Third party ticket sites and City (dodgy site ticket claims - p32)

[jrb]

So when NSL2 is expanded, and if the club make season tickets available, which fans get the season tickets first, and why, or is it just going to be a random selection? Sheer luck, with many fans disappointed at missing out on a season ticket? Just a thought.

 

[Edghill OG]

We don't have a waiting list. It used to be advertised as one of the benefits of the Cityzen Matchday Memberships but was removed a couple of years ago.

I suspect if any season tickets become available in the future it will all become clearer, but as with anything ticket related at City it will still be shrouded in mystery.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

That's complete nonsense. These sites have their base outside the UK. They can't be touched.

That's complete nonsense. These sites have their base outside the UK. They can't be touched.

Absolute bollocks.

The agency I know of closely that was busted before the Euros wasn’t even based in Europe. Every UK based employee was jailed or handed suspended prison sentences.

Get some of your ex colleagues on City Matters to ask the club at the next meeting how Livetickets have 500 tickets for the City Wolves game.

And then ask them where a couple of hundred of them will magically appear on the City planner a day before the game.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Absolute bollocks.

The agency I know of closely that was busted before the Euros wasn’t even based in Europe. Every UK based employee was jailed or handed suspended prison sentences.

Get some of your ex colleagues on City Matters to ask the club at the next meeting how Livetickets have 500 tickets for the City Wolves game.

And then ask them where a couple of hundred of them will magically appear on the City planner a day before the game.

A ticket agency has 500 tickets? That's scandalous.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

I had this conversation with the club early on in City Matters. They openly sell tickets to various official partner agencies for home games. However there were agencies who weren't official partners openly offering packages and I pointed this out to them.

I have severe doubts that the club is directly involved in supplying third-party sites with away tickets on a large scale, as these sites mostly operate on the wrong side of the law. But if they are supplying any of these sites, then it has to be out of their 5% ticket allocation, rather than the season ticket holders'.

It's far more likely that these sites have access to tickets via hospitality season ticket holders or those with high points. I've heard anecdotal evidence of people paying for their hospitality season tickets via this sort of activity.

Hopefully the Ticketing Compliance Manager will be able to make some inroads into this. Just buy a couple of tickets and see where they came from.

A ticket agency has 500 tickets? That's scandalous.

They have thousands for Spurs home games.

It’s a racket and every club is at it !!

 

[jrb]

We don't have a waiting list. It used to be advertised as one of the benefits of the Cityzen Matchday Memberships but was removed a couple of years ago.

I suspect if any season tickets become available in the future it will all become clearer, but as with anything ticket related at City it will still be shrouded in mystery.

And there lies the benefit of having a named season ticket list still, giving first refusal to people who have been waiting the longest for a season ticket, as opposed to coming up with an half cocked and unfair criteria that will give season tickets to random people. Real Madrid at home last season and the Citizens membership farce springs to mind. Can you imagine if one of those people who bought a ticket just for the Real Madrid match gets offered a season ticket. Of course that’s hypothetical and won’t happen. I’m sure the club have thought everything through and will have a fair and honest new season ticket sales criteria in place when the expanded North stand opens.

 

[Edghill OG]

And there lies the benefit of having a named season ticket list still, giving first refusal to people who have been waiting the longest for a season ticket, as opposed to coming up with an half cocked and unfair criteria that will give season tickets to random people. Real Madrid at home last season, and the Citizens membership farce springs to mind. Can you imagine if one of those people who applied just for the Real Madrid match ticket gets offered as season ticket. Of course that’s hypothetical and won’t happen. I’m sure the club have thought everything through and will have a fair and honest new season ticket sales criteria in place when the expanded North stand opens.

I hope they go down the route of having a proper waiting list and don't know why that isn't the case currently. Well I do, they don't like using criteria and would rather push the membership sales like the Silver Season Tickets and Madrid game. Giving the illusion people are in with a shout of a season ticket regardless of prior purchasing history. If you knew you'd be at the back of the queue it'd harm paid membership sales.

