There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
That is the problem how many members do the trust have, I don’t have a opinion on the trust and what they do but many fans don’t follow the trust’s comms
CAST comms are public via social channels and the website castrust.org.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
Again though what detail have you established from the club?
There is no need for secrecy.
There is no secrecy or conspiracy. The club were refused more tickets because of “segregation issues”. We are trying to get to the bottom of how Orient were able to sell their allocation in a way that created these issues and effectively blocked us. It also seems that no-one - whether Wembley or EFL - took responsibility for deadline management and left this to the clubs. Orient were therefore still selling until late on the Friday.
One idea is that the allocation release to both clubs should be staggered with specific deadlines. However, that’s not straightforward either - for example it might have meant both clubs only receiving 30K initial allocation to sell by a certain date before we received more. That would probably have resulted in Charlton selling at two tickets per ST holder and that would have caused a lot of issues of a different nature.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
Again though what detail have you established from the club?
There is no need for secrecy.
There is no secrecy or conspiracy. The club were refused more tickets because of “segregation issues”. We are trying to get to the bottom of how Orient were able to sell their allocation in a way that created these issues and effectively blocked us. It also seems that no-one - whether Wembley or EFL - took responsibility for deadline management and left this to the clubs. Orient were therefore still selling until late on the Friday.
One idea is that the allocation release to both clubs should be staggered with specific deadlines. However, that’s not straightforward either - for example it might have meant both clubs only receiving 30K initial allocation to sell by a certain date before we received more. That would probably have resulted in Charlton selling at two tickets per ST holder and that would have caused a lot of issues of a different nature.
Thank you. That is the first time to my knowledge that detail has been confirmed ie segregation issues and no enforced deadline.
Does how the tickets were sold effect who we appoint as a CEO?
Yes. The Trust members will get to vote on who the new CEO will be based on their manifesto for explaining the distribution of Wembley tickets. Which the Trust will then keep to themselves.
Apologies for contributing to taking this off topic. Look forward to getting stuck into the detail of hypothetical future play-off ticket allocations with the new CEO on their first day in the role
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
Did you ask the club why they did not open on the Saturday and Sunday to personal callers?
Did you ask why they did not allow personal callers during the week?
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
Did you ask the club why they did not open on the Saturday and Sunday to personal callers?
Did you ask why they did not allow personal callers during the week?
Probably because there were no real tickets to sell, only on phone/ print at home.
Gavin Carter suggested an appointment was close - indeed imminent - on recent CAST Q&A. Expect we’ll get an announcement fairly soon.
With an explanation of Wembley ticket allocation or is that a dead topic now ?
CAST will raise the issue of seats left empty despite strong demand at the next structured dialogue meeting between the FSA and EFL. At least we’ll try and ensure there are clearer procedures / policies to maximise sales in future, whether we’re involved or not.
But are you seeking an explanation from the club to understand the process and why the statement on ‘we have requested’ and then silence until the 11th hour?
My point being don’t you need to understand this from the clubs perspective of what they could and did / did not do before discussing with the FSA?
My assumption is this was following a process (not shared with us) rather than being Charlton specific.
We were in touch with the club about it at the time. Charlton did all they could in the circumstances. One of the issues is that there does not seem to be a clear process at all.
I appreciate the good intentions that u and your comrades have but there were at least 8000 seats that we could have sold - why does nobody know why they weren’t given to us ? Because nobody is prepared to ask the difficult questions or pin people to the ‘metaphorical’ wall, that’s why.
Pretty sure the questions were asked but clear answers weren’t necessarily given or available to the public. It’s pretty clear that the way Orient sold their blocks stopped us from being given extra tickets, the question is why did the EFL/Wembley allow Orient to sell in the manner they did. Not sure we’ll ever know but bodies like CAST can keep asking the question so that fans in the future don’t have the same issues
My point was asking CAFC (by CAST) to learn before engaging with the FSA.
None of this stuff is commercially sensitive after all. It’s just asking for the process followed and when / how more tickets can be granted if ever.
And surely the way Orient sold was to potentially allow us to get more seats ?
The FSA have much more clout with the EFL than any single clubs supporters trust.
And you’d think the way Orient sold would allow us to get more seats but clearly it wasn’t the case. If that was the plan, they wouldn’t have sold the entire bottom tier but sold from one side to the other.
You miss my point I fear.
CAST should get the CAFC side / version of events first and share.
If it transpires Orient mucked up by selling in the wrong sequence then so be it.
My only real concern is that the possibility of more tickets was never a probable outcome and in which case CAFC were guilty of not sharing that.
I don’t know if that’s true because no one is telling us and it simply need not be a secret. We are constantly told the club operates at a loss and must maximise income opportunities and so in which case let us understand why c 8k tickets went unsold.
Nice use of “c” as the abbreviation of circa, meaning “about”.
