Fans Comment
Ticketing — Yet Again!
For
years now, the subject of selling cup tickets has riled and
exasperated many Blues. We can point to a number of occasions in
recent years: The Orient, Boro, Preston, Man Utd cup fiascos — add to
that ticketing and entrance problems for the local derbies. I warn
you, this analysis is fairly long — but so have been our ticketing
frustrations as well. Below is our latest experiences and
recommendations for positive change. Ticketing has become a lot worse
this season with our first venture into Europe for years. Tickets for
the home tie against Villarreal could have been printed weeks earlier,
sold to season ticket holders in an orderly fashion with a ticket on
it, the alternate dates, and opponent “to be announced
later”. Instead, we had hours of queuing by panic-stricken fans being
allowed to buy six tickets at a time given to anyone, with no
preference to season-ticket holders — who, weeks before, had paid out
a substantial chunk of their yearly income on the implicit
understanding that they would receive priority for such games For the
away leg, the club had a whole summer to sort out ticketing polices,
we could even have asked European veteran clubs for guidance. But for
a week, Everton held back the away tickets for this game to discuss
how to sell them… why? A week lost means that travel deals get more
expensive, it drove thousands to get their own tickets in the home end
at great cost but delight to enterprising ticket sellers. There could
have been trouble with the locals but thankfully there was not. Did
Everton ask for more tickets than the paltry 1600 at a stadium that
turned out to be not even filled on the night by the locals? And it
was never going to be filled, I was told by Villarreal fans, because
of the price hike in a town of just 40,000 for a ground holding
21,000. After waiting and then losing faith in our ticketing
arrangements, many of the hardcore fans got tickets in Spain. The
Club then from switched from requiring twenty vouchers or lounge
membership (later on) with no Shareholder preference, they went on
general sale — creating further unnecessary ill-feeling towards our
club because we have not implemented a fairer ticketing scheme. Why
is there not a system in place were a series of away tickets are sold
on a rigid? The club card loyalty system is used by many of the big
clubs and it needs to be brought in to Everton as soon as possible —
just a swipe of a card is all it takes, or a phone call: no long
queues. All the information is at hand and a gold mine for a customer
database to boot. Some of the money invested in the corporate lounges
that caused so much ill feeling should have been spent on this kind of
service . But until modern technology at that level in this
department comes to Goodison lets implement the following: If we get
1500 tickets (the lowest offered by most club unless improvement works
are underway), then at least 950 would go to the voucher system for
the loyal fan, 300 to supporters clubs, the rest sold to lounge
members and shareholders with at least 4 away stubs on a first-come,
first-served basis. With 3000 tickets (the norm at most Premier
grounds), 1800 to the voucher system, 500 to supporters clubs,
and the rest to lounge members and Shareholders with at least two
away stubs. In the voucher system, away stubs of tickets for previous
games are kept glued to a sheet and used for buying away tickets at
the box office. If you have 20 away tickets stubs on this card, you
normally get first chance to buy a ticket for a forthcoming away
game. As the days go by on selling these away tickets, the amount of
stubs required drops progressively. But you see the above is only for
the really big games, Football fans on Merseyside are finding it very
expensive to follow their team away now. We never filled the
allocation for our first away game at Bolton, despite it being very
close geographically — the first time this has happened in my
experience of following Everton for many years. I was told that, with
early booking and low-cost air travel, it will be cheaper to see Real
Madrid or Barcelona with a night’s stay than it will be to watch
Chelsea away this season! So you could go and see Tommy Gravesn
rather than pay the extortionate Chelsea fare. I believe many are
already talking about boycotting this game . Why do I come down so
greatly on the travelling fan with the voucher system? Two
reasons One is that many of these fans live week to week and support
the team everywhere they can, no matter what the team’s current form
is. The other reason is that, if you didn’t follow Everton to away
games, you would have enough money saved up to buy into one of the
lower cost lounges and be guaranteed a ticket for anywhere. But would
we want no support away from home? Two years ago, a document about
ticketing by a working party from the Shareholders Association with
recommendations was handed in to the Club with these kinds of ideas in
it. Six weeks went by waiting for a reply but no positive changes
were taken out of it. Communication as to why there were delays in
announcement of sales of tickets with Villarreal and Dinamo
Bucharest. Was it Uefa being involved with ground concerns and
protocol restrictions? No news is not good news to a eagerly
awaiting fan wanting to book travel to support our team. Just inform
us; most of us are adults. Time is precious with travel bookings,
especially for a low-income fan; waiting until just a week before
games to sell tickets is not financially friendly to any fan. Time
delays force fans into buying tickets themselves in home ends. The
club must remember that most fans are not on the internet and have to
rely on the beat of the drums lately with short-notice European
sales. Information needs to go out on the local radio and in the
papers as soon as possible. A refusal to address the inadequacies of
