Pathetic Blades Turnout

[Harrisblade]

Exactly. It's literally the clubs fault. No randomer, tourist/visitor, or even a Blade who hasn't been for years can decide to go and watch some Premier League football at the Lane anymore at the drop of a hat.

So what sort of new system would you introduce to make sure that the (possibly) 670 tickets are always sold, without affecting those that have assiduously gathered their loyalty points over the years?

 

[Bearlie]

First game I ever saw at Bramall Lane was against Leeds.

My postcode at the time was LS8 1QZ.

Your point is?

I think it's pretty fucking obvious what his point is ....

 

[Sean Thornton]

Are we still able to blame McCabe for this? I’m confused.

Of course. Bill Punton and Tony Wagstaff still get Pelters. And don’t start me on Dick Wragg...

 

[Sean Thornton]

So what sort of new system would you introduce to make sure that the (possibly) 670 tickets are always sold, without affecting those that have assiduously gathered their loyalty points over the years?

Dropping your hat 50 points?

 

[Akinbiyi]

So what sort of new system would you introduce to make sure that the (possibly) 670 tickets are always sold, without affecting those that have assiduously gathered their loyalty points over the years?

How is it affection the loyalty point owners again?

 

[bromtom]

So what is the capacity then, based on actual seats available?

Liverpool attendance (officially sold out apparently) 31,774

Ground capacity (according to the Premier League) 32,125

Read on here that 200 are unavailable due to "works", could be cobblers, but if you add it on that's pretty much straight down the middle, 31,974 is a full ground atm.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

How is it affection the loyalty point owners again?

It doesn't, at all. You just offer tickets out on general sale to customers with no loyalty points a day or two before... not sure what this fella's on about.

The club are clearly missing a good opportunity to attract new fans by shitting themselves about a few away fans infiltrating the home end. It's a shame.

 

[Akinbiyi]

It doesn't, at all. You just offer tickets out on general sale to customers with no loyalty points a day or two before... not sure what this fella's on about.

The club are clearly missing a good opportunity to attract new fans by shitting themselves about a few away fans infiltrating the home end. It's a shame.

Thought not

 

[GrayBlade]

Still 674 tickets ( excluding Kop Corner ) unsold as of this morning.

Strong words....Frankly I don't give a damn but no doubt you’ve just lit up Porktalk

 

[Dronfield Blade]

Isn't that the same for every club?
But how do you attract fans otherwise?

No, I dont think its the same for all clubs, I'm sure Spurs,West Ham and Everton (to name a few) sell tickets officially on things like Stubhub.

I don't think Sheffield United being a “family club” will sell tickets via resellers. Also we seem to have a issue in the past with SAG and SYP breathing down the clubs neck, maybe that plays a role with ticket sales.

For me personally, sell tickets to anybody, if a few gobby away fans got in the home end they would soon be self-policed.

Before somebody mentions it, you can’t buy tickets in the family stand without a child anyway, meaning any away fans would wind up surrounded by blades in other areas. The club wont take this risk though IMO.

 

[Kanye]

The only thing United have to do to avoid overspending and hiking ticket prices is to avoid the temptation of spending £30, 40 or 50m on no-marks with fancy names from foreign clubs. There's enough money in the kitty now to make progress for the first time in the clubs history and progress involves spending money unfortunately. Its how you spend it that counts. Ambition is not a crime you know?

I dont think we should condemn spending £30, £40 or £50m on a player from a foreign club as a bad strategy. I agree, ambition isn't a crime, and one would assume that we will have to make the most out of foreign markets at some point if we want to maintain our progression.

By the looks of things, our current market is good championship players and PL cast offs, which appears to be working. I suspect there will come a time though where we outgrow that market (asuming a stay up) and have to look further afield, especially if we want value for money, given the premium on domestic players vs imports.

In short, we should be looking to set up some sort of foreign scouring network, and widen the net at some point.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Us being in the PL is a massive case of the business growing too quickly for its management. We’ve gone from a L1 mentality to needing a PL mentality in 2 years. We probably don’t have the staff to facilitate this mentality.

