumbsup:

amexer · Tuesday at 9:11 PM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Here is another take.

We no longer get gates of 2500 at Gillingham or 6000 at Withdean.

We are no longer in divisions 3 and 4.

We are no longer on telly once a year whether we want to watch or not.

We are no longer owned by Dick Tight and his tiny pot that he can't even piss in.

If you want to survive in a rewarding but hostile environment, you have to wear the right gear, have the right equipment, and know what the f*** you are doing.

That includes protecting the business.

Anyone who doesn't understand that or doesn't like it, Lewes, Crawley, Worthing and other amateur outfits are available for a cheery pint, PotG and possibly even a free car park.

Godspeed.

Accepted all a long time ago Doesnt mean i think the greed of the PL is right.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Tuesday at 9:19 PM

amexer said:
Accepted all a long time ago Doesnt mean i think the greed of the PL is right.

Ah, greed.

Well....I suppose it (the EPL) could be forced to hand over a greater percentage of profits to the lower league sides.

But......that is interfering with market forces. It is communism in fact. From each according to means, to each according to needs.

And the likes of Gillingham and Portsmouth and Birmingham would only.....waste it :shrug:

In seriousness, how do you think the greed aspect could be mitigated?

drew · Tuesday at 9:49 PM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Ah, greed.

Well....I suppose it (the EPL) could be forced to hand over a greater percentage of profits to the lower league sides.

But......that is interfering with market forces. It is communism in fact. From each according to means, to each according to needs.

And the likes of Gillingham and Portsmouth and Birmingham would only.....waste it

In seriousness, how do you think the greed aspect could be mitigated?

The question some of these fans should be asking themselves when they complain 'the club ain't what it used to be' is, would you prefer to watch the Albion in a council owned stadium with a running track in League One or Two or do you prefer to be mixing it with the best clubs in the land and hopefully getting the chance to travel abroad. I've seen the club rise to the top twice and everything else that went on in between and if they get relegated I'll still be going but I know what I prefer to watch and where I watch it from.

And that is aimed at people that actually go to games rather than the armchair variety.

byf1 · Wednesday at 7:38 AM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Here is another take.

We no longer get gates of 2500 at Gillingham or 6000 at Withdean.

We are no longer in divisions 3 and 4.

We are no longer on telly once a year whether we want to watch or not.

We are no longer owned by Dick Tight and his tiny pot that he can't even piss in.

If you want to survive in a rewarding but hostile environment, you have to wear the right gear, have the right equipment, and know what the f*** you are doing.

That includes protecting the business.

Anyone who doesn't understand that or doesn't like it, Lewes, Crawley, Worthing and other amateur outfits are available for a cheery pint, PotG and possibly even a free car park.

Godspeed.

Oh I fully understand and expect things to be more expensive such as season tickets, food and merchandise. I travelled that hard road of watching us in the late 90's and early 2000's away at Carlisle, Port Vale & Darlington, going on the marches and putting a pound in the bucket to keep us afloat, but I have a feeling that because we're in the premier league then some fans allow the club to do as it pleases and wont hear a word against it irrelevant of what new and inventive ways it has of dragging money out of them. Being honest it stinks and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. However If you are accepting of this then good on you but maybe you're the type of person that would charge your parents petrol money to take them to Gatwick for their holidays citing that there's a cost of living crisis!

Do you really think that the £5 it charges to fans to print an A4 piece of paper really makes any difference at all to what players we bring in? In summery, you don't shit on your own when you don't need to.

As for going to support other teams locally, a simply ridiculous suggestion and I'm not sure it works like that. You cant erase 35 years of watching us. But you can raise the flag when something they do simply isn't right.

If any of our success is at the cost of ripping off it's fans whenever and wherever possible in every conceivable way whilst sending passive aggressive emails threatening to take your season ticket away then truly what have we become? You know what separated us from most clubs? It was our fight to not be destroyed as a club in the 90's and early 2000's, our togetherness and spirit as a group of fans to come up with inventive ways to ensure we didn't die and end up on the football scrap heap & somehow against all the odds we did it. Now nothing separates us, we just care about one thing, getting money out of the customers and it doesn't need to be like that.

byf1 · Wednesday at 7:56 AM

drew said:
The question some of these fans should be asking themselves when they complain 'the club ain't what it used to be' is, would you prefer to watch the Albion in a council owned stadium with a running track in League One or Two or do you prefer to be mixing it with the best clubs in the land and hopefully getting the chance to travel abroad. I've seen the club rise to the top twice and everything else that went on in between and if they get relegated I'll still be going but I know what I prefer to watch and where I watch it from.

