Seat Counters 25/26

[East Level 2]

I think the club has slowly tied itself in knots with its various ticketing policies and we're now seeing the end result. Not the only factor though if there's a lot of empty seats tonight. As others have mentioned, transport, personal finance, being on tv on a chilly midweek evening will all impact the attendance. Whether some agree or not, a lot of supporters are finding the football a bit boring and mundane as well and just can't be arsed going.

The club seems to be pissing off a fair proportion of our fanbase with restrictive ticket transfer rules and minimum attendance requirements for ST holders etc, but is doing absolutely nothing to encourage a new generation of fans to take their place (as the song goes).
The reduction in matchday prices helped of course but that only came after huge increases over the previous decade so the "cheaper" tickets are still expensive in real terms.
I'm perfectly happy with the club trying to stop ST holders selling unused seats above face value, or only using them for so-called glamour games, but a fan who works shifts should not be penalised, nor should someone who is seriously ill. And how the hell they can justify penalising fans who pass on tickets when games are regularly moved from the original kick-off time?
Many on here seem to believe the NS extension will be sparsely populated much of the time but will be full for glamour games. That may well be true to an extent but the tourist market has never been big enough to generate that many ticket sales which is demonstrated by the current capacity only selling out a day or two before major fixtures.
There will have to be significant back-tracking to retain the current fanbase, never mind looking to increase it.

 

[Blue Mist]

For all the comments on pricing it dosnt make much difference if it's a mid week game .apart from any other factor by being successful City just play to much football and it becomes overkill.

The comment 'too much football' is bang on.
For personal reasons me and Mrs Mist need/want a week away in the sun.
'Sorry love can't do that week, it's Newcastle, week after, ergh no were at home again ergh then Salford and on and on. Fortunately Mrs Mist understands but fans are paying the price of more international matches, extended Champs League and of course our success. Ok I don't want the rag scenario, no Europe no domestic cups but something needs to give. (For me international matches should be drastically reduced and the Champs League back to 3 games.)

 

[flapjack]

7599 left - (with hidden)
2092 left - (without hidden)

 

[Wirral Blue8]

Salford:

Level 3 - 4484 (Up about 300 on yesterday!)
Level 2 - 2701
Level 1 - 2966

10,151 in total

Tickets remaining on the website for FA Cup v Salford.
Salford have an allocation of 5,236.

Level 0: 2,793

Level 1: 2,724

Level 3: 4,408

Total: 9,925 tickets left

 

[Wirral Blue8]

7599 left - (with hidden)
2092 left - (without hidden)

Nice one pal. Have removed my post then. So attendance of about 45-46k tonight then with this number of empties

 

[East Level 2]

It’s a problem alright but not a simple one.

My mate is a member of Reddish Blues and they had a City rep there a while ago who said for one game over 60% of season ticket holders did not turn up.

I don’t know who it was or what the game was!

I can't believe that figure relates to a PL game. Perhaps he meant 60% of ST holders swerved a home cup game.

 

[Mike_F]

They need to look in the mirror at some of their attendances.

Apart from them selling out

Small time club small time fans who haven’t had any relevance since they beat us in the 1955

They got pitifully small crowds pre Keegan so they can’t say anything about empty seats . They’re just another middling club which has boomed in the PL era as the grounds became riddled with middle class fans with more disposable income.

Their attendances throughout their history compare favourably with ours. We're both well-supported clubs from Northern cities that haven't had it easy at times, what's wrong with giving others credit?

England historical attendance and performance

England historical attendance and performance

european-football-statistics.co.uk

 

[flapjack]

Nice one pal. Have removed my post then. So attendance of about 45-46k tonight then with this number of empties

no need to delete it mate, it's all good seat counter knowledge!....going off what you had put, it looks like there has been about a 1000 more added to Level 3 since they took it off, probably ticketing partners returns?

 

[Chappie]

Apart from them selling out

Their attendances throughout their history compare favourably with ours. We're both well-supported clubs from Northern cities that haven't had it easy at times, what's wrong with giving others credit?

England historical attendance and performance

England historical attendance and performance

european-football-statistics.co.uk

How would they compare if they had 2 teams in the same City and approximately 15 teams in a 20 mile radius of their city

 

[jrb]

If it hasn't already been posted?

 

[Roachy]

The club seems to be pissing off a fair proportion of our fanbase with restrictive ticket transfer rules and minimum attendance requirements for ST holders etc, but is doing absolutely nothing to encourage a new generation of fans to take their place (as the song goes).
The reduction in matchday prices helped of course but that only came after huge increases over the previous decade so the "cheaper" tickets are still expensive in real terms.
I'm perfectly happy with the club trying to stop ST holders selling unused seats above face value, or only using them for so-called glamour games, but a fan who works shifts should not be penalised, nor should someone who is seriously ill. And how the hell they can justify penalising fans who pass on tickets when games are regularly moved from the original kick-off time?
Many on here seem to believe the NS extension will be sparsely populated much of the time but will be full for glamour games. That may well be true to an extent but the tourist market has never been big enough to generate that many ticket sales which is demonstrated by the current capacity only selling out a day or two before major fixtures.
There will have to be significant back-tracking to retain the current fanbase, never mind looking to increase it.

