Man City Tickets

[adamh4608]

This is all I can find on the FA Web Site re ticketing:
DISTRIBUTION OF TICKETS
(a) All Rounds Preceding the Semi-Finals
In all matches preceding the Semi-Finals, the Visiting Club shall have the right to claim up
to 15% of all accommodation for which tickets are issued providing these tickets are in a
fully segregated area, and subject to the following regulations:
(i) The request for tickets shall be made within two days of the draw.
(ii) The tickets allotted to the Visiting Club, if numbered and reserved, must be of equal
value to those retained by the Home Club.
(iii) In cases of replays, the Club playing away in the replay must make a request for
tickets prior to the original match in order to ensure that the replay tickets are in the
possession of the club playing away in the replay at the latest immediately on
conclusion of the original match.
(iv) The Visiting Club shall be responsible for the payment of all tickets asked for and
allotted, unless otherwise agreed between the Clubs in writing with a copy sent to The
Association. All questions in dispute shall immediately be referred to The Association.
(v) The Visiting Club should settle with the Home Club for sales of tickets on or before
the day of the match.
(vi) Any tickets not sold by the Visiting Club should be returned to the Home Club with
their statement of tickets sales.
(vii) In the Competition Proper, a Visiting Club shall be entitled to one third of the seats
usually reserved and known as “Home and Visiting Directors’ Seats” up to a
maximum of 24 seats.
(viii) Where disabled facilities are provided, a Visiting Club shall have the right to claim up
to 15% of this accommodation.
(ix) Where it is deemed desirable, the Professional Game Board shall have the right to
vary the allocation of tickets to the Visiting Club, or require a match to be made all ticket

Nothing about further allocations and the timescales.

my be as the club are not doing anything, we the fans should contact the fa about this.

[leicsRoyal]

As HSSC has said, tickets to City fans are on general sale today, a day before ours go on sale to members with over 1600 points.
There would be no chance of the unlucky Reading fans all being able to purchase home tickets together.

[philM]

Is it possible they haven't actually asked for any more because of the offer of free coach travel to "all supporters" was a mistake and should have specified only the 2800? Another 4000 tickets could have cost another £80K on coaches.

No. That was offered after the decision to take only 2800 tickets.

A mate of mine knows a guy in the ticket office, and he also said what's been suggested here, that the club didn't want to risk taking the full 5800 allocation having to pay up front. Given the money we'll make from the tie it seems a little short-sighted.

Maybe if we'd taken more than 912 to Everton in the last round they'd have felt a little more confident, but the fact is a trip to Eastlands isn't going to tempt people the way a "day out" at Old Trafford would.


I do think the rules should be changed, however, to stop clubs demanding tickets be paid for in advance. Or at very least specifiy a minimum that need to be offered on sale or return.

But the rules don't say pay in advance! See above. It's pay up before the game, and returning unsold tickets is covered as well - "(vi) Any tickets not sold by the Visiting Club should be returned to the Home Club with their statement of tickets sales."

Have the FA rules changed or are we not conforming?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

To what purpose Adam?

I Email to Man city to express disappointment might be better, but wont make any difference.

I like the way we have to supply ticks for the replay to be available immediately after the first game is over, I bet Man C don't take the full South stand for any replay.

(iii) In cases of replays, the Club playing away in the replay must make a request for
tickets prior to the original match in order to ensure that the replay tickets are in the
possession of the club playing away in the replay at the latest immediately on
conclusion of the original match.

[Sarah Star]

What do STAR think about all this?

The two STAR people I spoke to about the initial allocation thought this was the club playing safe because they would have to pay for any tickets not sold and at least one of them thought that more could be ordered if needed. The third STAR person I spoke to about this being the FULL allocation was going to try to speak to someone at the club about it yesterday.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

From the RFC email about free coach travel "The Club is keen to help as many of our supporters make it to the game as possible..."

...erm, short of actually getting enough tickets for them.

[philM]

What do STAR think about all this?

The two STAR people I spoke to about the initial allocation thought this was the club playing safe because they would have to pay for any tickets not sold and at least one of them thought that more could be ordered if needed. The third STAR person I spoke to about this being the FULL allocation was going to try to speak to someone at the club about it yesterday.

But the FA rule says ""(vi) Any tickets not sold by the Visiting Club should be returned to the Home Club with their statement of tickets sales."

I think we could have ordered more and didn't for various reasons but nothing to do with sale or return.

[PieEater]

Just to add to the conspiracy theory, it could be City being awkward gits and not really wanting a large away following, particularly if the home turn out would be low and they don't need the money.

So they sell seats either side of our allocation at the first opportunity and make our TO look like a bunch of muppets.

[philM]

Just to add to the conspiracy theory, it could be City being awkward gits and not really wanting a large away following, particularly if the home turn out would be low and they don't need the money.

So they sell seats either side of our allocation at the first opportunity and make our TO look like a bunch of muppets.

It must be one of these...

a) Citeh started selling our seats to piss us off
b) We left it too late to ask for the extra tickets that we now want, because we decided to give away the travel after the Wednesday deadline and therefore hadn't even considered the effect of that on the numbers.
c) We haven't asked for any more because the "free travel for all" was a cockup which means we would have to pay coach fares for another 3000 or so.

Anything else?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

What do STAR think about all this?

