Empty seats when so many couldn't get tickets - how do we resolve this?

[Hellerad]

My mate got to the turnstile yesterday and this ticket didn't work so he went the ticket office and they told him "they'd double sold this ticket" and basically went on to say whoever got in first got the seat.

Even worse they couldn't reimburse him and he'd paid 15 quid for parking as well.

Poor sod basically had to drive back his and catch second half on the telly.

Am sorry thats absolutely diabolical.

Awful. And the response is inexcusable.

If he can make contact with the club they will typically do something. If they truly double sold they can comp a future ticket and traditionally throw in something from the shop or a snack as an apology. Obviously a new stadium and new owners, but this is a very standard policy.

Just have to communicate it.

 

[Socistep2]

I think someone needs to get in touch with club to point this out.
All the tickets I got last season, were from friends, who either didn't charge me or charged me below face value. Anfield is full of tourists, who have almost certainly bought tickets from touts. You had blocks of tickets for Klopps last game, with people from Korea, India, Thailand. That's despite fact RS, allegedly have zero tolerance for touting.

It's a really really tough one, in order to grow the club needs revenue to have any chance of winning/competing again

And one of the most valuable commodities is despite 30 lean years we have a huge fan base, we've typically not focused on increasing revenue from the fans until the new stadium

- increased cost of food and drink
- ticket price increases
- membership increases and tiered system
- harder to pass a ticket onto a friend/family member
- huge increase in premium hospitality fan seats which make a lot of money but not as accessible to the normal fan

I'm really torn, I desperately want us to win something and loved taking the kids last night and seeing how much they enjoyed it compared to facilities at goodison, also knowing thousands of extra fans are getting to go, but I don't want the fans to be too much of a commodity

 

[TraffordBlue]

Seems ridiculous that Everton can label this a sell out and then have such a poor attendance (in relation to the overall capacity). The Everton and Mansfield fans did our bit selling all our tickets and yet the attendance was over 4,000 short of capacity.

It's even worse when you consider how many fans are desperate to get to the new ground and are on the waiting list etc.

It may be that currently Everton simply aren't bothered as they've maximised the financial value for the game - with what they've been paid by organisations like seat unique so don't mind the empty seats being on show.

 

[Exeter_Gently]

Awful. And the response is inexcusable.

If he can make contact with the club they will typically do something. If they truly double sold they can comp a future ticket and traditionally throw in something from the shop or a snack as an apology. Obviously a new stadium and new owners, but this is a very standard policy.

Just have to communicate it.

I'll speak to him...I felt he was more unhappy because he'd paid for parking and not got the benefit of it.

 

[MikeyMike]

Surely that's one of the benefits of a brand new stadium, the ability to plan for a scenario such as this?

Anyway, for me, it's exasperating that the club should leave so many seats empty after spending three quarters of a billion quid designing and building a state-of-the-art stadium. I've contacted the club for clarification, so I'll copy it onto here when they eventually reply.

So here is the reply from the club: "When teams play away games, they request a specific allocation of tickets for the away area. For cup games, teams can request extra space, which leads to us having to displace season ticket holders. When Manfield requested they requested the full allocation we could offer and assured us that they would sell out, as such, we allocated them the full amount requested. Once sections are allocated for away, we are unable to recall them in events that the team do not sell out. As such, Mansfield failed to sell out, which resulted in large empty areas."

Bonus points for the swift reply, but points lost for not actually answering my question. I still don't understand how they could have segregated the fans without leaving empty blocks - particularly 223 which, as I've said, is not separated in any way from Club View.
So I've replied asking them this: "Block 223 runs directly into the Club View, so away fans cannot be seated there. Why was I displaced from an area that cannot be allocated to away fans?"

 

[JelavicBrate2]

Giving out a physical card this season would have taken the pressure off and allowed the club to finesse any issues with the digital tickets.

Am amazed that the club had such confidence in the system.

There has been absolutely common sense during the whole thought process.

It was ridiculous thing to do, considering it was our 1st season at Bramley Moore. Also with fans getting use to new ground, it was always going to be issue, and Bramley Moore being harder to get to than GP. I've become increasingly angry with people running club in recent years. What's the point in fans buying memberships, them not getting tickets, only to see blocks of empty seats. Premier Leagues opposition to touting in phoney, for derby for example. RS fans need fancard and 15 credits for derby ticket, yet look at how many tourists there will be in crowd. I'd have no problem with digital tickets, if clubs and Premier League, genuinely opposed touting, but they don't. It's just am attempt to get rid of local and working class fans.

 

[Bez2k2k]

My mate got to the turnstile yesterday and this ticket didn't work so he went the ticket office and they told him "they'd double sold this ticket" and basically went on to say whoever got in first got the seat.

Even worse they couldn't reimburse him and he'd paid 15 quid for parking as well.

Poor sod basically had to drive back his and catch second half on the telly.

Am sorry thats absolutely diabolical.

Hmmmmmmm. I’m not sure on this one. Surely you would just stand there and say. You sort it out. Nothin to do with me.

 

[kev]

For cup games, teams can request extra space, which leads to us having to displace season ticket holders. When Manfield requested they requested the full allocation we could offer and assured us that they would sell out, as such, we allocated them the full amount requested. Once sections are allocated for away, we are unable to recall them in events that the team do not sell out. As such, Mansfield failed to sell out, which resulted in large empty areas."

So what is the maximum allocation that Everton claim to have sold to Mansfield?
Because according to the Official Mansfield site they sold 6,039 tickets

 

[Exeter_Gently]

Hmmmmmmm. I’m not sure on this one. Surely you would just stand there and say. You sort it out. Nothin to do with me.

Do you think am f'n lying here????

 

[Marc bolan]

So what is the maximum allocation that Everton claim to have sold to Mansfield?
Because according to the Official Mansfield site they sold 6,039 tickets

Roughly 11% of the stadium capacity

 

[OneTrueLegend]

Giving out a physical card this season would have taken the pressure off and allowed the club to finesse any issues with the digital tickets.

Am amazed that the club had such confidence in the system.

There has been absolutely common sense during the whole thought process.

I think with the implementation with any system there is going to be some pain points, but I dont see the club going back to paper tickets and physical cards as standard.
The club wants control over ticketing and having it the digital format helps with that. The club are also challenged to ensure they know who is coming to the games, through the digital format they know who is in each seat and they can gather data and use that in a number of ways. At the moment we can all see empty seats in the stadium, which is frustrating for all the people who are told the game is sold out and wants a ticket, hopefully the club will be seeing who is buying tickets and not attending and they can contact these people and find out why and maybe change some policies on who can buy tickets, based on attendance.

 

[Marc bolan]

If we get drawn at home to liverpool in the facup there allocation
Will be 7,900

 

[Lanolin]

So what is the maximum allocation that Everton claim to have sold to Mansfield?
Because according to the Official Mansfield site they sold 6,039 tickets

Mansfield were given 6518 tickets, plus 30 disabled spaces. So they effectively left just over 500 empty seats.

 

[MikeyMike]

So what is the maximum allocation that Everton claim to have sold to Mansfield?
Because according to the Official Mansfield site they sold 6,039 tickets

Yeah, I'm doubting the accuracy of the reply from the club. Mansfield reckoned they sold all their allocation and, as I've said, it still doesn't explain why there were several entire blocks left empty unless it was to segregate fans.

 

[Connor mcloud]

The upper west block of empty seats in the photo is not in “Village St”.

Looking at that photo the hospitality area finishes roughly to the left of the media section by the steps. There are some hospo seats to the right of that set of steps and there is a dividing wall(low)…it can be picked up out from the front of the upper west stand.

Village St in yellow