I bet you can get 1350 people in the Brasserie....

It certainly doesn't make any sense as they say they could have sold the Bolton tickets twice over, so even had they taken their full allocation of tickets for United, they would still have had a demand for their Goodison TV festival.

You seem to be making the mistake of trusting the words of Joey MancGoebbels from the United Propaganda Office. ( Prompt and polite is all part of there cover )

I would wait for the real explanation from our ticket office because clearly there is NO WAY EFC would be cynical or stupid enough to deny 1350 extra blues from attending OT...

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't we give them a reduced ticket allocation at GP this year because of past poor behavior (standing)?

Probably something to do with the stupid rule whereby the club has to pay the price of the full allocation up front and if it fails to sell-out will be stung with the bill for the tickets ?

Another shambles from the muppets running our club they will be thinking of excuses to answer your query as theyre not used to being brought to task over issues like this and hope we won't notice.

Everyone should boycott any events like this held at Goodison it is not as though they pump the money back into the team or facilities and would send a clear message to BK that we will not tolerate him for much longer

Mick

Paul has emailed them, 9 days ago looking for a response so he says. Maybe Everton deal with all queries that come in on a Typewriter & its in the post. Actually if they posted it via Australia he still should of had a responce by now. Ah the good old Everton effiecency to the fore yet again.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that we didn't sell out our allocation at United last season when we drew 4-4, so while agreeing with the view that we would have sold out this season on account of the magnificent away support, you cannot blame the club for being wary about taking tickets that they would have had to pay for.

There always seems to be people looking to knock the club - sometimes even where the full facts are not known. Let's wait and see what the official explanation is. Traditionally we have struggled to sell our allocation at Old Trafford even when the tickets go on general sale. Maybe it's due to our terrible record there.

A possible reason here is under Premier League rules, a proportion of tickets can be offered on consignment, but a proportion has to be on sale or return. Basically if a club asks for more than they sell, they can end up footing the bill.

Whilst I think this is an outdated rule in an electronic payment era for business transactions, I also wonder whether we're really that hard up for cash we can't take a £40k "risk" either. I believe this issue was flagged last season for the away match at QPR. Everton always take a good crowd away, especially in London, but we only took the minimum sale or return allocation, and fans were left advertising on message boards for tickets, buying in the home end, or off touts.

Ray #276
We sold out the 2400 allocation with another 17 days available to sell more tickets.
That is hardly taking much of a financial risk - we could have asked for another allocation as we did recently for Southampton.

You are 100% correct when you say the full facts are not known - what is the reason for this? Because EFC have not seen their way to replying to a polite enquiry from a season ticket holder.

I am not looking to knock the club for the sake of it - they don't need my help to do that.

Matt, I agree that we would have sold out this season but on the basis that we did not sell 400 or so tickets last year of our allocation, the club would have presumably had to pay United amore than £16,000 for those empty seats.

If the club frittered that amount away on a regular basis, we'd be on their backs for incompetent management. Perhaps, this season they just erred on the side of caution.

Paul, agreed it's not much of a risk with hindsight but if United pressed us to make a decision in order to give themselves time to sell any tickets not taken by Everton up to their own supporters, then you can see why Everton might have opted for the lower allocation.

Southampton were probably much more obliging because they knew they wouldn't be able to shift any spare tickets anyway.

Ray, whilst you are probably correct in your assertions, if I remember rightly we had just got beaten by the Dark Side in the Semi at Wembley, add to that a replay in the 6th round at Sunderland had not long been settled before the United game, so the fans were probably skint as well as hoping they would have had a cup final to look forward to. So it would seem that mitigating circumstances played a part in the lower than expected sales for last season' game at OT.

If Everton cannot sell their full allocation for a trip to Old Trafford, then we have serious problems, however, as I said earlier the club has stated that they could have sold twice as many tickets for Saturday's game at Bolton.

If the club can't gamble on buying the full allocation of tickets for OT then any new players arriving in this window are pretty remote,

Patrick, I went to Old Trafford for 4 seasons on the trot before the 4-4 draw which I regreattably missed! I can assure you that we traditionally struggle to sell out at OT for reasons that escape me. Tickets always go on general sale there and generally limp towards a sell-out (not last season, for the reasons that you suggest). If the club understand and has records of previous seasons' sales trends, then they're probably right to be cautious - and yet we're all too willing to criticise them for lack of commercial nous.

Ray #284, I agree. The point I guess I'm making is that the Premier League should remove this rule, which probably dates back to its inception in 1992 (can't check, only have the latest copy of their rule book).

In this day and age of electronic ticketing and payment (between clubs) then I would suggest that all tickets are offered on sale or return, but for any amount over the legal minimum, clubs have to sell them all by a certain date. After that date, those seats are sold to home supporters.

You see you can even sell the tickets in sequence now, so no need to worry about segregation. Whilst this would still offer some inconveniences, if the initial 2.4k is for ST holders, fine, reserve that many for them, but put the other 1.3k or whatever on general sale straight away. They're still sold in sequence... Then by the time any unsold ST tickets are made available, the club will have a good idea of demand.

But agree the whole consignment thing has to go.

Fair enough Ray, I haven't been a regular away from home for some years, so I am surprised that a trip to OT is not a high priority for the fans - even though it's been a football graveyard for us since 1992. It must be something to do with the Policing or some other factor, perhaps those that do regularly attend away games can enlighten us.

Matt, at grounds where the away section can be expanded or limited according to the demands of the away team, I think it's only fair to expect the away team to make a decision about how many tickets it requires because to keep the maximum allocation, even where there's no chance of selling out, is unfair on the home team if it can sell unwanted tickets to home fans.

