"Why we did not take Arsenal Tickets" (1 Viewer)

skyblueref

New Member
We would like to clarify the reasons behind the decision not to take the additional ticket allocation for the FA Cup clash at Arsenal
Following Saturday’s sell-out of tickets for this Friday’s FA Cup tie with Arsenal, we wanted to clarify the reasons for deciding against taking a second allocation.


We understand that a number of supporters will have been unable to get tickets for the tie but the risk in accepting an additional 3,500 tickets was too great, especially when taking into account the circumstances around the match.


To those who wanted to go to the game but could not get a ticket, we apologise, but the club had to make the decision last Tuesday because that was the deadline imposed by Arsenal, who wanted to put those tickets on sale to their own supporters.


Had we taken the additional tickets (we had to take all of them, not a fraction) and not sold them, we would have been financially liable.


Last season, from an overall allocation of 9,091, we took 7,951 fans and the club had to pay for the additional 1,140 unsold tickets.


On the basis that this was our second visit to the Emirates, that the game was being screened live on television, it was a Friday night in London, it was more expensive per ticket than last season (when we didn’t sell out our allocation) and that many supporters expressed their inability to get to the game because of the Friday kick-off, the decision was taken not to take up the additional allocation.


Further to that, the second allocation would have been for the upper tier and would have been priced at £35.50 for adults, £33.50 for concessions and £29.00 for under-16s – therefore increasing the risk that they wouldn’t sell.


Because of that, we wanted to ensure that all supporters who have followed the club so far this season – home and/or away – got the opportunity to purchase at least two tickets for the game.


By the time they reached general sale on Saturday, any supporter who had attended any home or away game had been given the opportunity to purchase a ticket because we felt it right that fans who had been to at least one game (regardless of venue) should be able to buy before general sale.


On Saturday, there were still 600 tickets left and they sold out after around three hours.


Of course, we understand that this means some supporters have missed out on tickets but we could not be in a position where we had up to 3,500 tickets left unsold and would have been financially liable for each ticket at an adult ticket rate.


We understand that this will be no consolation to fans who were unable to get a ticket but we hope it, at least, explains our reasons for taking the decision we did and the evidence on which it was based.



Read more at http://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/article/...rates-200114-1305755.aspx#h6CDcoP0r5Sym6IM.99

Honestly .... Fair play to them.
 

lewys33

Well-Known Member
Its a shame they couldn't take a proportion of the extra allocation. I think they dealt with the situation as best they could.
 

ecky

Well-Known Member
Ok so CCFC read our comments?
Here's one from me
Now get us back to Ricoh mr nice sisu company so we all can watch our team...
 

Paddy9239

New Member
Bit of actual transparency gets a positive reaction like this?! Just highlights the mountain of mistakes Sisu have made over the Ricoh. Could have been so much less ill feeling with some honesty.
 

standupforcity

Well-Known Member
If they're so worried about losing money through unsold ticket allocation, why are we still at Northampton losing money hand over fist every 'home' game? It's all cobblers really isn't it. Personally I wanted 6 tickets, but ticket restriction system would have mean't I could only have two, thus losing the opportunity of selling four extra tickets in my case...can't make sense of any of it tbh...
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
I certainly applaud the club at least making an effort at long last to respond to fans frustrations, let's hope that continues but I'm not sure a lot of what they state really stacks up against the facts.

They are being somewhat disingenuous stating they are liable for all tickets at adult price. For a start CCFC get 45% of all ticket revenues so in real terms they are only liable for 55% of the ticket price. Even so lets assume they didn't sell a single ticket from the additional allocation and had to pay for them all at full price. That's £124,250 but how much are the total revenues for a game? Even with not a single additional ticket sold, and allowing for empty seats for segregation, you're looking at an attendance of more than 56K. CCFC get 45% of that so surely they could absorb the risk out of that income, before you even consider the additional prize money, TV rights and the one off sponsorship deal.

Essentially they are saying the chance of a few extra quid was more important to them than the chance for all those CCFC fans who wanted to attend being able to purchase a ticket and that doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, not much anyone can do about it now and at least they have opened communication with the fans. Lets hope they keep talking now and it's more than a steam of BS.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
But they got this right, Sir Ernie?

The ticket decision or the explaining it?

I'd argue £100k is a small price to pay to keep a few thousand City fans on the wagon (and that's the absolute most it'd cost).

The explaining it is just a repeat of what was said before, not sure I see the difference.

Still not 100% their fault, but things could've been done better.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
Fair enough. More than reasonable explanation.
 

AndreasB

Well-Known Member
Dont forget that many on here only 2 hours ago were 100% sure and arguing the toss with me the "real" reason was scared of a NOPM protest if there were 3000 more fans there.

Its important to make the distrinction between SISU (shady owners) and the day to day management of the club; Waggott, Tynan Scope etc who I believe generally make the right fan centred call, despite i would imagine some pretty difficult circumstances imposed by our absent owners.
 

RoboCCFC90

Well-Known Member
A very reasonable explanation from the Club to put it in context with last years attendance and taking an average over the price of the tickets, the cost of not selling the tickets for the game would have been roughly £37,000+ which is a lot of money and that is not baring in mind that our attendance at the Emirates this season may have been less for the reasons stated.

Well done CCFC and Sisu, get us back to the Ricoh and the feelings amongst fans might change.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Dont forget that many on here only 2 hours ago were 100% sure and arguing the toss with me the "real" reason was scared of a NOPM protest if there were 3000 more fans there.

