Home ticketing policy (5 Viewers)

[Sky Blue Pete]

Reply from Tynan


Hi Pete,

I hope you are well.

Apologies for the delayed response.

This question was covered and answered on the recent fans forum meeting.

As discussed on the call/meeting the club monitors sales on a daily basis and also looks ahead to future games as well. As and when it is required to open additional blocks and/or we think we may sell additional blocks based on the current rate or expected rate of sale the club will then open these blocks accordingly.

The timing of your email below is great example of the club not just opening blocks all in one go. Your email came the day before the Bristol City game - a game that only had an attendance 22,724. This would have been additional cost to the club if fans had spread themselves thinly around all of the open blocks as well as how this would have looked with fans scattered through blocks.


Kind regards

Tynan

Tynan Scope
Chief Commercial Officer
Coventry City Football Club
W: www.ccfc.co.uk




-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Griffiths
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 9:04 AM
To: Tynan Scope
Subject: Home ticketing policy

[You don't often get email from Learn why this is important at Protect yourself from phishing - Microsoft Support ]

Hi Tynan
It seems pertinent to start selling all open stands given sell outs of general sale tickets for the last three games Is that something the club is considering?

Thanks as always
Pete Griffiths

Sent from my iPhone

 

---

[Robinshio]

bollocks reply
22724 would have been 25k + with a decent away support which is up there with our other crowds recently - and for a midweek game at £30 a pop

 

[SBT]

Putting aside the substance of his reply (which is nonsense), if that’s the level of punctuation and grammar that you can expect to get in an email from the club’s CCO then heaven help us.

 

[Sick Boy]

@Sky Blue Pete Probably a good idea to delete your email from the post.

 

[thekidfromstrettoncamp]

Thanks Pete.To me that answer is rubbish if they don't want to open up all blocks at least open up blocks where there are more than just single seats left, not everyone goes on their own.The times on here where people have said "single seats are no good to me we want,3,4 or how ever many of us there are".At £30 a ticket it soon mounts up .If by chace they are first timers may never return

 

[bigfatronssba]

Thanks Pete, not a great explanation from the club though.

We could see a month in advance that the Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday league games would sell out. All home blocks should've been on sale way in advance so that people can get in their preferred area of the ground

 

[Balli001]

Imagine my shock at such a weak response from Tynan scope. Backs up my previous dealings with him

 

[mmttww]

That's a weak response. Not even trying to see it from the fans' perspective. Poor in that kind of role.

 

[chiefdave]

Reply from Tynan

As discussed on the call/meeting the club monitors sales on a daily basis and also looks ahead to future games as well. As and when it is required to open additional blocks and/or we think we may sell additional blocks based on the current rate or expected rate of sale the club will then open these blocks accordingly.

The timing of your email below is great example of the club not just opening blocks all in one go. Your email came the day before the Bristol City game - a game that only had an attendance 22,724. This would have been additional cost to the club if fans had spread themselves thinly around all of the open blocks as well as how this would have looked with fans scattered through blocks.

Not a great response. I don't think highlighting Bristol City, one of the lowest attendances of the season, is quite the argument winner he thinks it is. A large factor in that attendance figure was the fact Bristol didn't even fill one block!

Would there really of been that much visual difference if all home blocks were open? How much money does it even save? My block has one steward on the entrance and that's it, can't imagine stewards are being paid a large amount per game. And how much revenue do we lose? There's zero indication when buying tickets if blocks are closed or sold out. We regularly have posts on here from people saying they tried to get tickets but the ticketing site was only showing singles left. How many people don't bother to check again?

 

[SBAndy]

If I can just raise an additional ticket issue, Pete: my sister and her boyfriend wanted to come to the game last night but she didn’t have an account. Set one up but it then flagged that she couldn’t purchase tickets as the account was newly registered. It was fine in the end, I bought the tickets.

I would understand in instances where the away allocation was sold out to ensure you don’t get away fans in the home end, but for a game where the ground isn’t even 2/3 full it seemed off.

