Gizza Ticket Mate

I understand your frustration but why should ST holders get a ticket for the final in the first place - surely priority should go to those that regularly travel away. Obviously I don?t know where you live but spare a thought for those of us that dont live in Liverpool. It's fairly easy for a local fan to go to home game every other week but the vast majority of them do not travel any further than that or may do once or twice a year... then when the biggest away game of the season comes up you have to be an home ST holder to even be considered.

I go to more games than those that meet the basic criteria but not all home games, rather a mixture of both, why am I less deserving, it costs more, more travel involved and the nature of the games are in line with the Cup Final as extensive travel is involved. Forgot the early kick-off against the likes of Bolton/Pompey ? it's local! How many want to go to the early kick-offs at Portsmouth & Sunderland?

John,

As one of those coming from overseas (Sydney Australia) I guess some fo your angst is targetted at me and others like me...and I can understand it from your view, but let me give you mine.

Some of us love all things Everton. I left Liverpool against my will as a kid when my parents became ?10 pound Poms?. I left behind everthing but Everton. I have only seen Everton twice ? the first time just before my first wife died of cancer 10 years ago so that she could understand me before she died, and the second time on my 2nd marriage honeymoon 3 years ago so that my new wife could try to understand me before living with me killed her.

I will be bringing my whole family (the wife and my 17- and 16-year-old kids) and we will come to Liverpool first to share the moment. I?m lucky enough that at a pinch, and if we don?t have vinegar with our chips, I can afford it.

I sit up every weekend watching every Everton game ? no-one at work can understand why I don?t record them and watch them at a reasonable time rather than at 0200 ? but I cannot, as I wouldn?t be able to sleep. I spend at least 25 hours per week on Everton websites (this one being by far the best) and spend many hundreds each year on Everton stuff (I even have the poor dog getting walked with an Everton lead). It would be easier if I lived in Liverpool as I would be able to treat my addiction.

And the saddest thing about all this is that there are hundreds/thousands of others just like me ? living abroad and missing their football team with all their heart and just trying as hard as they can to be a part of it.

So, if I?m taking a ticket that could have potentially been bought by you at face value through some means I don?t comprehend, then so be it. Through my rosey-blue coloured glasses, the tickets were there to be bought... by any means that would guarantee a ticket early enough to organise holidays from work for my wife and I and to arrange removing the kids from school during their final year's exams.

I?ll be in The Albert in Lark Lane on Wednesday night watching the Champions League Final. If you come on down and find me, I?ll buy you a few bevvies and we can wax lyrical about our respective views on injustice.

pss: we have much in common. I?m still playing at 44, am probably a bitter scally deep inside, and I?ll still be there for Everton next year and every year.

What I can’t understand is I buy 3 tickets when I attend with my two boys at £60 a time when going to a match, yet when I applied for the live beam to Goodison I can only have one ticket as it is one ticket per account number. Unfair on my two boys who wanted to attend!

Ian,

The season tickets and customer numbers are the easiest way for the club to track an individual's loyalty, so understandably they have to use this to allocate tickets to the events where demand far outstrips availability.

There is also a question about where the money goes, for example, when you or I go to the Stadium of Light, Old Trafford or White Hart Lane, it isn?t the blues who get the money for the match ticket, we are not buying Chang, programmes and pies from Goodison, the money is going to other clubs. This arguement falls down somewhat, as I'm sure it is offset by our takings from away fans visiting us!

Finally it is a big commitment for a fan to spend £400+ on an ST, but it is vital to the club's finances and cash flow around this time of year, knowing that there is going to be however many £million going into the accounts. It is therefore necessary to include that incentive of a "guaranteed" (I know it's not the case this week) ticket to the showpiece games.

Allocation of tickets to a Cup Final will always be an issue whilst the FA insist on their current allocation policy and someone is always going to miss out.

Mike above..........

