The magic of the FA Cup

[Jagermesiter1871]

Don't think we can as looks like theyve allocated us the lower east corner stand as opposed to up tier in east like we usually get in the cup and which allows a larger away allocation.

[tidus_mi2]

That was quick to sellout no? Did anyone expect that?

I was probably the first on here to criticise the 3.5k allocation when it was announced

[Elm Park Kid]

Is it not a case where we could buy more from the club? We can have to 11,000 there can't we?

It depends on whether Utd have already put the seats on sale. All they had to do was offer us 11,000 (or whatever) - as soon as we turn that down then they're fulfilled their obligation.

[Norfolk Royal]

Well, when you're wrong you're wrong.

Though . . . . . it does seem like the club has seriously balls this up in terms of making it as easy as possible for people to tout these tickets. I'd imagine that quite a large number of people in Reading (fans or otherwise) have at least 25 points and would have known that they can resell these easily.

Bit worried now to be honest about how many Utd are going to be in our end.

More of a worry about Reading fans in the United end. That's what I'll be doing. The fear of Norfolk 'The Dog' Royal is palpable.

[Brogue]

Is it not a case where we could buy more from the club? We can have to 11,000 there can't we?

It depends on whether Utd have already put the seats on sale. All they had to do was offer us 11,000 (or whatever) - as soon as we turn that down then they're fulfilled their obligation.

just had a look at their ticketing and all sections are available for sale to Utd fans, no other reserved blocks for RFC. we wont be getting any more tickets to sell, no

[tidus_mi2]

A lesson for the club then, maybe they had similar thoughts to most of the nobbers here hence the paltry allocation requested. Regardless of our situation, it seems teams like United will always be a big draw.

[paultheroyal]

One of the bigger attractions is the younger fan - my son and others like him desperately wanted to go as never been before.

Then you have the late teen fan with his mates - casually follows Reading FC - now allowed to go out on their own, travel, first opportunity to experience a game like this.

[Elm Park Kid]

A lesson for the club then, maybe they had similar thoughts to most of the nobbers here hence the paltry allocation requested. Regardless of our situation, it seems teams like United will always be a big draw.

Though, a cold approach to this is that Reading don't make any additional money by selling extra tickets, they just risk a financial loss and embarrassment if they fail to sell out. So - the 'sensible' approach is just to let Utd sell the tickets themselves and pick up you cut anyway. Obviously the fans lose out, but . . . you know. . . this is modern football, they're the least of anyone's concerns.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Complete shambles. Regardless of how many tickets we take the simple insurance policy against chaos / discontent is the points system. Whoever came up with this method of sale is probably standing in a dark room facing the wall at this precise moment. Or writing their resignation letter...

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Is it not a case where we could buy more from the club? We can have to 11,000 there can't we?

It depends on whether Utd have already put the seats on sale. All they had to do was offer us 11,000 (or whatever) - as soon as we turn that down then they're fulfilled their obligation.

just had a look at their ticketing and all sections are available for sale to Utd fans, no other reserved blocks for RFC. we wont be getting any more tickets to sell, no

Poor from the club then, why an initial negotiation was not already in place I'll never know. Poor for the supporters as well that were wanting to travel.

At least we can say we sold out though.

[Norfolk Royal]

It depends on whether Utd have already put the seats on sale. All they had to do was offer us 11,000 (or whatever) - as soon as we turn that down then they're fulfilled their obligation.

just had a look at their ticketing and all sections are available for sale to Utd fans, no other reserved blocks for RFC. we wont be getting any more tickets to sell, no

Poor from the club then, why an initial negotiation was not already in place I'll never know. Poor for the supporters as well that were wanting to travel.

At least we can say we sold out though.

I suspect we could probably sell around 7,000 tickets for this game, or more. I'm not sure of the exact rules pertaining to the negotiations between the clubs but if that 3k remains as the figure sold this is a monumental f*ck up. Surely a better way to do it would be to ask for a lot of tickets and see how the early sales go. Then give a proportion back to Man U for sale to their fans. That would be fairer and leave less people unhappy.

I've seen comments on social media from people decrying our fanbase of day trippers etc.

But we know that, the club knows that, everyone in football knows that. 'That' being that we have a large number of latent stay at home supporters who pounce on the big games.

The point being that if everyone knows that, which they do, then the amount of tickets we ask for a game like the Man Utd one should be estimated accordingly.

Feel sorry for the fans who go every week who have been left out in the cold on this.

[Stranded]

I don't know enough about the layout of Old Trafford but is it possible that we could either take 3k or say 10/11k to ensure segregation of fans.

If so, then the club would have to factor in if they think they could sell 11k given they have to pay for them - I would say they weren't confident so went with the smaller allocation.

