Given as in allocated. Not just sent in the post as a freebie... And it certainly isn’t the only reason.
True but irrelevant to the point. The only way we can afford to spend upwards of 600m on a stadium is if the ticket sales and sponsorship increase by 100m plus. Selling an extra 28k tickets at standard prices doesn't cut it. You need a lot of 4k a year seats in amongst those.
My use of the words only reason was sloppy. But unless you can get 30m a year from premium seats and 30m a year sponsorship there is no way the economics would work.
Naming rights and alternative events (NFL, concerts, etc.) could easily make up the difference. A few hundred thousand from expensive season tickets (not boxes or corporate) aren't going to tip the balance.
I'm not sure that is right. As far as I can tell there are about 9000 Premium Seats/boxes and the average price is about 5000 per season. That means they bring in close to the same income as the normal season tickets. It's the same story for Wembley.
I do not doubt that but members have to pay simply for the chance to be able to buy a ticket. The was a lillywhite and a Bronze membership. The first set of tickets went to season ticket holders, then bronze members got 2 days then lillywhite members got a couple of days then (if any were left) they went on general sale. If there are only 7,000 tickets available for members then a lot of genuine supporters are going to be disenfranchised. If we are in the CL next season thousands of members will not get to see the games. If we end up in the EL next season there will be plenty of empty seats ... there were ALWAYS empty seats at WHL for EL matches when we could only fit 36,000 in. Do the club think/hope/expect members to trot up and take up the places of those who can not be bothered as they aren't fans? Maybe the rise in season ticket holders will mean there will be enough seats for long standing members but it is worth remembering what has happened at Arsenal. They always had a bigger ground than us since the 1980s. They thought they'd sell out their 60,000 ground...yet it always has thousands of empty seats bar a handful of games per season. Season ticket holders are unable to sell their tickets cos members stopped being members cos they felt taken for granted and felt they were bring bled dry. I do not expect a ticket for every match but I do expect my loyalty to be rewarded. Me and my daughter's have been going regularly since 2005. We went to most EL matches, most Lesgue cup games and most of the grade C matches. I have missed just 2 games at Wembley. Personally I think loyalty points should decide who gets tickets for the big matches (such as the 1st game this season, CL games and grade A matches). Loyalty points are used to decide semi final and final tickets so, in my opinion should be used as above. I do not mind those with more loyalty points bring prioritised by I do think it's unfair that many of us will either lose out in a ballot or by simply not bring in a job that allows us to log onto a computer or to be on a phone at 10 or 11am to try and buy them to some one who has only just signed up as a member and has only attended a match or two if any.
It sounds to me like they have sold too many season tickets if the capacity has gone up by 26,000 but general sale numbers are lower. I was a Bronze member for many years and had got to about 9000 on the Season Ticket waiting list by the start of last season and was high enough to get offered a Season Ticket for Wembley and the new stadium. I decided to upgrade to a Premium Seat. I do agree that a ballot is a stupid way of doing allocations though. If we've got 42k Season Ticket holders and 9k Premium Seat holders there are going to be a lot of disappointed people next time we get to a Cup Final of any sort.
One other thing they need to do is to make it hard to sell on Season Ticket seats at a profit. Under the StubHub system you could often see them priced at more than face value. This meant that it was better to hold on to your season ticket than relinquish it even if you never intended to go to a match.
That used to irritate many fans. I think that's why the club stopped using StubHub. They limited the mark up in the final season at WHL but they could still charge over £80 for £40 tickets. Prior to that they could set any price. Back in 2015 orc16 I emailed and complained about a NLD ticket being sold for £500! I am number 23000 on season ticket list but can't afford one for me and my 2 girls so getting one and not being able to sit with them is no good for me as I love going with them.
I think at WHL we had around 22k season ticket holders. So from 36k, minus the 22k plus 3k away fans it would’ve left around 11k, out of that 11k I’m not sure how much would’ve gone to premium/ corporate. It’s very possible there may have been a similar number available to members at WHL to NWHL but the proportion is now completely different.
Good luck to the rcls in getting tickets for new WHL as often and as fairly priced as is possible, I hope that when things settle down, perhaps in the future people like me can turn up on a whim to watch a game and there may be seats to spare. If not, then as been my mindset for move than 30 yrs, as long as those who make the effort to regularly attend home/away games get their rewards, I am happy.
Part of the answer on tickets has to be getting season ticket holders to ensure that their seat is full. It's estimated that about 4% of allocated seats are empty across the PL. At Tottenham Hotspur ST/\DIUM, that's 2,500 seats per game. The technology is in place to identify any ST holder only using their ticket occasionally and not re-allocating it. Equally, re-allocating is easily done through the club.Obviously, there needs to be facility for the fact that life throws last minute issues at people but if there's regular and continued non-use, then renewal of the ST shouldn't occur. No exceptions, no matter the cost of the ticket. I get that the club wants as much ticket money up front and a full stadium and have probably set the ST numbers accordingly, . Selling the ticket isn't guaranteeing that full stadium, empty seats will mean an unhappy fan base and money lost through concessions, merch, etc. Continuing to sell tickets to people who don't use them sufficiently isn't acceptable when demand is so high.