It’s not the fault of the staff and the fact that we’ve got an ongoing ownership dispute won’t be helping matters.

At the moment there’s a huge element of us ‘playing’ at being a PL club, the only place that we are belonging is on the pitch. The rest of the club seems to be acting like we’re here for a short time only. It’s a shame as this mentality will cost us if we carry it on.

We need PL staff at the club to back the PL manager and players we have on the pitch, it’s just taking a while for that to be sorted. Massive kudos to CW/AK that they’ve put us in this position against the odds.

 

[Cheesebored]

This Saturday is the rugby final, also it’s when a lot of Halloween and bonfire stuff is going on.

I’m leaving at half time cause I’m out later that night and taxis are booked, I know it’s hard for some to believe but people have other things to do sometimes..

I agree the club may have deterred some from casually coming to the odd game, but when the half season tickets get offered and we’re in a good position, we probably will sell another 400+ Season tickets ( I know a few who are doing this to guarantee ST’s next season) ..

And 30:000 people paying their hard earned to watch football at the lane, that’ll do for me !

I'm always amazed by posts like these. The rugby starts at 9am. No excuse to miss the match. If it started at 3pm, still no excuse to miss the match! Bonfire parties, Halloween parties, so what. The game ends at 5pm. Surely enough time after to make the party still? I've spent 30 years of my working life using most of my leave to watch United. I know people who've left family abroad and bought a flight home early to get to a rearranged game. I dont find it hard to believe people have other things to do I just find it hard to accept how easily some fans aren't prepared to make the effort.

 

[blademark]

I'm always amazed by posts like these. The rugby starts at 9am. No excuse to miss the match. If it started at 3pm, still no excuse to miss the match! Bonfire parties, Halloween parties, so what. The game ends at 5pm. Surely enough time after to make the party still? I've spent 30 years of my working life using most of my leave to watch United. I know people who've left family abroad and bought a flight home early to get to a rearranged game. I dont find it hard to believe people have other things to do I just find it hard to accept how easily some fans aren't prepared to make the effort.

And some people will find it hard to understand the bloke who flies home early from a family holiday to watch a routine football match. That sounds like an unhealthy obsession to me, but hey, each to their own.

 

[Cheesebored]

And some people will find it hard to understand the bloke who flies home early from a family holiday to watch a routine football match. That sounds like an unhealthy obsession to me, but hey, each to their own.

Its nothing personal. I just think some people look for a reason not to attend rather than attend. I've missed games before (weddings) and understand people have other priorities but rugby, really?

 

[blademark]

Its nothing personal. I just think some people look for a reason not to attend rather than attend. I've missed games before (weddings) and understand people have other priorities but rugby, really?

As I said, each to their own. There are no medals for being more committed than others.

 

[mattbianco1]

Still 674 tickets ( excluding Kop Corner ) unsold as of this morning.

"Pathetic". I would say a couple to 3k pathetic. Not less that 1k with the silly home points system in place

 

[Cheesebored]

As I said, each to their own. There are no medals for being more committed than others.

Never said there were mate.

 

[Revolution]

I cannot believe the flak the club is getting for this.

We almost sell out every week, for the first time in a long time (arguably ever, actually). This creates a scarcity of tickets.

People who have season tickets, the majority, are fine.
People who go even occasionally, and thus have loyalty points, are usually fine. On occasion, if you haven't been much, you might miss out because someone with more points will get a ticket before you. That seems fair to me.
People who have never been, and have no points, can get tickets by joining the scheme. They can also get them without joining if the are eagle eyed enough to watch the press for a general sale announcement, or they could even go down to the club and get tickets for a game for which there isn't a sell out. I know people have done this.

What the club seems arguably not to have done well is publicise that sometimes there will be tickets left for non members to buy. that's it. And of course if non members are interested, they can check with the club anyway or even become a member.

Yes, people from abroad may not be able to show up as in previous years and get one easily. Yes, people who just want to see a game may find it a bit harder. But that is fine. These are people who should be at the back of the queue.

I did not get to go to the Sty in 1992 as I could not get a ticket. I did not go to Anfield in 2003 as I could not get a ticket. That's fine. On each occasion I was not a season ticket holder and as I was not living locally I was only seeing about half the home games.