On the points side, yep a mistake, but if the club had been monitoring social media, they will have seen that a lot of fans were already saying they weren't going to go then understandable that they would want to maximise the chance of those tickets being sold.

People need to remember the club is under embargo and financial restrictions so need to make a decision that maximises revenue at every step - so I would say discounting tickets again is a no-no and whilst there is a pay day coming off the back of this, anything that lowers this is probably unprofessional of the club this season.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

just had a look at their ticketing and all sections are available for sale to Utd fans, no other reserved blocks for RFC. we wont be getting any more tickets to sell, no

Poor from the club then, why an initial negotiation was not already in place I'll never know. Poor for the supporters as well that were wanting to travel.

At least we can say we sold out though.

I suspect we could probably sell around 7,000 tickets for this game, or more. I'm not sure of the exact rules pertaining to the negotiations between the clubs but if that 3k remains as the figure sold this is a monumental f*ck up. Surely a better way to do it would be to ask for a lot of tickets and see how the early sales go. Then give a proportion back to Man U for sale to their fans. That would be fairer and leave less people unhappy.

I've seen comments on social media from people decrying our fanbase of day trippers etc.

But we know that, the club knows that, everyone in football knows that. 'That' being that we have a large number of latent stay at home supporters who pounce on the big games.

The point being that if everyone knows that, which they do, then the amount of tickets we ask for a game like the Man Utd one should be estimated accordingly.

Feel sorry for the fans who go every week who have been left out in the cold on this.

Exactly - you'd have thought the more logical step would be buy more than you would be expecting and then sell back to the club in a appropriate timescale so that they can be sold.

Either that, or have an initial allocation of 3k, then if that sells, we have an agreement for a further 2k for example, then if that sells, then a further 2k etc until the demand is filled or until an agreed date between both clubs as to when no more tickets can be sold and the home team then put them on general sale.

No use people moaning at the people who are going as a one off, the problem is with the club, not the fans.

[Schards#2]

I don't know enough about the layout of Old Trafford but is it possible that we could either take 3k or say 10/11k to ensure segregation of fans.

If so, then the club would have to factor in if they think they could sell 11k given they have to pay for them - I would say they weren't confident so went with the smaller allocation.

On the points side, yep a mistake, but if the club had been monitoring social media, they will have seen that a lot of fans were already saying they weren't going to go then understandable that they would want to maximise the chance of those tickets being sold.

People need to remember the club is under embargo and financial restrictions so need to make a decision that maximises revenue at every step - so I would say discounting tickets again is a no-no and whilst there is a pay day coming off the back of this, anything that lowers this is probably unprofessional of the club this season.

Fair enough, but I can't see how having even one day where the points requirement was, say 1000+, before going on general sale, would lessen the chances of selling out

[Stranded]

I don't know enough about the layout of Old Trafford but is it possible that we could either take 3k or say 10/11k to ensure segregation of fans.

If so, then the club would have to factor in if they think they could sell 11k given they have to pay for them - I would say they weren't confident so went with the smaller allocation.

On the points side, yep a mistake, but if the club had been monitoring social media, they will have seen that a lot of fans were already saying they weren't going to go then understandable that they would want to maximise the chance of those tickets being sold.

People need to remember the club is under embargo and financial restrictions so need to make a decision that maximises revenue at every step - so I would say discounting tickets again is a no-no and whilst there is a pay day coming off the back of this, anything that lowers this is probably unprofessional of the club this season.

Fair enough, but I can't see how having even one day where the points requirement was, say 1000+, before going on general sale, would lessen the chances of selling out

Don't disagree Schards, it probably would have done and I think it was a mistake but given the relatively widespread apathy to the tie and esp the kick off time, I can see why that decision was made esp, as the game is only a week and a half away.

[Elm Park Kid]

Poor from the club then, why an initial negotiation was not already in place I'll never know. Poor for the supporters as well that were wanting to travel.

At least we can say we sold out though.

I suspect we could probably sell around 7,000 tickets for this game, or more. I'm not sure of the exact rules pertaining to the negotiations between the clubs but if that 3k remains as the figure sold this is a monumental f*ck up. Surely a better way to do it would be to ask for a lot of tickets and see how the early sales go. Then give a proportion back to Man U for sale to their fans. That would be fairer and leave less people unhappy.

I've seen comments on social media from people decrying our fanbase of day trippers etc.

But we know that, the club knows that, everyone in football knows that. 'That' being that we have a large number of latent stay at home supporters who pounce on the big games.

The point being that if everyone knows that, which they do, then the amount of tickets we ask for a game like the Man Utd one should be estimated accordingly.

Feel sorry for the fans who go every week who have been left out in the cold on this.

Exactly - you'd have thought the more logical step would be buy more than you would be expecting and then sell back to the club in a appropriate timescale so that they can be sold.

