Our chief exec should be on the blower to STFC stating the case for the release of another 1000 tickets to us.
Mid-stand segregation is easy these days with proper netting and stewarding, and they would benefit from the revenue.
I bet our management team are not even bothered, too busy sticking £19 on the meal price so they can squeeze every cent out of loyal supporters.
What chance a "Play-off special" souvenir programme at £5 containing almost nothing extra ?
The club should also do something to redistribute the revenue from that 0870 number that was extorted on Monday - How about a FREE souvenir programme for the home leg.
How quickly the board have forgotten the early sale of season tickets and 5 year deals in order to meet our cashflow requirements.
Blimey, if this is true thier support is a joke, the ground holds 14,500, we are taking 2,000 which means they have to sell 12,500 tickets, this must be their most important home game of the season.
I just checked their site and as of Tuesday 11th May (today) they have sold 5,000 home tickets and 1,500 for the away game at the Valley.
In addition to this they state we have sold out for the game at thier place and we have sold 11,000 for the game at the Valley, so this means current sales are showing:
Swindon Fri night, 7,000
The Valley Mon night, 12,500
I'm one of the lucky ones, my elderly father braved the Valley queues yesterday to get me and my son's tickets.It'll be a mad dash for my boy after school to meet me in London but there are regular trains from Paddington and also after the game there is a least three trains back with the last one at 11.15. That said , I'm impressed we sold out so quickly
I too purchased a 5 year season ticket and agree with others that this plus VG members should have had some priority before a wider audience.
Swindon may believe that they will sell out to home fans when it goes on general sale .It seems counter productive for Swindon to hold back seats otherwise . They must know that there will be Addicks who would phone up a general sale and infiltrate home areas . Also more paying punters would produce a better atmosphere than a two thirds full stadium.
I sent an email this morning complaining about not getting through to get my home tickets (season ticket seats), I stated my disappointment and frustration. I said that if I did not get my season ticket seats for the home leg and miss out then I will be demanding a full refund on my season ticket that I have paid for upfront.
I was promptly called back by a very nice lady on reception who took my order. They said that they are really up against it and have not been taking any breaks. So maybe worth a try?!?!
IF we get through next week to the final I am just going to have to go down there on the Tuesday.
Guys, spares are starting to filter through, so as said yesterday pl register an interest on the waiting list thread and someone might be able to help you
[cite]Posted By: Valiantphil[/cite]Home ticket sales at STFC look to have died off.
Our chief exec should be on the blower to STFC stating the case for the release of another 1000 tickets to us.
Mid-stand segregation is easy these days with proper netting and stewarding, and they would benefit from the revenue.
Shouldn't be a problem as I think Swindon have closed the away end for a few games this season and put away support in the side stand with some netting and stewards.
But you've gotta let Swindon have a few days to let as many Swindon as possible buy tickets, not start demanding more for yourselves straight away.
[cite]Posted By: Addickted[/cite]Swindon are only selling to ST holders up to 7pm tonight. I can't imagine they have more than 5,000 of those.
I expect the rest will fly out of the window tomorrow, when they go on general sale.
This is correct. You can only buy a ticket if you're a ST holder, they only get crowds of about 8k so i doubt they've got more than 5k ST holders. There'll be a rush to buy tickets tomorrow morning from the others.
CFGS said:
oh well, it is just a shame that all those that buggered off over the last few seasons have resurfaced at the slightest whiff of glory.
I scanned that quickly and thought they'd decided to fill in the potholes in the West Stand Car Park! Anyway here's my email response from Steve Kavanagh. It looks like a cut and paste job. My response to his response features afterwards. Sorry it's all a bit long.
He said:
Sorry I haven’t responded earlier but I have been at The Football League meeting that was arranged at very short notice to vote on whether to allow 4 years parachute payments. If you ask any of my staff where I would have rather been today they will tell you The Valley. I was in contact with everyone all day from 7am when I got into the car to drive to Walsall right up to now. I even made a point mid morning of approaching Swindon's Chairman and demanding more tickets.
