Paul dropped me an email last night which, unfortunately, I only saw this morning. A few points on the club's ticket exchange, including some interesting stuff about how it will work. One bit in bold (my emphasis) as it's something oft-discussed on here.
- the Newcastle game is very likely to sell out in next few hours;
- as is normal, however, tickets get returned to us in the final few days/hours leading up to a game (from players, coaches, staff, club sponsors, league sponsors, broadcasters etc) so availability moves around a bit during this period, hence “lumps” of tickets becoming available late in previously sold out areas;
- different/better operational information leading up to the day of the game, and/or lower than expected final sales total from our visitors may also mean we can move a segregation line by a column or more, also meaning new seats becoming available late;
- our current ticket exchange system requires a high degree of manual input. It’s clunky. We therefore don’t deploy it until we are certain the game will sell out as otherwise we waste a lot of valuable staff time listing tickets that we can’t then activate for sale. Even when we do, the “exchange” is highly manually driven;
- the new exchange system will allow listing - and exchange - without manual input and, all things being equal, will allow fans to list their tickets prior to a game selling out. However, this doesn’t mean to say that those tickets will be available to buy until all/the vast majority of the club’s available tickets have been sold (this is quite normal);
- the new system will also be able to provide cash rebates (to a registered card) and, at some point in the future, the choice of cash rebate or, possibly, higher value club retail voucher/credit;
- the system’s introduction has been delayed because there were some payment system issues during testing that we wish to resolve before going live; while the current Amex sell-out pattern means we are not under great pressure to operate the ticket exchange anyway;
- we could have introduced a new ticket exchange sooner if we had bought an "off the shelf" system - which requires a big fee/cut of any exchange to be taken from fans to make the economics work for the supplier/club - but we have opted for a hybrid which means we can provide better value to fans and, hopefully, add our own features over time: a slower introduction, yes, but better value and more flexible for us in the longer term;
- finally, in my experience and to set reasonable expectations, ticket exchange volumes are usually much lower than most fans expect. I don’t really know why. Perhaps some clubs get the fees/numbers/economics wrong, perhaps some fans like the ultimate flexibility of holding on go to their tickets for as along as possible, or simply not giving them up at all!
- the Newcastle game is very likely to sell out in next few hours;
- as is normal, however, tickets get returned to us in the final few days/hours leading up to a game (from players, coaches, staff, club sponsors, league sponsors, broadcasters etc) so availability moves around a bit during this period, hence “lumps” of tickets becoming available late in previously sold out areas;
- different/better operational information leading up to the day of the game, and/or lower than expected final sales total from our visitors may also mean we can move a segregation line by a column or more, also meaning new seats becoming available late;
- our current ticket exchange system requires a high degree of manual input. It’s clunky. We therefore don’t deploy it until we are certain the game will sell out as otherwise we waste a lot of valuable staff time listing tickets that we can’t then activate for sale. Even when we do, the “exchange” is highly manually driven;
- the new exchange system will allow listing - and exchange - without manual input and, all things being equal, will allow fans to list their tickets prior to a game selling out. However, this doesn’t mean to say that those tickets will be available to buy until all/the vast majority of the club’s available tickets have been sold (this is quite normal);
- the new system will also be able to provide cash rebates (to a registered card) and, at some point in the future, the choice of cash rebate or, possibly, higher value club retail voucher/credit;
- the system’s introduction has been delayed because there were some payment system issues during testing that we wish to resolve before going live; while the current Amex sell-out pattern means we are not under great pressure to operate the ticket exchange anyway;
- we could have introduced a new ticket exchange sooner if we had bought an "off the shelf" system - which requires a big fee/cut of any exchange to be taken from fans to make the economics work for the supplier/club - but we have opted for a hybrid which means we can provide better value to fans and, hopefully, add our own features over time: a slower introduction, yes, but better value and more flexible for us in the longer term;
- finally, in my experience and to set reasonable expectations, ticket exchange volumes are usually much lower than most fans expect. I don’t really know why. Perhaps some clubs get the fees/numbers/economics wrong, perhaps some fans like the ultimate flexibility of holding on go to their tickets for as along as possible, or simply not giving them up at all!
