[Albion] Going to be pretty empty for the Villa game

[Insel affe]

Looking forward to this one, and back in my old seat in N1F, was in WSU for the cup game and it was like a morgue up there!

Ah, you missed out, it was a cracking atmosphere in N1F Saturday evening, until......

 

[Muzzman]

Ah, you missed out, it was a cracking atmosphere in N1F Saturday evening, until......

Yeah... don't get me wrong the view in WSU is great, it's like watching it on the telly, and you have carte blanche on what to focus on. Was a little envious watching you lot enjoying yourselves in the north though.

 

[Professor Plum]

I use Seagull Travel for most games now, and have done for a couple of seasons. Before that I would miss evening games quite often as the travel hassle factor was just too great. So in effect I'm paying a £26 premium to attend most matches. It's a sort of tax on convenience, and nearly doubles the cost of me attending.

 

[Justice]

Transport for evening games is a real problem and until this improves, I don’t think midweek games will become any more appealing.

Everyone made it to the Marseille game, our fans are flaky at best.
This is a huge game win and we are looking positive for a European place.
Can’t believe the numbers that can’t be arsed.

 

[Doug-ees-evil]

The 2pm day before curfew doesn't come into effect until next season.

And I understand why they've given a cut-off - the club want to motivate people to list as early as possible if they can't go, allowing others the chance to attend. They'll have access to relisting data, as well as sales data. I suspect same-day sales drop-off due to the planning involved.

However, if the sell-side of the exchange hasn't yet opened or there are already thousands of exchange seats available to buy, getting a black mark for missing that 2pm day before cutoff feels somewhat harsh.

Regardless of that, it does mean those who have genuine day-of-game emergencies will get a wrist slap if they list late. I guess the thinking is most fans don't have those very often.

I would say the day of the game is quite often when I realise I can't make it – due to work going t*ts up and an unreasonable deadline preventing me from going. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it would be so much easier to pass it to my brother or my Dad (both ex-ST holders) at late notice rather than it go empty.

My last x4 ticket exchanges for mine and my lad's seats in WSL have not sold since the 'you must list' email went out.
Is it a security thing why they must know attendees details 24-36 hrs before a match?

 

[Hovegull]

Everyone made it to the Marseille game, our fans are flaky at best.
This is a huge game win and we are looking positive for a European place.
Can’t believe the numbers that can’t be arsed.

Bit different though. I don’t think Europa games can be counted, as these were an entirely different situation.
Many STH didn’t buy tickets for those games, but lots of football fans wanting to watch European football did. I didn’t recognise many around me.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Everyone made it to the Marseille game, our fans are flaky at best.
This is a huge game win and we are looking positive for a European place.
Can’t believe the numbers that can’t be arsed.

Has @Commander hijacked your account for this post?

 

[Wozza]

Everyone made it to the Marseille game, our fans are flaky at best.
This is a huge game win and we are looking positive for a European place.
Can’t believe the numbers that can’t be arsed.

Thought it was interesting last week when someone on here said he'd bought a season ticket for next season... and admitted (twice) that he'd probably only make four or so home matches.

We have hundreds of STHers like that around the country.

And, I'd guess, at least 1000 who would never go to an evening game - except maybe European games or a play-off which, ironically, wouldn't be included in the ST anyway.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Sorry, if I missing something, but Villa has only just sold out...

Probably missing the point that in a lot of cases the people looking for match tickets actively and those who would come if given a ticket are totally different people a lot of the time.

Certainly, when we were in the Championship with a lot of mid week games and the ability to pass on the card every now and again, with a relative blind eye, any "spare" went to:

1) one of my son's mates who normally couldn't go due to parents not going / not being able to afford it or
2) upgrade child ticket to one of my mates who would tend to be along for the drinking session rather than being a regular Albion fan

While 2) is unlikely to get you a regular ticket purchaser 1) was instrumental in three young people I know becoming match going Albion fans. So the blanket statement that passing on a ticket makes it less likely we'll sell out makes too many assumptions and ignores the long term benefit.

 

[jackalbion]

If it was easier to pass on tickets, we'd rarely sell out.

(Round and around this goes...)

This game hasn't sold out really though, there are 3,000 empty seats. The club will lose money either way here, there will still be 3,000 empty seats.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Everyone made it to the Marseille game, our fans are flaky at best.
This is a huge game win and we are looking positive for a European place.
Can’t believe the numbers that can’t be arsed.

We have STHs who live in Cheshire, North Wales, mid Wales, Midlands, East Anglia, West country etc who cannot make midweek games. Comparing a game where flights are booked, ferries to Europe etc to a midweek game on a school night, especially one that has been rearranged is nonsense.
A 500 mile round trip?

 

[Wozza]

This game hasn't sold out really though, there are 3,000 empty seats. The club will lose money either way here, there will still be 3,000 empty seats.

I'm going to guess that the club's data modelling on this complex and important matter is better than yours (or mine).

 

[jackalbion]

I'm going to guess that the club's data modelling on this complex and important matter is better than yours (or mine).

Oh yeah I forgot that's what football is all about. How can we model the data so we can make as much profit as possible, nothing possibly could come from fans being in the ground cheering the team on, actually forget about that, why win more than 40 points every season so we can stay up and get Premier League TV money.

 

[Wozza]

Probably missing the point that in a lot of cases the people looking for match tickets actively and those who would come if given a ticket....

Allowing fans to 'give away' tickets would devalue them when the club currently struggles to sell out (certainly evening games).

It would also add to the number of away fans in home ends.

Etc etc. We've done this so many times now...

 

[BN9 BHA]

This isn’t just a WSU thing.

The WSU concourse is very narrow at both ends, also there are kiosks at both far ends of it in the narrow sections.
I have been in the North, WSL and East Lower concourses and they have more room for fans to walk past when others are queuing at kiosks.
I can’t comment on the ESU or South Stand

 

[Hamilton]

Brilliant. Less crowded in west upper concourse at half time.
It was a health and safety nightmare at the Forest cup game.

That was everyone trying to get out at the same time. Nobody wanted a beer.

Next time people start moaning about others leaving on 80 minutes they should remember how helpful they are actually being.

 

[jackalbion]

Allowing fans to 'give away' tickets would devalue them when the club currently struggles to sell out (certainly evening games).

It would also add to the number of away fans in home ends.

Etc etc. We've done this so many times now...

Ok you've done it many times, we understand that, thank you for the contribution.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

some real unique debate about ticket sharing here. Now can we discuss midweek trains for some real novelty value

 

[Wozza]

Oh yeah I forgot that's what football is all about. How can we model the data so we can make as much profit as possible, nothing possibly could come from fans being in the ground cheering the team on, actually forget about that, why win more than 40 points every season so we can stay up and get Premier League TV money.

Fans in ground cheering the team on.... or someone's half-interested neighbour who actually supports Spurs but is well up for a bit of free Premier League action?

There are plenty of fans for non-regular Albion fans to pick-up tickets, inc sharing.

 

[Bozza]

This game hasn't sold out really though, there are 3,000 empty seats. The club will lose money either way here, there will still be 3,000 empty seats.

It absolutely has though.

Season ticket holders (incl. 1901ers) have c24,000 tickets, Villa have 3,000-odd and 4,000 or so matchday tickets have sold.

Because of that the club now give STHs the chance to sell on their ticket(s) if they can't make it.

A few years ago there was no season ticket exchange, this game would be announced as a sell-out and some folk would be absent. I think it's quite commonplace for c10% of fans to be no-shows across the Premier League.

I'd prefer to be able to hand my tickets to my neighbour and his son on the occasions I can't go, but I also understand why the club don't want that to happen.