The real issue here is down to the fact we only got 2000 tickets and more importantly only had 4 days to manage the sales. If we has created a detailed structure as we have done for a few games then we would have created a number of issues for ourselves. As it was today we have sold over 6000 tickets and we anticipate a similar number tomorrow. The reality is that when you look at the level of criticism around the away tickets you actually notice we are being criticised by season ticket holder, 5 year holders, regular away travellers and Valley Gold members.
We were never going to satisfy everyone, even with a detailed sales structure and could only ever upset a large number as demand for the fixture was enormous and by far exceeded even what we thought it could have been.
Every supporter that queued up from 9 am at The Valley got a ticket, we went on sale on the phones to assist those who don’t live locally. We only have a finite number of staff and we had to handle home ticket sales as well today and from the above numbers you can see we sold nearly 4000 tickets today. The scaled down infrastructure we now have simply struggled to handle the demand.
I appreciate you are upset at not getting a ticket but even if we had applied a tighter first restriction I suspect you still would not have made it to The Valley in time, any such restriction would have had to have been lifted today given the time lines involved and the other logistical issues involved.
When I spoke to Swindon and Millwall I understand they have outsourced the whole process, washed their hands of looking after their fans. I suppose with hindsight we should have done that and we are seriously considering it in the future.
Ultimately I am really sorry you didn’t get a ticket, please can you let me know if you tried to buy at The Valley or on the phone and what problems you encountered so we can look at whether going forward we can do anything about these issues.
I replied:
First, thank you for your prompt response.
I do understand the logistical issues but I believe the method that CAFC chose to sell the Swindon away play-off tickets was nonetheless deeply flawed and that should have been obvious to the club.
I notice that you make comparisons between our club and what Swindon and Millwall opted to do. But I also notice that you made no mention of the eminently sensible and equitable procedures that Huddersfield put in place. Although operating within sligthly easier timescales, Huddersfield ensured that season ticket holders with a strong history of supporting the club at away matches got deserved priority. It is also crucial to note that Huddersfield decided to issue intially just one ticket per qualifying season ticket holder and that tickets were being sold by them on Sunday.
In contrast, Charlton allowed any season ticket holder with ready access to the ticket office on a work day, whether they were regular away match attendees or not, to purchase two tickets each. Thus probably ensuring that a significant number of tickets went to individuals with only a loose association to the club. You can imagine the conversations now: "Oh, if you're going to queue up anyway, would you get one for me please?"
You highlight that the club is being criticised by particular categories of supporter and I would comment that these are the very people that the club should be making especial efforts to nuture.
Yes, sure, there were only 2000 tickets but they would have been bought in pretty much the same timescale by the regular away supporters. With any remaining quickly snapped up by personal callers to the Valley before close of business on Wednesday. My wife and I feel now that we have wasted our time, effort and money bothering to join the other 1,370 supporters who got soaked to the skin at Yeovil or the 505 people at Hartlepool or the 323 poor souls who stupidly travelled to watch the debacle at Hereford.
My wife and I have been Charlton season ticket holders at first The Valley, then Selhurst Park, Upton Park and back to The Valley. We have helped the club by buying shares; subscribing to the 10-year VIP scheme; the following 5-year top-up scheme; and currently by shelling out an exorbitant £720 for a West Stand car park place. But we now feel deeply hurt and let down by the club who we feel does not actually care one way or another about people like us. Swindon away will be the first important match that we have failed to get to in over three decades loyally supporting the club.
Now, you asked what efforts we made to buy tickets. Well, first, you need to know that we live in Essex - an 80 mile round trip using the infamous Dartford Crossing to the club. So, no, we could not have realistically justified travelling to the Valley on the off chance that by the time we got to the head of the queue tickets would still have been available.
We tried the premium rate (which I object to strongly but that's another matter) ticket line on numerous occasions throughout yesterday morning but were always cut off before getting through to an actual person. (By the way, the recorded message which was out of date, became increasingly tedious as the morning wore on.) I also tried to get through via the main switchboard but was told they could not transfer through calls or get anyone to speak with me about the issues. I then held a lengthy conversation with a very sympathetic person on the main switchboard (can you thank her for me please) but, clearly, she was not in a position to assist and was unable to put me through to someone who could.
