You are suggesting City have a problem selling tickets, I don't think there is. I think city could sell out 80,000 if they wanted to. It's down to pricing. At the moment City have limited capacity to sell seasoncards so sales of those are restricted, and with the limited remaining capacity, ticket prices are really high because experience has shown that they can sell them at £45 -£50 even for Huddersfield.Marvin.
We could debate this for the rest of the season. But neither of us have the facts, stats and numbers regarding tickets sales.
All I can go off is the OS seat planner and the visible empty seats around the stadium and around me.
I think(know?) we don’t sell out on a regular basis. Mainly against the lesser teams. And even though it’s very good of City to do this, we also give away substantial amounts of free tickets, especially in the LT of the NS, that wouldn’t sell against lesser teams.
If tickets were priced more keenly across the board/stadium, we would sell out regardless of the opposition. Last season’s match against Burnley in the FA Cup proved that. OK, Burnley brought 6000 fans as well.
I except and appreciate City aren’t going to price the big games keenly. They will always sell out. However, for the lesser games the priority should be to fill every seat, bar season ticket no shows.
Adding an additional 6000 seats and selling them is going to stretch the sale and marketing creativity of the club.
And Pep won’t be here then. And it won’t get any better than what we are seeing now. Capacity up, product on the pitch probably down.
OK, pick a game, I just picked Southampton at random on the planner tickets from £38.50. Now try and find 2 seats together, I only checked a handful of blocks and there were only singles. dotted about.Marvin.
We could debate this for the rest of the season. But neither of us have the facts, stats and numbers regarding tickets sales.
All I can go off is the OS seat planner and the visible empty seats around the stadium and around me.
I think(know?) we don’t sell out on a regular basis. Mainly against the lesser teams. And even though it’s very good of City to do this, we also give away substantial amounts of free tickets, especially in the LT of the NS, that wouldn’t sell against lesser teams.
If tickets were priced more keenly across the board/stadium, we would sell out regardless of the opposition. Last season’s match against Burnley in the FA Cup proved that. OK, Burnley brought 6000 fans as well.
I except and appreciate City aren’t going to price the big games keenly. They will always sell out. However, for the lesser games the priority should be to fill every seat, bar season ticket no shows.
Adding an additional 6000 seats and selling them is going to stretch the sale and marketing creativity of the club.
And Pep won’t be here then. And it won’t get any better than what we are seeing now. Capacity up, product on the pitch probably down.
With one caveat: corporate hospitality. There was a block in South Stand above the goal, I think it's 215 where it was no more than 75% full. That's 100% empty at half time so I am sure it's hospitality. I think City have possibly over-egged it a bit on the numbers allocated to corporate hospitality, however Huddersfield is not the best game to judge.Huddersfield did sell out though. I had to stand in the ticket queue for a paper ticket I'd ordered (for a visitor) that hadn't arrived by post. They had signs up everywhere saying that the game was a sell-out.
The empty seats were no-shows.
It would be interesting to know what % of fans at a game are from Manchester. I walked back to town on Sunday. Roads were absolutely rammed with fans doing the same right up until Great Ancoats St where everyone dispersed. Transport infrastructure, buses and trams can impact on locals but if you've got fans coming from London, West Midlands, Scotland etc then I wonder how much effect transport infrastructure has. It depends on how these people travel. Are they coming by public transport or by car?
Once you might have been born in Manchester, move around the City but live here all your life. Now people are more mobile. The connection to the club is different for everyone but what counts is maintaining that. Loyalty.As someone who does come up from the south three or four times a season I usually stay over, so it's just a walk back into town unless I stay with my cousin, in which case I still walk back into town and get the train from there. I will say that the prices for hotels for City home games have gone through the roof in the last few years, suggesting a lot more people from out of town than there used to be. I guess that's what people would expect to see.
Yes, stayed at my mums this weekend, but I have noticed the price of hotels has shot up in the last 2 years, I understand peoples concerns over the price of matchday tickets, but actually whether I pay for a £35 game or a £53 game doesn't really make much difference to the cost for me going to a game compared to travel, food, hotel.As someone who does come up from the south three or four times a season I usually stay over, so it's just a walk back into town unless I stay with my cousin, in which case I still walk back into town and get the train from there. I will say that the prices for hotels for City home games have gone through the roof in the last few years, suggesting a lot more people from out of town than there used to be. I guess that's what people would expect to see.
I think capacity is far too low. The current obsession with "empty seats" is very damaging. If you go back through City's crowds in the days when Maine Road was huge, you'll see that there were always great fluctuations in attendance. The point was, if you fancied going to a particular match, you could.
Current regular attendance - that is people who go to every home match - is higher than it has ever been. What is lacking is the ability to accommodate the casual spectator.
I say we should not allow ourselves to be dictated to be the snide comments of ignorant supporters of other clubs.
Once you might have been born in Manchester, move around the City but live here all your life. Now people are more mobile. The connection to the club is different for everyone but what counts is maintaining that. Loyalty.
OK, pick a game, I just picked Southampton at random on the planner tickets from £38.50. Now try and find 2 seats together, I only checked a handful of blocks and there were only singles. dotted about.
Two priorities for the ground:
1) A working Internet connection.
2) PA System (Health and Safety risk). It should be audible all the way around the ground. There are large areas where you can't hear a word even though the volume is really loud.
The loyalty of 30,000 through 30 long years was remarkable. The recent growth isn't. It's entirely normal given the success but we should take advantage of it nevertheless. I am sure that the core of that 30,000 is a legacy in some way or other from the Mercer Allison years or the Book era that followed. In brief we are all glory-hunters but once you pick your club that's it.I think capacity is far too low. The current obsession with "empty seats" is very damaging. If you go back through City's crowds in the days when Maine Road was huge, you'll see that there were always great fluctuations in attendance. The point was, if you fancied going to a particular match, you could.
Current regular attendance - that is people who go to every home match - is higher than it has ever been. What is lacking is the ability to accommodate the casual spectator.
I say we should not allow ourselves to be dictated to be the snide comments of ignorant supporters of other clubs.
Interesting.If you are an O2 customer - The wifi is quite decent.
Marvin.
We could debate this for the rest of the season. But neither of us have the facts, stats and numbers regarding tickets sales.
All I can go off is the OS seat planner and the visible empty seats around the stadium and around me.
I think(know?) we don’t sell out on a regular basis. Mainly against the lesser teams. And even though it’s very good of City to do this, we also give away substantial amounts of free tickets, especially in the LT of the NS, that wouldn’t sell against lesser teams.
If tickets were priced more keenly across the board/stadium, we would sell out regardless of the opposition. Last season’s match against Burnley in the FA Cup proved that. OK, Burnley brought 6000 fans as well.
I except and appreciate City aren’t going to price the big games keenly. They will always sell out. However, for the lesser games the priority should be to fill every seat, bar season ticket no shows.
Adding an additional 6000 seats and selling them is going to stretch the sale and marketing creativity of the club.
And Pep won’t be here then. And it won’t get any better than what we are seeing now. Capacity up, product on the pitch probably down.
Interesting.