Last night’s “sold out” Ashton Gate?

[Lord Northski]

Like most season ticket holders I buy a season ticket as I intend to go to most games. But like everyone, stuff occurs occasionally like family events, holidays etc, meaning that I can’t go without getting divorced. I also have a very elderly father who still wanted to go when they went on sale last year, but as the season’s gone on he goes less often. I swapped his OAP season ticket for a standard adult ST in the summer, as it’s easier to take someone else when he’s not able. Albeit, my mates and I probably could’ve got away with appearing that old. So we do what we can to fill the seat.
Really like the initiative allowing us to be able to email the seat to others, which I used for the first time on Friday. 
I can understand and empathise with those who see empty seats and the criticism that these get from those not able to go But behind every empty seat there’s a story, and most of them are about family dynamics and real lives beyond football. With the exception of a few plastics, we pretty much all have football as part of our NDA But all family demographics mean there’s always a generation not as able go as those generations younger than them. Perhaps worth considering next time you see and empty seat  

 

[Sir Geoff]

2 minutes ago, Lord Northski said:

Like most season ticket holders I buy a season ticket as I intend to go to most games. But like everyone, stuff occurs occasionally like family events, holidays etc, meaning that I can’t go without getting divorced. I also have a very elderly father who still wanted to go when they went on sale last year, but as the season’s gone on he goes less often. I swapped his OAP season ticket for a standard adult ST in the summer, as it’s easier to take someone else when he’s not able. Albeit, my mates and I probably could’ve got away with appearing that old. So we do what we can to fill the seat.
Really like the initiative allowing us to be able to email the seat to others, which I used for the first time on Friday. 
I can understand and empathise with those who see empty seats and the criticism that these get from those not able to go But behind every empty seat there’s a story, and most of them are about family dynamics and real lives beyond football. With the exception of a few plastics, we pretty much all have football as part of our NDA But all family demographics mean there’s always a generation not as able go as those generations younger than them. Perhaps worth considering next time you see and empty seat  

 

I largely agree with your sentiments but when there are hundreds of empty seats, including whole rows for a sell out game, something is wrong.

[cidered abroad]

On 03/02/2024 at 09:29, TV Tom said:

Games i would of missed by the end of the season i reckon will be in double figures due to work commitments and holiday (i already know i will miss the Man Utd game due to work and holiday for the Leicester game and there are probably more that i haven't even looked at yet) i do try to pass my ticket onto family if i can't make it, in regards to empty seats in the SS i know for a fact that their are many who have bought kids tickets and they never get used, this is a massive problem, personally i would up the price to at least £100 and make the shirts half price instead of being free as this might discourage those that are clearly taking the piss 

One solution to the "children ticket" problem is not to send them all to the Upper Lansdown as children like to be near the game, not fifty yards away from the pitch in the Upper L.

My solution would be to issue tickets for ,let's say under twelves, in the six front rows of all the stands, Dolman, South and Lansdown. Same price for all adults in all three stands.

 

[Natchfever]

On 03/02/2024 at 08:24, Silvio Dante said:

A few quick points:

- As a STH I couldn’t go last night due to illness. That meant my two kids also couldn’t go. I also missed Ipswich (holiday) and will miss Swansea (kids football). I don’t imagine I’m unique here so I think you have to work on ST holders generally not being able to attend 10% of games. That gives a heck of a lot of the empty seats already

- The kids ticket is a huge seller for a few reasons. What it actually does as well is encourage the adult to buy a ticket, so if anything’s done there you may lose two sales. For me, I bought a kids ST for my son in the Dolman for a couple of years before he attended regularly - because they were seats I had, seats I liked, and I didn’t want to move to family section then have to bunfight for seats close to my original ones back thereafter. In that period he probably attended 5 games a season.

- The recent games have had a disproportionate impact. But generally, we’re not in a space where we need a buy back. Seats are generally always available so I’m not sure it’s either cost effective or needed at the moment

Do you think there might be a case for increasing the size of a family section and not making cheap kids seats available in the SS ?

[Mr Popodopolous]

Th is other bit is a side issue but the other interesting aspect in the Dolman especially is the last 5 plus stoppage.