Look, CAFC is a business. It relies upon the goodwill of its consumers. Despite being an organisation that only employs some 160 people (as at the last annual report) it has an extraordinarily top heavy structure. I can think of no other SME that would operate a holding company with 8 directors; a subsidiary with 9 directors; then have a Group CEO, Managing Director and Operations Director but still fail to have people available in the building to deal with legitimate concerns raised by its customers. It is very poor business practice.
So, what now? Well I was an early purchaser of our seats for the home leg but frankly have no enthusiasm to go to either that, or if Charlton battle through, the match at Wembley. Suddenly a bank holiday weekend not playing with the traffic on the M25/North Circular seems very attractive indeed. As I said in my first email I feel disillusioned by my treatment and am presently lacking any enthusiasm for a business which treats me with such disdane. I am sorry that's the case but there we are.
When I spoke to Swindon and Millwall I understand they have outsourced the whole process, washed their hands of looking after their fans. I suppose with hindsight we should have done that and we are seriously considering it in the future.
Not pleasant reading for the hard working staff that they may be out sourced.
[cite]Posted By: nolly[/cite]mate went down there today sparrows said they will be gone by thursday,so good going really
Hope so, it's a fair trek early doors Saturday morning, but should just about shift the 2900.
Just read elsewhere that our average away attendance this year is just over 1200, which is better than I thought, not bad. Can't be many that beat that, Norwich, Leeds, yourselves probably, and maybe one other possibly. (or maybe loads others, I'm just basing that on crowd sizes!)
[cite]Posted By: leftbehind[/cite]When I spoke to Swindon and Millwall I understand they have outsourced the whole process, washed their hands of looking after their fans. I suppose with hindsight we should have done that and we are seriously considering it in the future.
Not pleasant reading for the hard working staff that they may be out sourced.
Not sure what he meant by that. The staff at the ticket office today are the same lot that have been there for years. It may be handled by See Tickets, but it's the same staff. Phone sales go through See Tickets, I assume that is similar to your 24/7 whoever they are.
[cite]Posted By: Sparrows Lane Lion[/cite]I assume that is similar to your 24/7 whoever they are.
priceless!
Have I made a fuck up...oh dear....from what I read it seemed like whoever runs your telephone sales are called that, as it definitely ain't open 24/7!
southampton have excellent away suppport sparrows so they will surpass that.
club's response to this is pitiful. they say "there were always going to be people upset" - yes obviously there were going to be people disappointed not to get a ticket, but i don't think anybody would have been angry with CAFC if they hadn't got a ticket because the 2,000 had sold out to people who have been to more away games than them, as there is no justification for saying they should get a ticket ahead of those people. They would only have cause to be disappointed with the allocation at swindon, but thats a fact of life when you play smaller clubs with low capacity.
man united have overdemand for every single away game they play, but people have to accept they can't get a ticket for certain games as there just aren't enough - it's making sure that those who travel the most are rewarded accordingly.
Comments
I dont suppose Swindon are being sensible and selling that bit last?
Our chief exec should be on the blower to STFC stating the case for the release of another 1000 tickets to us.
Mid-stand segregation is easy these days with proper netting and stewarding, and they would benefit from the revenue.
I bet our management team are not even bothered, too busy sticking £19 on the meal price so they can squeeze every cent out of loyal supporters.
What chance a "Play-off special" souvenir programme at £5 containing almost nothing extra ?
The club should also do something to redistribute the revenue from that 0870 number that was extorted on Monday - How about a FREE souvenir programme for the home leg.
How quickly the board have forgotten the early sale of season tickets and 5 year deals in order to meet our cashflow requirements.
Surely having more revenue for a game is better than empty seats.
Hope so anyway, for the people who have missed out on tickets.
I expect the rest will fly out of the window tomorrow, when they go on general sale.
In addition to this they state we have sold out for the game at thier place and we have sold 11,000 for the game at the Valley, so this means current sales are showing:
Swindon Fri night, 7,000
The Valley Mon night, 12,500
they have limited s/t holders to just 1 ticket for the away match. what forward thinking.
I too purchased a 5 year season ticket and agree with others that this plus VG members should have had some priority before a wider audience.
