You can argue Free tickets for season ticket holders to give makes some kind of sense but to just randomly throw out thousands of comps in the local area that are not used is madness
Otherwise empty seats and lots of locals..loads of us were local once upon a time, came along and got hooked…loads of locals once voted for the valley party so that charlton could return to the valley…seems to me to be a pretty smart idea to offer the current set of locals a chance to come along
Difference was we paid. How is the idea smart to give away tickets and effectively block out paying customers from getting in?
A shilling or two bob was affordable out of the family budget. £20 or more is food on the table for a lot of people these days
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
It’s a ridiculous situation.
Out of interest, where are the restricted view seats in the home areas of our ground? Didn’t realise we had any.
Yeah please let us know as I think I'll get my season ticket there in future.
You can argue Free tickets for season ticket holders to give makes some kind of sense but to just randomly throw out thousands of comps in the local area that are not used is madness
Otherwise empty seats and lots of locals..loads of us were local once upon a time, came along and got hooked…loads of locals once voted for the valley party so that charlton could return to the valley…seems to me to be a pretty smart idea to offer the current set of locals a chance to come along
Difference was we paid. How is the idea smart to give away tickets and effectively block out paying customers from getting in?
A shilling or two bob was affordable out of the family budget. £20 or more is food on the table for a lot of people these days
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
It’s a ridiculous situation.
Out of interest, where are the restricted view seats in the home areas of our ground? Didn’t realise we had any.
You can argue Free tickets for season ticket holders to give makes some kind of sense but to just randomly throw out thousands of comps in the local area that are not used is madness
Otherwise empty seats and lots of locals..loads of us were local once upon a time, came along and got hooked…loads of locals once voted for the valley party so that charlton could return to the valley…seems to me to be a pretty smart idea to offer the current set of locals a chance to come along
Difference was we paid. How is the idea smart to give away tickets and effectively block out paying customers from getting in?
A shilling or two bob was affordable out of the family budget. £20 or more is food on the table for a lot of people these days
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
It’s a ridiculous situation.
Out of interest, where are the restricted view seats in the home areas of our ground? Didn’t realise we had any.
You can argue Free tickets for season ticket holders to give makes some kind of sense but to just randomly throw out thousands of comps in the local area that are not used is madness
Otherwise empty seats and lots of locals..loads of us were local once upon a time, came along and got hooked…loads of locals once voted for the valley party so that charlton could return to the valley…seems to me to be a pretty smart idea to offer the current set of locals a chance to come along
Difference was we paid. How is the idea smart to give away tickets and effectively block out paying customers from getting in?
A shilling or two bob was affordable out of the family budget. £20 or more is food on the table for a lot of people these days
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
It’s a ridiculous situation.
Out of interest, where are the restricted view seats in the home areas of our ground? Didn’t realise we had any.
Yeah please let us know as I think I'll get my season ticket there in future.
It’s the seats with a metal bar in front of them which I guess if you are a child might restrict your view.
Have seen it before when selecting free tickets for one of the many freebie offers.
Afraid you will still get a good view of the pitch.
After yesterday, I just hope the club send me a letter asking me to renew our season tickets for next season.There will be one answer and That is if the team can't be bothered then neither can I. A 170 mile round trip for a home game is no longer something I am prepared to do...
Wanted to take my Grandkids for their first game , but couldn't find any where we could all sit as it was showing pretty much sold out . Dodged a bullet by the sounds of it !
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
Pretty obvious they aren't giving away anything like the number of seats they are blocking from sale. It takes far more resource than we have to do this and even with a poor actual appearance rate, we would be seeing bigger gates than we are if we were genuinely giving away 10,000 tickets per game. We have 9000 counted season ticket holders and there were 2000+ Oxford there yesterday and maybe a 2000 walk-up, so I suspect actually freebies in attendance was less than 1000.
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
Pretty obvious they aren't giving away anything like the number of seats they are blocking from sale. It takes far more resource than we have to do this and even with a poor actual appearance rate, we would be seeing bigger gates than we are if we were genuinely giving away 10,000 tickets per game. We have 9000 counted season ticket holders and there were 2000+ Oxford there yesterday and maybe a 2000 walk-up, so I suspect actually freebies in attendance was less than 1000.
Depends what you mean by giving away. They are putting piles of tickets in places where they won’t be wanted. I don’t believe they are blocking off tickets that haven’t been printed.
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
Pretty obvious they aren't giving away anything like the number of seats they are blocking from sale. It takes far more resource than we have to do this and even with a poor actual appearance rate, we would be seeing bigger gates than we are if we were genuinely giving away 10,000 tickets per game. We have 9000 counted season ticket holders and there were 2000+ Oxford there yesterday and maybe a 2000 walk-up, so I suspect actually freebies in attendance was less than 1000.
