[Albion] ESU and WSU open for Coventry game

[Perry Milkins]

. Worse things happen at sea, in fact, worse things have probably happened at my local Tesco's .

I heard a Swedish bird who could sing a bit called someone from there last night!

 

[Is it PotG?]

I heard a Swedish bird who could sing a bit called someone from there last night!

She was swearing like a Trouper.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I've not seen a financially prudent alternative to what they have chosen to do. Had they had to staff more stands early at a risk, I'd expect ticket prices may have needed to be raised.

I imagine the maths are fairly simple, to steward and staff upper tier X is going to cost us £A. If we don't sell Y% of tickets, we will run at a loss and it will cost the club money. What is the viable alternative than stating at the start of sales that we are opening the lower tiers, and will open more if the demand is there.

Unfortunately our best seats for a view are the upper tiers, but they are also the easiest to exclude and save costs on. It seems we are excellent on NSC for spending money to see success, but absolutely crap at prudently saving it.

A relatively cheap ticket price, where the club have probably thought "we'll make it the same price for everyone, affordable including travel, then they won't have anything to moan about..."

 

[Perry Milkins]

She was swearing like a Trouper.

That's the one. She was super!

 

[Bozza]

I've not seen a financially prudent alternative to what they have chosen to do. Had they had to staff more stands early at a risk, I'd expect ticket prices may have needed to be raised.

I imagine the maths are fairly simple, to steward and staff upper tier X is going to cost us £A. If we don't sell Y% of tickets, we will run at a loss and it will cost the club money. What is the viable alternative than stating at the start of sales that we are opening the lower tiers, and will open more if the demand is there.

Unfortunately our best seats for a view are the upper tiers, but they are also the easiest to exclude and save costs on. It seems we are excellent on NSC for spending money to see success, but absolutely crap at prudently saving it.

A relatively cheap ticket price, where the club have probably thought "we'll make it the same price for everyone, affordable including travel, then they won't have anything to moan about..."

I agree with all you say. Having so badly mis-judged fan sentiment towards the Palace tie, I completely understand why they only opened the lower tiers initially, and the club should be applauded for the fantastic pricing of this game, including travel and allowing STHs to buy up to 3 more tickets.

I just think an upper tier could have been opened sooner than it was.

As [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] so eloquently said, in the big scheme of things, it's a triviality.

 

[sparkie]

I think the club got the ticketing correct in pretty much every respect - except when they opened the 2 half segregation blocks by the away fans before the ESU.

If they had just gone with opening the ESU at that point, they may well have avoided a lot of the criticism.

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

Not buying a striker in the summer is a "f**" up, waiting 7 days to open the East Stand Upper for a cup game v Coventry is not.
PS: I know about a dozen or so ST holders, not necessarily a representative sample, but not one of em gives a hoot about sitting elsewhere tomorrow, and nearly all are going. I'm even taking Mrs CJ ! The tickets are cheap, its the 5th round of the cup and Locadia/Ulloa up front. Why not. None of em are pissed off.
The whole idea that fans, aside from 1-2 posters on here are in revolt over this and the club, some minor issues aside, have messed up royally is ridiculous.

Agree 100%

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[kingcole]

I think the club got the ticketing correct in pretty much every respect - except when they opened the 2 half segregation blocks by the away fans before the ESU.

If they had just gone with opening the ESU at that point, they may well have avoided a lot of the criticism.

Agreed. It seemed like the opening of these blocks was a last ditched attempt to prove they had made the right call and might still be able to get away without opening the upper tiers.

For me a big faux par was the lack of family seating. 2 blocks as opposed to 3.5 plus the shelf for a game that would be hugely attractive to families, especially new ones

 

[chaileyjem]

They left it until the ESL was all but sold out before opening the ESU. It was clear days before they opened it that there was sufficient demand to warrant opening an Upper Tier but for reasons known only to themselves they didn't.

This WILL have lost sales from occasional fans (just the ones that the club wants to attract to games such as this):

1. Those looking to buy a ticket when only scraps in the ESL were left may have thought "I don't want to sit low down in a corner" and went off and made other plans for tomorrow.
2. Parents with young kids may have seen their only choice was seats close to the away fans (and ones that have been a bit fruity on their travels of late) and decided not to buy and, again, may not know that other seats became available later, or had already made other plans by then.
.

Ha ! i will keep banging on
Well we'll never know but the biggest decision they made was charging £18 and £6 for tickets which means its, 24 hours out, nearly close to a sell out . Far far bigger decision that opening up the stands from the outset.
So its really hard to argue its "another Palace", even if you think not opening up the stands is a massive clanger.
And how many people realistically are the above use cases ? The above was only true for Weds/Thurs last week when the upper stands weren't open. So 48 hours of the last 17 days tickets have been on sale. Of course some people will have decided not to bother but hundreds ? thousands ? - i doubt it. £6 for kids is far more likely to attract new(er) fans this weekend.
And do people who go to the Albion casually, even regularly, have any idea about Coventry away fans having a "reputation" - again i doubt it. Some i guess, won't even be certain where the away fans sit !.