 

[jrb]

I hope they go down the route of having a proper waiting list and don't know why that isn't the case currently. Well I do, they don't like using criteria and would rather push the membership sales like the Silver Season Tickets and Madrid game. Giving the illusion people are in with a shout of a season ticket regardless of prior purchasing history. If you knew you'd be at the back of the queue it'd harm paid membership sales.

So by that, if season tickets are made available by the club again when the North stand is expanded, it could be lottery getting one, with everyone who wants a season ticket in with a chance of getting one?

I sincerely hope the club still has the now defunct season ticket waiting list stored on a device somewhere and go back to it if new season tickets do become available again?

Obviously you can only guess a number, but I hope anywhere between 5000 as a minimum, to 6000 new season tickets become available on NSL2 and across the ground when the North stand is expanded. That would still leave 3000 to 2000 match day tickets.

 

[eastmanc]

Assuming 324 is similar to 325 and I barely recognise a load of people around me each time I go. Surrounded by Germans last time and Dutch the time before. Big groups of them too. Regularly have Americans, Eastern Europeans, Middle Eastern people up there etc.

Some very naive people on here thinking the club aren't involved. The likes of Viagogo and Livefootballtickets don't let individuals sell tickets. If they're offering upto 4+ seats together the club have to be complicit.

I fear for the matchday individuals next year and how many tickets will be made available to them with the relocations of those ST holders from the North Stand whilst the works getting carried out. Supply even lower to meet the demand = even higher rises.

Every game there are different accents and faces near us every match. And I'm fed up of getting up and down in the match for them to come in late and go early at half time and full time. But that is probably for another thread.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

I don’t even think about going for tickets now and just spend my money doing other things. It hurt at first but I’ll pick up the occasional spare on here for the odd match and be content enough.

 

[Stephen230]

An official package like this, which I don’t agree with, is different to the agencies selling home & away tickets at hugely inflated prices with no transparency on the source.

I think we can agree that the ticket system needs to be more transparent.

If you can see a fundamental difference between City directly giving Sportsworld whole blocks of tickets for high demand games to sell at whatever price they like with a night’s stay added on top and them supplying the likes of Viagogo and Ticketmaster to sell in the same way just without the room, then you’re seeing something that is beyond me.

 

[blueparrot]

Every game there are different accents and faces near us every match. And I'm fed up of getting up and down in the match for them to come in late and go early at half time and full time. But that is probably for another thread.

The worst offenders for that aren't so called tourists,the worst offenders are S/C holders. I've been buying matchday tickets for years and it's one of my biggest bugbears.I can tell it's S/C holders because when they arrive late or leave early they always sem to need to stand and say hello/goodbye to all their mates around them, they are usually the biggest moaners too.

 

[bluestevei]

just been on a selling site, tickets for city end start at over 400 notes and thats at the top, so had a look for utd end and same, goverment dont like touts but these selling sites are far worst

 

[heslops barnet]

Can you imagine the shit PL clubs would get if they were selling tickets for £500 from their own ticket site ? Hiding behind these agencies is how they are escape what is essentially a racket.

Football has gone exactly the same way the gig industry has.

Live Nation realised Viagogo were making huge revenue flogging secondary sale tickets for huge mark ups. They wanted those profits so introduced surge pricing for elite artists. They introduced a resale option via their Ticketmaster operation - so if you can’t go they are selling it not Viagogo.

Football is going the same way. Fuck off seasoncards and concessions - they want affluent customers paying top dollar for the PL experience.

A good journo will eventually expose all this shit for big PL clubs.

A good journo….good look finding one

 

[SB Blue]

If you can see a fundamental difference between City directly giving Sportsworld whole blocks of tickets for high demand games to sell at whatever price they like with a night’s stay added on top and them supplying the likes of Viagogo and Ticketmaster to sell in the same way just without the room, then you’re seeing something that is beyond me.