Depends what you mean by giving away. They are putting piles of tickets in places where they won’t be wanted. I don’t believe they are blocking off tickets that haven’t been printed.
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
Pretty obvious they aren't giving away anything like the number of seats they are blocking from sale. It takes far more resource than we have to do this and even with a poor actual appearance rate, we would be seeing bigger gates than we are if we were genuinely giving away 10,000 tickets per game. We have 9000 counted season ticket holders and there were 2000+ Oxford there yesterday and maybe a 2000 walk-up, so I suspect actually freebies in attendance was less than 1000.
Depends what you mean by giving away. They are putting piles of tickets in places where they won’t be wanted. I don’t believe they are blocking off tickets that haven’t been printed.
Call me mental, but how about sending these freebies out to old ST holders and the like ? If you are trying to get feet through the door, I'd start with actual fans amd not gooners that live around the corner.
Yesterday in the East Stand Row BB block D there were 5 empty seats along our row. The row in front had the same and the lady in front of me was unable to buy a ticket for her friend next to her who comes to most games as it was sold out.
The row in front of her had 6 empty seats but about 10 minutes into the game, were taken up by a group of youngish individuals. 10 minutes after that they all got up and came back with hot dogs and drinks each about 15 minutes later. So for the first half they saw about 20 minutes football. They all disappeared about 15 minutes into the second half and never came back.
The amount of people turning up late in and around us was ridiculous. This was also similar at the Wimbledon match. What is the point.
A mate of mine who lives a 15 mins walk from the Valley has been to the last few home games on free tickets via his son’s primary school (Thorntree Primary School) and his local grassroots club Long Lane. Taken his boy both are not Charlton fans. Only goes when he gets free tickets and no intention of buying one.
Me and my daughter (both members not season ticket holders) live in North London been to about 6 home games this season and paid on the each occasion. Makes me feel like we are being taken for mugs.
I have no problem with free tickets for local primary schools as one offs but its beginning to feel like every bloody week!!
I think the biggest problem in all of this is the lack of strategy. Throwing tickets at people who don’t want them / alienating our own fans / not taking peoples details etc etc. Someone really needs to get hold of this and have a ‘plan’.
There are about 300 local primary schools the club can work with, as we did in L1 2009-12. It’s quite possible to manage things so that no one gets tickets more than twice a season and that the overall number is kept down to the point where it doesn’t undermine the season ticket base or impinge on regular fans.
You can’t just leave it to the trust, though. It’s not their job and they don’t have the interest in managing it.
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
Pretty obvious they aren't giving away anything like the number of seats they are blocking from sale. It takes far more resource than we have to do this and even with a poor actual appearance rate, we would be seeing bigger gates than we are if we were genuinely giving away 10,000 tickets per game. We have 9000 counted season ticket holders and there were 2000+ Oxford there yesterday and maybe a 2000 walk-up, so I suspect actually freebies in attendance was less than 1000.
Exactly, around 1,000 freebies at the game but from early in the week hardly any tickets available in the home stands.
In respect of walk ups be interested to hear of anyone who was able to buy on the day. If the tickets weren’t available on line prior to the game how could they have c.2,000 on the day? If they are rules that they have to they should have made it clear as I imagine a number looked on line couldn’t get a ticket and decided not to bother.
Where are these tickets if they aren’t giving them away?
Really beginning to worry about the (lack of) strategy on and off the pitch.
My mum popped around earlier and mentioned the school she works at in Maidstone has tickets and is running a minibus up to two future home games. Are they giving them away that far out? Don't get me wrong, there has always been a sizeable Charlton support down here but given freebies to schools this far out.... maybe it’s to do with the summer football school links!?! Least they’re going to be used I guess.
My mum popped around earlier and mentioned the school she works at in Maidstone has tickets and is running a minibus up to two future home games. Are they giving them away that far out? Don't get me wrong, there has always been a sizeable Charlton support down here but given freebies to schools this far out.... maybe it’s to do with the summer football school links!?! Least they’re going to be used I guess.
It will be where the trust works. They don’t have the coverage that the club did across SE and DA in the past, but it will be scattergun outside Greenwich, if not inside it.
Have had at least one complaint about regulars (in fact season ticket holders) being unable to get on Valley Express (and therefore to the game at all) because all the coach seats had been sold to people on free match tickets.
My mum popped around earlier and mentioned the school she works at in Maidstone has tickets and is running a minibus up to two future home games. Are they giving them away that far out? Don't get me wrong, there has always been a sizeable Charlton support down here but given freebies to schools this far out.... maybe it’s to do with the summer football school links!?! Least they’re going to be used I guess.
That sounds brilliant though, exactly what it should be used for
If fans who are annoyed by the giving away of free tickets complained directly to the club, they will hopefully take notice. The club can't afford to lose any fans so an email informing them of exactly how fans are being impacted might help, for example telling them how fans have been unable to sit with the people they normally meet at a match.
