Away ends and tourists

[Goats left knee]

I have season tickets, have supported city like all my family for decades, yet at a home match felt my brother was getting funny looks from a family (mainly women) beside us because he had an Irish (tourist accent).
People just need to get over it, I understand it is frustrating if you sense a few around you are in the wrong end, but at big gaa matches in croke park all fans are mixed, and the atmosphere would raise the hair on your neck!!
It always looks ridiculous when a man and his son on a day out are being led out of the etihad and attacked by tanked up individuals.
It's a worldwide entertainment industry, not that far off a visit to the cinema these days.
Only other option is get 10-12 Mancs to let everyone in to the aways, check loyalty points and accents. York away stubs obviously get straight in!!

 

[East Level 2]

I was there early on Saturday and the stewards were talking about a few LIVERPOOL fans in our end. They were all tourists but had got them from package deals. He said it happens EVERY WEEK, all clubs do it unfortunately. One woman City fan said they should be thrown out and the steward said they have every right to be there due to have a legally bought ticket.

Yet our beloved club tell us it's against ground rules at all clubs to sell tickets to supporters of one club in an area designated for supporters of the opposition. Liverpool stewards won't do anything about it as they won't act against Liverpool fans.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Are posters on here completely blind,these tickets are not coming from points whore's or supporters clubs, they are being issued to a ticket agency for overseas supporters,whether they be City fans or neutrals who want too see a match in the UK, they are issued on block by Manchester City Football Club
They have been guaranteed between 5 and 10% of the away allocation to grow the CITY Brand name
If they were coming from individual they would be dotted all over the place, when clearly they are all sat in groups if not rows

Whilst you might be right, there are tickets available (if you're willing to pay the ackers) to EVERY match, not only in the PL but at Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Rags and Liverpool. If we were the only team not on there someone would start a thread asking why....
It's just the way of the world now in the 'entertainment' industry.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Difficult one this. I was back in Dec 2014 and the club could not (would not) help me with tickets for an away game. I wanted my 10 yr old to experience a Boxing Day in the Away end. Ended up paying ~300quid for two tickets for WBA through a mob in Hong Kong to guarantee tickets. I have a broad Aussie accent and don't know all the songs so a lot would call me a tourist I guess. We emigrated from the NW in 1981 when I was a kid and I have supported City all my life. Was a season ticket holder from London in 03/04 season where my Son went to games in Utero. You guys are fortunate in that you have a postcode in Manchester and get to accrue the necessary points. Whilst the club is not what it used to be (I remember in the 80's a lady called Margaret Naden (sp) was always so helpful arranging for tickets, tour of Maine Rd etc for me and my Dad (don't think there were many foreign fans then) they do still try to protect the Aways for "loyal" fans as they refused to listen to my pleas for help. Had there not been the mechanism to purchase tickets for JCLs internationally then I (and more importantly my Son) would not have experienced that occassion on Boxing Day 2014 (it snowed the entire second half too!). That one game really "made" my Son a City fan. We went to the home games against Burnley, the launch of the new EDS (Schalke or Hamburg can't remember) and then Arsenal match using our Cityzen cards. The game my Son still talks about and brought up just this week was the one at the Hawthorns. I guess there will be some hit and misses with some "fans" purely going for the tourist attraction....but there will be others, like me (and my Son) that have done whatever they can and arrange entire itineries around getting to a match.

Least at the West Brom game you got a punch up in the councourse for your money too!

 

[jrb]

I have season tickets, have supported city like all my family for decades, yet at a home match felt my brother was getting funny looks from a family (mainly women) beside us because he had an Irish (tourist accent).
People just need to get over it, I understand it is frustrating if you sense a few around you are in the wrong end, but at big gaa matches in croke park all fans are mixed, and the atmosphere would raise the hair on your neck!!
It always looks ridiculous when a man and his son on a day out are being led out of the etihad and attacked by tanked up individuals.
It's a worldwide entertainment industry, not that far off a visit to the cinema these days.
Only other option is get 10-12 Mancs to let everyone in to the aways, check loyalty points and accents. York away stubs obviously get straight in!!

That's a nice idea. It might work in Dublin/Ireland, but it won't work in a Manchester derby, at Stoke, etc. The away end is specifically for away fans. (as we all know) There is no way the Authorities, City Councils, the Police, and clubs will ever entertain that idea. Apart from the obvious, which would be violence, there's the small matter of being held responsible and being sued. That's why clubs take segregation so seriously.

I appreciate Fulham have a neutral zone where away and home fans mix alongside the away end, but that's only because Fulham don't have any hooligans, idiots, or whatever we're now called. ;-) That neutral zone is also mainly made up of families, which makes the vast majority of people/fans think twice before kicking off. Or at least you'd hope it would do.