I too would have gone to the live beam at Goodison, but like you am unable to get more than one ticket, despite buying at least 2 at a time online. My youngest son is, like me, a true Blue and I would not go without him. Being an exiled Scouser, I don’t get to as many games as I would like, so I never expected to be able to get to Wembley this time, but I would have liked to take my little Toffeeman with me to Goodison.

I have promised him we will stand at the corner of Queens Drive and Walton Hall Ave (the street I grew up on), and cheer them when they bring the cup home as I have done each time they have had the victory parade.

COYB !!!!!! NSNO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Justifying envy through a supposed moral authority because you attend more games than a lot of those who can afford tout prices is a little selfish.

An Everton fan is an Everton fan and we all want to go.
And that includes every single game, Bolton and Portsmouth included... only we live too far, don’t have the money, have jobs, have this that and the other which means we can’t go.

But I’ll tell you this, when I have the money to travel from London every week, with a season ticket in my pocket I’ll let you know... but until then, I won’t get any guilt about attending future Wembley appearences.
Anyone got a spare?

Matt,
Don?t get me wrong I fully understand the reasons Everton allocate the tickets the way that they do and I don?t really have any complaints about it. My point was just to take the financial element out of it and ask the question, "Are these ST holders really more deserving when you consider the time and expense that a lot of non-ST holders go to?"

I agree that the FA need to sort the ticket allocations out though, they should have given us the same number as they did for the semi... By not doing so, they are acknowledging that tickets must be going to ?fooball fans? that didn?t care enough to go to the semi?s themselves. If they did then our allocation would have been the same for both games but at the lower level.

Tony Anetts - I did try to put across in the original comment that I bear no ill will towards overseas fans/exiled scousers/ex-pats as I would do exactly the same myself, I really can't critisize you for wanting to come over for the final. I have got a little ill will towards locals who are ?jumping on the bandwagon? for the final but won't attend home games, but mainly the article hopefully just puts across my frustration at not having a ticket mate. BTW I am proud to have Evertonians like yourself abroad when it would surely be easier, more popular to support one of Murdochs clubs. NSNO. Enjoy Lark Lane on Wednesday mate.

Can't believe I?ve just used the phrase ?jumping on the bandwagon? talking about the Blues! Ha ha, let the good times roll!

I am a season ticket holder who lives 200 miles away in North Cambs, I have been to nearly all the home games in the league this year and have loaned my card out to friends on the couple of occasions that I have not been able to get to a game! I have not been to an away game other than the semi as I am married with a large mortgage and believe that my money goes to Everton first and not to line the pockets of the away clubs.

I have been sat checking my inbox every day on the off-chance that I might just get a final ticket, but alas it looks like my wait has been in vain... so I am planning on going to Wembley and meeting up with others like myself in a pub as near as I can get to the game.
Perhaps what I am really trying to say is those of us that have not been that lucky and not got a ticket but are allowed to claim a beam-back ticket and are not making the trip to Goodison could pass them on to people who can make better use of them, what say the rest of you?

Not sure how we could do this but it's got to be worth a try???

Don?t worry mate. Everton are back in the big time now. By the time you?re my age (47), you?ll be sick of the sight of that big arch.

Way back in 1995, I was one of the 20,000 poor sods who queued up outside Goodison all night, freezing my nuts off, but ended up with nowt.

This time round Willy Wonka has been kinder to me. And who knows, next time it could be you.

Hearing whinging about Cup Final ticket allocation from the blue half of Merseyside, for once, is actually music to my ears. I sincerely hope we get rants like these every season. COYB.

Mike Hayes/Tom Edwards - ive fallen foul of my dad and daughter being allowed in the ballot, cos every time a ticket has been bought for them, its been credited to me. I have two season tickets for myself and elder daughter and we have both managed to get tickets for the final - if you wanted to, you could use my customer numbers for the beam back. Dont know if you will be able to use them, but its worth a try? Email me on efcbrian@yahoo.co.uk if you need them - lets make your lads proud to be blue.