Gavin Carter suggested an appointment was close - indeed imminent - on recent CAST Q&A. Expect we’ll get an announcement fairly soon.
With an explanation of Wembley ticket allocation or is that a dead topic now ?
CAST will raise the issue of seats left empty despite strong demand at the next structured dialogue meeting between the FSA and EFL. At least we’ll try and ensure there are clearer procedures / policies to maximise sales in future, whether we’re involved or not.
But are you seeking an explanation from the club to understand the process and why the statement on ‘we have requested’ and then silence until the 11th hour?
My point being don’t you need to understand this from the clubs perspective of what they could and did / did not do before discussing with the FSA?
My assumption is this was following a process (not shared with us) rather than being Charlton specific.
We were in touch with the club about it at the time. Charlton did all they could in the circumstances. One of the issues is that there does not seem to be a clear process at all.
I appreciate the good intentions that u and your comrades have but there were at least 8000 seats that we could have sold - why does nobody know why they weren’t given to us ? Because nobody is prepared to ask the difficult questions or pin people to the ‘metaphorical’ wall, that’s why.
Pretty sure the questions were asked but clear answers weren’t necessarily given or available to the public. It’s pretty clear that the way Orient sold their blocks stopped us from being given extra tickets, the question is why did the EFL/Wembley allow Orient to sell in the manner they did. Not sure we’ll ever know but bodies like CAST can keep asking the question so that fans in the future don’t have the same issues
My point was asking CAFC (by CAST) to learn before engaging with the FSA.
None of this stuff is commercially sensitive after all. It’s just asking for the process followed and when / how more tickets can be granted if ever.
And surely the way Orient sold was to potentially allow us to get more seats ?
The FSA have much more clout with the EFL than any single clubs supporters trust.
And you’d think the way Orient sold would allow us to get more seats but clearly it wasn’t the case. If that was the plan, they wouldn’t have sold the entire bottom tier but sold from one side to the other.
You miss my point I fear.
CAST should get the CAFC side / version of events first and share.
If it transpires Orient mucked up by selling in the wrong sequence then so be it.
My only real concern is that the possibility of more tickets was never a probable outcome and in which case CAFC were guilty of not sharing that.
I don’t know if that’s true because no one is telling us and it simply need not be a secret. We are constantly told the club operates at a loss and must maximise income opportunities and so in which case let us understand why c 8k tickets went unsold.
Nice use of “c” as the abbreviation of circa, meaning “about”.
Meaning what exactly? Is my number way off then of how far under capacity Wembley was?
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
If that’s what they did, and it certainly looks like that, I’m glad the feckers lost and I hope they have a shit season next year.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
Did you ask the club why they did not open on the Saturday and Sunday to personal callers?
Did you ask why they did not allow personal callers during the week?
Probably because there were no real tickets to sell, only on phone/ print at home.
Not producing a 'hard copy' probably did not help matters. Orient ultimately were open to personal callers.
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
No. Again, I'm talking about the empty seats in our end - not the blocks Orient didn't sell.
There doesn’t need to be an explanation though, you’re crying over spilt milk. The club asked for me tickets received more than were told that was the limit. Go to an Orient Forum and ask why they’re a small club if it’s still bugging you
There are estimated to be about 5,000 Charlton fans who wanted to buy tickets and could not. That’s completely unacceptable, when the stadium had 14,000 empty seats, and people need to be held accountable. Ordinary fans are treated with contempt by the football authorities, with the connivance of many club owners. If we dont stand up to it, it will keep happening.
If the club had been more open about what was happening at the time there wouldn’t be an ongoing discussion. Private conversations with CAST are no substitute for inclusive comms.
It would not have helped anyone - least of all Charlton - to have pointed fingers at the time. The club did make fans aware of the efforts they were making.
We still do not have a full explanation from the authorities of how the process went wrong and we are seeking that. Fully agree with others that it was beyond unacceptable that so many of our fans missed out when the game wasn’t sold out.
My criticism is not of the trust. Its job is to articulate the concerns of supporters to the club. I’m sure it did. The problem is that the club needs to message the fanbase as a whole; relaying facts in confidence to the trust hierarchy is of little practical value.
“The club did make people aware of the efforts they were making” is pushing it, to be honest. Nobody ever takes ownership of messages coming out of the club - probably because there is no chief executive.
However the messaging said nothing useful and did not change until well after it was likely that any additional tickets would be made available - Saturday morning.
It’s not “pointing fingers” that was required, it’s inclusive communication, which the club was very good at for about 20 years and it reflected well on the board.
One feature was that the board in those years was willing to challenge the football authorities publicly. It didn’t always play out successfully but you knew whose side they were on and that they cared.
There is another common approach in the game, which is to hold fans at arm’s length and manage them out of any situation, rather than upset the EFL etc.