You couldn't have a situation at Goodison for instance where the away side take the full allocation of the lower Bullens but only a few handful of seats in the Upper tier. That would leave Everton with empty tickets in the Upper tier that it could not possibly sell due to crowd safety reasons.

However, the rule makes no sense at all at grounds like Southampton, Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan etc where there is no demand from the home supporters for unused tickets in the away end. However, I doubt whether the rule is enforced in these cases anyway. The away team gets as many tickets as it wants and simply returns any unsold tickets at no cost to itself.

Basically, if the rule is applied sensibly, it's perfectly logical.

Ray, the questions I raised about our fans only getting 2,400 tickets had nothing to do with hindsight – I asked both clubs on the day our allocation went on sale.

My problem really is that EFC are being economical with the truth to our fans on this occasion with their statements made on the OWS.

I also believe that the club has not acted in the fans best interests by asking for a low allocation. I also believe that it would be beneficial to the team to have as many blues at Old Trafford as possible rather than watching on a screen in the 1878 Brasserie.

I don't know what's more ridiculous -- the Club taking only 2,400 tickets for this one, or contributions from supporters on this thread doubting that we would have sold alot more if we'd got them.

It is the case that OT is not a ground that Blues have gone to in big numbers in recent years. Maybe years of waving the white flag there have impacted. But the situation we are in this season, challenging for a CL place, makes this match somewhat different. When we take 2,500 to a Monday night game some 250 miles away and being shown on live TV, why on earth would the club think that no more than 2,400 tickets would be bought for OT???

It's not the first time this has happened of course. The Club repeatedly underestimates the size of the away support. They did so for the Southampton game in fact, having initially taken just 1,700 tickets. Compare those numbers at Southampton with the 900 brought to GP in September to by the self proclaimed 'big club' (complete with the 'best fans in the world') Newcastle.

The problem is with Everton, that those running the club, from the manager downwards, simply fail to understand and appreciate just how big this club of ours still is, despite its two decades of failure and a total lack of vision and leadership off the field.

I'm really shocked to hear this. I assumed we sold out for every single away game. I am a season ticket holder but I only go 3 or 4 away games per year.

So can someone clarify away ticket allocation rules?? Is it you have to allocate a maximum of 5% of your stadium capacity?? And 15% for cup games?? But the visiting club don't need to accept the full allowance if they feel they cannot sell that many??

So I guess for a club like EFC (financial problems) they think they can't gamble on buying a 3,800 tickets from Man Utd (5% of old Trafford's 76k capacity) because they don't think there is demand for 3,800 fans willing to travel the massive distance along the M62 but 5,000 will go to Bolton which is very close to Manchester and they say they could've doubled or trippled that??

I hope I'm not tempting fate here but let's say we have to go away to Old Trafford in the Quarterfinal of the FA Cup... and Man Utd – as per the FA rules –offer us 11,400 tickets (15% of 76k)... would we sell 11,000 tickets in the hope we get a place in the semi? Or is it a simple case of Everton's cash flow they just can't afford to buy 11,000 tickets straight away with the risk they won't sell all of them?

It would be nice if someone could clear up the rules on ticket allocations.

Gosh, I wish I hadn't contributed to this thread but I did, so here's my final contribution. Of course, we would have sold out our allocation this year but based on previous year's experiences, the club may have thought incorrectly that it wouldn't. It's undeniable that tickets at OT sell more slowly than elsewhere.

Comparing the attendance at Southampton with Old Trafford doesn't prove a thing. I went to St Mary's but I'm not going to the Utd game. This is based on the fact that Southampton's ground was a new experience for me. Old Trafford is not, the atmosphere there is poisonous, the stewards heavy-handed, it's expensive and we tend to roll over there (last season excepted).

The Old Trafford game nearly always goes to general sale.

If we were playing there in the Cup, I've no doubt that we'd take and fill the 15% allocation but for many supporters that pick and choose a limited number of away games per season, Old Trafford is not a priority game!

For the club, I doubt whether it's a question of cashflow. We only pass on the money that we receive in sales. The club does, however, have to pay for any tickets that it does take but does not sell.

Given the benefit of previous years experience (i.e. hindsight) and the fact that the game is live on TV, the club has probably made a decision to reduce the number of tickets in its allocation. Probably a wrong decision but maybe understandable?

So Ray, because your personal preference is Southampton the club was right not to ask for the full allocation at OT......

I think the truth is that the mancs are playing tit for with both us and the RS because they were given a reduced allocation. I understand they have a habit of doing this with any club that dares mess with them.

I have a mate who's a steward at both Goodison and anfield and he tells me other than Newcastle and liverpool they are the worst fans to attend Goodison season in and season out.

I think the truth is that the mancs are playing tit for with both us and the RS because they were given a reduced allocation. I understand they have a habit of doing this with any club that dares mess with them.

I have a mate who's a steward at both Goodison and anfield and he tells me other than Newcastle and liverpool they are the worst fans to attend Goodison season in and season out.

I queried it with the club and got this response:

The Club was provided with very limited appropriate options and unfortunately no opportunity for a Sale or Return arrangement (something we offer to a number of our Premier league counterparts).

Consequently, upon reviewing the allocation/uptake for previous seasons and taking into consideration a number of influencing factors including proximity, league standings, ticket pricing, team performance, television coverage and scheduling, after consultation with a representative body of the Club’s supporters we decided to increase our previous seasons’ allocation albeit to a level we considered appropriate within the constraints we were under.

... i.e. they didn't think they'd sell them, but clearly that was wrong!