[Albion] Spurs - Sat 5th Feb 8pm

[spoonie]

This could be as simple as we took the initial 5700 went back for the remainder but Spurs have sold better than expected so are no longer available.

There are a lot of ‘the club should have taken 9k upfront’ comments which in hindsight might look like a good idea but let’s be honest that was not the picture being painted on here when the fixture was announced. So I can forgive the club for not jumping on 9k tickets as like most of us we thought this one was going to be tricky with the combination of trains, KO time and TV.

Seems like the demand has caught us all out

The club have to state the full allocation offered otherwise we would all be on here moaning why they are only saying 5700 are available when we are allowed a lot more tickets.

One thing we can all agree on is the the comms could have been better on this in regard to only purchasing the 5700 initially but again that depends on what has happened behind the scenes.

the thing is it doesn't matter how well they sell at spurs, we are entitled to 9,000 tickets and within the space of 4 days they've /we've slashed it 5,700 and left plenty of Albion fans angry and frustrated

 

[worthingseagull]

The club have got this so wrong - it is so simple, just tell us that we are taking 5700 and then season ticket holders would have bought them accordingly instead of waiting thinking we had 9000 so they could go with friends (god forbid we might enjoy an away game with mates) Now thousands of us wont be going at all (personallly raging)

 

[Seasider78]

the thing is it doesn't matter how well they sell at spurs, we are entitled to 9,000 tickets and within the space of 4 days they've /we've slashed it 5,700 and left plenty of Albion fans angry and frustrated

We were offered 9,000 as per our allocation and as the club confirmed we initially took 5,700 as we were not confident we would sell the full 9k.

At that point we only committed to 5700 spurs are entitled to sell the balance of tickets so it does matter how well they sell at spurs as if demand is low there is more chance of us being able to go back and request/negotiate to have the remainder of the allocation.

This is what everyone here thought would happen that we would be able to take up to balance and if spurs were not selling well it would not be in their interest not to let us have them.

My guess (and it is just a guess) is demand for the fixture has caught both clubs out and left us with the initial allocation we were happy to fill first.

 

[SUIYHP]

I’m a bit upset as I had intentionally waited for members guest tickets to be rolled out on Friday (wanted to take my mate) with the assumption it would have not been as busy- now the seats are sold out? Don’t say you have up to 9000 seats allocated if it’s not going to be fulfilled.

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

Doesn’t this happen all the time? The Albion take a lower allocation for away games and then that allocation sells out meaning others who would have gone can’t get a ticket.

Why are the club so stingy?

Time to man up and just take full allocation every time. If a few don’t sell it’s no big deal surely?

The team actually benefits from having the maximum away support at every game. The club are penny pinching and the club and fans are losing out overall.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

More boring numbers stuff. 45,000 turned up for the recent League Cup semi final against Chelsea (62,000 capacity).

Bottom line is that there will probably be at least 10,000 empty seats and that's being generous. Likely to be many more.

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/...pty-stadium-attendances-antonio-conte-1399918

There is a list of Spurs attendences in that article. No sells out and only 58k + for the Chelsea and City league games. Ridiculous state of affairs that the demand cannot be fulfilled.

 

[nickbrighton]

I really think people are over thinking this

If you read some of the twitter posts and some of the comments on here, it seems some people genuinely think Barber has deliberately gone out of his way to personally deny people tickets. They blame him personally for every thing the club gets wrong and seem to feel he has a personal vendetta against the fans

Have they underestimated the potential take up for this match- well yes it seems like it however would we have taken the 9000, im not sure. Its easy to think that this forum represents all of Brightons support, when in reality it is just a smallish segment compared to the whole fan base.I would think being those of us on here are the more vocal of the fan base, so its easy to think, well the majority on here think one way therefore ALL a majority of all the fans think that way.

We get this kind of response whenever there is an issue or perceived issue with tickets, KO Times or whatever- Barber out, its all his fault .

Was the communication initially ambiguous, undoubtedly. I like many others thought there were 9000 tickets- did they actually say that-no
Should they have said we have taken an allocation of 5700 and thats it- undoubtedly yes
Had we had 9000 tickets would we have come close to selling them-well we will never know now , certainly we would have sold more than the 5700

Im pretty sure the club have their own method for estimating ticket sales and I would bet more often than not they get it about right, we will never know by how much they underestimated on this occasion, they may have taken the 9000 or been left with 2500 unsold ,

I doubt Barber makes these decisions on his own. The CLUB ,not him seem to have got it a bit wrong this time, but don't blame Barber personally because of that. I dont understand this need that people have to vilify and expect grovelling apologies from him because something the club has done or not done doesnt fit in with what they want

Listen to Potters reply re the Evertion job, listen to how the pundits and press are saying more and more often how well the whole set up at Brighton is, and be careful what you wish for.

 

[Official Old Man]

Next moan. If we took 5700 on day one, why were they not all put on sale on day one? Two old geezers here have bought 'safe standing' tickets on day one because that's all that was available. Then the upper tiers opened but too late.
It really is getting crazy that I'm buying the worse tickets because I'm high up the loyalty points but had I waited (would have taken Daughter as well) then I'd have missed out completely.

