30,197

[Greasy Chap Butty]

I can’t buy extra tickets as a season ticket holder since 1971 (not to be trusted) all those new students arriving this weekend can’t buy tickets....empty seats once again...

9am Monday 9th September
200+ Loyalty Points - Membership not required
Tickets will be on sale to supporters with 200 loyalty points or above.
One ticket per supporter.

11am Tuesday 10th September
General Sale
Tickets will be on general sale at 11am Tuesday 10th September.
One ticket per supporter.

 

[PaulHalfway]

Surely season ticket holders should be allowed to buy up to 4 more tickets each once it gets to general sale, they can bring family, mates, visitors etc
Just don’t understand why we make it so difficult for everyone

 

[Keen Blade]

Yes it does! I was asked when has there been trouble at the ground (as Barry appears to think there isn't any and so little need for segregation of fans) and so I gave two minor examples to show that segregation of fans is still necessary. I am quite aware of what happened with the Palace fan as I was close to the event - fortunately not too close! You are not suggesting that segregation and crowd trouble are not intrinsically linked? The club have stated one reason for the 500 point limit is to prevent away fans from gaining access to home areas and thus prevent crowd trouble. It's not my argument its the club's. Do I like it? No! as it is preventing me from taking my youngest and seems to be excluding new and casual fans from buying tickets. However I do acknowledge that the club has a duty of care to keep fans safe through sensible segregation and ticket restrictions. What would your solution be?

The club have implemented a solution for occasions when the away allocation is not sold out - the home areas are COMPLETELY free of any restrictions from 11am Tuesday morning for Saturday's game v Palace.
The challenge is now to sell out the home areas.
If we don't manage to sell out the home areas , a post match marketing analysis needs to determine whether the reason is :
1. There just aren't enough people in Sheffield who want to attend a Prem game; or
2. The pricing is too high , particularly for seats with a restricted view ; or
3. The method of selling is too complicated for potential fans or indeed true neutrals to understand (or be bothered to understand - look how many on this thread wrongly believe that points are still required in order to attend a match that has gone to 'General Sale' like Southampton this Saturday) ; or
4. The fact that a game has gone to 'General Sale' 4 days before matchday is not sufficiently well-publicised to those who could be tomorrow's fans (eg: children who are just getting into the idea of attending a football match , and their parents - a huge source of potential repeat business for perhaps a couple of decades !).

Personally , for such matches as Southampton , I would be selling all the RV seats at heavily discounted prices to school groups & children's organisations.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Season ticket holders should be able to buy at least one other ticket. Although most of my family are “Blades” I am by far and away the most ardent supporter. My old fella (when he was alive) used to go to half dozen a games a season. My Mrs liked come to 2/3 , my daughter and partially sighted step son used to the same.

 

[Tuns25]

9am Monday 9th September
200+ Loyalty Points - Membership not required
Tickets will be on sale to supporters with 200 loyalty points or above.
One ticket per supporter.

11am Tuesday 10th September
General Sale
Tickets will be on general sale at 11am Tuesday 10th September.
One ticket per supporter.

Yet again too little too late. Too many mixed messages and too many casual fans have already been given the impression getting a ticket for the Lane is a hassle.
The idea there's a few thousand fans reviewing our website and forum every day in the week before the match just waiting for the chance to grab a ticket is clearly nonsense.
We need to turn our attitude to new, returning and causal fans completely on its head before we miss a golden opportunity for the future of the club.

 

[Keen Blade]

Our website says differently......says you need a minimum of 200 points to buy a ticket.View attachment 61109View attachment 61110

Look at the latest news - 5 hours ago - on the website.

 

[RavBlade]

We are the only premier league club that don’t sell out and yet still stop fans buying tickets.....madness, madness they call it madness!!!

And out it crawls again.

 

[RavBlade]

Yet again too little too late. Too many mixed messages and too many casual fans have already been given the impression getting a ticket for the Lane is a hassle.
The idea there's a few thousand fans reviewing our website and forum every day in the week before the match just waiting for the chance to grab a ticket is clearly nonsense.
We need to turn our attitude to new, returning and causal fans completely on its head before we miss a golden opportunity for the future of the club.

So what do you suggest?

 

[Dkc]

Seems to be plenty available. If the away sales are slow too, this could be our first sub-30,000 crowd of the season.

 

[RavBlade]

We are the only premier league club that don’t sell out and the only one with restrictions on general sale.......Who anyone be prepared to hazard a guess why we are the only ones that don’t sell out??

