Priced out?

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Pep gestures because the atmosphere is shite and there are enough lifelong Blues in the ground to create a racket.

Not in the tunnel club though - where he keeps gesturing to

 

[jrb]

Wasn’t there a new job advertised recently, specifically created to clamp down on touting and related activities?

As well as on the outskirts of the ground, the same guys have been selling tickets directly outside the ticket office for every game since the ground opened. I’m not sure where the ticket office has been moved to these last two seasons but I’m sure those guys are outside it wherever it is.

There is zero chance that the club don’t know who they are and what they’re doing.

They clearly must have a very good reason why they go unchallenged game after game, year after year.

It’s like the half and half scarf sellers at the top of the Metrolink steps. They all know each other. It’s a gang working their patch off the Etihad Campus. I doubt they’d be too happy if somebody started selling half and had scarfs there as well. They never get moved on, just moved back off the Etihad campus boundary close to the Metrolink steps by the stewards.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

If you walk past the road that leads to main car park entrance car with the barrier on a match day, there are ticket touts offering to buy and to sell tickets. The club aren’t doing annything about them. Why don’t the club buy those tickets on the QT, identify the stand, tier and seat number, and block those season tickets. Unfortunately those blocked season tickets would then go to match day tickets sales. Which is the lesser of the two evils?

That's certainly what they should be doing, if they're not already (and they wouldn't say much when the subject was brought up at City Matters).

However those touts are also committing a criminal offence by unauthorised reselling of football tickets. There are enough police around on match days so you also have to question why they're not acting. The club and GMP could easily arrange to swoop on some of these. Then publicise the fact they've done this and that a number of season tickets or memberships have been cancelled.

Mind you, they won't lift a finger to stop smoking inside the stadium, even when people are vaping in plain sight of stewards in their seats.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Not in the tunnel club though - where he keeps gesturing to

The majority of people in the Tunnel Club are probably lifelong Blues. That was the case on the only occasion I’ve been in there. Not many singers in there though.

It’s the atmosphere around the ground that isn’t good enough. Not just one section mate.

 

[jrb]

That's certainly what they should be doing, if they're not already (and they wouldn't say much when the subject was brought up at City Matters).

However those touts are also committing a criminal offence by unauthorised reselling of football tickets. There are enough police around on match days so you also have to question why they're not acting. The club and GMP could easily arrange to swoop on some of these. Then publicise the fact they've done this and that a number of season tickets or memberships have been cancelled.

Mind you, they won't lift a finger to stop smoking inside the stadium, even when people are vaping in plain sight of stewards in their seats.

Maybe the now not so new ticket compliance manager should go undercover and buy some of the match tickets off the ticket touts.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Maybe the now not so new ticket compliance manager should go undercover and buy some of the match tickets off the ticket touts.

I can just imagine him or her sidling up to one of the touts, in their club blazer and tie, with their badge round their neck. I mean the compliance manager will be wearing those of course, not the tout.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

I'm flying to Australia next Saturday so put my West Ham Ticket (block 219) on the Ticket Exchange and within 30 minutes I'd received an email from City confirming that it had been sold.

I wonder if it had genuinely been bought by a City supporter or whether City had immediately sold it to a Third Party Ticketing Site.

I was genuinely curious and not necessarily having a go at the club.
However I've asked a few people who normally sit around me to ascertain just how much the purchaser paid and whether it was directly from the City Ticket Office

 

[Lavinda Past]

After his queens speech we learn all about how we have acquired more clubs and sold more academy players and the business is doing well. never ever does he mention prices rises all across the board.

As long as business is going well it's all good, not really out of touch at all.

Business is Business

Never mind the quality, feel the width.

 

[Lavinda Past]

The next five to ten years are going to be really important for City in the stands. I don’t think the club are envisioning what’s about to come.

A huge proportion of our season ticket holders are older blokes. Soon they will be getting to the age where they will have to pack it in due to it being too much of a struggle to attend, too unwell to attend or, unfortunately, they die.