 

[Bozza]

I think there's a lot of after-timing going on here, as a scroll back to the opening pages reveals...

We wouldn't take 9,000 because we're not in league one anymore. Spurs is just another game to many people these days. 5,000 - 6,000 is my guess, assuming ticket prices are reasonable.

Oh no! Not another 8pm KO!
I was looking forward to going and hoping for a large away crowd. This is going to put a lot of people off going.

As bad as it could have been

Disgraceful, last train back is 23:21 so if extra time and penalties you miss it - **** the fans is all I can say about this

Really disappointing kick off time. Unless the club run heavily subsidised coaches (which they won’t), then I doubt we’ll sell more than a third of the allocation.

Extremely dissapointing especially with kids.

Gutted. I was hoping to take my two boys up, as was my brother and mate with their two. So that's 9 of us that don't travel away very often and were eagerly awaiting this one for a day out but will now almost certainly stay at home and watch on TV.

Even with those reasonable prices, can anyone seriously see us taking 9,000 to Spurs for an 8pm kick off? I reckon half that would be an excellent turn out.

(There's many more but I think you get the idea by now)

Given the reaction on here, and elsewhere to the kick-off time/transport issue combination, I'm not surprised the club were conservative with taking the lesser allocation initially. The alternative was taking 9,000 tickets and potentially not selling a few thousand of them, and losing tens of thousands of pounds in the process.

Hindsight is a wonderful view to have at times like these. Communication could undoubtedly have been better, and I'm sure the club will have taken note of that for when something similar happens in the future.

I'm not sure Spurs have helped out here, although the Albion are clearly not going to play the blame game out in public on that. Our fixture is the first of three home games in a week for them, and I know some of their fans doubt they will sell out against us as a result. So, to put "our" upper tier on sale, to their own STHs instead of holding it back in case we required it, doesn't feel particularly friendly.

I'm pretty sure when we host clubs who are undecided on the allocation they require, Albion hold back any extra blocks for as long as possible, giving the visiting club the best chance of taking them up if they want to. Spurs haven't done that here.

 

[Bozza]

More boring numbers stuff. 45,000 turned up for the recent League Cup semi final against Chelsea (62,000 capacity).

Bottom line is that there will probably be at least 10,000 empty seats and that's being generous. Likely to be many more.

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/...pty-stadium-attendances-antonio-conte-1399918

There is a list of Spurs attendences in that article. No sells out and only 58k + for the Chelsea and City league games. Ridiculous state of affairs that the demand cannot be fulfilled.

Yep - as I said above, I don't think Spurs have helped out here at all.

They have STHs in those upper blocks that they'd have to relocate in order to sell to us (or any side taking the full 15%). They put those tickets on sale to those STHs which meant we couldn't take them.

 

[Bozza]

I doubt Barber makes these decisions on his own. The CLUB ,not him seem to have got it a bit wrong this time, but don't blame Barber personally because of that.

Of course he doesn't - the club's senior team will come up with a concensus on things like this.

Fan reaction to the scheduling of this was pretty negative. I'm happy to say I didn't think we'd sell out 9,000 for this. Maybe we would or maybe we wouldn't - there's no way of knowing now, but demand has been stronger than I, and many long-time fans I know, were expecting.

Faced with the moans around the kick-off time for this, as well as the train problems, I really can't blame the club for taking the smaller allocation initially. I can blame them for not being clearer about that at the outset, and I can blame Spurs for not being very helpful as well.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I think there's a lot of after-timing going on here, as a scroll back to the opening pages reveals...
(There's many more but I think you get the idea by now)

Given the reaction on here, and elsewhere to the kick-off time/transport issue combination, I'm not surprised the club were conservative with taking the lesser allocation initially. The alternative was taking 9,000 tickets and potentially not selling a few thousand of them, and losing tens of thousands of pounds in the process.

Hindsight is a wonderful view to have at times like these. Communication could undoubtedly have been better, and I'm sure the club will have taken note of that for when something similar happens in the future.

I'm not sure Spurs have helped out here, although the Albion are clearly not going to play the blame game out in public on that. Our fixture is the first of three home games in a week for them, and I know some of their fans doubt they will sell out against us as a result. So, to put "our" upper tier on sale, to their own STHs instead of holding it back in case we required it, doesn't feel particularly friendly.

I'm pretty sure when we host clubs who are undecided on the allocation they require, Albion hold back any extra blocks for as long as possible, giving the visiting club the best chance of taking them up if they want to. Spurs haven't done that here.

You're right of course. You could have quoted me and you know I was unhappy about the k/o time on Whatsapp too. Ultimately I decided to go and book a hotel overnight because it's a ground I want to do and my son was whinging non stop when I said we'd probably watch at home. But it has meant I needed to get a "pass" from Mrs GB for both of us and added a significant extra cost (because, fundamentally, I believe no good day out starts with the phrases "I hope the coach is on time" or "which exit of the M25 do I take?").

In other words I could very well have decided not to go and I suspect it was a 50/50 decision for many others.