Swindon may believe that they will sell out to home fans when it goes on general sale .It seems counter productive for Swindon to hold back seats otherwise . They must know that there will be Addicks who would phone up a general sale and infiltrate home areas . Also more paying punters would produce a better atmosphere than a two thirds full stadium.
I was promptly called back by a very nice lady on reception who took my order. They said that they are really up against it and have not been taking any breaks. So maybe worth a try?!?!
IF we get through next week to the final I am just going to have to go down there on the Tuesday.
Shouldn't be a problem as I think Swindon have closed the away end for a few games this season and put away support in the side stand with some netting and stewards.
But you've gotta let Swindon have a few days to let as many Swindon as possible buy tickets, not start demanding more for yourselves straight away.
This is correct. You can only buy a ticket if you're a ST holder, they only get crowds of about 8k so i doubt they've got more than 5k ST holders. There'll be a rush to buy tickets tomorrow morning from the others.
Well Swindon are doing one............Special programme
No feature on Shirt's goals then?
oh well, it is just a shame that all those that buggered off over the last few seasons have resurfaced at the slightest whiff of glory.
I scanned that quickly and thought they'd decided to fill in the potholes in the West Stand Car Park! Anyway here's my email response from Steve Kavanagh. It looks like a cut and paste job. My response to his response features afterwards. Sorry it's all a bit long.
He said:
Sorry I haven’t responded earlier but I have been at The Football League meeting that was arranged at very short notice to vote on whether to allow 4 years parachute payments. If you ask any of my staff where I would have rather been today they will tell you The Valley. I was in contact with everyone all day from 7am when I got into the car to drive to Walsall right up to now. I even made a point mid morning of approaching Swindon's Chairman and demanding more tickets.
The real issue here is down to the fact we only got 2000 tickets and more importantly only had 4 days to manage the sales. If we has created a detailed structure as we have done for a few games then we would have created a number of issues for ourselves. As it was today we have sold over 6000 tickets and we anticipate a similar number tomorrow. The reality is that when you look at the level of criticism around the away tickets you actually notice we are being criticised by season ticket holder, 5 year holders, regular away travellers and Valley Gold members.
We were never going to satisfy everyone, even with a detailed sales structure and could only ever upset a large number as demand for the fixture was enormous and by far exceeded even what we thought it could have been.
Every supporter that queued up from 9 am at The Valley got a ticket, we went on sale on the phones to assist those who don’t live locally. We only have a finite number of staff and we had to handle home ticket sales as well today and from the above numbers you can see we sold nearly 4000 tickets today. The scaled down infrastructure we now have simply struggled to handle the demand.
I appreciate you are upset at not getting a ticket but even if we had applied a tighter first restriction I suspect you still would not have made it to The Valley in time, any such restriction would have had to have been lifted today given the time lines involved and the other logistical issues involved.
When I spoke to Swindon and Millwall I understand they have outsourced the whole process, washed their hands of looking after their fans. I suppose with hindsight we should have done that and we are seriously considering it in the future.
Ultimately I am really sorry you didn’t get a ticket, please can you let me know if you tried to buy at The Valley or on the phone and what problems you encountered so we can look at whether going forward we can do anything about these issues.
I replied:
First, thank you for your prompt response.
I do understand the logistical issues but I believe the method that CAFC chose to sell the Swindon away play-off tickets was nonetheless deeply flawed and that should have been obvious to the club.
I notice that you make comparisons between our club and what Swindon and Millwall opted to do. But I also notice that you made no mention of the eminently sensible and equitable procedures that Huddersfield put in place. Although operating within sligthly easier timescales, Huddersfield ensured that season ticket holders with a strong history of supporting the club at away matches got deserved priority. It is also crucial to note that Huddersfield decided to issue intially just one ticket per qualifying season ticket holder and that tickets were being sold by them on Sunday.
In contrast, Charlton allowed any season ticket holder with ready access to the ticket office on a work day, whether they were regular away match attendees or not, to purchase two tickets each. Thus probably ensuring that a significant number of tickets went to individuals with only a loose association to the club. You can imagine the conversations now: "Oh, if you're going to queue up anyway, would you get one for me please?"
You highlight that the club is being criticised by particular categories of supporter and I would comment that these are the very people that the club should be making especial efforts to nuture.