The system could do with tweaks, and yet it is pretty fair. What it is not doing is costing us the support of thousands of people, because (a) if there were that demand, we'd be selling out every game and we are not and (b) we have nowhere to put thousands of people anyway.

This is a first world problem, and will disappear instantly if we are relegated.

 

[EddieColquhoun]

we probably will sell another 400+ Season tickets ( I know a few who are doing this to guarantee ST’s next season) ..

Before the Southampton game, I asked in the ticket office if these were going to be on sale and was told "No".

 

[wizadry]

And some people will find it hard to understand the bloke who flies home early from a family holiday to watch a routine football match. That sounds like an unhealthy obsession to me, but hey, each to their own.

As I said, each to their own. There are no medals for being more committed than others.

The ‘loyalty points system’ has turned some fans into this mentality of wanting to leave their family on a holiday to watch some blokes kick a bag of air about, its crackers mate.

I love football and the Blades as much as any man or woman but to put it first over family is utterly fucking bonkers.

 

[S64 Blade]

The club has again released a batch of around 20 tickets at the bottom of H block. They really need to either to (a) be clear with fans on how tickets are released or (b) release them all in one go. It is no use doing this the day before a game when many will have looked and decided that they can't get one/can't sit where they want to and have gone on to make other plans.

 

[Yoonited]

No, I dont think its the same for all clubs, I'm sure Spurs,West Ham and Everton (to name a few) sell tickets officially on things like Stubhub.

I don't think Sheffield United being a “family club” will sell tickets via resellers. Also we seem to have a issue in the past with SAG and SYP breathing down the clubs neck, maybe that plays a role with ticket sales.

For me personally, sell tickets to anybody, if a few gobby away fans got in the home end they would soon be self-policed.

Before somebody mentions it, you can’t buy tickets in the family stand without a child anyway, meaning any away fans would wind up surrounded by blades in other areas. The club wont take this risk though IMO.

How do we end up with away fans in BLUT then do you think. Leicester and Arsenal , I witnessed both .
So many potential scenarios,needing different solutions. Must be a logistic nightmare.
Would eye recognition technology help if we do prefer total segregation? Expensive perhaps ,just a thought.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Should have put more season tickets on sale. Wonder if they will be doing the half season ticket this year.

 

[Kev Gee]

I Agree RE prices. Is it worth rinsing our fanbase to add an extra million or two in ticket prices?

I know we are not Bayern Munich but they recently stated. What's the point in jacking up our prices for the minimal (from their perspective) profit?

Can we not grab an extra sponsor somewhere to fill the gap?

 

[Cheesebored]

The ‘loyalty points system’ has turned some fans into this mentality of wanting to leave their family on a holiday to watch some blokes kick a bag of air about, its crackers mate.

I love football and the Blades as much as any man or woman but to put it first over family is utterly fucking bonkers.

Depends on your family. Seriously though I take your point completely but what's also fucking bonkers is claiming watching the rugby at 9am is stopping people attending a game at 3pm.

 

[Grey Blade]

Depends on your family. Seriously though I take your point completely but what's also fucking bonkers is claiming watching the rugby at 9am is stopping people attending a game at 3pm.

I suppose it depends whether you want to get legless watching the rugby. I shall watch the rugby in Harrogate. Drive to Sheffield. Look at the Joe Scarborough exhibition. Hopefully eat something. Go to the game.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Me and mi dad were both “glory hunting, tourists” when he first took to the lane in 1972. I would have loved 47 years worth of loyalty points if they were available.
Everybody has to start somewhere and discouraging casuals and so called “tourists” isn’t going to help grow the fan base.

 

[Cheesebored]

I suppose it depends whether you want to get legless watching the rugby. I shall watch the rugby in Harrogate. Drive to Sheffield. Look at the Joe Scarborough exhibition. Hopefully eat something. Go to the game.

And that's commitment. Enjoy your day brother.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I don't have any sympathy for people who can't get tickets who aren't Blades fans.

Fuck 'em.