Avaricious online Ticket Agencies. How do they get hold of so many?

[JGL07]

That’s a bit of a generalisation. A lot of one in fact.

There are people who have followed City home and away for years in England and in Europe who are lapsed season ticket holders now who haven’t got tickets for Madrid at home. One of the lads I know has more points than I do.

People haven’t attended CL games for many reasons over the years but we’ve had very good attendances, rarely ever dipping under 40,000 for Group Stage games.

Before the Etihad was extended in 2015, our average CL Group Stage attendance was 42,230 over four seasons. Bearing in mind the capacity was 47,400 and not all sets of away fans brought the same number; Viktoria Plzen hardly brought any fans, for example, and remember CSKA Moscow were banned from attending the Etihad.

I appreciate the points you are making. I have attended every possible Group Stage match in the Champions League for City apart from the first match against Napoli and that against Lyon where a storm blew down the wires on the rail network from Scotland and I never made it to the match.

I have seen a lot of empty seats but I have also seen attendances being boosted by school parties and complementary tickets being dished out to students.

Attending a CL match is very different to attending a PL match, as there are a much higher numbers of tourists complete with half and half scarves. An FA Cup match is different again with a very different, and much younger, crowd.

The point is that a number of City supporters are 'Euro Sceptic' as regards European competitions and have been very open about this on here. Now City are more likely to win, some have evidentally changed their minds and are now moaning about not being able to get a ticket for the Real Madrid match.

Am I being unkind? Maybe?

 

[blue b4 the moon]

This season I have noticed more tourists and more half/half scarves than any season I can ever recall and I have had same seat in ground since we moved here. They spend the money in the shops and on food. I keep telling (justifying) to myself their cash keeps our season ticket price down.....but at what cost? I am a legacy fan and yes have the odd pint in ground but very rarely set foot in the cityshop this season. My concern is alos selling tickets to the away fans - at home v Liverpool I was sitting next to 2 tourists with half/half scarves and a Liverpool fan (he tried to hide it but I could tell!)

My lad couldn't make the Arsenal game and out it on the exchange, (he sits directly behind me in SS3) I didn't speak to him but the bloke in his seat had a red coat on, spent whenever I talked to guys sat behind me near him was in his phone, looked pissed off all game, didn't cheer any goals etc.

Wished I'd have asked him what he paid now I'm wondering if he ended up with a pie/pint £100+ ticket.

 

[MadchesterCity]

We've had this debate so many times. It's getting tiresome. I even answered the OP yesterday.

Yes, the club has around ten official partners that it gives tickets to, who then sell them as part of travel packages. But I was assured by the club that these are hospitality, not general admission tickets. They did have a deal with Ryanair for some general admission tickets but not sure if that's still running.

These foreign based sites either don't have the tickets they're advertising or are getting them legitimately or via nefarious means. I've not yet seen anyone blame season ticket holders who might be selling them off, it's always the club.

Now here's the rub. We have 37,000 seasoncard holders and only about one third of those are on the CL scheme. That means that nearly two-thirds of our SC holders aren't, and in turn means there's a huge number of tickets available for general sale that are being snapped up by non-SC-holders.

Those of us on the CL scheme, who go to CL games, know only too well that you'll see loads of unfamiliar faces at those games, because the majority of people who will turn up for a Wednesday night PL game can't be arsed turning up when a CL opponent comes to the Etihad. That means it's easy to pay £35 for a membership and get tickets for those games.

Of course I understand it's not feasible for some to do any midweek game and I definitely agree that the club fucked up in the way it sold the semifinal tickets. Personally I'd use an amended version of the points system that prioritised more recent attendance and particularly at CL games, and I'd only give points to people who actually turn up on the night, something CM agreed with the club, but which they (as usual) bottled out of.

But the plain truth is that if as many as possible of those 20k+ who aren't on the CL scheme went on it, and turned up, then this wouldn't be a fucking problem. Because it's their tickets that the tourists and touts are taking advantage of.