My take on it is:

1) I don't think we would have sold 9k
2) I do think we would have sold significantly over 5.7k
3) I don't think the communication from the club was clear enough and blaming tickets sales between 9pm and the opening of the next group window is a fundamentally flawed argument which has only served to annoy people.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Of course he doesn't - the club's senior team will come up with a concensus on things like this.

Fan reaction to the scheduling of this was pretty negative. I'm happy to say I didn't think we'd sell out 9,000 for this. Maybe we would or maybe we wouldn't - there's no way of knowing now, but demand has been stronger than I, and many long-time fans I know, were expecting.

Faced with the moans around the kick-off time for this, as well as the train problems, I really can't blame the club for taking the smaller allocation initially. I can blame them for not being clearer about that at the outset, and I can blame Spurs for not being very helpful either.

I'm not sure the club taking 5700 tickets is the issue, the issue is the club not communicating in anyway whatsoever it maybe limited to 5700 from an allocation of 9000.

That is shocking really because fans with STs or a high number of loyalty points have waited because they could buy tickets with mates or family who never normally come and they've been sold down the garden path.

Not a single club communication mentioned tickets might be limited to 5700, all they said was up to 9k available. Really shoddy. Even now, no apology or acceptance of getting this wrong.

If PB can answer individual fan emails and tweets, I think he can check over the wording of club communications at an important moment in the club's season.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Yep - as I said above, I don't think Spurs have helped out here at all.

They have STHs in those upper blocks that they'd have to relocate in order to sell to us (or any side taking the full 15%). They put those tickets on sale to those STHs which meant we couldn't take them.

Reading between the lines, I think you are right about Spurs. I suspect that they let those ST holders buy by accident and were holding the blocks back but messed up. Not that anyone will admit that of course. It's surely in both clubs interest to maximise the revenue.

Its also a fair point about after timing but it does irk me with the army of analysts at the club, that they seem to employ Johnny no stars to do the ticketing. Given Bloom can make millions off a well formed over round on a Asian football market, we can't seem to predict how many tickets we will sell to our consumer base does seem odd.

 

[Bozza]

I'm not sure the club taking 5700 tickets is the issue,

Maybe not for you, but some are complaining about that - read back over the last few pages.

the issue is the club not communicating in anyway whatsoever it maybe limited to 5700 from an allocation of 9000.

That is shocking really because fans with STs or a high number of loyalty points have waited because they could buy tickets with mates or family who never normally come and they've been sold down the garden path.

Not a single club communication mentioned tickets might be limited to 5700, all they said was up to 9k available. Really shoddy. Even now, no apology or acceptance of getting this wrong.

If PB can answer individual fan emails and tweets, I think he can check over the wording of club communications at an important moment in the club's season.

The initial fan communication "up to 9,000" was, I understand, entirely accurate at the time - no-one was being deceived, intentionally or otherwise. 9,000 tickets were, potentially, available.

We now know that changed subsequently, and that was not communicated to fans in any way. If fans had been alerted, it would have allowed those waiting to make a decision to buy there and then, or wait it out and take the risk.

 

[dazzer6666]

Taking the lower allocation is understandable (only need to read the posts on here after the KO time was announced to understand that decision), but the club really should have warned us as soon as they knew that was the max we were getting.

 

[Originunknown]

What a binfest, Barber in!

 

[Wozza]

Hindsight is a wonderful view to have at times like these. Communication could undoubtedly have been better, and I'm sure the club will have taken note of that for when something similar happens in the future.

Comms is the issue here though, really.

As [MENTION=27279]dazzer6666[/MENTION] says, if the club had taken 5700 tickets and stated that before the on-sale date, everyone would have understood and purchased accordingly.

And the new comms issue is that the club won't admit it made a mistake...

 

[Hotchilidog]

Taking the lower allocation is understandable (only need to read the posts on here after the KO time was announced to understand that decision), but the club really should have warned us as soon as they knew that was the max we were getting.

I agree. If they announced we were taking an allocation of 5700 no-one would have complained. Sadly the poor communications have given the wrong impression to those who were biding their time for the later eligibility window. An avoidable faux pas.

I understand the clubs' position but they must be aware of the poor optics of this situation.

 

[Dibdab]

I'm not sure the club taking 5700 tickets is the issue, the issue is the club not communicating in anyway whatsoever it maybe limited to 5700 from an allocation of 9000.

That is shocking really because fans with STs or a high number of loyalty points have waited because they could buy tickets with mates or family who never normally come and they've been sold down the garden path.

Not a single club communication mentioned tickets might be limited to 5700, all they said was up to 9k available. Really shoddy. Even now, no apology or acceptance of getting this wrong.

If PB can answer individual fan emails and tweets, I think he can check over the wording of club communications at an important moment in the club's season.

This absolutely nails it for me. Nothing suggested that the club would limit to 5.7k and the comm's from Barber are beyond insulting. I was initially waiting for STH guest window to open as have 6 guests that wanted to come from our 3 ST's but just had an feeling it was risky and we booked Sunday in case in sold out to Albion+. What a good decision but was driven purely from intuition rather than club information.