 

[wingy]

If I can just raise an additional ticket issue, Pete: my sister and her boyfriend wanted to come to the game last night but she didn’t have an account. Set one up but it then flagged that she couldn’t purchase tickets as the account was newly registered. It was fine in the end, I bought the tickets.

I would understand in instances where the away allocation was sold out to ensure you don’t get away fans in the home end, but for a game where the ground isn’t even 2/3 full it seemed off.

Background checks?

 

[Cheylesmore ITK]

Tynan is very poor at his job and hasn't a clue about ticketing.

It's a shame Dan left to join the Villa.

 

[Kingokings204]

Poor response and poorly communicated. Don’t see what the attendance has to do with it. What if 8000 turned up on the day. They don’t know they won’t. The cost of games will cover all eventualities surely. Probably the sort of response as to why nothing has improved.

A couple of pointers from me which I hope are constructive

1. quicker turnstile checks and people through them. It isn’t hard.
2. Offer pre match deals within the con concourse to encourage early attendance.
3. open up as many as possible and even the doors next to the turnstiles which never open.

 

[Legia Sky Blue]

If I can just raise an additional ticket issue, Pete: my sister and her boyfriend wanted to come to the game last night but she didn’t have an account. Set one up but it then flagged that she couldn’t purchase tickets as the account was newly registered. It was fine in the end, I bought the tickets.

I would understand in instances where the away allocation was sold out to ensure you don’t get away fans in the home end, but for a game where the ground isn’t even 2/3 full it seemed off.

That's interesting. So a student at university here or a football 'tourist' would not be able to buy a ticket to watch us play? How long do you have to wait after registering to buy a ticket?

Also agree with those disappointed by Tynan Scope's response. It smacks of complacency made from a belief that the club are somehow doing us all a favour allowing us to watch them. If they want to operate like a normal business then they need to value their customer base better, and not make it difficult to purchase their product. If they want to open block by block all well and good but as soon as it is clear that people can't buy a group of seats together they need to immediately be opening new blocks.

If the fairweather fan is not able to buy the tickets they want, then they are not going to show the same determination to buy tickets as the more diehard, and probably just walk away and maybe not try again. Like it or not the club's success rate in turning those fairweather fans into diehard one's will go a long way to determining our long term prosperity.

 

[mmttww]

If they want to open block by block all well and good but as soon as it is clear that people can't buy a group of seats together they need to immediately be opening new blocks...

If the fairweather fan is not able to buy the tickets they want, then they are not going to show the same determination to buy tickets as the more diehard, and probably just walk away and maybe not try again.

This.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

Agree that the response comes across poorly.

I'm sure I've seen people on here say they're looking at getting tickets but can't because only a handful of singles or at best doubles are available, only for more blocks to go on sale at a later date. So saying that they calculate the rate of sale (or xRS) doesn't necessarily meet the demand. Can the club not highlight blocks which have yet to be put on sale, and allow supporters to register interest in opening up new blocks if the currently open blocks don't have what they require?

Other thing I wanted to mention was that there always seem to be quite a few places where single tickets are left and sometimes people don't think about leaving these lone seats next to them (or even do it deliberately to reduce the chance of having someone next to them). Given how ticket sales and demand is now can the club/ticketmaster not set it up so that you can't leave a single seat next to you? I know I've gone to other events which do that. There is the thing of letting the customer choose the block but the system chooses the tickets, but there would be potential problems if some people required a seat that doesn't involve too many steps.

 

[chiefdave]

Given how ticket sales and demand is now can the club/ticketmaster not set it up so that you can't leave a single seat next to you? I know I've gone to other events which do that.

think you’ve answered your own question there. The Ticketmaster platform can 100% do this. Whether the club want to implement a is another matter

 

[hamertime]

It’s the response of someone that thinks we’re selling loads of tickets anyway so I don’t really care what you think would say. Half arsed.