Yes, I can see a difference. SportsWorld is an official partner and the package, while expensive, will most likely have the mark up on the hotel and not the ticket, wouldn’t surprise me if there were a couple of ‘souvenirs’ included in the package too. The ticket agencies are selling a standard ticket with a huge mark up, the source of these isn’t established as being the club directly, nor is it clear that the club are receiving any more than face value for tickets sold that way. On the other hand they don’t seem to be interested in doing anything to stop it either which is disappointing, as others have said it wouldn’t be difficult for them to determine the sources and put things in place to prevent it happening.

 

[Edghill OG]

So by that, if season tickets are made available by the club again when the North stand is expanded, it could be lottery getting one, with everyone who wants a season ticket in with a chance of getting one?

I sincerely hope the club still has the now defunct season ticket waiting list stored on a device somewhere and go back to it if new season tickets do become available again?

Obviously you can only guess a number, but I hope anywhere between 5000 as a minimum, to 6000 new season tickets become available on NSL2 and across the ground when the North stand is expanded. That would still leave 3000 to 2000 match day tickets.

Has there been any assurances from the club of the breakdown of what the new stand will compose of? I'm not getting my hopes up in case I get disappointed. They may try and fob people off with this new flexi as their new offering of a season ticket now and not offer as many as we all think.

I'd like them to do a rolling games attended over a specified time period (3-5 years say) than points to reward those that are still attending regularly.

Every game there are different accents and faces near us every match. And I'm fed up of getting up and down in the match for them to come in late and go early at half time and full time. But that is probably for another thread.

Yes, I'm moving next year. Rather be with like minded blues in South Stand and sacrifice a bit of view.

Wherever you are you'll be up and down like a whores nickers though. The exodus on 30 minutes for the half-time pint in the South Stand being one of the worst.

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

Although it pains me to reference them, Liverpool for an example are completely transparent about their season ticket numbers. They now have 26k after a further thousand new ones were issued with the opening of the expanded Anfield Road stand. There is a waiting list that has been closed to join for over ten years but where everyone on it can see their number in the queue and can see how they have moved up marginally each year (estimated wait is around 30 years).

The club is moving as quickly as possible to get closer to the proportion of SCs as them so I'd expect a nominal number of new ones being sold when the expanded NS opens. It will be filled with relocations (with many vacated seats not offered as SCs), GA & GA+ and a token number of new SCs. As a SC holder I'm aware that I'm in a very privileged position and it is why I've advised people who were saying they were thinking of not renewing to reconsider. The chances of the vast majority of people who currently want one actually getting one are slim to zero.

 

[eastmanc]

Has there been any assurances from the club of the breakdown of what the new stand will compose of? I'm not getting my hopes up in case I get disappointed. They may try and fob people off with this new flexi as their new offering of a season ticket now and not offer as many as we all think.

I'd like them to do a rolling games attended over a specified time period (3-5 years say) than points to reward those that are still attending regularly.



Yes, I'm moving next year. Rather be with like minded blues in South Stand and sacrifice a bit of view.

Wherever you are you'll be up and down like a whores nickers though. The exodus on 30 minutes for the half-time pint in the South Stand being one of the worst.

It really winds me up.

 

[jrb]

I think the team fall off from Pep leaving, (you only have to look at Liverpool to see how hard it is to get the right manager to replace Klopp), in the coming years, will focus minds at City with an extra 8000 seats to fill. When there is an inevitable downturn in the teams performance after Pep leaves, the legacy and hardcore fans will still turn up, will our new supporters, day trippers, tourists and football fans still turn up?

 

[I'm not really here]

When there is an inevitable downturn in the teams performance after Pep leaves, the legacy and hardcore fans will still turn up, will our new supporters, day trippers, tourists and football fans still turn up?

Probably not, but that said the rags still get the tourists in despite their drop off.
But if things start looking patchy with selling out games, that might be when the irons hot enough to strike in regards to getting season tickets for family and friends and reclaiming ones that were not renewed.

Think of it as an intermission