And that is aimed at people that actually go to games rather than the armchair variety.

Why is that the go to response though?

So we have to charge a fiver to print an A4 piece of paper or £30 to share your own season ticket of face league 2 football? With all due respect, that's utter nonsense. These charges and others like them are unnecessary. Is going to football not expensive enough for fans without your own club desperately trying to claw what it can out of you. I really shudder to think what's next.

I really don't think it's that hard for us to compete in the premier league and not take the piss out of the fans everyway they can. Nobody for one second is saying there should be £100 season tickets, £2 burgers and a free shirt each season, just don't forget our history, our path and the fans that battled to keep us going and sadly that's been lost with every little move they've made over the last 10 years.

There's clearly a balance to be struck & in my opinion it's gone way beyond where it should.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Wednesday at 9:05 AM

byf1 said:
Oh I fully understand and expect things to be more expensive such as season tickets, food and merchandise. I travelled that hard road of watching us in the late 90's and early 2000's away at Carlisle, Port Vale & Darlington, going on the marches and putting a pound in the bucket to keep us afloat, but I have a feeling that some fans allow the club to do as it pleases and wont hear a word against it irrelevant of what new and inventive ways it has of dragging money out of them. Being honest it stinks and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. However If you are accepting of this then good on you but maybe you're the type of person that would charge your parents petrol money to take them to Gatwick for their holidays citing that there's a cost of living crisis!

Do you really think that the £5 it charges to fans to print an A4 piece of paper really makes any difference at all to what players we bring in? In summery, you don't shit on your own when you don't need to.

As for going to support other teams locally, a simply ridiculous suggestion and I'm not sure it works like that. You cant erase 35 years of watching us. But you can raise the flag when something they do simply isn't right.

If any of our success is at the cost of ripping off it's fans whenever and wherever possible in every conceivable way then truly what have we become?

Apart from charging my parents for a drive to the airport, you make some good points. I don't run a car as a business. I understand the difference between business and pleasure, and doing your bit for the family. Thanks.

Unfortunately I have been listening to people with a 'nasty taste' in their mouth for many many years.
In particular people who moan about the quality of the football and in the next breath are moaning about the costs.
But up to and including people who will 'never forgive' Tony Bloom for the way he 'treated' Dick Knight.

If you would prefer us to be a bit more like St Paoli, currently a respectable four off the bottom of the Bundesliga, with an inevitable relegation looming, followed by a return to doing the tier 2 to 3 dance, fine.

I can't argue with people who don't care about our league position or cup runs as long as they are greeted with a cheery smile, allowed to present their match ticket in any format at no cost, pass it on to pals, have a beer in their seat.
Provided they don't ever moan about the shit performances and the relegations.
Or have the temerity to object to the way the club is 'run'.

If you do have aspirations you can't go around moaning about a £5 ticket printing charge because you are too lazy to buy a £30 second hand smart phone (which is how I get into the Amex).

The Albion may not be a bank like the Nat West that charges for everything.
But it is not a charity either.

timbha · Wednesday at 9:13 AM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Apart from charging my parents for a drive to the airport, you make some good points. I don't run a car as a business. I understand the difference between business and pleasure, and doing your bit for the family. Thanks.

Unfortunately I have been listening to people with a 'nasty taste' in their mouth for many many years.
In particular people who moan about the quality of the football and in the next breath are moaning about the costs.
But up to and including people who will 'never forgive' Tony Bloom for the way he 'treated' Dick Knight.

If you would prefer us to be a bit more like St Paoli, currently a respectable four off the bottom of the Bundesliga, with an inevitable relegation looming, followed by a return to doing the tier 2 to 3 dance, fine.

I can't argue with people who don't care about our league position or cup runs as long as they are greeted with a cheery smile, allowed to present their match ticket in any format at no cost, pass it on to pals, have a beer in their seat.
Provided they don't ever moan about the shit performances and the relegations.
Or have the temerity to object to the way the club is 'run'.

If you do have aspirations you can't go around moaning about a £5 ticket printing charge because you are too lazy to buy a £30 second hand smart phone (which is how I get into the Amex).