Add to that the constant loss of season ticket holders due to price rises.

Add to that the constant loss of season ticket holders due to getting fed up of the sanitised bollocks and influx of tourists at City games.

I know approaching 30 lads who’ve given up their season tickets. I know three more who are thinking about doing so.

Add to that the very expensive individual matchday tickets, especially child tickets, and local fans and local families especially not being able to afford to go.

Add to this the lack of initiatives for local fans, like Liverpool have.

I think the club are, with no long term vision, actively loving all these ‘legacy fans’ dropping away from being season ticket holders so they can sell them as match tickets to tourists and earn more money to go towards their annual targets which allows them to earn their annual bonuses.

But that strategy is slowly ruining our support. Since the treble (or including the Bayern and Madrid home games in the treble season) the amount of tourists in the ground has noticeably increased, same at away games. They add nothing toward the atmosphere. Many aren’t even there to support City: some are just there to take in a game, some are fans of the opposition, some are fans of an opposition player and some are fans of a City player but have no interest in City winning.

This dilution of our support in the stands cannot keep happening.

Add to this that there are no new season tickets for the next generation of local fans, once all these older fans end their attending of City games, and City aren’t as successful on the pitch so attract fewer tourists, who are the club going to fill 62,000 seats with?

I live in Manchester’s Garden City, the city’s largest district (by some distance), in Wythenshawe. Wythenshawe is swarming with City fans yet City are not a presence in the Wythenshawe area… at all! If you are a citizen of Wythenshwee and didn’t have the internet or SkySports/TNT, you wouldn’t know City existed.

City are constantly boasting about where Shauny Wright and Lescott are around the world with the trophies, yet in all the years we’ve been winning trophies now in this era, the trophies have never been to Wythenshawe. You don’t see City in the local schools round here and there seem to be very few CITC initiatives around here (they did some Summer holidays sessions at the Woodhouse Park Lifestyle Centre a few years ago but little else).

These are the kind of areas that City are going to need to rely on in the coming years due to the concentration of City fans in this area, yet they aren’t acting like they understand this. They’re not envisioning the future coming years.

We’ve already seen this season that empty seats are starting to become noticeable. The prices for Boxing Day were so out of touch they were ridiculous. £66-78 for adult tickets, £38-42 for child tickets, that have to be paid for before Christmas, with the game on Boxing Day when there are no trains and you’re relying on local fans? Fucking stupid by the club. At £30 for adults and £15 for kids, a family of four could have attended the other day for £90 as a Christmas family treat… but not in City’s eyes, they’d rather have empty seats.

Absolutely top post. Bravo!

 

[Lavinda Past]

That's just taking the Michael.

 

[jrb]

I’m really looking forward to Khaldoon’s end of season speech.

I want to see Kool Hand Luke put his cards on the table and talk about no regular season tickets, just Flexi Gold season tickets, and continual season ticket and match day ticket price rises that are pricing loyal, local, legacy fans out of matches at City.

 

[FanchesterCity]

I've had the privilege of enjoying the tunnel club twice this season, and it's a very good experience indeed. However, it's a country mile from a real football experience with a very large proportion of attendees having little interest in football, let alone City. I think the individual cost was circa 1100 quid per ticket (I didn't pay that, I was a guest). That's above the price of a standard season ticket for a single game.
As a rough estimate of 8 guests per table downstairs, and about 50 tables, that's 400,000 per game. Probably similar number of attendees upstairs, but not sure of prices.

The regular matchgoing punter is becoming a bit of a necessary inconvenience.
You'd genuinely think the PL could agree to all reduce prices so no club benefitted over another , but all fans benefitted from the reductions.

For all the FFP regs and supposed sustainability concerns, the single most impactful measure never gets a look in

 

[Lavinda Past]

I've had the privilege of enjoying the tunnel club twice this season, and it's a very good experience indeed. However, it's a country mile from a real football experience with a very large proportion of attendees having little interest in football, let alone City. I think the individual cost was circa 1100 quid per ticket (I didn't pay that, I was a guest). That's above the price of a standard season ticket for a single game.
As a rough estimate of 8 guests per table downstairs, and about 50 tables, that's 400,000 per game. Probably similar number of attendees upstairs, but not sure of prices.