selling tickets with an outdated system hurts the club’s own front
line staff and greatly inconveniences the fans. Why is there still no
ticket office with an on-line computer in Liverpool City Centre —
after years of asking? Customers like to shop at convenience and town
may be more acceptable to many fans rather than trecking out to
Walton. Many tickets may be sold on a whim for Johnny’s birthday
instead of a gift voucher etc for low grade home games . Why not use
the Echo back inside page (free of charge I believe), for ticket
announcements on a regular basis for league and cup games— as the Reds
do? Why was the selling of Dinamo away tickets not allowed last
Saturday when it would have been more convenient to out-of-town fans,
especially with the short notice of sale? Postal applications with
season tickets passports etc are a bit extreme don’t you think? Why
are we going to a hotel in Bucharest to pick up the real match ticket
as we only have a voucher up to now? I’m sure there is a valid reason
but please just inform us. There was a handy print out for the
Bucharest trip on tips when there by the box office, which is quite
good but lost to many as the ill feeling pent up trying to secure the
away ticket get held up on hard line technicalities. Why was the ticket voucher stopped at 12 o’clock on Tuesday when there are tickets left? Surely last thing Wednesday would have done as these vouchers must be going over with staff to meet fans in a hotel in Bucharest. A list already complied would just be added too. Hopefully, if we get through this tie, the list can be used in a positive way for future games to save time.
As yet, I have received no reply from the club; hands up who is surprised by that? Only Bill’s secretary rang to ask what it was about — and yet again Bill is unaware of a problem at Goodison. With the above letter, I suppose more pettiness will come my way but I’m only saying what most fans think about ticket selling arrangements amongst other negatives. I am the messenger or soft one taking the flack. It has to stop as soon as possible. By publishing our experiences and recommendations, I hope this problem may be resolved at last. For every good story emanating from Goodison there are at least eight bad ones. I don’t care what they do against me anymore with the stopping of me talking with the local media etc. Believe me, Pravda is alive and well at Goodison. What I do care about, and many others are of the same ilk, is the ever growing refusal to listen and learn. Queuing for hours at a time only to be turned away on bizarre hardline rules is no fun for any customer. When you go to an airport with a block booking for your family, would the staff at the check in turn you away because you didn’t make individual bookings? Would they hell; they would try and treat you as a family and more importantly a customer. Fourteen times I had to go home from work and send individual confirmations on travel details when common sense should have prevailed and the compiled list we provided at very short notice adhered too. I heard of fans arguing in the rain last
Thursday after seeing their name on a list and being turned away. The
criteria asked for European travel is your passport, season ticket and
letter of confirmation of travel and accommodation
—which is fair enough for
security but as one fan said “it’s easier to get a mortgage than an
away European ticket “ Liverpool do this without any of this
fuss. True, the reds have more years of experience than us but why
was there not a European travel club card set up in the summer? We
knew we would have at least two games in Europe unless unfairly
displaced by the reds with the four teams from our country
argument. It really is the crystal maze at times. One fan’s dad paid
for four season tickets but, because they were all in his name, that
was not acceptable for the rest of his family. Yet, after much arguing
it was relented! The police had to intervene on several
occasions. How sad is this getting with ticket sales? Surely it’s
better for Everton that we travel in organised parties — or are they
trying to channel us into their more expensive official travel? An
Everton fan working for Ford asked me “Would Ford treat a customer
like this? If they did, the customer would buy another make and soon
we would all be out of jobs.” But there’s the rub: where do we go
after years of lack of customer care? It is a sad case of emotional
blackmail until common sense (which is very limited when it comes to a
football fan and his love for a club) kicks in and you walk
away. Insulting your intelligence once too often can make a fan leave
their second home. And once the fan finds something to do instead on
a match day, it’s hard to get them back. Remember the cost of going
to a match these days compares with a short flight and a stay in a
hotel. Why do Everton seem to want yet more confrontation? Do they
care about their own staff at the front office — never mind the
fans? The box office girls and boys must be at their wits end and
wondering themselves if it is really worth all the hassle at
times. But draw your own conclusion and let’s hope this article taken
in for the constructive view intended and does not fall on deaf
ears. Some of the above may seem hard but it’s been hard on loyal
away followers for a long time now. An ever-increasing number of our
loyalist fans are fed up of the atmosphere towards our club off the
field, it really needn’t be like this. Let’s stop it now, and then —
and only then — will we be considered ‘The People’s Club’. There is a
sting in the tail of the Dinamo tickets, hopefully I’m wrong but we’ll
see... I hope Keith is listening — it’s not too late to make things
better. It takes a big man to admit things have been wrong.
Ian Macdonald
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