The Albion may not be a bank like the Nat West that charges for everything.
But it is not a charity either.

I find these “£5 for printing a page of A4” statements so tiresome and made by the same people who complain “they charge £3 for a tea bag and some hot water”. It smacks of ignorance.

Seaview Seagull · Wednesday at 9:28 AM

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Ah, greed.

Well....I suppose it (the EPL) could be forced to hand over a greater percentage of profits to the lower league sides.

But......that is interfering with market forces. It is communism in fact. From each according to means, to each according to needs.

And the likes of Gillingham and Portsmouth and Birmingham would only.....waste it

In seriousness, how do you think the greed aspect could be mitigated?

Mitigation is pretty difficult. It would mean stopping paying absurd wages to players but that won't happen so long as rich clubs are willing to do it. One has to ask how many other businesses would survive on the kind of wages to turnover ratios of PL clubs.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Wednesday at 9:43 AM

Seaview Seagull said:
Mitigation is pretty difficult. It would mean stopping paying absurd wages to players but that won't happen so long as rich clubs are willing to do it. One has to ask how many other businesses would survive on the kind of wages to turnover ratios of PL clubs.

Well, as we hear repeatedly, football is not like any other business so comparisons with other businesses is perhaps pointless.

Also, there is no such thing as a typical attendee. Some are fans who would follow the club through thick and thin, and others.....aren't.

And the minority that follow the club through thick and thin are not a homologous group.
Some, like me, feel privileged to have such a club to follow, and have always happily shelled out whenever I can afford it (for years I couldn't).
Others feel that the club owes them something for their loyalty, albeit I'm not sure what. Respect?
(For some it boils down to wanting nothing to change, increasingly finding themselves one change away from the Final Straw and a flounce).

But the majority of those who attend (and watch on telly) do not prioritize football above all things.
The majority will attend when it is fun and easy, especially when there is some reflected glory to be had
(We are still quite a trendy club in receipt of admiring glances, and who doesn't want a slice of that?).

But a big slice of the majority will stay at home if we tumble back to the Championship and lose our mojo.
(Our time at the Amex has been one of a club constantly 'on the up' apart from the Hyypia blip)
If we become entrenched in the lower reaches of the Championship we could see 22,000 attendances.

And if the entire Bloom family slipped through a wormhole in the space time continuum and we found ourselves potless again....
Division 3 and 14,000 attendees.
Mind you, the club's new owners would probably reintroduce PotG and remove all the seats in the North Stand.
So some of the die-hards would be happy.....

Herr Tubthumper · Wednesday at 9:59 AM

byf1 said:
Oh I fully understand and expect things to be more expensive such as season tickets, food and merchandise. I travelled that hard road of watching us in the late 90's and early 2000's away at Carlisle, Port Vale & Darlington, going on the marches and putting a pound in the bucket to keep us afloat, but I have a feeling that because we're in the premier league then some fans allow the club to do as it pleases and wont hear a word against it irrelevant of what new and inventive ways it has of dragging money out of them. Being honest it stinks and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. However If you are accepting of this then good on you but maybe you're the type of person that would charge your parents petrol money to take them to Gatwick for their holidays citing that there's a cost of living crisis!

Do you really think that the £5 it charges to fans to print an A4 piece of paper really makes any difference at all to what players we bring in? In summery, you don't shit on your own when you don't need to.

As for going to support other teams locally, a simply ridiculous suggestion and I'm not sure it works like that. You cant erase 35 years of watching us. But you can raise the flag when something they do simply isn't right.

If any of our success is at the cost of ripping off it's fans whenever and wherever possible in every conceivable way whilst sending passive aggressive emails threatening to take your season ticket away then truly what have we become? You know what separated us from most clubs? It was our fight to not be destroyed as a club in the 90's and early 2000's, our togetherness and spirit as a group of fans to come up with inventive ways to ensure we didn't die and end up on the football scrap heap & somehow against all the odds we did it. Now nothing separates us, we just care about one thing, getting money out of the customers and it doesn't need to be like that.

You raise the single point of “passive aggressive emails threatening to take your season ticket away”

We can debate the tone, but surely we can’t debate the content, i.e. preference for supporters to stick their ticket on the exchange if they can’t make the game? This is all that’s being asked. This means more tickets available for fans who want to buy on a per-game basis, you get some dollar back if it sells, the club gets some extra revenue win, win, win. It’s so easy to do, one guy (I have to assume it was a guy) said he did it whilst he was having a dump on Boxing Day.