At the end of the day City control the tickets and ticket sales. They dictate where those tickets go, and to an extent end up. Yes, once those tickets go down the fans food chain, then City have no control over them whatsoever. It's out of their hands. But City still have some responsibility if there is an incident, as they where the original source of those tickets.

The Bournemouth ticket situation first cropped up last season. Fans were rightly asking how so many away tickets had ended up on ticket sites. 12 months down the line and the same thing has happened again. So either the club have allowed it to happen again and have taken no action, or they genuinely aren't bothered for whatever reason.

 

[ballinio]

Are posters on here completely blind,these tickets are not coming from points whore's or supporters clubs, they are being issued to a ticket agency for overseas supporters,whether they be City fans or neutrals who want too see a match in the UK, they are issued on block by Manchester City Football Club
They have been guaranteed between 5 and 10% of the away allocation to grow the CITY Brand name
If they were coming from individual they would be dotted all over the place, when clearly they are all sat in groups if not rows

Finally....this is what's happening. The club are to blame for this & they don't give a shit if someone from China is sat next to you wrapped in a Liverpool Kit, bad enough at home but to actually sell blocks or rows of tickets to tourists who don't give a shit if City win or lose at our away games is disgusting.
A massive two fingers to loyal fans who would have enough points normally,it's not the club I thought it was that's for sure,they should be ashamed of themselves..

 

[Allnightlong]

people on here complaing about away fans in our end but on the West ham overcharging thread a city fan has got a ticket in the west ham end.
Perhaps taking a seat a west ham fan can get.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

It's difficult, I'm at the game today with my mate who ex-manchester born & bred in gorton and ex-season ticket holder at Maine Rd who now has lived in Denmark for the last 20 years or so.

Technically he's now a tourist, I've got a spare for him today but that's a home game where there's always some slack. He's probably been to more games than 25% of blues there and his last match was a 4 hour drive to watch the ladies CL game in Denmark, but technically he's a tourist. The point I'm making is people aren't always what they seem on first impressions.

Away games however, the club really should as much as possible make sure tickets go to fans via loyalty points. I rarely do aways now, apart from Wembley normally only 1/2 a season but I was a Barca when Zabba was sent off and had all sorts around me.

Re agency tickets, is it not illegal to mark up a £30 ticket to £200 via an agency?

 

[Dubai Blue]

Finally....this is what's happening. The club are to blame for this & they don't give a shit if someone from China is sat next to you wrapped in a Liverpool Kit, bad enough at home but to actually sell blocks or rows of tickets to tourists who don't give a shit if City win or lose at our away games is disgusting.
A massive two fingers to loyal fans who would have enough points normally,it's not the club I thought it was that's for sure,they should be ashamed of themselves..

Away tickets are dead revenue for the club, so some bright spark has clearly decided to bolt them on as value adds to drive other areas of revenue that make their own figures look better. Look at how many tickets boxholders are guaranteed for every away game, and then imagine how many are made available for the sponsors that pay millions/hundreds of thousands per year for the privilege. If some marketing guy from Nexen Tire wants 10 tickets to give to the family of a client for a big game against the dippers, no one at the club is going to stand in their way. It's what they were promised when they signed up and what they now expect as a given.

This is all being driven by the club. There is simply no way that the extent to which this is happening has anything to do with supporters clubs or points whores.

 

[ballinio]

It's difficult, I'm at the game today with my mate who ex-manchester born & bred in gorton and ex-season ticket holder at Maine Rd who now has lived in Denmark for the last 20 years or so.

Technically he's now a tourist, I've got a spare for him today but that's a home game where there's always some slack. He's probably been to more games than 25% of blues there and his last match was a 4 hour drive to watch the ladies CL game in Denmark, but technically he's a tourist. The point I'm making is people aren't always what they seem on first impressions.

Away games however, the club really should as much as possible make sure tickets go to fans via loyalty points. I rarely do aways now, apart from Wembley normally only 1/2 a season but I was a Barca when Zabba was sent off and had all sorts around me.

Re agency tickets, is it not illegal to mark up a £30 ticket to £200 via an agency?

It's true but I bet your mate doesn't turn round and ask someone to take a photo of him while we're about to take a corner as happened to me, I bet he's not got burnley, Utd , Liverpool scalf on & I bet he looks like he might be interested in who wins ? It's not about your accent or colour, it's about the whole attitude to the game, there is a difference. I've seen tourist laughing & joking , big smiles on their faces trying to get pictures of the player who's just scored against us, if that's the way City want it fair enough but they'll lose my support & thousands like me if it carries on.