If we sold a certain amount of individual tickets last season in the Championship , I don't think there is any doubt we would be able to sell that many this season in the Premier league . Many , many more different fans could have watched the Swans , fans that went to handfuls of games season after season . Fans we would have been lost without as we only sold 9 thousand season tickets last season , fans that are being bypassed Jager .
I´d say a good 30% at least of the new season tickets will be going to fans who normally buy matchday and this year decided to buy ST´s. To brand all these new season ticket holders as plastic is pretty harsh to be honest. I know a lot of friends who had season tickets at the Vetch during the direst times who didn´t have them at the Liberty for a while, but who´ve bought them this year. Are they plastic? My point is ok, you don´t have a ticket... but you´re in the same boat as a lot of people unfortunately. There´s no point stressing yourself out about things you can´t change...
How are they being bypassed? there are still 2k tickets left to buy at each game, a lot of the people buying season tickets now are probably the 6k that were coming anyway, if they missed the boat after 3 months of tickets sales, how can the swans be blamed? The swans would have to monumentally stupid to turn down cash now for the season ahead, we need that cash to buy players, its that simple
100 million coming in & suddenly , cash is the issue . Same as saying they had to do it to pay bonuses , a cop out . Cheers Dragonphil , your so spot on on this article , I can see it from here . Cheers Phil , enough is enough .
It´s business man! Jesus! So you´re saying that because we´ve got some TV money, and other money which will be paid in installments, not up front, we should turn down thousands, if not millions of pounds worth of season tickets because some people will feel hard done by? Sorry man, but that kind of thinking is a fast track to financial meltdown. The club are run prudently, and I trust them to do whatever they feel is in the best interests of Swansea City FC. If this is the way they felt was best, I trust that it was the best way they could have organised it at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and if there are any repurcussions I´m sure they´ll learn from them and have a different system in place for next year.
Trouble with you is Artist, you came in all guns blazing, and got you facts wrong, if you can find on the old 606 where I said ' I hope we lose to hereford', then fine, but you'll not find such a statement from me, but don't worry I won't expect an apology from the likes of you, that's clear by the way you posted your first comment, and happy hunting you sad little individual, next time try Dai on that one, and so what if he said it, it was said in frustration, know beat it!.................. please log in to view this image
Scott yes your right it is a business, but not like any other though, football is unique in many regards, and let's hope the club are able to get those extra 5000 seats sorted ASAP, it would go along way to resolving the bad feeling from thousands of Jacks that were caught out here, rightly or wrongly, fighting over a handful of tickets is not an ideal situation. On the subject of fighting, did you read the EP, on the subject of the Police being called in to sort out the fighting in the queue for the last 2000 season tickets, and on top of that elderly collapsing in the queue, to which the same thing happened when I queued for the Forest semi, this is not good enough, and a reflection on the club, which they must address, you don't treat your customers like this, the ticket office have been found out, shame on them for not pulling they're finger out, opening at 11:00 am, when people had already been queueing for 10 hours! Like I've said if we are going to liken this to a business then, any good business will look after it's customers, and in this business that is the loyal Jack fans, I can see that some don't like the way I'm candid on this, well I too have been in business, and know what I'm talking about!........... please log in to view this image
Phil there are winners and losers, how many in that queue were season ticket holders last season, or the season before? The fact is there has been ample time to get tickets, the swans were selling them online for existing season ticket holders, there was a chance to buy over the phone, when I went down in March to buy mine there was no queues at all. As for being in business, the club is a business if you had any nous in that direction you would see that money up front is far better than money spread out over 9 months, there was a lot of incentives out there to buy a ticket, even vouchers to spend in the shop. And there is still 2 thousand tickets available, maybe more on certain games, the point is like JackAsh in this thread, he had no intention of buying a season ticket, which is his choice of course, but how can he and other expect the swans not to sell tickets on demand? Really instead of being pissed off, look at the remaining tickets to go to each game, and get in early! Its not rocket science. I hope extra seating can be sorted out, but the plans of which will take at least a year to sort out imo, and expect to be done for the 2012/13 at the very earliest if expansion of this sort can even be done.
A cap of 13 thousand season tickets should have been in place in the event of promotion leaving 5 thousand from the local ticket office , no internet . They would have all sold , what's happening now proves it . I wonder how many tickets of all kinds where sold at the local ticket office over the last few seasons & how many will end up being sold out of the ticket office for next season , could be a startling contrast . P.S. I assume the club gets more money selling a ticket in pieces rather than a season ticket . Those 5,000 tickets would have made these problems non existent & would have gave the board time to sit down & come up with a plan to make the masses happier .
But it still means people would lose out, the 3k difference means that instead of having money piecemeal those people have now shown faith in by putting money up front, so the club can progress knowing that they have a guaranteed sum of money , last season the club were pleading for people to come to games, now we are promoted and tickets have sold out, there are complaints about loyalty and plastic fans. You want success at our club the moment it comes the moaning about loyalty to fans comes in, sometimes I wonder if we deserve to go up !
Hasn't anyone told you Jager , money is not a problem at the moment Lol!! . This business of needing up front money doesn't cut it . Lets say 5, 000 tickets were sold as non season tickets over the past few seasons . Thank god they were . Say the average Swan fan in those ticket sales buys 8 tickets , that's 15, 000 serious Swan fans being ignored & it's something the club should put a bit of worry into .