If it's a close game, ie level or one goal in it either way masses get to the vomitory entrance at or in line with the top of the stairs...and just stop! Neither staying or going, watching the game pretty much.

[NcnsBcfc]

Perfectly understand the concept of the club buying back tickets from non-attending supporters and then putting them back on sale, I've been party to that through friends at PL games over the years.

The issue here is that the buy back would be pro-rata per game. Thus an under 12 ticket in the SS would be around £2.20 per game (over 23 games) and an under 19 ticket £4.10. Amazingly low prices of course, but I reckon people just won't bother getting into the transactions for such a low refund.

Next season in the Dolman is the last one for my eldest under his under 19 ticket. The price for the same seat he's been in for years jumps from £150 to £560 (375% increase). 

That'll mean for my 3 then adult tickets and 1 under 19, I'll be paying just under £2,000 per season for tickets in the Dolman... .

A hell of a lot of money, in these challenging financial times.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Lord Northski said:

Like most season ticket holders I buy a season ticket as I intend to go to most games. But like everyone, stuff occurs occasionally like family events, holidays etc, meaning that I can’t go without getting divorced. I also have a very elderly father who still wanted to go when they went on sale last year, but as the season’s gone on he goes less often. I swapped his OAP season ticket for a standard adult ST in the summer, as it’s easier to take someone else when he’s not able. Albeit, my mates and I probably could’ve got away with appearing that old. So we do what we can to fill the seat.
Really like the initiative allowing us to be able to email the seat to others, which I used for the first time on Friday. 
I can understand and empathise with those who see empty seats and the criticism that these get from those not able to go But behind every empty seat there’s a story, and most of them are about family dynamics and real lives beyond football. With the exception of a few plastics, we pretty much all have football as part of our NDA But all family demographics mean there’s always a generation not as able go as those generations younger than them. Perhaps worth considering next time you see and empty seat  

 

If attendances continue there needs to be a point where ST holders can at a minimum notify the club their seat won’t be used.  The club may decide to offer some £s back if that seat is then sold.  Even if they only do it for certain games.  Wasted revenue opportunity, let alone atmosphere.

[Lord Northski]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

If attendances continue there needs to be a point where ST holders can at a minimum notify the club their seat won’t be used.  The club may decide to offer some £s back if that seat is then sold.  Even if they only do it for certain games.  Wasted revenue opportunity, let alone atmosphere.

Couldn’t agree more

[Komazawa]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

If attendances continue there needs to be a point where ST holders can at a minimum notify the club their seat won’t be used.  The club may decide to offer some £s back if that seat is then sold.  Even if they only do it for certain games.  Wasted revenue opportunity, let alone atmosphere.

As mentioned previously, this option is available and if demand is consistently there, the club will utilise it. At the moment, the demand isn't nearly consistent enough to warrant it I'm afraid.

[Silvio Dante]

2 hours ago, Natchfever said:

Do you think there might be a case for increasing the size of a family section and not making cheap kids seats available in the SS ?

There is, but what I think has to be remembered is that people in the family section won’t always be in the family section. If I take my example, my kids are 12 and 15 and they wouldn’t want to be in there. Could I have brought them into the family section at 5 and 8? Yes, but I’d be in a position now of wanting to sit elsewhere - and would have given up seats I liked and had for years in order to move to the family section!

Longtime readers will know that I know a fair bit about the Junior Reds. Back in those days, the old Dolman Block G was the junior reds section - you’d often see parents drop kids off at the club room pre match and the kids would watch from Block G while the parents watched from elsewhere and collected from the club room at the end of the game. A lot of it was done on good faith as opposed to the committee members being formally responsible for childcare, but the system worked pretty well. I wonder if there is something that could be done on a similar basis to avoid the “lost seat” problem outlined

[Davefevs]

34 minutes ago, Komazawa said:

As mentioned previously, this option is available and if demand is consistently there, the club will utilise it. At the moment, the demand isn't nearly consistent enough to warrant it I'm afraid.

Is it?  I’ve not seen anything comm’d about it.  FWIW when I can’t go, I let Gareth Torpy know, in case he has any wheelchair supporters looking for a seat.

[Komazawa]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Is it?  I’ve not seen anything comm’d about it.  FWIW when I can’t go, I let Gareth Torpy know, in case he has any wheelchair supporters looking for a seat.

