Plenty of empty seats yesterday yet a friend of mine who was looking for tickets for him and his kids tried booking in every section online and was told there were no blocks of three seats together anywhere. So, he ended up at home watching it on a lousy feed wondering why there were so many empty seats in the background. I suspect glitches with the new ticketing system. After all, this is the system that, when I bought my season tickets, said that seat FF1055 was in Northam while FF1056 was in Kingsland. All a bit odd, and something that needs to be dealt with.
Has anyone tried navigating on the OS to find out what is available, I have and got precisely nowhere, I guess a lot of the empty seats yesterday had been paid for, but that big empty area in the Northam was a disgrace, walk ins could have taken them, had they known they were available, I thought every penny counted but there are some areas where the Club is not being professional enough.
Didn't Wigan return half of their allocation two days before the match or something? That probably accounts for the unsold ones. There were probably a few who bought tickets so they could get united tickets and didn't turn up but I would be very surprised if it was more than a handful.
Some absentees may even be ST holders who are on holidays with their families....strange sense of priorities I know The tickets returned by Wigan meant that a highly visible section was empty...probably returned for the same reason...people are still taking holidays or doing other activities.
There was also a fairly large block of seats behind the goal in the Chapel vacant. Must have been at least 50 (I know because I was sitting in front of them).
There are always going to be empty seats in August - as Fran says many people are on holidays, and also some of us have jobs where you have to go away to work. Although i am a ST holder i am in merchant navy and just cant be there for every game - i know quite a few others in the same boat - literally ! Some do share ST's, although remains to be seen if this can still be done with the new ticketing system. There are quite a few glitches with the new ST's - my mate has been sent two in the post at different times, and so took both yesterday, one wouldnt work but luckily the other did ! Another chap at the turnstiles at the same time also had two and neither worked - so he had to run off to the ticket office in a panic 10 mins before kick-off ! Mine and my boys ST's worked OK yesterday thankfully.
Something simply has to be done about empty seats. There were three big blocks (50-100 size) of empty seats in the first block in the Itchen again. What's going on? It's not people absent on holiday, these are large blocks of empty seats. Looks bad and keeps people away who desperately want to come and see the games.
Onion man Spot on, what was with the announcement in the middle of last week on the OS that it was a sell out? What's going on on our ticket office yet again?
I started a thread about this sat saying I managed to buy tickets sat morn from st Mary's ticket office plenty of ppl replied saying they could not buy online
There was a fairly large block of empty seats near the front of the Itchen not far from the dugout. The gate 31,609 would indicate that not every available seat was occupied. The Club should be more forthcoming with ticket availability, the OS in this respect is very poor, in fact I think the whole site is rubbish at the moment. I want see quick navigation to topical stories, not to have to wade through megabites of arty f*rty graphics.
There is a problem here for sure. A friend of mine called the box office last Thursday and was told the game was sold out. There were big blocks of empty seats, thats not season ticket holdres not turning up. Thats an administrative cock up. This needs addressing.
That was where the academy players normally sit, it's right to the left of me - if they're not there, they've never given away the tickets and it looks bad on the tv
When I got my ticket a little while ago, there were very few in the Kingsland, but there were more in the Itchen, but not large blocks of them. Perhaps some are kept free by Saints for internal reason like the academy lads (as someone said) or if a VIP is a late walk up The situation is aggravated higher up by the corporate seats (don't know how they've sold). If it is teething problems, let's hope it's sorted soon.
The OS certainly needs sorting out and i was surprised that there were as many empty seats as there were yesterday - i had friends who would have gone if they could have got a ticket. Its not SFC's fault but i am also disappointed with the away tickets available in the Prem. My son & I love away games and go to quite a few, but although ST holders unable to get tickets for Arsenal after queuing up for them. I thought that the larger capacity grounds would have room for c. 4000 away fans but it doesnt seem to be the case. Does anybody know how many tckets Man Utd got at SMS for yesterdays match - seemed quite a few but difficult to tell from where we sit in block 37.
