Moan About Tickets

[astonvillan]

Where are you seeing this allocation news ?

On the official site mate.

Stoke City v Villa
Barclays Premier League
Saturday April 6 - KO 3pm
Britannia Stadium
Ticket Allocation: 1,240
Prices: £30 [adults], £21 [over-65s], £17 [U17s], £14 [U11s], £14 to £21 [disabled supporters]
Wheelchair tickets: Four spaces. Available by calling the Consumer Sales Department on 0800 612 0970.
Friday February 22: On sale to season card holders who have attended at least three Premier League away fixtures in 2012-13* Thursday February 28: On sale to season card holders who have attended at least one Premier League away fixture in 2012-13*
Tuesday March 12: On sale to season card holders for the 2012-13 season*
Wednesday March 20: On sale to supporters who have away booking history in 2012-13*
Thursday March 28: On sale to supporters who have booking history *

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3079791,00.html

[UK Redsox]

I didn't think to look for info about the Stoke game under an article-heading about Man City !

[DeKuip]

Why on earth have we only taken 1200 tickets for such an important away game when we sold out twice that easily for Reading? I'm sure we could easily have sold the full allocation for a Saturday afternoon in April. It's only up the road for god's sake!
So much for all this bollocks about the team needing the fans behind them when they're trying to flog home tickets.

[astonvillan]

I didn't think to look for info about the Stoke game under an article-heading about Man City !

Well no you wouldn't, would you? Yet another thing that makes it difficult to buy away tickets; they're constantly trying to shift 10,000 empty blue seats at Villa Park that the away information seems to suffer. Don't get me wrong, the staff in the Villa Park ticket office are largely very helpful, but how much easier would their job be if we could get it right online? Constant errors in allocation (different allocations listed on the etickets site and the O/S), criteria, price of tickets (listing Young Adult prices for Liverpool & Sunderland when in fact there weren't any YA prices, and listing a £15 YA price for West Brom when in fact it was £25), cut-and-paste jobs from previous away games, listing upper and lower tier prices for QPR away when we only had the upper tier and the difference in price was actually for wings & central. The online side of things is a bloody shambles.

[placeforparks]

agree, the staff in the ticket office are very good, but if you're trying to order tickets on the sly at work, for example, you want to do it online with minimum fuss.

[Ads]

 Its because we had around 400 un-sold seats from two years ago when we lost up there on a Monday night when it was on the box.

Its ridiculous that they’re not taking the extra 1200 tickets, which would comfortably be sold, based on one game under completely different circumstances.

Idiotic.

[AV82EC]

Its because we had around 400 un-sold seats from two years ago when we lost up there on a Monday night when it was on the box.

Its ridiculous that they’re not taking the extra 1200 tickets, which would comfortably be sold, based on one game under completely different circumstances.

Idiotic.

Is it idiotic though, our away followings this season have been pretty poor for League games and an allocation of about 1200 - 1500 would pretty much cover it I think for the vast majority of games.

[Risso]

I wanted a ticket for one of the away games last season (I forget which) and was told that you needed to have bought three away tickets.  I told the lad on the phone that I had, but because one of the games hadn't been played yet it didn't count.  Madness.

[UK Redsox]

I wanted a ticket for one of the away games last season (I forget which) and was told that you needed to have bought three away tickets.  I told the lad on the phone that I had, but because one of the games hadn't been played yet it didn't count.  Madness.

The "not counting unplayed games" criteria has been standard for quite a while. It used to catch me out quite a bit when I wasn't attending as many away games as I do now.

[Dave Clark Five]

It says on here that it is sold out, even though tickets are not on sale yet.
Another copy and paste blunder.

[bertlambshank]

I have had 2 calls off the TO today.It must be time to renew.

[UK Redsox]

It says on here that it is sold out, even though tickets are not on sale yet.
Another copy and paste blunder.

No one's responded yet to my request for the name and number for the person responsible for the ticketing part of the website.

[SoccerHQ]

One thing that does annoy me about the ticket office is how far in advance they put away tickets on sale. They've put the details up for Stoke away up on the site today and it's not until April.

Out of interest Clampy, what are the details for Stoke away? The Stoke game is listed on the ticket site but when I try to access it, it tells me I don't have the correct privileges. (Which, as ever, is bollocks)

Have we taken the full allocation? Are they on sale now..? Need to get four and if we've only taken the 1400 again, with Arsenal and Reading sold out, I'll have to get in quick I'd imagine.

it says they've taken an allocation of 1,240 for stoke away on a saturday 3pm!

We've taken poor crowds to the britannia last two seasons but in fairness one was on Monday night and the other boxing day at 8pm.

I'm sure we can take 3k for a 3pm saturday game!

[SoccerHQ]

Also Stoke only charging 30 quid this year, I'm sure last couple of years I've paid 35 quid? (boycotted the boxing day fixture) so guess we must have been relegated to Cat C or whatever.

100% we'd shift 3k tickets.