To be fair, just because they've put something up on the website doesn't make it true! They're not going to put something up there saying we shit ourselves becuase we thought there was going to be a big protest on the TV are they?

Its important to make the distrinction between SISU (shady owners) and the day to day management of the club; Waggott, Tynan Scope etc who I believe generally make the right fan centred call, despite i would imagine some pretty difficult circumstances imposed by our absent owners.

It is but then some of our more competent staff appear to have got fed up of the turmoil and moved elsewhere. We know the ticket office is understaffed as there is a steady stream of posts on here from people who are having trouble making a purchase. At the end of the day, like in any business, the people at the top should be aware of what is happening in the business and doing something about it if they aren't happy with the way things are being run.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
And it doesn't make it a lie. Fans WERE complaining that no one would go because of the Friday night switch. Go back and read the threads. If we believed them then only a handful were going to bother.

To be fair, just because they've put something up on the website doesn't make it true!
 

SkyBlue_Bear83

Well-Known Member
I certainly applaud the club at least making an effort at long last to respond to fans frustrations, let's hope that continues but I'm not sure a lot of what they state really stacks up against the facts.

They are being somewhat disingenuous stating they are liable for all tickets at adult price. For a start CCFC get 45% of all ticket revenues so in real terms they are only liable for 55% of the ticket price. Even so lets assume they didn't sell a single ticket from the additional allocation and had to pay for them all at full price. That's £124,250 but how much are the total revenues for a game? Even with not a single additional ticket sold, and allowing for empty seats for segregation, you're looking at an attendance of more than 56K. CCFC get 45% of that so surely they could absorb the risk out of that income, before you even consider the additional prize money, TV rights and the one off sponsorship deal.

Essentially they are saying the chance of a few extra quid was more important to them than the chance for all those CCFC fans who wanted to attend being able to purchase a ticket and that doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, not much anyone can do about it now and at least they have opened communication with the fans. Lets hope they keep talking now and it's more than a steam of BS.

Yep, those real CCFC fans who haven't been to a single game home or away this season but wanted to go to the Emirates have missed out, such a shame.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
And it doesn't make it a lie. Fans WERE complaining that no one would go because of the Friday night switch. Go back and read the threads. If we believed them then only a handful were going to bother.

Again it comes back to why not put them on general sale sooner so you are not making a total guess at demand. People post a lot of things on here, are the club now going to take eveything on here as gospel truth and act on it?
 
I certainly applaud the club at least making an effort at long last to respond to fans frustrations, let's hope that continues but I'm not sure a lot of what they state really stacks up against the facts.

They are being somewhat disingenuous stating they are liable for all tickets at adult price. For a start CCFC get 45% of all ticket revenues so in real terms they are only liable for 55% of the ticket price. Even so lets assume they didn't sell a single ticket from the additional allocation and had to pay for them all at full price. That's £124,250 but how much are the total revenues for a game? Even with not a single additional ticket sold, and allowing for empty seats for segregation, you're looking at an attendance of more than 56K. CCFC get 45% of that so surely they could absorb the risk out of that income, before you even consider the additional prize money, TV rights and the one off sponsorship deal.

Essentially they are saying the chance of a few extra quid was more important to them than the chance for all those CCFC fans who wanted to attend being able to purchase a ticket and that doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, not much anyone can do about it now and at least they have opened communication with the fans. Lets hope they keep talking now and it's more than a steam of BS.

NO! you are saying this, why is that nearly everyone one seems to have accepted their reasoned explanation - but you have your SISU hatred glasses on again, if the fans that are missing out were that bothered they would of bought a ticket for Barnsley (whether they went or not) - give it a rest mate it's boring now...
 

Nick

Administrator
Again it comes back to why not put them on general sale sooner so you are not making a total guess at demand. People post a lot of things on here, are the club now going to take eveything on here as gospel truth and act on it?

Pretty sure they have explained why they sold them like they did. When the fans group spokesperson comes out and says nobody is going to go in a statement then what is expected?
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Yep, those real CCFC fans who haven't been to a single game home or away this season but wanted to go to the Emirates have missed out, such a shame.

Most businesses want to expand their customer base and attract more people but for some reason in the world of CCFC it seems we should be restricting who attends games and making sure on 'superfans' get the chance to attend. Maybe they should station people on the turnstiles to quiz you on the history of the club to see if you're worthy of entry?

And of course the sales not made through CCFC (ie: those who purchased on the gate or from the away club directly) don't show on the ticketing system so those people were unable to purchase tickets.
 

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
It wasn't just on here it was on CWR and social media too. As for what people post on here being the gospel truth well it appears to be if it's written from a certain PoV.

Again it comes back to why not put them on general sale sooner so you are not making a total guess at demand. People post a lot of things on here, are the club now going to take eveything on here as gospel truth and act on it?
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Pretty sure they have explained why they sold them like they did.

Apologies then, I hadn't seen anything where they had stated why they hadn't put them on general sale sooner. What was the reason they gave for not getting them on general sale sooner?
 

Astute

Well-Known Member
The last time we played at the Emirates it was a sellout. Yet they say that there were over 1,000 tickets not sold.

And people wonder why we don't believe a word that they say when they finally do.
 

Nick

Administrator
Apologies then, I hadn't seen anything where they had stated why they hadn't put them on general sale sooner. What was the reason they gave for not getting them on general sale sooner?

Because of that, we wanted to ensure that all supporters who have followed the club so far this season – home and/or away – got the opportunity to purchase at least two tickets for the game.
 

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