Sorry Cracker, putting a cap on season tickets is an absurd idea. What happens if we get stuffed every week 8-0 and by January we´re averaging 15000 fans then? There would be people crowing about how we "should have sold all the season tickets to guarantee a full stadium". The Swans have come from L2 to the Premiership in 7 years, operating on one of the most stringent budgets imaginable, and have enjoyed incredible success in doing so. This was backed up by a solid prudent attitude from all those behind the scenes, but these people will never have had to deal with this kind of demand, or these kinds of figures, before. You can bet your bottom dollar that they sat down for a long time and sweated a lot thinking about what was the best way to do it, and this was how they saw fit. Maybe it´s not ideal, but it´s the best for the club, which is what every decision associated with the Swans should be.
I beg to differ, money is a real problem right now, think they have to pay out a multi million package to the players on promotion, we are trying to bring in players and I don't think we have had any money of significance from any source just yet, well except for season ticket sales, the fact is we didn't get £40m transferred to the swans bank accounts the day after promotion. So money and a sensible business approach go hand in hand, selling tickets when there is huge demand makes sense, that way more is sold and they have exact figures to work from.
I don't think you can defend an almost complete sell out to ST's, and those last 2000 season ticket's should not have been taken from the general ticket sale, that to me is now plainly obvious, but it's done now, and it has left a bad taste in the mouth of those fans that went and bought they're tickets every week, week, after week, after week, and no matter what is stated on here in defence of this will undue how those fans rightly feel. Jager gave us some figure's on how much had been raised, and I think I'm correct that he based it on an average of £350 per ticket, now if we multiply that by the last 2000 tickets sold to ST's then that would have raised an approximate £700,000 of revenue, so are we really saying that Swansea City where that desperate for that modest sum, that they would alienate some sections of fans? the more you analyse this, the more it is seen as poor judgement, to say the least, and it is also clear, that our general operating process of ticket sales is not organised well, elderly people collapsing in queues is a disgrace, why are they queueing at that age anyway? fans fighting in queues, because they are under pressure from the club to get an ST, because they're hand has been forced by the club, no I'm sorry the more you look at this the more you can see that the club have not covered themselves in glory, and Jager, you can defend the club on this issue until the cows come home, you'll still not convince me otherwise, or any of those fans that have been sold down the Swanee!............... please log in to view this image
Disagree Phill, although we´re clearly not going to agree on this one... (when do we ever?! ) Every club in the land would LOVE to have sold the % of season tickets we have sold this season, bar none. Some have a waiting list! The only reason people are kicking off here is because we have traditionally struggled to fill the stadium. Now we´re in a position where we won´t struggle, and have sold 80% of the ground as ST´s and fans are kicking off. One thing I´ve learnt from talking with everyone on here the last few years is that no matter what our board do, they take abuse from a minority of fans. Bearing in mind the job they´ve done up until now, I don´t think it´s fair, but that´s just my opinion.
Money is not an issue , we have money coming in & local bankers would be falling over each other to lend a bit till our first batch comes in . Championship ticket sales means 90 % of being able to function for smaller clubs , Premier League ticket sales means a lot less . Getting to the Premier League is rewarded with a lot of money . Premier League ticket sales should be a celebration for fans who whether were season tickets or bought half a dozen tickets over the years . A thousand should have been earmarked for schools for free .Should have been practical with the " Premier League money " & put a bit more thought into ticket sales toward all fans giving the financial aspect of it a back seat , just seems good business !!
That´s the thing, money IS the issue! The more money the club can bank the better... for this season and for the next god knows how long. Everyone is harping on about this 90 million... how did that do Hull? Sheffield Utd have done brilliantly haven´t they? They got more from that Tevez thing too... and they´ve both got bigger stadiums and are bigger places than Swansea. If the Swans have people willing to buy season tickets, they sell season tickets, that´s the be all and end all. For every 1 person who´s pissed off that they´re going to miss some games next year there´ll be 5 people who agree that it´s sound business sense to sell as many ST´s as possible. Especially considering our "end of season" was delayed by the playoffs! The quicker they got this sorted out, the quicker we knew how much we could play in the transfer market and god knows how many other things.
Well said Breezy, I think all reasonable folk would see it like that, I think the club have burdened the cash flow on the fans, and it's not been thought through well, and while a minority will not like to discuss this, but sweep it under the carpet, I would like to commend the great majority of posters, who have contributed to the debate, regardless of which side of the fence you sit. Scott I'd like to think that the issues raised here is not abuse, and that our club could learn from this, and lessons applied!................ please log in to view this image
It actually makes better sense to sell ALL tickets as General sale. 16,000 x £469 = 7, 504, 000. 19,000 x 31 = 589, 000. 589, 000 x 24 = 14, 136, 000. Take out the season tickets, sell all as first come first serve, and you double the money, And don't say you won't guarantee to sell 19, 000 tickets because we would. It's the PL, and as there are so many die hard Swans out there with ST's, they would buy gen sale tickets.
Yeah but that´s just ludicrous talk. Are you genuinely suggesting not selling ANY season tickets? Haha. This is my last post on this thread. It´s clearly better business sense to sell as many ST´s as possible. Of course I understand everyones annoyance, as I´m in exactly the same boat... you won´t catch me moaning about it though, because we´re in the Premier League. STID.