But yep, definitely, for the marketing and selling tickets in the other innovative ways you've argued then agreed - then fair play - perplexed why. club aren't more progressive with that side of things and target casual and new fans with more precision.

And yep. in hindsight i'm guessing they will have wished they'd opened up all the stands given they have a 28K or so match on their hands.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I agree with all you say. Having so badly mis-judged fan sentiment towards the Palace tie, I completely understand why they open the lower tiers initially, and the club should be applauded for the fantastic pricing of this game, including travel and allowing STHs to buy up to 3 more tickets.

I just think an upper tier could have been opened sooner than it was.

As [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] so eloquently said, in the big scheme of things, it's a triviality.

I think my only criticism is not aimed at those who are annoyed, because I can understand that, it is more the lack of understanding, and in some cases really harsh criticism of the club. I think they were in the proverbial rock and a hard place. You want to sell out all your lower tier tickets, but you're not going to do that if you suddenly say, 'we'll open up the upper tier in a few days if sales continue' – because then sales suddenly stop and then you have no idea if lots are waiting for the upper tier or whether there just isn't the demand?

I'm not apologising for them, and they're not beyond criticism, but I do think a bit of understanding of the difficulty they faced balancing this one. At the end of the day, I save £5 on travel, so I'm seeing the 5th round for £13, cheaper than a Conference South game.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I've not seen a financially prudent alternative to what they have chosen to do. Had they had to staff more stands early at a risk, I'd expect ticket prices may have needed to be raised.

I imagine the maths are fairly simple, to steward and staff upper tier X is going to cost us £A. If we don't sell Y% of tickets, we will run at a loss and it will cost the club money. What is the viable alternative than stating at the start of sales that we are opening the lower tiers, and will open more if the demand is there.

Unfortunately our best seats for a view are the upper tiers, but they are also the easiest to exclude and save costs on. It seems we are excellent on NSC for spending money to see success, but absolutely crap at prudently saving it.

A relatively cheap ticket price, where the club have probably thought "we'll make it the same price for everyone, affordable including travel, then they won't have anything to moan about..."

Club could easily have floated the Saturday 3pm KO, 5th Round of the FA CUP tie such that you had the option of buying your own ST seat for as many or as few days as they chose. Seeing as how the vast majority of punters are STH and the previous home round tie was a stupid Monday night televised tie on the day of a train strike against vermin, the club have seriously taken their eye off the ball on this game. They're very belatedly playing catch-up, but no amount of Barberspin will un-do what the vast majority of us knew all along. Club got it wrong, and the majority of punters on Saturday will end up sitting in seats that wouldn't have been where they'd have preferred to be sat.

Oh well, suppose the club's allowed a learning curve like anybody else. We'd normally have thrown the FA Cup by this point.

Next learning curve comes if we win this tie. Do we stick with the players that got us this far? Or bring in all the big guns?

 

[kingcole]

Still moving at a similar pace. I predict more WSU seats to be released in the next 1-2 hours, which will of course mean another trench of front row seats.

ESU = 50 unrestricted seats (just 15 pairs remain - 19 in last hour)
WSU = 363 (37 in last hour)

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

When did "learning curve" come to mean lesson? I've heard it used this way quite a lot recently and don't understand how it has happened.

A learning curve is a measurement (the rate at which someone learns) not the learning itself.

 

[el punal]

Is this thread still going on? Are people still going on about where the club have gone wrong ad nauseum? For God's sake go to the pub, have a drink, chill out, relax, hibernate.

Cue any album by Leonard Cohen, or maybe, "The End" by the Doors.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Is this thread still going on? Are people still going on about where the club have gone wrong ad nauseum? For God's sake go to the pub, have a drink, chill out, relax, hibernate.

Cue any album by Leonard Cohen, or maybe, "The End" by the Doors.

Apparently it is....

 

[kingcole]

Dead in the office. I'll be in the pub by 5.

But if another block in the WSU opens beforehand I might celebrate by leaving early!

 

[n1 gull]

Is this thread still going on? Are people still going on about where the club have gone wrong ad nauseum? For God's sake go to the pub, have a drink, chill out, relax, hibernate.

Cue any album by Leonard Cohen, or maybe, "The End" by the Doors.

Yet you did non of the above and posted on THIS thread

 

[Hotchilidog]

350 left in the open bits of WSU just in case anyone was wondering

 

[*Gullsworth*]

Is this thread still going on? Are people still going on about where the club have gone wrong ad nauseum? For God's sake go to the pub, have a drink, chill out, relax, hibernate.

Cue any album by Leonard Cohen, or maybe, "The End" by the Doors.

I think most are in the ' I want to see this thread hit 100 000 views ' I am ��

 

[Hotchilidog]

I think most are in the ' I want to see this thread hit 100 000 views ' I am ��

3000 to go!