A guy has took his time and effort to write an email because he cares about the club and that’s what he gets back…

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Follow up


Hi Tynan

The overwhelming feeling from the Sky Blues Talk forum is that you are missing sales when only single tickets are available. We would suggest that the club consider two things

1 - once only single tickets are available open up the next available stand

2 - Show other available blocks that could be opened and make some way of supporters showing an interest so you are aware of interest

It seems daft to put people off buying tickets to save the cost of a steward or two or are you saying there are significant costs with the stadium owner that aren’t obvious to us fans

It’s great we’re having this discussion and so many home games are having such large attendances. I’m sure you agree that the club should be making it as easy as possible for supporters to be purchasing tickets and accessing the ground

Thanks as always

Pete

 

[mmttww]

1 - once only single tickets are available open up the next available stand

Did you swap 'stand' for 'block' at the end?

Hopefully he'll figure out what you meant!

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Did you swap 'stand' for 'block' at the end?

Hopefully he'll figure out what you meant!

Yep good point oops

 

[Gynnsthetonic]

Yes surely family/friends want to sit together, selling just singles when there are empty blocks is madness

 

[pusbccfc]

It's mental that the club can't predict these crowds.

Why are they still surprised we are getting 25k home fans?

 

[bigfatronssba]

That's interesting. So a student at university here or a football 'tourist' would not be able to buy a ticket to watch us play? How long do you have to wait after registering to buy a ticket?

Also agree with those disappointed by Tynan Scope's response. It smacks of complacency made from a belief that the club are somehow doing us all a favour allowing us to watch them. If they want to operate like a normal business then they need to value their customer base better, and not make it difficult to purchase their product. If they want to open block by block all well and good but as soon as it is clear that people can't buy a group of seats together they need to immediately be opening new blocks.

If the fairweather fan is not able to buy the tickets they want, then they are not going to show the same determination to buy tickets as the more diehard, and probably just walk away and maybe not try again. Like it or not the club's success rate in turning those fairweather fans into diehard one's will go a long way to determining our long term prosperity.

Nail on the head.

The wording is that we're lucky to watch them.

I remember when they opened up some of the south stand in the play off game it was like that. They made it sound that we were privileged that the club were willing to take our money

 

[Robinshio]

Still paying on the gate today but all sold out online. What is tynan saying about that?

 

[fernandopartridge]

That's interesting. So a student at university here or a football 'tourist' would not be able to buy a ticket to watch us play? How long do you have to wait after registering to buy a ticket?

Also agree with those disappointed by Tynan Scope's response. It smacks of complacency made from a belief that the club are somehow doing us all a favour allowing us to watch them. If they want to operate like a normal business then they need to value their customer base better, and not make it difficult to purchase their product. If they want to open block by block all well and good but as soon as it is clear that people can't buy a group of seats together they need to immediately be opening new blocks.

If the fairweather fan is not able to buy the tickets they want, then they are not going to show the same determination to buy tickets as the more diehard, and probably just walk away and maybe not try again. Like it or not the club's success rate in turning those fairweather fans into diehard one's will go a long way to determining our long term prosperity.

Surely it can't be that difficult to write something into the software that asks somebody up front how many seats they need, and the software is then able to automatically open a new block.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

 

[theferret]

Also a weird comment he made about how it might 'look' if there is a block open and there aren't many people in it. If they were that bothered they'd reverse the TV cameras. If not that, then work to improve occupancy in the west stand, which even when the ground is 'sold out' still has loads of empty seats. Filling the corporate seats is basically his job. Then there is block 2 where they keep back loads of seats for complementaries which are rarely occupied.

 

[chiefdave]

Also a weird comment he made about how it might 'look' if there is a block open and there aren't many people in it. If they were that bothered they'd reverse the TV cameras. If not that, then work to improve occupancy in the west stand, which even when the ground is 'sold out' still has loads of empty seats. Filling the corporate seats is basically his job. Then there is block 2 where they keep back loads of seats for complementaries which are rarely occupied.

Best make sure fans can’t buy tickets so it doesn’t look bad on tv