Can't disagree and I said somewhere else it's going to take some turning around. If this current ticketing strategy continues on this trajectory I don't know what will happen, but it won't be good. The killer will be any protracted downturn in the teams fortunes. Pissed off ex-ST holders just won't come back and current ones won't renew in numbers. Good luck to the club if they think the tourists will pick up the slack.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

Apart from them selling out

Their attendances throughout their history compare favourably with ours. We're both well-supported clubs from Northern cities that haven't had it easy at times, what's wrong with giving others credit?

England historical attendance and performance

England historical attendance and performance

european-football-statistics.co.uk

I’m sure their fans won’t be giving us any credit tonight.

 

[Mike_F]

How would they compare if they had 2 teams in the same City and approximately 15 teams in a 20 mile radius of their city

I don't know

 

[Mike_F]

I’m sure their fans won’t be giving us any credit tonight.

I'm sure you're right.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I can't believe that figure relates to a PL game. Perhaps he meant 60% of ST holders swerved a home cup game.

I tend to agree but anything is possible especially with the level hypocrisy on here.

Mention Platinum and fans quite rightly say that’s a money grab. Demand a thousand free loyalty points on Billy and Georgie’s season card when they can’t make the games when at Uni and City are a disgrace.

Nobody seems to worry on here about the industrial scale points whoring that means diehard Blues never move up the queue for away tickets. I’m a bit ambivalent on this myself if it gets younger and noisier fans in our away ends but I’m not sure that’s always the case.

 

[supercity88]

The comment 'too much football' is bang on.
For personal reasons me and Mrs Mist need/want a week away in the sun.
'Sorry love can't do that week, it's Newcastle, week after, ergh no were at home again ergh then Salford and on and on. Fortunately Mrs Mist understands but fans are paying the price of more international matches, extended Champs League and of course our success. Ok I don't want the rag scenario, no Europe no domestic cups but something needs to give. (For me international matches should be drastically reduced and the Champs League back to 3 games.)

It's definitely having an impact. This is our 6th home game since the NY and we have also had plenty of other games in that period. January isn't the easiest month to be throwing loads of money at football, and they've all been on the telly.

It is just the league cup as well. For us, with our recent history it's not that big a deal. For this current squad of players and getting back to the top of the tree it probably is an important competition but it's always going to be a bigger game for Arsenal and Newcastle with their comparative lack of success in recent times.

 

[M18CTID]

I can't believe that figure relates to a PL game. Perhaps he meant 60% of ST holders swerved a home cup game.

Spot on. Not a chance in a million years that over 60% of ST holders wouldn't turn up for a league game

 

[M18CTID]

I tend to agree but anything is possible especially with the level hypocrisy on here.

Mention Platinum and fans quite rightly say that’s a money grab. Demand a thousand free loyalty points on Billy and Georgie’s season card when they can’t make the games when at Uni and City are a disgrace.

Nobody seems to worry on here about the industrial scale points whoring that means diehard Blues never move up the queue for away tickets. I’m a bit ambivalent on this myself if it gets younger and noisier fans in our away ends but I’m not sure that’s always the case.

Tim, those issues are different to what someone at the club allegedly said about over 60% of season ticket holders not turning up for a league match. Obviously, we don't know whether that club rep actually said it or not because none of us were there to witness it but if he did then he's talking bollocks. That would mean something like 20,000 ST holders not turning up for a match. And by not turning up, that's literally 20,000 not turning up and not even bothering to either transfer their ticket or stick it on the exchange.

 

[Chappie]

I tend to agree but anything is possible especially with the level hypocrisy on here.

Mention Platinum and fans quite rightly say that’s a money grab. Demand a thousand free loyalty points on Billy and Georgie’s season card when they can’t make the games when at Uni and City are a disgrace.

Nobody seems to worry on here about the industrial scale points whoring that means diehard Blues never move up the queue for away tickets. I’m a bit ambivalent on this myself if it gets younger and noisier fans in our away ends but I’m not sure that’s always the case.

How do you "points whore" now ?
If all the away tickets went to the loyalty points system, most games would go down to members .
As has been proved countless times this season, even without the full allocation of tickets going in this pot.
There is only one group of people preventing this and that is Manchester City Football Club who in their infinite wisdom deem it fit to distribute 20% of away tickets to any Tom Dick and Harry

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Tim, those issues are different to what someone at the club allegedly said about over 60% of season ticket holders not turning up for a league match. Obviously, we don't know whether that club rep actually said it or not because none of us were there to witness it but if he did then he's talking bollocks. That would mean something like 20,000 ST holders not turning up for a match. And by not turning up, that's literally 20,000 not turning up and not even bothering to either transfer their ticket or stick it on the exchange.

I agree it’s bollox that 60% of season card holders miss the same Prem game. I think a third is a lot more realistic (at the top end of fans who can’t make the game).

Most of our season card holders are diehard Blues. Maybe that’s been undermined a bit by City paying fans to stay away with the 12 game guaranteed refund scheme but it’s nowhere near 60%.

Switching to Roachy’s comment that our number of season card holders will swindle if the trophies / wins dry up. I don’t see it myself. I can see the extra 4k season cards / flexis selling too. The prices need to be reasonable of course.

In addition, I think we’ve all got a responsibility to help grow the next generation of fans. City could start with reinstating the Junior Blues. Fook the cartoons from New York, though I appreciate I’m not the target audience for them lol.