Not happy with the 23k at your place last week then?

 

[Niceguyeddie]

We are the only premier league club that don’t sell out and yet still stop fans buying tickets.....madness, madness they call it madness!!!

We are the only premier league club that don’t sell out and the only one with restrictions on general sale.......Who anyone be prepared to hazard a guess why we are the only ones that don’t sell out??

How come you've been banned off twitter Marc ?

 

[Keen Blade]

I can’t buy extra tickets as a season ticket holder since 1971 (not to be trusted) all those new students arriving this weekend can’t buy tickets....empty seats once again...

What is the point of ST holders being able to buy an extra seat ?
ST holders , by definition , are in parts of the ground where they are themselves surrounded by other ST holders , so their "+1" could not sit with them.
I could understand that ST holders may well be a source of new customers , but if they are allowed to buy 2 or more tickets supposedly "for friends" , the club might suspect a secondary black market will become established for home areas , in the same corrosive way that it has for the 3,000 away tickets.
And once the match has gone to 'General Sale' , the people who would have been "introduced" by the ST holder , can just go + buy a ticket under their own details anyway.

 

[RavBlade]

I can’t buy extra tickets as a season ticket holder since 1971 (not to be trusted) all those new students arriving this weekend can’t buy tickets....empty seats once again...

Yeah was a lot of empty seats at the sty last week

 

[RavBlade]

Look at the latest news - 5 hours ago - on the website.

Wasting your breath mate.

 

[bartman]

Surely season ticket holders should be allowed to buy up to 4 more tickets each once it gets to general sale, they can bring family, mates, visitors etc
Just don’t understand why we make it so difficult for everyone

No need when they are on general sale from tomorrow with no restrictions so the casual fan have the rest of the week to buy a ticket. The club will register each one on the database

 

[bartman]

Season ticket holders should be able to buy at least one other ticket. Although most of my family are “Blades” I am by far and away the most ardent supporter. My old fella (when he was alive) used to go to half dozen a games a season. My Mrs liked come to 2/3 , my daughter and partially sighted step son used to the same.

They can go this coming Saturday which is good news for them

 

[Cheesebored]

What is the point of ST holders being able to buy an extra seat ?
ST holders , by definition , are in parts of the ground where they are themselves surrounded by other ST holders , so their "+1" could not sit with them.
I could understand that ST holders may well be a source of new customers , but if they are allowed to buy 2 or more tickets supposedly "for friends" , the club might suspect a secondary black market will become established for home areas , in the same corrosive way that it has for the 3,000 away tickets.
And once the match has gone to 'General Sale' , the people who would have been "introduced" by the ST holder , can just go + buy a ticket under their own details anyway.

What is the point of ST holders being able to buy an extra seat ?
ST holders , by definition , are in parts of the ground where they are themselves surrounded by other ST holders , so their "+1" could not sit with them.
I could understand that ST holders may well be a source of new customers , but if they are allowed to buy 2 or more tickets supposedly "for friends" , the club might suspect a secondary black market will become established for home areas , in the same corrosive way that it has for the 3,000 away tickets.
And once the match has gone to 'General Sale' , the people who would have been "introduced" by the ST holder , can just go + buy a ticket under their own details anyway.

On the odd occasion my lads aren't footballing themselves on a Saturday I just wait until tickets become available for the points they have (5000 ish) then move my seat from the south stand to BLU to sit with them. The staff in the ticket office have always been very helpful. I agree that buying tickets this season hasn't been handled well but if you want a ticket badly enough you can get one.

 

[Keen Blade]

Yet again too little too late. Too many mixed messages and too many casual fans have already been given the impression getting a ticket for the Lane is a hassle.
The idea there's a few thousand fans reviewing our website and forum every day in the week before the match just waiting for the chance to grab a ticket is clearly nonsense.
We need to turn our attitude to new, returning and causal fans completely on its head before we miss a golden opportunity for the future of the club.

This is exactly what I am suggesting Tuns.
I feel I could do a much better job than the ticket office / marketing dept , and I bet many on here have the same view.
For long distance , unfashionable opposition like Soton , Watford , Brighton , Palace , Bournemouth etc , we need to be much quicker to recognize that the away end BLLT will NOT sell out ,AND the home areas will NOT sell out UNLESS we move to 'General Sale' MUCH SOONER in the sales sequence.
And PUBLICISE IT !

