6,000 Empty Seats a game

[Theoperator]

The 6,000 are those that arrive late surely

[Top Londoner]

And tomorrow the attendance will be announced as 60,000

Given at half time as 59,962.

Did I hear right? Last season there were 170,000 empty seats at the Emirates?
Heard it on the wireless.





WENGER OUT

[Theoperator]

Im incandescent at this, and must apologise to NB123 at comments I made last season about this . I really thought that attendance was people actually clocking in through the turnstiles. How naive is that?

Would be good to see the PL take a stance on this one, no hope at all, but attendance is those who attend is it not, not those who cant get there for whatever reason, lost on the tube, stuck in Starbucks, watching Natalie on TV or stuck in the loo in the rocket

Wasnt there a time when there was a sort of "reserve" queue for seats that were available at the last minute, people can turn up on the off chance.

Dare I ask if any of the supporters groups have kicked up a fuss at this con

[nut flush gooner]

This is an easy one to resolve, and it was muted last year after the fa cup final ballot farce that attendance to home games would count towards eligibility for big games.

The no shows who would be at the back of the queue, would either then make sure their seat is filled every game or not bother renewing.

[Gunner Rob]

I dont know why suddenly the big deal - it has surely been obvious for some time about this.
basically there are loads of stupid ST holders who are quite happy to spend £1K + for their ticket but then only attend a handful of games.

there are 3 things that are annoying for me

1. with the electronic membership card it can easily be seen who is attending and who is not - and so it can easily be put a stop to if the club wanted to
2. that the club do nothing to stop this and seem to be happy to let people pay their money but not turn up
3. it wouldnt be so bad if all these tickets were at the back of the upper tier but they are not - as a red member I increasingly have to pay for more expensive upper tier tickets whilst there are dozens or cheaper lower tier tickets available below me!!!

[Theoperator]

Attendance =those who attend, thats the annoyance, the club are (Allegedly I add) fraudulently claiming more attend than they do.

Last year my daughter was ill and couldnt go at the last minute- I phoned the ticket office and they didnt seem to be interested- so there was a space in the Junoiur Gunners enclosure behind the goal.

Someone would have been happy to sit there surely (as long as they were the right age )

[Gunner Rob]

Attendance =those who attend, thats the annoyance, the club are (Allegedly I add) fraudulently claiming more attend than they do.

Last year my daughter was ill and couldnt go at the last minute- I phoned the ticket office and they didnt seem to be interested- so there was a space in the Junoiur Gunners enclosure behind the goal.

Someone would have been happy to sit there surely (as long as they were the right age )

no because you had already paid for the ticket - that is all that the club are interested in.
the only way to take on the club over this is for everyone to not renew their season tickets - continue to go to the games but DO NOT pay in advance. you will be amazed how the attitude of the club will then change.

[augie]

Let me play devils advocate on this -

A season ticket holder can't attend a game of which he paid big money for - in seasons past this guy/woman would have sold/rented/load the ticket to a friend or a friend of a friend but now the club have introduced a system that can result in you losing your st if caught out doing this. Would you understand why a person would be less inclined to pass on their ticket that way now ?
The only other option a person has is if they sell their ticket back through ticket exchange - personally I don't like this system because (a) you can only use it if the game is a sell out and (b) the club takes a % of the price of my ticket for the "service" This is a club that has already charged a kings ransom for the ticket and now they feel that it is of for them to charge me for re-selling it and charge you a fee when you purchase it This is fcuking outrageous imo and would certainly deter me from using ticket exchange.

I believe that it would benefit the supporters more if the club investigated the use of the freebie tickets that they hand out - I continually refer back to the 2nd home game at the grove (against boro I think) where myself and the wife stayed in a hotel in London where the porter (consierge or whatever they call them nowadays ) knew a guy that sells tickets to home games. On an impulse myself and the wife decided we would buy two tickets even though they cost £150 EACH but it wasn't the cost that pissed me off as much as the fact that the tickets had printed on them that they had a zero value and were freebies Basically not alone are these tickets ending up with touts who are making a fortune out of them, but also they are tickets which should be sold to proper fans which would please fans who currently have limited access to them and that should piss fans off more than the fact that fans who pay a fortune for their tickets sometimes don't utilise them

[northbank123]

When you say it would "deter" you from using ticket exchange Augie, are you actually suggesting you would rather the seat go unfilled than salvage 90% of the cost (or whatever)?