Yes, City use the same ticketing sales platform as Newcastle, Man C, Liverpool etc. The option to resell tickets is used by these clubs, but obviously the demand is there for them, whereas it's not yet there for us.

[Davefevs]

17 minutes ago, Komazawa said:

Yes, City use the same ticketing sales platform as Newcastle, Man C, Liverpool etc. The option to resell tickets is used by these clubs, but obviously the demand is there for them, whereas it's not yet there for us.

Couldn’t it be used when there is demand?

[petehinton]

20 minutes ago, Komazawa said:

Yes, City use the same ticketing sales platform as Newcastle, Man C, Liverpool etc. The option to resell tickets is used by these clubs, but obviously the demand is there for them, whereas it's not yet there for us.

Don’t the big PL sides dictate you have to go to X amount of home games as a ST holder, or at least your ticket needs to be used for X amount, or you can’t renew the following season?

Ive no idea why we don’t do something similar, especially now that we can transfer digi tickets. 

[Komazawa]

18 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Couldn’t it be used when there is demand?

From City's POV, they want to sell every seat they can their end. Only once all seats are sold is it worth turning on ticket resale. It's not viable until a game is sold out.

The difference with the "big" clubs is that their games are sold out weeks in advance. Demand is high and by utilising ticket buy back / resale, they can fill empty seats and ST holders can get a bit of money back if they're not going. However, we aren't at a stage where we're selling out a long time in advance. On the rare occasion we sell out a league game, it's maybe a day or two in advance. The cost of utilising this option isn't worth it so close to a fixture. 

Like I say though, if we ever got to the PL, and games were sold out well in advance, which they would be, I have no doubt this would be utilised as the demand would be there for it. As it stands, selling out 1 day before a fixture once or twice a season doesn't make it a viable option.

[Davefevs]

22 minutes ago, Komazawa said:

From City's POV, they want to sell every seat they can their end. Only once all seats are sold is it worth turning on ticket resale. It's not viable until a game is sold out.

The difference with the "big" clubs is that their games are sold out weeks in advance. Demand is high and by utilising ticket buy back / resale, they can fill empty seats and ST holders can get a bit of money back if they're not going. However, we aren't at a stage where we're selling out a long time in advance. On the rare occasion we sell out a league game, it's maybe a day or two in advance. The cost of utilising this option isn't worth it so close to a fixture. 

Like I say though, if we ever got to the PL, and games were sold out well in advance, which they would be, I have no doubt this would be utilised as the demand would be there for it. As it stands, selling out 1 day before a fixture once or twice a season doesn't make it a viable option.

Thx for giving a full explanation.  Think that “time between sell out and fixture” as you say is too small.

At least its there ready to use in future.

[Natchfever]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

There is, but what I think has to be remembered is that people in the family section won’t always be in the family section. If I take my example, my kids are 12 and 15 and they wouldn’t want to be in there. Could I have brought them into the family section at 5 and 8? Yes, but I’d be in a position now of wanting to sit elsewhere - and would have given up seats I liked and had for years in order to move to the family section!

Longtime readers will know that I know a fair bit about the Junior Reds. Back in those days, the old Dolman Block G was the junior reds section - you’d often see parents drop kids off at the club room pre match and the kids would watch from Block G while the parents watched from elsewhere and collected from the club room at the end of the game. A lot of it was done on good faith as opposed to the committee members being formally responsible for childcare, but the system worked pretty well. I wonder if there is something that could be done on a similar basis to avoid the “lost seat” problem outlined

Good points mate. My kids wouldnt have wanted to be in with children by the time they were mid teens.

[Ashton Fete]

Not all members go so perhaps something like ST can deactivate their seat if not going and members only can re buy for a fixed price of say £10

Hearing sell out and then it being so obvs it’s not does look rubbish 

[Ashton Fete]

And the ridiculous choice of music in the 15 minutes to kick off is infuriating.

It prevents any chance of home atmosphere being built and so all I hear is the away fans and random pop sounds

Let’s have Gold, Cider drinker, blackbird, drink up and songs like that which at least have a hope of getting fans singing

And the new minute before walk out music…embarrassing