[astonvillan]

Its because we had around 400 un-sold seats from two years ago when we lost up there on a Monday night when it was on the box.

Its ridiculous that they’re not taking the extra 1200 tickets, which would comfortably be sold, based on one game under completely different circumstances.

Idiotic.

Is it idiotic though, our away followings this season have been pretty poor for League games and an allocation of about 1200 - 1500 would pretty much cover it I think for the vast majority of games.

It is idiotic when you take into account the factors Ads suggests. I was at that game he talks about on the Monday evening and it wasn't far short of a sell out. Likewise the 1371 allocation last season sold out with two or three weeks to spare. This for a game on Boxing Day evening with little to no public transport.

Our away followings haven't been the best on occasion this season. But judging by Arsenal and Reading selling out so quickly with higher ticket prices and further to travel, it's a no-brainer that we need the full allocation for this one.

West Ham: 2900
Newcastle: 962
Southampton: 3100
Spurs: 1700-ish
Fulham: 2900 + more in the neutral area
Sunderland: 1500-ish
Man City: 989
QPR: 1700
Liverpool: 1600
Chelsea: Around 1000
Swansea: 1036 (Sold out the lower allocation, next allocation up is 2000)
West Brom: 2400?? (Topically, there were two different allocations listed on the websites so who knows?!)
Everton: 1600-ish

So an average of 1800 there and we could've sold more for West Ham, Southampton, Swansea and Albion, and I've not worked in the 1-2000 extra Villa fans potentially in the neutral zone at Fulham. If you include the 3300 at Swindon, 3000+ at Norwich, 4350 at Bradford and 1000?? at Man City for the League Cup games, it's an average of around 2100. No doubt the Swindon match impacted on the attendance at Sunderland where we usually take upwards of 2000. Not to mention it was our sixth away game in as many weeks. And of course the Man City league game was always going to see a lower away following after the Cup game where they charged a quite ridiculous £22.50, only to find a couple of weeks later that they then wanted another £40 off us for our annual 3/4/5-0 battering, and with no Young Adult prices the make-up of the away end was very different. Add another few hundred fans with Young Adult tickets. In fact, why on earth were the majority (lower tier) of Leeds fans charged £20 for their game at the Etihad on Sunday when we were charged £22.50 for a night match against a team we play twice a season and have played away at their place five times in three seasons? They also did 16-21 YA prices for £10!! Hardly seems fair, does it?

Personally, league-wise I think the only poor following there is Newcastle. As it is most seasons. At a relatively reasonable £26 a ticket and just the second away game of the season, we ought to be taking double that up there. Even if it was a Sunday. (Bloody beautiful day by the way, and a top performance to match!) Swansea looks poor on the face of it but you can only have 1000 or 2000 there because the concourse and access points lead to both the upper and lower sections and so there can't be any slight increases in allocation. You either take 1000 or 2000. However you could also say that Everton 3 o'clock on a Saturday we should be selling out, too. Prices are not too bad and they almost always bring the full 3000 to us with more expensive tickets. As for Chelsea, £52-£55!! Whether a club's taken 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000 fans there, anyone who pays that kind of money to support their team deserves a lot of credit. Although they also need their head looking at.

Interesting to note that our away followings are a lot stronger in the South than in the North. We've always taken good followings to the likes of Southampton and Portsmouth and maintained excellent followings at Arsenal, Fulham and West Ham. As I say, take away Chelsea and £40-£45 tickets for QPR (a game we'd sell 3000 for with reasonable ticket prices) and the only Southern away game we never seem to travel well to is Spurs. But then it's a real dive, it's difficult to get to for London, the tickets are more expensive than Fulham and Arsenal, we rarely play them on a Saturday at 3 o'clock, and the few fans that aren't tourists are arrogant jumped up little shites from the Home counties who spend ninety minutes practicing that awful drone and singing "Are you West Ham in disguise?" every single season and think they're hilarious. Original fuckers. 

Sorry, back on point, we'd sell the 2900 with ease. In fact, with criteria starting on a mere three away games I can see the 1200 selling out on Friday almost instantly. I'll certainly be phoning up early. Oh and just to put the 1200 allocation into context, the "Pride of the Midlands" have taken the 2900 allocation for their game there and they took 574 fans to Anfield and 685 fans to Sunderland, the jokers. Likewise West Ham have got the 2900 and they have to watch "outstanding" football Sam Allardyce style. Baffling decision by Villa.

Also Stoke only charging 30 quid this year, I'm sure last couple of years I've paid 35 quid? (boycotted the boxing day fixture) so guess we must have been relegated to Cat C or whatever.

100% we'd shift 3k tickets.

I thought they were £35 too. I've just checked every ticket since they came back up though and they were all priced at £30 Adult. Fair play to them. Didn't we charge them around £43 a couple of seasons back at VP in an attempt to bill the game as a big Midlands derby and sell a few more tickets? Oh dear Villa...Thankfully Stoke haven't reciprocated.