I’m not making any judgement about the culture in this case, but I think the club’s comms on tickets were terrible from the semi-final onwards. It was fans helping other fans which overcame the issues in the club’s own set-up. That’s something for a new chief executive to put right.
I accept that the ticketing staff are not going to lead on comms and that the club’s ticketing resources are inadequate, but where were the comms team? Presumably making videos for social media.
The trust will need to recognise the problem the club has communicating what fans need if it is to assist in putting it right.
Think the first question to ask is who the Communications Team actually are.
When the lack of communication from the club re the Wembley tickers " sold out" was at its most heated, I posted " Isn't that ( the Comms Dept) its raison d'etre ? "
Maybe this question is the most pertinent & one that needs answering at the highest level...
Tom Rubashow is head of comms. Think some of the criticism of the club in the circumstances is a bit harsh. Agree there is room for improvement and CAST will continue to raise issues but it is 10 times better than where we were even a couple of years ago.
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
No. Again, I'm talking about the empty seats in our end - not the blocks Orient didn't sell.
Perhaps I have skimmed too much, my view is that what Orient did not sell contributed with our empty seats.
One poster on here who may know otherwise to answer my question, Orient may have been told to sell by block so if they did not sell by a certain time, we could have x amount due to what we have sold.
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
No. Again, I'm talking about the empty seats in our end - not the blocks Orient didn't sell.
Perhaps I have skimmed too much, my view is that what Orient did not sell contributed with our empty seats.
One poster on here who may know otherwise to answer my question, Orient may have been told to sell by block so if they did not sell by a certain time, we could have x amount due to what we have sold.
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
No. Again, I'm talking about the empty seats in our end - not the blocks Orient didn't sell.
Perhaps I have skimmed too much, my view is that what Orient did not sell contributed with our empty seats.
One poster on here who may know otherwise to answer my question, Orient may have been told to sell by block so if they did not sell by a certain time, we could have x amount due to what we have sold.
We aren’t allowed to know it seems.
CAST have not shared all they were told it feels.
Yet yesterday you thanked me for sharing 🤷🏻♀️ Let’s keep this thread back on the CEO track.
Don’t think you’ll be satisfied whatever is said, Valley Nick. Both CAST and club were equally frustrated by the whole (lack of) process. Instead of calling out your fellow Addicks and the club, maybe a bit more scrutiny should be directed to our opposition - we believe they were pretty astute in how they sold their tickets in order to prevent us receiving a significant number more. We outnumbered them enough as it was.
But what about some explanations about the mysterious empty seats? Surely that's not beyond the will of man?
Orient would have been told to sell in blocks by sequence, I feel sure of that. Thus we could have been given x more.
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
No. Again, I'm talking about the empty seats in our end - not the blocks Orient didn't sell.
Perhaps I have skimmed too much, my view is that what Orient did not sell contributed with our empty seats.
One poster on here who may know otherwise to answer my question, Orient may have been told to sell by block so if they did not sell by a certain time, we could have x amount due to what we have sold.
We aren’t allowed to know it seems.
CAST have not shared all they were told it feels.
Yet yesterday you thanked me for sharing 🤷🏻♀️
For what you did share yes.
I still don’t know if you have any more information given what you revealed yesterday was until then withheld.
You have also implied Orient deliberately manipulated how they sold to limit Charlton allocation. I don’t know why you arrive at that conclusion for example.
Somebody knows the facts that’s for sure - and it’s not us, the fans. Nobody has died and in theory, the most loyal / regular (puts on tin hat) would have got a ticket - it’s just a shame there were 8000 or more tickets unsold that we could have sold and nobody has explained why they weren’t.Next Wembley appearance we get, we need to mark people’s card well in advance so it don’t happen again.
Comments
I'd not be surprised if we were told that to take x more we'd have to pay for any unsold tickets and we were not happy with that.
Did you ask why they did not allow personal callers during the week?
Not producing a 'hard copy' probably did not help matters. Orient ultimately were open to personal callers.
“The club did make people aware of the efforts they were making” is pushing it, to be honest. Nobody ever takes ownership of messages coming out of the club - probably because there is no chief executive.
It’s not “pointing fingers” that was required, it’s inclusive communication, which the club was very good at for about 20 years and it reflected well on the board.
One feature was that the board in those years was willing to challenge the football authorities publicly. It didn’t always play out successfully but you knew whose side they were on and that they cared.
There is another common approach in the game, which is to hold fans at arm’s length and manage them out of any situation, rather than upset the EFL etc.
I’m not making any judgement about the culture in this case, but I think the club’s comms on tickets were terrible from the semi-final onwards. It was fans helping other fans which overcame the issues in the club’s own set-up. That’s something for a new chief executive to put right.
Maybe this question is the most pertinent & one that needs answering at the highest level...
This geezer must be on a watertight contract to still be in SE7.
Let’s keep this thread back on the CEO track.