Either that, or have an initial allocation of 3k, then if that sells, we have an agreement for a further 2k for example, then if that sells, then a further 2k etc until the demand is filled or until an agreed date between both clubs as to when no more tickets can be sold and the home team then put them on general sale.

No use people moaning at the people who are going as a one off, the problem is with the club, not the fans.

It doesn't work like that though. United will offer us sections of the ground that we have depending on the number of tickets we want. Once we accept that area, it means that no Utd fan can use it. So we can't just 'send back' unsold tickets. They could, in theory, pick out a few different areas and lets us try to sell out one and a time - but why would United do that? It's not in their interest for us to bring 9,000 fans, so they're just going to give us a take it or leave it offer, not 'let's see how you do'.

We don't know what the options are that Utd offered us. There might not have been a 5/6/7k choice - it might have been 3k or 9k. And, if I was the Managing Director at RFC, i would feel extremely nervous about committing to purchasing £400k worth of tickets for a televised game against a club we've played a few times in the last decade.

[CountryRoyal]

Clubs shambolic

Oh well didn’t even realise it had gone on sale but would have been OUT anyway, with Stoke this weekend and a weekend in toon in a few weeks, saving the £££.

[Sutekh]

Clubs shambolic

Oh well didn’t even realise it had gone on sale but would have been OUT anyway, with Stoke this weekend and a weekend in toon in a few weeks, saving the £££.

I’m (sadly) old enough to remember the days you could just rock up to any ground in the country on the day of a game and get in just by exchanging that funny paper stuff you haven’t got enough of for a bit of card that some old boy at the appropriate ground gate would take off you. Happier days!

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I suspect we could probably sell around 7,000 tickets for this game, or more. I'm not sure of the exact rules pertaining to the negotiations between the clubs but if that 3k remains as the figure sold this is a monumental f*ck up. Surely a better way to do it would be to ask for a lot of tickets and see how the early sales go. Then give a proportion back to Man U for sale to their fans. That would be fairer and leave less people unhappy.

I've seen comments on social media from people decrying our fanbase of day trippers etc.

But we know that, the club knows that, everyone in football knows that. 'That' being that we have a large number of latent stay at home supporters who pounce on the big games.

The point being that if everyone knows that, which they do, then the amount of tickets we ask for a game like the Man Utd one should be estimated accordingly.

Feel sorry for the fans who go every week who have been left out in the cold on this.

Exactly - you'd have thought the more logical step would be buy more than you would be expecting and then sell back to the club in a appropriate timescale so that they can be sold.

Either that, or have an initial allocation of 3k, then if that sells, we have an agreement for a further 2k for example, then if that sells, then a further 2k etc until the demand is filled or until an agreed date between both clubs as to when no more tickets can be sold and the home team then put them on general sale.

No use people moaning at the people who are going as a one off, the problem is with the club, not the fans.

It doesn't work like that though. United will offer us sections of the ground that we have depending on the number of tickets we want. Once we accept that area, it means that no Utd fan can use it. So we can't just 'send back' unsold tickets. They could, in theory, pick out a few different areas and lets us try to sell out one and a time - but why would United do that? It's not in their interest for us to bring 9,000 fans, so they're just going to give us a take it or leave it offer, not 'let's see how you do'.

We don't know what the options are that Utd offered us. There might not have been a 5/6/7k choice - it might have been 3k or 9k. And, if I was the Managing Director at RFC, i would feel extremely nervous about committing to purchasing £400k worth of tickets for a televised game against a club we've played a few times in the last decade.

Which then goes back to the second point, it should be a case of we have an initial allocation which can then be extended further if needs be. We can have up to 15% of the ground in the FA Cup that United have already signed up to, so they will already have the section(s) of the ground mapped out for away fans.

That then comes down to us to agree with them about initial allocations and then further ticketing if we sell out the initial allocation. It just seems like we've bought one lot of tickets and not considered that they may have miscalculated with the demand.

[Nameless]

These things are never simple, despite people wishing / assuming they are !
What has probably happened is we were offered one allocation (the one we went with) on a second, much bigger one (probably the 15% full away allocation). We would have had to pay for the full 15k whether we sold them or not. United coukdn’t resell them to their fans. So if we had sold 10k (unlikely) we would still have had to pay United nearly £250,000 for our unsold allocation.
It is possible the EFL had a say in this. Our finances are still closely monitored, they may well have told us we could only take the lower allocation because the financial risk of taking more was unacceptable.
Whether we used the right way of then selling them is a different question but there won’t be many STH who didn’t go to OT for some or all of the fairly recent league and cup games. It is generally taken though that STH do get priority for cup games and I can see why some might feel hard done by.
Fir the 5th round I think we’ll possibly see a different approach