Yes, sure, there were only 2000 tickets but they would have been bought in pretty much the same timescale by the regular away supporters. With any remaining quickly snapped up by personal callers to the Valley before close of business on Wednesday. My wife and I feel now that we have wasted our time, effort and money bothering to join the other 1,370 supporters who got soaked to the skin at Yeovil or the 505 people at Hartlepool or the 323 poor souls who stupidly travelled to watch the debacle at Hereford.
My wife and I have been Charlton season ticket holders at first The Valley, then Selhurst Park, Upton Park and back to The Valley. We have helped the club by buying shares; subscribing to the 10-year VIP scheme; the following 5-year top-up scheme; and currently by shelling out an exorbitant £720 for a West Stand car park place. But we now feel deeply hurt and let down by the club who we feel does not actually care one way or another about people like us. Swindon away will be the first important match that we have failed to get to in over three decades loyally supporting the club.
Now, you asked what efforts we made to buy tickets. Well, first, you need to know that we live in Essex - an 80 mile round trip using the infamous Dartford Crossing to the club. So, no, we could not have realistically justified travelling to the Valley on the off chance that by the time we got to the head of the queue tickets would still have been available.
We tried the premium rate (which I object to strongly but that's another matter) ticket line on numerous occasions throughout yesterday morning but were always cut off before getting through to an actual person. (By the way, the recorded message which was out of date, became increasingly tedious as the morning wore on.) I also tried to get through via the main switchboard but was told they could not transfer through calls or get anyone to speak with me about the issues. I then held a lengthy conversation with a very sympathetic person on the main switchboard (can you thank her for me please) but, clearly, she was not in a position to assist and was unable to put me through to someone who could.
Look, CAFC is a business. It relies upon the goodwill of its consumers. Despite being an organisation that only employs some 160 people (as at the last annual report) it has an extraordinarily top heavy structure. I can think of no other SME that would operate a holding company with 8 directors; a subsidiary with 9 directors; then have a Group CEO, Managing Director and Operations Director but still fail to have people available in the building to deal with legitimate concerns raised by its customers. It is very poor business practice.
So, what now? Well I was an early purchaser of our seats for the home leg but frankly have no enthusiasm to go to either that, or if Charlton battle through, the match at Wembley. Suddenly a bank holiday weekend not playing with the traffic on the M25/North Circular seems very attractive indeed. As I said in my first email I feel disillusioned by my treatment and am presently lacking any enthusiasm for a business which treats me with such disdane. I am sorry that's the case but there we are.
Not pleasant reading for the hard working staff that they may be out sourced.
Hope so, it's a fair trek early doors Saturday morning, but should just about shift the 2900.
Just read elsewhere that our average away attendance this year is just over 1200, which is better than I thought, not bad. Can't be many that beat that, Norwich, Leeds, yourselves probably, and maybe one other possibly. (or maybe loads others, I'm just basing that on crowd sizes!)
Not sure what he meant by that. The staff at the ticket office today are the same lot that have been there for years. It may be handled by See Tickets, but it's the same staff. Phone sales go through See Tickets, I assume that is similar to your 24/7 whoever they are.
priceless!
Yep they will, forgot about them.
Probably Leeds, Norwich, Southampton, yourselves? then us perhaps. Hudds don't seem to travel too well.
Have I made a fuck up...oh dear....from what I read it seemed like whoever runs your telephone sales are called that, as it definitely ain't open 24/7!
Where's the looking sheepish smiley? ;-)
It's what our loveable and seemingly always "busy" and "overworked" CEO is now referred to!
club's response to this is pitiful. they say "there were always going to be people upset" - yes obviously there were going to be people disappointed not to get a ticket, but i don't think anybody would have been angry with CAFC if they hadn't got a ticket because the 2,000 had sold out to people who have been to more away games than them, as there is no justification for saying they should get a ticket ahead of those people. They would only have cause to be disappointed with the allocation at swindon, but thats a fact of life when you play smaller clubs with low capacity.
man united have overdemand for every single away game they play, but people have to accept they can't get a ticket for certain games as there just aren't enough - it's making sure that those who travel the most are rewarded accordingly.