Playoff tickets allocation process

[GazzaTCC]

Whilst accepting that hindsight is a wonderful thing, I can't help but feel that the club hasn't exactly covered itself in glory over the on-going ticket allocation process for both the home and away games for the semi final plays off?

For starters, it was always going to be a huge task to attempt to sell, all on the same day, tickets for the home leg to 22,000 season ticket holders, plus, circa 3,000 tickets to priority members for the non season ticket holder seats, and, circa 2,000 away tickets to Portman Road.

Is it any great surprise that many who tried to buy tickets online found their computers simply froze up?

Given that the away game was just six days away why not attempt to sell those tickets first on, say, Sunday and Monday?

Secondly, in relation to the away game, the question has to be asked whether setting the first threshold at 1,400 was actually high enough?

There is no visibility from the club in relation to how many away season ticket holders we have, nor, how many other fans actually satisfied the 1,400 threshold.

When a fan with 2,050 points misses out you have to wonder if the threshold was wrong?

In relation to the home game, why not start the seat selling process to season ticket holders from, say, Tuesday? And, do season ticket holders really need eight days to claim their seat? Why not give them until, either the close of business on Friday or Saturday?

Was there really any need to sell the non season ticket holder (circa 3,000) seats yesterday, putting additional strain on the online ticket system?

Surely, it would have been possible to sell these, plus any unclaimed season ticket holder seats, in one go, say, from either Saturday or Monday, after the season ticket holders had had the chance to buy their seats?

I fully appreciate, whatever process is chosen, that it's a huge task which is bound to encounter problems. However, I can't help but feel that the club tried to do too much in one go yesterday and a lot of fans were left frustrated, or disappointed, by the whole process?

OTBC

 

[ZLF]

I agree the need to sell home fans on teh same day seems strange - why not put it back to monday and ease the burden?    Season ticket holders have bought very early increasing the delay - in theory they could have started sales for those on Tuesday staggering the process further.

As far as away fans are concerned the core data item is how many fans have 1400+ points?   If its 3000 ish (or lower) as has been muted that seems a reasonable level for 2100 available tickets;  as not all may be able to attend.    The regular travellers have been rewarded over the general population and given priority, but no guarantee.   I cant see how that is wrong and seem proportionate to me.   Some disappointment is understandable (I am too as a less regular traveller).     

Did away season ticket holders get priority for a ticket - that may be a different issue.

 

[Suffolk Canary]

I tried to ring up this morning to get my season ticket seat ordered for the home leg, and the phone queue was FULL.  It seems really unnecessary to do the home leg at the same time as the away one when its a whole week later. 

 

[Din]

After about 20 minutes of trying I eventually managed to get through and order my ticket for the away leg. Also secured my seat for the home leg as well. The woman at the ticket office who I spoke to though said she can't see there being many tickets left for the away leg if any by the end of today.

 

[GazzaTCC]

As far as away fans are concerned the core data item is how many fans have 1400+ points? If its 3000 ish (or lower) as has been muted that seems a reasonable level for 2100 available tickets....

A couple of other points to bear I'm mind when suggesting that Ipswich have given Norwich 2,100 tickets.

First, the back couple of rows of the upper tier are restricted views, although charged at the same price.

Second, approximately one third of the allocation are actually in the lower tier, which is family enclosure only. Adults can only go in this area if they have a child with them.

I believe that we had virtually sold out the upper tier yesterday with just restricted views and family enclosure tickets remaining.

 

[It's Character Forming]

Defo messed up by our club. Given that Rotherham away sold out at 1400 away points it didn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the biggest game of the season against our main rivals would be in massive demand.

Why not allow applications for this game up to say 4pm Monday but allocate tickets to those with the highest points total first? I think that would've been fairer.

For me, I had my computer stuck in the browser from 10am and never got on the site, the phone queue was full until about 11am when I got into the phone queue at number 79. I finally got through at about 12 and got a ticket with restricted view. At least I'll be there. Pretty sure we sold out the away leg shortly after then.

By then no home tickets were left - later I saw a comment on the pinkun on how to get straight on but too late to do it.

The home leg should IMO have had until say 5pm Tuesday for applications to go in with ST holders getting their seats if they'd applied by then and priority members going in a ballot for the remainder ( and no new priority memberships sold in that period). That would've given plenty of time to sort it out.

All in all a bit of a mess,

 

[TILLY]

It was me with 2050 points and I know of people with 2400, 2500 and 2650 who missed out.

 

[GazzaTCC]

Considering we had 22 away games in 2013-14 and 25 last season, to set the bar at just 8 games out of 47 just seems unbelievably low.

The club needs to give visibility on the number of away season ticket holders and how many actually qualified at the 1,400 threshold.

Somehow, I can't see that happening!

 

[Suffolk Canary]

I'm hearing that the club are now selling adult single tickets in the family section for saturday??   Seen a couple of people of twitter/pink un claiming they've rung up today and managed to get a ticket.  

I've just noticed the requirement has dropped to 1200 points, and guess who has 1200 points   I'm going to be straight on the phone at 9am sharp!