Anyone know how full West Stand Upper is getting?

[Bozza]

At the very, very least the club will NOT sell season tickets for the East Stand (Southern end) seats that have to be made available to away teams in Cup fixtures. This is approaching 1000 tickets that will be available for general sale for each and every league game.

If they can sell season tickets for the remaining 19,000 or so seats, then surely they would, although I personally don't believe we'll get anywhere close to that. Regardless of what the final figure is - it's a great achievement from such a lowly base (i.e. the current Withdean season ticket holder population).

 

[Simster]

As a life long fan who happens to live in the midlands and can only get to a few home games plus some away games I think that would be very unfair on a sizeable section of the fanbase. Not only would it stop us ever getting to see home games, I should imagine with the priority rights season ticket holders will have for away matches, we'll also be very lucky to get tickets for most away games - and certainly all the popular ones.

For me, this is an argument for implementing a decent ticket exchange system rather than restricting season ticket sales. You ought to be able to buy tix using seats where season ticket holders are unable to attend. My concern is that this hasn't been thought through properly.

 

[Bozza]

Do you know if they are entitled to +3 or just one ticket each? If +3 we could be sold out in the next few weeks!

It would have to be plus something, probably officially 3, but if you needed a +4 I can't see them turning you away.

Having all but satisfied the demand from the easy sales, the club are not going to be turning away any potential sales now (subject to hitting any 'sold out' figure).

 

[Blackadder]

My letter says "This is your first chance to buy tickets for yourself and your family" . This implies to me that the +3 deal is available.

Blimey. I think we are going to sell out.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

If that's true, and 10,400 are already sold (7,500 STH + 2,900 1901s), then we're going to sell 15-16,000 bare minimum before APRIL, some 4 months before the stadium opens. Jesus.

Surely there has to be a possibility of exceeding 17,000 if that is to be believed. I am an optimistic soul, but I didn't see that coming.

You'd think selling all the seats as season tickets would be a good think - at least from a cash generation point of view. But there are some big drawbacks to it too. If you don't have walk up trade (and maybe that is a thing of the past) you won't easily cultivate new fans. Not sure if this is an issue or not. In this case the albion need to make sure they have a very flexible re-sale portal as a way to let new fans try the product (by buying season tickets seats on a match by match basis).

More seriously for the future, is the difference between an under capacity stadium where you sell all your season tickets because that's the ONLY way to get a seat; and an expanded stadium where there are match day seats generally available. The result of this could actually be a fall in the number of season tickets sold despite an increase in capacity (because some people will only have been buying season tickets to ensure a seat. These people may then not buy a season ticket knowing they can buy "on the day" - and also pick and choose their games.

So what's better in that scenario - a 22k stadium that is sold out to season ticket holders or a 30k stadium with fewer season ticket holders but more passing trade FOR SOME GAMES but lower crowds for others?

Just thinking out loud.

 

[Hotchilidog]

As a life long fan who happens to live in the midlands and can only get to a few home games plus some away games I think that would be very unfair on a sizeable section of the fanbase. Not only would it stop us ever getting to see home games, I should imagine with the priority rights season ticket holders will have for away matches, we'll also be very lucky to get tickets for most away games - and certainly all the popular ones.

Sadly for fans such as yourselves the club have to look after number one at the moment and that means selling as many ST's as possible. I still think there will be a sizeable number of tickets left for occasional fans, and for most away games I still don't anticipate too many problems for the vast majority of games, we aren't ready to take 3,000 to every game just yet.

 

[8ace]

If they sell every available seat to a STH, there is no way the corners won't be filled in for 2012/13, adding another 3,000 or so to the capacity.

I don't know if planning permission will be that easy given that the transport situation wasn't considerably properly for the initial application. I can't see whose going to object but as we know there is always someone.

 

[Blackadder]

It would have to be plus something, probably officially 3, but if you needed a +4 I can't see them turning you away.

Having all but satisfied the demand from the easy sales, the club are not going to be turning away any potential sales now (subject to hitting any 'sold out' figure).

Agreed. The cub can't be accused of turning their backs on people who have actually watched the Albion over the last few years.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

As a life long fan who happens to live in the midlands and can only get to a few home games plus some away games I think that would be very unfair on a sizeable section of the fanbase. Not only would it stop us ever getting to see home games, I should imagine with the priority rights season ticket holders will have for away matches, we'll also be very lucky to get tickets for most away games - and certainly all the popular ones.

Exactly. You'll effectively be at the back of a 19k long queue. Granted most of those will be be interested in going to away games but a large chunk will. Just can't see it's beneficial for the club to do this and alienate a lot of people

 

[Safe.]

If that figure is accurate and the 7000+ sold already on top of 1901s is also accurate ... then there is little doubt we will sell 15000+ season tickets.