Also how do they propose to catch out people who lend their season tickets to somebody else and how long has this been in place?

[nut flush gooner]

Let me play devils advocate on this -

A season ticket holder can't attend a game of which he paid big money for - in seasons past this guy/woman would have sold/rented/load the ticket to a friend or a friend of a friend but now the club have introduced a system that can result in you losing your st if caught out doing this. Would you understand why a person would be less inclined to pass on their ticket that way now ?
The only other option a person has is if they sell their ticket back through ticket exchange - personally I don't like this system because (a) you can only use it if the game is a sell out and (b) the club takes a % of the price of my ticket for the "service" This is a club that has already charged a kings ransom for the ticket and now they feel that it is of for them to charge me for re-selling it and charge you a fee when you purchase it This is fcuking outrageous imo and would certainly deter me from using ticket exchange.

I believe that it would benefit the supporters more if the club investigated the use of the freebie tickets that they hand out - I continually refer back to the 2nd home game at the grove (against boro I think) where myself and the wife stayed in a hotel in London where the porter (consierge or whatever they call them nowadays ) knew a guy that sells tickets to home games. On an impulse myself and the wife decided we would buy two tickets even though they cost £150 EACH but it wasn't the cost that pissed me off as much as the fact that the tickets had printed on them that they had a zero value and were freebies Basically not alone are these tickets ending up with touts who are making a fortune out of them, but also they are tickets which should be sold to proper fans which would please fans who currently have limited access to them and that should piss fans off more than the fact that fans who pay a fortune for their tickets sometimes don't utilise them

This still happens all the time, people share their season tickets with other fans its a fact of life. Only if you are blatant about it will you get pulled up.

[Theoperator]

When you say it would "deter" you from using ticket exchange Augie, are you actually suggesting you would rather the seat go unfilled than salvage 90% of the cost (or whatever)?

Yes yes he is, postmasters must be on an equivalent wage to nearly recruited posties in Auxerre

[northbank123]

When you say it would "deter" you from using ticket exchange Augie, are you actually suggesting you would rather the seat go unfilled than salvage 90% of the cost (or whatever)?

Yes yes he is, postmasters must be on an equivalent wage to nearly recruited posties in Auxerre

[TheCook]

For those asking 'why the fuss now?', I believe this info was as a result of a freedom of information request to the Met, hence the meat on the bones now, instead of just actual visual comment based on how many empty seats we see weekly.

The fact is that the ticketing software is not fit for purpose ; stadium management know exactly how many people have entered via a turnstile, but there is no record of which membership cards and therefore which seat have been activated to gain entrance.

The BSM have been all over this one, as they have a couple of ticketing & events pros in their midst, but Arsenal just don't seem interested as it is a couple hundred grand to upgrade, and of course their attitude is that they have already been paid for the ticket so what do they care?

[nut flush gooner]

For those asking 'why the fuss now?', I believe this info was as a result of a freedom of information request to the Met, hence the meat on the bones now, instead of just actual visual comment based on how many empty seats we see weekly.

The fact is that the ticketing software is not fit for purpose ; stadium management know exactly how many people have entered via a turnstile, but there is no record of which membership cards and therefore which seat have been activated to gain entrance.

The BSM have been all over this one, as they have a couple of ticketing & events pros in their midst, but Arsenal just don't seem interested as it is a couple hundred grand to upgrade, and of course their attitude is that they have already been paid for the ticket so what do they care?

If that's the case why are the club going to be looking at home attendance for future cup finals then? I doubt very much that a state of the art stadium such as the emirates could not keep a record of who has and hasn't entered the stadium and their specific seat. That would be a key indicator if it kicked off in the stadium and the police got involved, it would all form part of the overall evidence imo.