Jesus wept , who on earth in the Club thinks that it is appropriate to require loyalty points in order to buy a home ticket for such matches in which neither the away areas nor the home areas have a snowball's chance in hell of selling out unless they get to 'General Sale' and (for the home areas) get well publicised.
And that is true , even if we have discounted all the RV seats to school groups etc.

 

[wizadry]

Yet

They have a week to shift about 150 tickets, I’m still confident that they’ll sellout.

 

[Barry Butlin]

How come you've been banned off twitter Marc ?

How come you've been banned off twitter Marc ?

 

[Barry Butlin]

Pardon? I’m not on Twitter, I’m in the Sheaf Saturday and then seat T166 South Stand, why don’t you come and say hello??

 

[Barry Butlin]

Let’s turn it round then why do you think similar size clubs to us sell out? Leicester. Wolves, Palace, Southampton, Norwich?.

 

[wizadry]

They haven't.

As above MB, and once the international fixtures have finished I’m pretty sure the 150 tickets will go.

 

[Keen Blade]

On the odd occasion my lads aren't footballing themselves on a Saturday I just wait until tickets become available for the points they have (5000 ish) then move my seat from the south stand to BLU to sit with them. The staff in the ticket office have always been very helpful. I agree that buying tickets this season hasn't been handled well but if you want a ticket badly enough you can get one.

I do accept your point , regarding tickets for "friends & relatives of ST - I have done the same myself.
However , I am trying to suggest ways in which the club ought to take advantage of its success , by regularly selling out the home areas against "the other 14".
The marketing/ticket office don't seem to have the objective of "filling the Lane", which is both curious & disappointing.

 

[Barry Butlin]

We play Man City end of December tickets are now on general sale, you can buy as many as you bleedin want (no restrictions) now there’s an idea!! Could go to Manchester book in a hotel, spend money round town and boost the economy, no fuck it we’re small town Sheffield!!

 

[Barry Butlin]

What is the point of ST holders being able to buy an extra seat ?
ST holders , by definition , are in parts of the ground where they are themselves surrounded by other ST holders , so their "+1" could not sit with them.
I could understand that ST holders may well be a source of new customers , but if they are allowed to buy 2 or more tickets supposedly "for friends" , the club might suspect a secondary black market will become established for home areas , in the same corrosive way that it has for the 3,000 away tickets.
And once the match has gone to 'General Sale' , the people who would have been "introduced" by the ST holder , can just go + buy a ticket under their own details anyway.

Yes but we don’t sell out, so it would be a very very very strange black market???

 

[BushBlade]

Personally , for such matches as Southampton , I would be selling all the RV seats at heavily discounted prices to school groups & children's organisations.

Might as well just give them away as heavily discount them.

 

[bartman]

We play Man City end of December tickets are now on general sale, you can buy as many as you bleedin want (no restrictions) now there’s an idea!! Could go to Manchester book in a hotel, spend money round town and boost the economy, no fuck it we’re small town Sheffield!!

There are restrictions for the big games at City(i.e. you must have been to a minimum number of games which is the same as us). We are not a big draw for them which is why they are on general sale now. They also have a far bigger stadium

I can't see the issue you are driving at . The tickets are on general sale tomorrow so any casual supporter who wants to go can go. They will be registered on our system and will be able to book on-line for future games subject to availability.

Due to our stadium capacity,the club has rightly given priority to fans who have been to at least a handful of games over the last 13 seasons. For the non prestige games the tickets could possibly go on general sale sooner. For the big games, I will be surprised if they get to general sale.

 

[Keen Blade]

We play Man City end of December tickets are now on general sale, you can buy as many as you bleedin want (no restrictions) now there’s an idea!! Could go to Manchester book in a hotel, spend money round town and boost the economy, no fuck it we’re small town Sheffield!!

I know what you mean re small-town Sheffield , but that relates to the City Council as compared to Manchester's far more enterprising administration. And I should know , being a Blade who's lived in Manchester for 35 years.
The fact that Sheffield council has been pro Pigs & anti-Blades ever since I can remember hasn't helped us , but as a club , we should be big enough to rise above that now.
We are currently in the position of offering great potential FOR THE CITY , and nothing should be holding us back.
Certainly not dozy policies regarding marketing & ticketing.
The Lane has already been noted in national media as having terrific history & atmosphere.
Who doesn't want more of that ?

 

[Keen Blade]

Yes but we don’t sell out, so it would be a very very very strange black market???

So let's imagine I'm an ST holder + I've heard of 'stubhub' , where loads of tickets change hands ...
It's a big risk but we've already had to ban some idiots for selling tickets indiscriminately.