He said that the presentations are booked solid for a month from Monday coming up and that they've had to go from 40 people to 50 people per presentation and there's 4 presentations a day. So 50x4x20 is 4000.

 

[Hotchilidog]

You'd think selling all the seats as season tickets would be a good think - at least from a cash generation point of view. But there are some big drawbacks to it too. If you don't have walk up trade (and maybe that is a thing of the past) you won't easily cultivate new fans. Not sure if this is an issue or not. In this case the albion need to make sure they have a very flexible re-sale portal as a way to let new fans try the product (by buying season tickets seats on a match by match basis).

More seriously for the future, is the difference between an under capacity stadium where you sell all your season tickets because that's the ONLY way to get a seat; and an expanded stadium where there are match day seats generally available. The result of this could actually be a fall in the number of season tickets sold despite an increase in capacity (because some people will only have been buying season tickets to ensure a seat. These people may then not buy a season ticket knowing they can buy "on the day" - and also pick and choose their games.

So what's better in that scenario - a 22k stadium that is sold out to season ticket holders or a 30k stadium with fewer season ticket holders but more passing trade FOR SOME GAMES but lower crowds for others?

Just thinking out loud.

An interesting thought, but my take on this at the moment is that the club is having to generate that new interest already by attempting to increase the ST base by about 300%. At this initial stage I think it is vital to get as many bums on seats in the first season to give us a chance of keeping the momentum going in future years. Ultimately it will be the performance on the pitch that will do the work of spreading the Albion word throughout the land.

I really hope we can hit the 15,000+ ST mark, if we can sell it out even better.

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

He said that the presentations are booked solid for a month from Monday coming up and that they've had to go from 40 people to 50 people per presentation and there's 4 presentations a day. So 50x4x20 is 4000.

So not only am I fooked coz living away makes me getting a season ticket a very hard decision, I probably won't get the chance to buy one anyway! Happy days.

 

[Titanic]

He said that the presentations are booked solid for a month from Monday coming up and that they've had to go from 40 people to 50 people per presentation and there's 4 presentations a day. So 50x4x20 is 4000.

Excellent

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

The Albion will keep the 1,000-1,500 seats in the South East corner no matter what. Apart from the FA Cup requirement, these seats will also be used for complimentary tickets, players ticket allocation and general hand outs that all clubs need to have available. So I don't know the maths, but we will only ever sell the maximum capacity, less away fans allocation less the 1-1.5k in the South East corner as season tickets.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

So not only am I fooked coz living away makes me getting a season ticket a very hard decision, I probably won't get the chance to buy one anyway! Happy days.

You'll get the chance to by tickets at The Amex once the ticket exchange is sorted out. It may take time, but the pressure applied by fans like you and by season ticket holders who want can't make it to a game will ensure that a solid online system will be developed in due course. The games you will find harder to get to will be the real prestige matches - but was it ever thus.

 

[Titanic]

The Albion will keep the 1,000-1,500 seats in the South East corner no matter what. Apart from the FA Cup requirement, these seats will also be used for complimentary tickets, players ticket allocation and general hand outs that all clubs need to have available. So I don't know the maths, but we will only ever sell the maximum capacity, less away fans allocation less the 1-1.5k in the South East corner as season tickets.

They said at our presentation that they were currently keeping a small block at the north end of the West for compos etc...

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The Albion will keep the 1,000-1,500 seats in the South East corner no matter what. Apart from the FA Cup requirement, these seats will also be used for complimentary tickets, players ticket allocation and general hand outs that all clubs need to have available. So I don't know the maths, but we will only ever sell the maximum capacity, less away fans allocation less the 1-1.5k in the South East corner as season tickets.

I thought the club had already set aside these "club" seats [500 ?] when they arranged the VIP and employee sales ?

 

[Curious Orange]

At the very, very least the club will NOT sell season tickets for the East Stand (Southern end) seats that have to be made available to away teams in Cup fixtures. This is approaching 1000 tickets that will be available for general sale for each and every league game.

If they can sell season tickets for the remaining 19,000 or so seats, then surely they would, although I personally don't believe we'll get anywhere close to that. Regardless of what the final figure is - it's a great achievement from such a lowly base (i.e. the current Withdean season ticket holder population).

Don't forget that they also have the option of partitioning the away end, if the visitors don't take up their full allocation.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Don't forget that they also have the option of partitioning the away end, if the visitors don't take up their full allocation.

I didn't think this was possible?

 

[Billy the Fish]

For me, this is an argument for implementing a decent ticket exchange system rather than restricting season ticket sales. You ought to be able to buy tix using seats where season ticket holders are unable to attend. My concern is that this hasn't been thought through properly.

Are they able to do that now they've sold PSLs to people? I don't think they can because that would piss off the people who paid £500 for something very similar, the only difference being the PSL holder get to choose who the ticket goes to. For me it's too close to put into practice without pissing off anyone who bought a PSL