Do we really only have 17,000 on the Euro Cup scheme?

Oh and thanks for your posts

 

[Gus Fring]

I missed out on Madrid and I’m as pissed off as most about it, I could rant and rave about unfairness or the fact the greed of tickets nowadays mirrors society, selfish and no fucker cares about eachother.

Reality is however, if there were no fans in the Etihad every week it would make next to fuck all difference to the bank balance and the shareholders pockets, we all saw that during COVID and I think the club have realised that hence some of the daft shit they have been doing with tickets and ‘packages’ it’s certainly not a new thing of course but it has gotten a lot worse.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Do we really only have 17,000 on the Euro Cup scheme?

Oh and thanks for your posts

Fewer than that I'd say. More like 13-15k.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

We've had this debate so many times. It's getting tiresome. I even answered the OP yesterday.

Yes, the club has around ten official partners that it gives tickets to, who then sell them as part of travel packages. But I was assured by the club that these are hospitality, not general admission tickets. They did have a deal with Ryanair for some general admission tickets but not sure if that's still running.

These foreign based sites either don't have the tickets they're advertising or are getting them legitimately or via nefarious means. I've not yet seen anyone blame season ticket holders who might be selling them off, it's always the club.

Now here's the rub. We have 37,000 seasoncard holders and only about one third of those are on the CL scheme. That means that nearly two-thirds of our SC holders aren't, and in turn means there's a huge number of tickets available for general sale that are being snapped up by non-SC-holders.

Those of us on the CL scheme, who go to CL games, know only too well that you'll see loads of unfamiliar faces at those games, because the majority of people who will turn up for a Wednesday night PL game can't be arsed turning up when a CL opponent comes to the Etihad. That means it's easy to pay £35 for a membership and get tickets for those games.

Of course I understand it's not feasible for some to do any midweek game and I definitely agree that the club fucked up in the way it sold the semifinal tickets. Personally I'd use an amended version of the points system that prioritised more recent attendance and particularly at CL games, and I'd only give points to people who actually turn up on the night, something CM agreed with the club, but which they (as usual) bottled out of.

But the plain truth is that if as many as possible of those 20k+ who aren't on the CL scheme went on it, and turned up, then this wouldn't be a fucking problem. Because it's their tickets that the tourists and touts are taking advantage of.

There’s a big difference between ‘can’t be arsed’ and can’t afford.

I’m the only season ticket holder out of my group of mates who goes to CL games. All of them say they can’t justify the price of the tickets on top of what they already pay for their season tickets to City. In the past, when season tickets were cheaper, most of them did to come to CL games.

For some it’s a bind to afford their season tickets as it is. For about 28 (I think I’ve counted it up to now) mates and family members of mine, they’ve given up their season tickets over the last few years because it’s got too expensive, never mind paying for CL tickets as well. A mate of mine went down to the Value Gold season ticket as that’s all he can afford these days and doesn’t do any cup games.

I used to pay Platinum and be in all the Cup Schemes but I bought a flat and it needed doing up so I went down to Gold so I could stay in the Cup Schemes but if I needed more money it could well be the Cup Schemes I come out of so that I can still afford my season ticket (I’ve also not been going on the piss since doing the flat up and even stopped watching the BBC so I could stop paying my TV licence just to add a bit more to the coffers).

Real Madrid, Dortmund, Bayern and AC Milan (just some of the clubs I’ve checked) include the CL Group Stage as part of their season ticket prices and even Real Madrid have many more of the cheaper-end tickets than we do and the other three dwarf ours (Bayern 16,000 cheap-end tickets compared to 1,200 at City)!

 

[Nethermoor]

Deffo should be a cup scheme for Cityzens.

I'd be in on that 100%. I do average of 12/13 games a season, about 3/4 of those are premier league the rest cups.

Missed out on RM and i'm gutted. I've seen every home Champions league game for the last few years (apart from Covid)