Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:56 pm  

The Doghead wrote:

It cant be a massive problem, only about 80 fans were moved out of the West stand, counted most of them, but its a safety issue, and it needs to be sorted.

But you don't know how many moved from the North/South Stands to stand in the West, and that is a problem. The only safe way is to segregate the four areas, most people will be in the same areas as their friends/family anyway.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:51 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

But you don't know how many moved from the North/South Stands to stand in the West, and that is a problem. The only safe way is to segregate the four areas, most people will be in the same areas as their friends/family anyway.

Here we go some knowledgeable person who hasn't even set foot inside the place telling us it's the ONLY safe way.
It beggars belief!!

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:02 pm  

Set up barriers between each area to a height of 4 foot. On top of the barriers fix a worktop such as found in any kitchen. People can meet with friends and chat across the 'bar' without trespassing, then go back to their own seats/stands whilst always being kept apart but still being able to socialise.

Simples, and only a small cost (relatively) compared to losing a thou off the west stand gate due to safety issues.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:13 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

That's anyone's guess as the club hasn't stated what the capacity will be. But if it's 2000, say, well that's 2,000 x £18.50 minimum I should think. That's a lot of money just on ticket sales alone.

I hope those fans are really happy!

You are making a massive assumption that all the people that can't get a west stand ticket will just decide not to go. Presumably some will buy more exoensive tickets and some will go in another standing area. Also the 2000 figure sounds rather large.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:19 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

An arrangement has been made with Salford for their fans to go in one end of the North Stand and Saints fans who aren't season ticket holders can go in the East Stand.

So Salford fans are being expected to pay £5 more than they would've paid in the east terrace?

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:59 pm  

Karlos13 wrote:

So Salford fans are being expected to pay £5 more than they would've paid in the east terrace?

I doubt that. I would imagine, though obviously I don't know, that since the arrangement was initiated by Saints, Salford fans will pay only what they would have paid in the East Stand. But they'll get a seat instead.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:01 pm  

Harry Pinner wrote:

You are making a massive assumption that all the people that can't get a west stand ticket will just decide not to go. Presumably some will buy more exoensive tickets and some will go in another standing area. Also the 2000 figure sounds rather large.

2000 may well be rather large. That's why I said 'say'. I was just giving an example. But, say, we could have sold 18,000 tickets for the Salford game, like the Chairman was hoping for (according to what he has said in the press). We definitely won't be selling that number now. So whether it is 2000 fewer or 500 fewer, the club will have lost money as they won't be able to sell 18,000 tickets.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:08 am  

Lets look at this with a bit of logic. Tickets were primarily available to season ticket holders and then later non-season ticket holders too. As I understand it, seating season ticket holders were not guaranteed their season ticket seats once the advanced booking deadline was passed. Therefore we can put the fans that entered the west stand without a standing ticket into three categories:

a) standing season ticket holders who bought a seating ticket but moved
b) seated season ticket holders who bought a seated ticket but moved
or
c) non-season ticket holders who bought seated tickets but moved

Whether it was because they wanted to sample the atmosphere from the different areas on what should have been a special night... because they wanted to stand with friends... or simply because they wanted to stand but were too late to buy a standing ticket only they know, but given the limited capacity of that game I can see why people might not have considered this a problem on the night, nor that it would have such a drastic effect on the capacity status for future matches. Inconsiderate? perhaps. Unsurprising given the circumstances and what we know about people not using their brains to their full extent? definitely not.

Looking at the three categories above I honestly don't believe that it will be an ongoing issue, certainly not something that some better stewarding can't help resolve. I'd like to know the percentages of how many tickets for the game were sold to season ticket holders vs non-season ticket holders. If the vast majority of tickets sold went to season ticket holders then I would suggest that a) and b) will not, or are at least unlikely to happen throughout the season, whilst the possibility of c) happening again is limited due to factors such as
the small numbers of unallocated seats available and could be helped by simply warning fans against moving stands when buying tickets/printed warnings on tickets/via the PA system/signs above the tunnels etc. Short of segregating the areas completely or perhaps doing so after kick off, you'd probably struggle to stop everyone from moving stands but we don't want segregation on the concourse anyway do we.

A bit of common sense is all that is really needed from the fans in future.

I'll also add that the West Stand didn't feel over capacity to me and it was clear that there was more room available towards the North West corner. I imagine better dispersal pre-kick off and at half time by the stewards & fans themselves would have helped in that aspect.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:04 am  

Tony Stark wrote:

Lets look at this


A bit of common sense is all that is really needed from the fans in future.

I'll also add that the West Stand didn't feel over capacity to me and it was clear that there was more room available towards the North West corner. I imagine better dispersal pre-kick off and at half time by the stewards & fans themselves would have helped in that aspect.

From where I was sitting in the South Stand, the West Stand never looked like full capacity at any time during the match. The siuggestion of people migrating over into the West Stand is probably an inaccurate one, this would have to be fans moving in there hundreds.
Obviously the problem was herding of the fans in the west stand due to the NW corner wetting condition and Stewards not strong enough to control the fan distribution.
One idea maybe is to barcode the non season ticket holders for the west stand so that they have access only through the North turnstile and therefore we have a chance of filling up the West Stand evenly. Obviously the cladding will alleviate the problem, in the meantime the West Stand fans and stewards should show some common sense and spread out to reduce the risk of a reduced capacity being a permanent one.

Re: Sold too many tickets??? : Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:10 am  

Tony Stark wrote:

Lets look at this with a bit of logic. Tickets were primarily available to season ticket holders and then later non-season ticket holders too. As I understand it, seating season ticket holders were not guaranteed their season ticket seats once the advanced booking deadline was passed. Therefore we can put the fans that entered the west stand without a standing ticket into three categories:

a) standing season ticket holders who bought a seating ticket but moved
b) seated season ticket holders who bought a seated ticket but moved
or
c) non-season ticket holders who bought seated tickets but moved

Whether it was because they wanted to sample the atmosphere from the different areas on what should have been a special night... because they wanted to stand with friends... or simply because they wanted to stand but were too late to buy a standing ticket only they know, but given the limited capacity of that game I can see why people might not have considered this a problem on the night, nor that it would have such a drastic effect on the capacity status for future matches. Inconsiderate? perhaps. Unsurprising given the circumstances and what we know about people not using their brains to their full extent? definitely not.

Looking at the three categories above I honestly don't believe that it will be an ongoing issue, certainly not something that some better stewarding can't help resolve. I'd like to know the percentages of how many tickets for the game were sold to season ticket holders vs non-season ticket holders. If the vast majority of tickets sold went to season ticket holders then I would suggest that a) and b) will not, or are at least unlikely to happen throughout the season, whilst the possibility of c) happening again is limited due to factors such as
the small numbers of unallocated seats available and could be helped by simply warning fans against moving stands when buying tickets/printed warnings on tickets/via the PA system/signs above the tunnels etc. Short of segregating the areas completely or perhaps doing so after kick off, you'd probably struggle to stop everyone from moving stands but we don't want segregation on the concourse anyway do we.

A bit of common sense is all that is really needed from the fans in future.

I'll also add that the West Stand didn't feel over capacity to me and it was clear that there was more room available towards the North West corner. I imagine better dispersal pre-kick off and at half time by the stewards & fans themselves would have helped in that aspect.

agree with all of that, and as others have said too, from my seat in the north the west stand didnt look full in the nw corner