The two STAR people I spoke to about the initial allocation thought this was the club playing safe because they would have to pay for any tickets not sold and at least one of them thought that more could be ordered if needed. The third STAR person I spoke to about this being the FULL allocation was going to try to speak to someone at the club about it yesterday.

But the FA rule says ""(vi) Any tickets not sold by the Visiting Club should be returned to the Home Club with their statement of tickets sales."

I think we could have ordered more and didn't for various reasons but nothing to do with sale or return.

And what reasons would those be, if there was no risk at all to the club in taking the larger allocation?

[philM]

The club are claiming option B

[Royal Lady]

Would it be possible for STAR, on behalf of ALL fans, to ask the club why they did not ask for an "initial allocation" of 2,800 tickets, rather than a total. Could they also ask the club whether they think that for the sake of a few thousand pounds (£55k MAXIMUM as I showed in a previous post) possibly lost due to non-sale of further tickets, they think they have done the right thing. Could they also ask the club whether they consider alienating supporters, either through this tickets fiasco or the ST renewal debacle, is worth it in the long run?


I would be staggered if we hadn't been able to sell up to 5k tickets for the Man City game. I really, really hope that the club actually take stock and consider asking a selection of fans (if not STAR, as they appear to have not bothered with them at all) in future for their input before deciding unilaterally to do what they have done.

Just on revenue from the City game alone (prize money + tv revenue and not even taking into account a percentage of total ticket sales) we will make a couple of hundred thousand pounds - so losing a few thousand on a possible gamble with ticket sales is a no-brainer surely?

What if we get to Wembley? Are the club going to refuse a high percentage of tickets in case we don't sell them?

It's a bloody disgrace. I'm fuming and I'm practically assured of going.

[Twix]

At that stage, we indicated to both Villa and City that circa 2,800 would be our preferred allocation, taking into full consideration that the game is live on television, takes place on a Sunday evening, and after analysing our away attendances at previous games of a similar nature. In the last three seasons we have taken more than 3,000 to an away game on just one occasion, Southampton away in late 2008, and for example we took 775 and 1,059 supporters to our replays at Liverpool and West Brom respectively last season, and 1,577 travelled to the north west for our play-off semi final at Burnley on a Saturday evening in May 2009.

How can they use the Liverpool replay as a benchmark when many supporters didn't go because of the snow?

[Wizard]

RL, I'm a bit annoyed and I'm almost certainly not going. But what is done is done. Aint gonna change anything now.

As we haven't actually started selling our tickets yet, I don't know why we can't ask to have one of the tier three stands instead of the south. Let City have the south where we are meant to be and we could all be relocated to the Colin Bell/East third teir, both of which hold well over 4000 fans. I know it would be a late change to the plan, but as City have closed these stands why can't we have one of them instead? City fans on their forum thought this might be happening anyway, so segregation etc. can't be much of an issue?

Ok, so the tickets would need to be printed and distributed pronto, but it could be done.

Just checked my Royalty points, I have 335. Good luck me

[Royal Lady]

You can take the stance that "what is done, is done" and I'm not doubting that there is nothing we can do about this scenario now, but fans need to make their voices heard - or else, the club will continue to just shit on us from a great height whenever it wants to. If the club is made to realise how unhappy (and that's an understatement) people are about the FA cup tickets, st renewals - then it might mean they will think twice before riding roughshod over us about things in the future.

[Platypuss]

Also strange when you consider that the club will get back 45% of the net gate receipts anyway - so you might think they'd be keen to increase attendance!

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

The club are claiming option B

That makes no sense.

If there was no risk to taking the larger allocation, why would we not do so?

Like I said earlier, a guy in the ticket office claims it's because the extra 3000 had to be paid for regardless of whether we sold them or not, while the first 3000 were on sale or return.


Instead, people seem to be trying to invent their own reason, even if it's illogical.

[Royal Lady]

3000 extra tickets - costing a MAXIMUM of £25 (bear in mind we could have concession/child tickets amongs that lot, of course) would have cost the club £75000 - we would have definitely sold some of these tickets - and I'd think almost all, personally, but, say we sold another 1500 out of those extra 3,000 - we'd have "lost" £37,500 MAX - plus, as PP says, we get 40% of the total net sales back don't we? So our hit would be miniscule - and I'll ask again, was it really worth all this aggro for the sum of, literally, a few thousand pounds?. For a well-run business, there are definitely some strange people making decisions at the moment.

[philM]

Would it be possible for STAR, on behalf of ALL fans, to ask the club why they did not ask for an "initial allocation" of 2,800 tickets, rather than a total. Could they also ask the club whether they think that for the sake of a few thousand pounds (£55k MAXIMUM as I showed in a previous post) possibly lost due to non-sale of further tickets, they think they have done the right thing.

The club have never mentioned "no sale or return". The FA rules in fact indicate the opposite.

The club are saying they left it too late, that they thought the initiall allocation of 2800 was enough, and they didnt consider the effect of free travel before last Wednesday's deadline for any more tickets.

Personally I'd like to hear confirmation from Citeh that we "left it too late".

[moo]

It's pretty simple.

If you are genuinly angry, dont go renewing your season ticket to gain your ticket. The club have quite obviously restricted tickets for this game, created a uncessary panic for the tickets, and will sell potentially hundreds of panic renewals/or new season tickets because of their incompetance.

oxf*rd the club, and boycott home games. But none of us have the will-power to do it, which is a shame.