The Mail Bag
Allocation for Benfica
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I'm finding it hard to believe Everton only received 3,250 tickets for the Europa Cup tie. No doubt many of you will have been to Lisbon before, and know what a cracking place it is to visit for a few days. I'd been many times before I relocated to Asia in early 2004, but by then had applied for, and been allocated, tickets for Euro 2004.
I'm not particularly an England fan, but I do enjoy international football, and the chance to see players in the flesh I was unlikely to see with Everton! I flew back, and made a holiday of it (visit the folks in Liverpool, then "Oh, forgot to mention, off to Lisbon, bye!" I had tickets for 2 quarter-finals in Lisbon, at either venue, so knew in advance if England did get through, I'd see them. (Last time Rooney kicked a ball as an Everton player, and we all knew it).
The rebuilt Stadium of Light is a cracking stadium (warning - when England were there the beer on sale inside was alcohol-free!), and it's big. There were so many England fans there, if you do want to go, and don't qualify for a ticket, then find out where in the stadium the Everton allocation is, and I'm sure they will sell you a ticket next to it. You know that's what thousands will do anyway — Nuremberg all over again.
Funny thing was, the bar owners wanted England to win the tournament. The places we frequented whilst there were in tears when Portugal won, as they knew most England fans would be off home the next morning! My personal suspicion, based on the Nuremberg experience, is yet again, the club asked for the smallest possible allocation. We don't have a reputation as "bad travellers" — far from it. So why is this?
Matt Traynor, Posted 03/10/2009 at 00:49:00
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Benfica got 35,000 against Bate leaving 37,000 empty seats so it’s hardly going to be a sell out and I am sure Benfica would have offered us more.
The 3,250 is exactly 5% of the ground’s 65,000 capacity.
There are going to be a lot of empty seats in the ground - it’s a 18:00 kick off which must have an impact, I think many Portuguese will still be working at that time.
They only got 35,000 for their first group game against BATE, so, even if the attraction of playing a top EPL side adds 10,000 to that gate there would still be at least 20,000 empty seats.
There is massive interest in this game amongst Evertonians, as Matt says — Nuremberg all over again. I’m sure the club would easily sell 5,000 (probably 6,000) if we were given them.
Just like always...
It’s all in the PR, it isn’t a conspiracy.
Me I prefer to be happy.
Normally I’d agree with you about the moaners on this site, but there is a real issue here.
The question is "Why have we only been given 3,250 tickets when there are likely to be about 30,000 seats that the home supporters won’t want?"
I’m not pointing a finger at the club, it could be UEFA’s ruling.
I hope you are right about more tickets being available when these sell out — but the fact that the club announcement talks about a ballot being needed for fans who have only one point (i.e. season ticket holders who didn’t go to Olumouc or Belarus) suggests this isn’t expected.
What more could the OS have said, they have to manage supporters expectations and not promise things they might not be able to deliver (something they have been guilty of in the past and have been heavily criticised for it on this very site). The decision on whether or not we get more tickets is down to Benfica and Uefa, nobody outside of official circles knows whether or not the club has requested more tickets or not, they are just assuming the worst.
I guarantee that if the club turned round and said that they had requested more tickets to cater for everyone, people would jump on it and then, if Uefa said No, the club would be accused of lying to the fans, making false promises. In other words, no matter what the OS say, they will be moaned about.
It runs as follows: teams are drawn against each other, teams are allocated a percentage reciprocal allocation of tickets by Uefa. The clubs then liase with each other directly over the issuance and logistics of tickets and supporters. If one club has need for an increased amount it can appeal to Uefa.
This then becomes an issue for the local police authorities, stadium security management and ultimately Uefa. Generally the requests are declined, hence why the clubs are loath to mention the possibilities of extra allocations to their supporters.
Going on spec and picking up a ticket in the home end is sometimes the easier but not the safest option.
I am sure that Benfica are not go to sell 60,000+ seats... so, based on that, does anyone know the best way to purchase tickets in Lisbon itself?
http://www.slbenfica.pt/lojaservicos/eventos.asp
"Visiting clubs which have requested an allocation of tickets for the whole or part of the segregated area may return any unused tickets to the home club without payment up to seven days prior to the match, unless otherwise agreed by the two clubs in writing. After this deadline the visiting club must pay for the whole allocation, irrespective of whether all the tickets have been sold."
Unless it’s changed a lot in the 5 years since I was there, but if you can spare the time off, you could get a flight from Manchester / Midlands / London, and a couple of nights in a decent enough hotel for that if you shop around.
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1 Posted 03/10/2009 at 07:47:18
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From a security point of view it would make more sense to get as large an allocation as possible to satisfy demand (probably 6000+) and ensure that the fans are in one location within the stadium. Looking forward to the party though!