I agree to a point, but when you talk of this 2,000 unsold tickets, you're looking at it in hindsight - nobody knew 8-10 days ago that we'd have that availability by this stage, and bear in mind we only have that now because extra tickets were eventually released due to slow sales in the City end. So its quite conceivable that ALL tickets would've gone to STH's, members, and then the STH +2's.
And now that the club have subsequently sold memberships to people who just wanted Wembley tickets, I'm not sure how well it'd go down with those particular folk if the spares just went on general sale now, with no membership necessary. That said, as I said earlier, I think after the +2's, whatever was left should've just gone on general now.
We've sold 30k+. There will be very, very few people genuinely missing out on this game, if any. If they are, it'll largely be through their own stubbornness over membership IMO.
Stupid question, but if there are any fans who want to go but don't want to buy membership, what is to prevent them hooking up with a STH who hasn't used their two spares? There are ways and means of doing this.
Match tickets remaining:
Pitchside: 1004
Posh seats: sold out (but see https://www.boxofficeevents.com/package/376/manchester-city-vs-brighton-tickets NOTE: Price reduced to £99)
Upper tier: 1109 (in the last 24hrs at least 175 further tickets became available across Blocks 534, 547 and 548)
Total remaining: 2113
Initial allocation: 33466
Addtl allocation: 1500
Total current allocation: 34966
Presumed sold or allocated so far: 34966 - 2113 = 32853
BoxPark Tickets remaining:
Hospitality: 106
Pre-match: sold out
Post-match: 451
That link is for tickets in the City end so probably why they are reduced.
Whatever is left now should just go on general sale IMO - although at the start of the process, there was no guarantee that there would be anything left by this stage after the STH's and members have taken their allocations anyway.
As for your second point - its only equivalent to a booking fee now if you've decided to buy a membership purely to secure a ticket for Wembley. If you buy a membership with a view to using it over the course of a season, then you get a better choice of tickets, and will accumulate loyalty points over a year. If you choose not to be a member then you'll still get along to games, but when something like Wembley comes along, this is the downside of taking that non-membership choice.
I do have SOME sympathy with people who have purchase history without ever becoming members. But at the same time, just assuming purchase history would be enough when we get a massive occasion like this coming along with huge demand, when the club have only ever committed to members having priority...well. You makes your choice, you takes your chance.
With all that said, I'd be very surprised if there are a great number of BHA fans who simply find it impossible to get a ticket to this game, by whatever means. Even if they end up in the City end. We just need to get used to BHA being a BIT GOOD, and prepare accordingly for all future ticketing binfests.
Well put. This whole venture is new territory for both club and fans. In my opinion I think the club have handled this quite well, but as with any new venture, there are problems and mistakes that are made along the way. The important thing is to identify and rectify them as soon as possible.
I feel that the club have now taken the membership enrolment scheme as far as it can go. They have benefited enormously by expanding the fan base in the process. So, now we’ve been fortunate in receiving extra tickets, they should not alienate fans by intransigence and release them for general sale. As many have said, better that we have 35,000 fans at Wembley rather than 33,000 with 2,000 disgruntled fans not attending.
Match tickets remaining:
Pitchside: 1004
Posh seats: sold out (but see https://www.boxofficeevents.com/package/376/manchester-city-vs-brighton-tickets NOTE: Price reduced to £99)
Upper tier: 1109 (in the last 24hrs at least 175 further tickets became available across Blocks 534, 547 and 548)
Total remaining: 2113
Initial allocation: 33466
Addtl allocation: 1500
Total current allocation: 34966
Presumed sold or allocated so far: 34966 - 2113 = 32853
BoxPark Tickets remaining:
Hospitality: 106
Pre-match: sold out
Post-match: 451
If you were the club, would you refund those who bought a membership to be able to get a ticket? After all, when they bought the membership they did so because the club told them that was the only way to get a ticket.
Good research. Shame can’t see how many tickets are left in the Club Wembley areas. For a non member Club Wembley is cheaper than some of our regular seats
If you were the club, would you refund those who bought a membership to be able to get a ticket? After all, when they bought the membership they did so because the club told them that was the only way to get a ticket.
If you were the club, would you refund those who bought a membership to be able to get a ticket? After all, when they bought the membership they did so because the club told them that was the only way to get a ticket.
No (if I were the club), as a member you would have benefits in the future related to the club. Just suppose, and with a lot of wishful thinking, the Albion make it to the final. Straightaway those new members will have an advantage in purchasing tickets over non-members.
With regard to refunding those that have bought membership, that would be impractical.
Finally, I refer to my point about both the club and fans dealing with this as a new experience. Mistakes are made and we learn from them. By the way, I’m guessing here, if the club have now sold their original allocation of near on 33,500 tickets then their original ticket sales strategy has worked. The bonus of the extra 1,500 tickets could indeed work in favour of those holding out for general release without being tied down to the club - who knows? We wait and see.
I would assume the selling order for any cup final would be :-
Season Ticket Holders
Bronze Members (over a certain point threshold)
Bronze Members
MyAlbion+ members (but tickets would have already sold out to Bronze members)
The allocation for the final would be much smaller
I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that.I would assume the selling order for any cup final would be :-
Season Ticket Holders
Bronze Members (over a certain point threshold)
Bronze Members
MyAlbion+ members (but tickets would have already sold out to Bronze members)
The allocation for the final would be much smaller