The regular matchgoing punter is becoming a bit of a necessary inconvenience.
You'd genuinely think the PL could agree to all reduce prices so no club benefitted over another , but all fans benefitted from the reductions.

For all the FFP regs and supposed sustainability concerns, the single most impactful measure never gets a look in

Wait until the Super League arrives. It will come... and mugs will pay even more than now.

 

[mexico1970]

I've had the privilege of enjoying the tunnel club twice this season, and it's a very good experience indeed. However, it's a country mile from a real football experience with a very large proportion of attendees having little interest in football, let alone City. I think the individual cost was circa 1100 quid per ticket (I didn't pay that, I was a guest). That's above the price of a standard season ticket for a single game.
As a rough estimate of 8 guests per table downstairs, and about 50 tables, that's 400,000 per game. Probably similar number of attendees upstairs, but not sure of prices.

The regular matchgoing punter is becoming a bit of a necessary inconvenience.
You'd genuinely think the PL could agree to all reduce prices so no club benefitted over another , but all fans benefitted from the reductions.

For all the FFP regs and supposed sustainability concerns, the single most impactful measure never gets a look in

People are paying for something you got for free when your teams football players went to the same pub as you.

It's shocking and it's elitist really isn't it?

 

[Lavinda Past]

I’m really looking forward to Khaldoon’s end of season speech.

I want to see Kool Hand Luke put his cards on the table and talk about no regular season tickets, just Flexi Gold season tickets, and continual season ticket and match day ticket price rises that are pricing loyal, local, legacy fans out of matches at City.

I wouldn’t buy a used car off Khaldoon. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing

 

[FanchesterCity]

The majority of people in the Tunnel Club are probably lifelong Blues. That was the case on the only occasion I’ve been in there. Not many singers in there though.

It’s the atmosphere around the ground that isn’t good enough. Not just one section mate.

That wasn't my experience. Most tables were owned by a company who then invited key clients along for a jolly. Some had an interest in football but few were regular matchgoers and supported other clubs.
Plenty were arriving late after kickoff and half time.
Of course there were City fans too... but I wouldn't say it was the majority. Very hard to prove either way as it's very anecdotal, but the few tables around us were pretty passive fans of other clubs sprinkled with a few City fans enjoying a rare freebie. I sat behind Peter Reid and on the same row has him sat 4 young ladies with zero interest in the game (looked like City staff of some description but not certain)

 

[jrb]

People are paying for something you got for free when your teams football players went to the same pub as you.

It's shocking and it's elitist really isn't it?

City will say they are catering for every type of City fan and (fan) occasion.

If City fans or people want to pay X to dine in the Tunnel Club, that’s up to them.

But somebody tell Pep not to waste his time and energy trying to get the Tunnel Club match day goers to stand up and sing.

 

[FanchesterCity]

People are paying for something you got for free when your teams football players went to the same pub as you.

It's shocking and it's elitist really isn't it?

I suspect most of the attendees were guests of companies who own a table (as I was). I can't deny it's a great experience and you're a handful of rows behind Pep and the team, but yes, it feels very distant from the typical fan experience. Food and drink apart, I prefer sitting in the stands with my mates.

 

[jrb]

I wouldn’t buy a used car off Khaldoon. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing

First and foremost Khaldoon is a politician and a businessman man.

City are one of his many interests, and Sheikh Mansour’s many companies.



I honestly don’t think he doesn’t know what’s going on at City off the pitch.

 

[FanchesterCity]

Wait until the Super League arrives. It will come... and mugs will pay even more than now.

The really sad indictment of City is that as much as we fans despise the red shirt clubs et al, we colluded with them over the Super League fiasco.
That's a very difficult fact to swallow but it does demonstrate we aren't above a bit of fuckery ourselves.