I appreciate there might be some “edge cases” where folk have more pressing issues than worrying about their season ticket, but you only have to attend 5 games to ensure you don’t lose your ticket anyway. Whilst the wording of the email wasn’t optimal, I feel the club have stuck a reasonably balance here.

Wozza · Wednesday at 10:39 AM

Ironically, these threads always contain fans threatening to give-up their season tickets over... poxy admin issues.

We have a fickle fan base beyond the main core - and I think that's the cause of the resale policy (which the club can't actually state, for obvious reasons).

1000s of tickets are regularly listed on the exchange, even for Palace (and many others can't be bothered to list them, when they can't go).

If it was free and easy to pass on season tickets....

• 1000s of spare tickets would be floating around each match. "Dave's got two if you fancy it?"

• The perceived value of a ticket would go down. "Yeah, £20 each will do."

• 1000s of fans would give up their season tickets. "I don't bother now. I'll pick up cheapies for matches I know I can go to".

• More passed-on match tickets would end-up in the hands of non-Albion fans. "The Arsenal fan next door can't get tickets for the Emirates. Gave me £60 each for my tickets on Saturday!!"

• Tickets would become hard-to-trace. "Gary's still banned, but I got him in."

And... zing!.... the big one...

• Matches would no longer sell out. "I ain't paying £55 for Man U. I usually know someone who drops out".

The club is pretty good at data modelling. I'm sure Tony's fully across ticketing strategy at top level.

I can only imagine what he and the finance team think when they see comments on here along the lines of:

"The club is stupid! There must have been 500 empty seats [for the sold out game] on Tuesday. If those tickets had all been passed on for free, they could have all been buying pies!"

I mean, honestly. It's clearly deeper than that.

So back in the real world:

• There's never been a better era to support Brighton & Hove Albion FC
• Season tickets are dirt cheap (with generous concessions)*
• You can pay over 10 months, with no additional charge
• You can easily put your ticket on the exchange for resale when a match is sold out, if you can be bothered
• You can share your season ticket with others for small fee - again, if you can be arsed
(The club has legal and PL obligations to manage and track the sale/recipients of tickets)

It's true that some genuine fans are unwittingly caught out by bullshit admin/rules, but for MOST us....? Come on! We've never had it so good!

If you can't regularly go to matches (most have been on a Sat ~~3pm~~ this season, btw!), don't buy a heavily discounted season ticket and moan because you can't easily pass it on. (Fair play if your circumstances have changed recently, but talk to the club upfront!)

Anyway... Happy New Year!

* It cost me £108 for three tickets to see AFC Wimbledon v Doncaster (League Two) a couple of weeks ago. £38 each. My ticket for Albon v Arsenal on Saturday works out cheaper. Let that sink in....

Birdie Boy · Wednesday at 10:51 AM

A friend (cough) has not been to a game this season as he lives/ works abroad. His ticket has been used by family/ friends that are MA+ members or sold on the exchange. In fact Brentford sold on the day off the game and Arsenal nearly immediately. Only 1 ticket not used as he forgot to put it on sale. He has not had an email. He may be back in the UK from April so may see the hopefully exciting end to the season.

Dave the OAP · Wednesday at 10:58 AM

Bozza said:
There's another case here:

Edit: not sure that link is working, so here's a copy and paste of the appropriate text:

"I have 2 season tickets.. I got in fine because I go to every game.. but my son who has to work most weekends doesn't get to go to every game because he would like to keep his job... last night he was refused entry because the club had sold his ticket to someone else.. but they still accepted the money I paid them for the ticket as well.. so basically they have been paid twice for the same seat... something very wrong here"

That is theft isn’t it?

tantamount to someone buying a ticket for a band, and then when arriving at the venue finding out that it had also been resold to other people without letting the original purchaser know.

i wonder if any legal eagles on here would be interested in reviewing that one.

Justice · Wednesday at 11:08 AM

My take on this when it’s all stripped back we still only have 10-12k loyal fans who would turn up in league 1 if it all goes to shit again, which it might one day. Some of those wouldn’t attend every game either. The club would do well to remember this.
It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. As the saying goes don’t piss of those who supported you on the way up because who will definitely need them on the way down.

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