If fans who are annoyed by the giving away of free tickets complained directly to the club, they will hopefully take notice. The club can't afford to lose any fans so an email informing them of exactly how fans are being impacted might help, for example telling them how fans have been unable to sit with the people they normally meet at a match.
I wouldn't be so sure. Look at the uproar over the name change of the Women's team, and yet TS still proceeds with the change.
I have a season ticket in Curbs block G and the seats either side of mine are not season tickets. I quite often try and book these for friends. Both were showing as booked for the Oxford game, but both were empty. Surely the club would not give out single seats? Something very strange is going on with the ticket booking system even allowing for all the freebies. I am all for giving away limited free tickets, but it seems to have been taken to the extreme. It was absolutely ridiculous how sold out the Oxford game looked on the booking site. There were actually huge gaps everywhere on the day. This must have put off some from going.
You can argue Free tickets for season ticket holders to give makes some kind of sense but to just randomly throw out thousands of comps in the local area that are not used is madness
Otherwise empty seats and lots of locals..loads of us were local once upon a time, came along and got hooked…loads of locals once voted for the valley party so that charlton could return to the valley…seems to me to be a pretty smart idea to offer the current set of locals a chance to come along
Difference was we paid. How is the idea smart to give away tickets and effectively block out paying customers from getting in?
A shilling or two bob was affordable out of the family budget. £20 or more is food on the table for a lot of people these days
Pretty strange business that locks out its existing customers who want to pay with 10,000 plus empty seats however you look at it.
How true, one of our group went to buy a ticket on Friday as never had an issue in the past. They were forced to call and had to buy a restricted view ticket as the other seats had been given away.
To rub salt in he was told he would have to pay the booking fee as he wouldn’t be able to buy on the day as they don’t sell these tickets. of course he was able to sit with us as there were plenty of empty seats.
How many fans didn’t bother to go as they couldn’t get a ticket? Lost revenue and potentially a lost fan going forward. I don’t have a problem giving some tickets away but we must be giving away between 8,000-10,000.
They then have the cheek to ask you to buy early for Sunderland to secure your seat.
If they are going to give away free tickets their should be a strategy to attract the fans to attend again whilst paying.
I know people who will go to the odd free game, but they are not Charlton supporters and never will be as many freebies you want to give them.
To me it looks as though there is no strategy to most things at the club at the moment, very concerning for the future.
It’s a ridiculous situation.
Out of interest, where are the restricted view seats in the home areas of our ground? Didn’t realise we had any.
Yeah please let us know as I think I'll get my season ticket there in future.
Certainly some in the West stand where the barrier at the top of the stairs blocks the view from seats either side.
Most stands nowadays have a clear shield of some sort.
If fans who are annoyed by the giving away of free tickets complained directly to the club, they will hopefully take notice. The club can't afford to lose any fans so an email informing them of exactly how fans are being impacted might help, for example telling them how fans have been unable to sit with the people they normally meet at a match.
I did this on Saturday. No 'auto reply' nor a real person response yet. However it is only Monday. I've emailed before about something else and never received a reply.
These faceless/generic accounts do have a habit of sitting unmonitored though. Admittedly it was donkeys ago but when I worked at the club it turns out no one was accessing a particular email address that was plastered all over the website, so I took it on to redirect incoming emails that were sent to that address to ensure customers/fans received a response from the right place within a reasonable time frame.
Comments
Yeah please let us know as I think I'll get my season ticket there in future.
Dodged a bullet by the sounds of it !
Yeh we got free tickets because neice plays for robin juniors.
It was so so bad honestly they weren’t even playing !!! Like they were asleep. My boyfriends neice, she cried bless her!
The atmosphere the players everything was miserable today!
No buzz at all you know.
A genuinely sad state of affairs.
The row in front of her had 6 empty seats but about 10 minutes into the game, were taken up by a group of youngish individuals. 10 minutes after that they all got up and came back with hot dogs and drinks each about 15 minutes later. So for the first half they saw about 20 minutes football. They all disappeared about 15 minutes into the second half and never came back.
The amount of people turning up late in and around us was ridiculous. This was also similar at the Wimbledon match. What is the point.
Me and my daughter (both members not season ticket holders) live in North London been to about 6 home games this season and paid on the each occasion. Makes me feel like we are being taken for mugs.
Most stands nowadays have a clear shield of some sort.
These faceless/generic accounts do have a habit of sitting unmonitored though. Admittedly it was donkeys ago but when I worked at the club it turns out no one was accessing a particular email address that was plastered all over the website, so I took it on to redirect incoming emails that were sent to that address to ensure customers/fans received a response from the right place within a reasonable time frame.