The mancityfans.net football forum

Empty Seats

I want to know who is buying the seats and not attending, we have had sell out games and when you look around there are 100's of seats empty.
It can't be that people are just not turning up as there are large numbers of empty seats, some groups of seats but the club are putting up the SOLD OUT signs?

I dont know if the club links with Viagogo are partially to blame for this as I have not met anyone yet that uses Viagogo because of the rip off prices.

Something fishy is going on.

Is it possible the club are 'buying' them up when they know there are gonna be spares so that they can add to the revenue?

I know of a couple of people that have not been able to get tickets because of a sell out but when I looked around there were loads empty seats. (100's)

It's the same at the rags and arsenil, for example. I think it has something to do with the gentrification of football. It's becoming something that people choose 'to do' or not to do at the weekends, whereby they have the convenience of a season-card but not the inconvenience of missing out on something more exciting or simply missing a game if they just don't fancy watching Leicester at home. It goes hand-in-hand with increasing prices and a decreasing lack of passion in the stands.

The club need to break the ties with Viagogo and find a way to buy back/sell on seats ASAP.

I've got two tickets for kids in the family stand and they never attend night games unless it's the holidays. I can pass them onto a friend who then has to up them to an adult, but if they can't make it, the seats are usually empty. I asked this season about Viagogo, but it's still £50 (half the cost of the season ticket) and you can't just do a kid's ticket, I'd have to sell mine as well. I'd happily give them back to the club for free, or give me some of these weird new points, but let them have the issue of selling them on.

Another seat was empty for most of the Christmas games due to illness, but it was often a late decision to not go. Again, I'd happily have gone online, released the seat for that game and let the club sell it to someone else on the day.

I have to confess that due to ill health I have been unable to attend the last four games on my season card so my seat was empty , I have now sold my seat back to the club so hopefully it will be used for the rest of the season.

I've had a ST for donkeys years, but have missed loads of games this season due to personal circumstances. TBH, that's my business, just as much as it's all the early leavers business when they arrive ten minutes in, leave on 38 minutes, return on 55 minutes then leave again on 80.
I would love to make my seat available if I can't get tthere, but there's no way apart from viaripoff, which is a waste of time.
I certainly don't feel guilty about it though, especially as it's only rag pundits who take any notice.
BTW, Bear, I hope things are looking up mate, I didn't see your off topic thread till ages after the event.

I have no direct evidence but I feel as if Viagogo must be at least part of the problem. Another thing could be touts. I used to know a geezer who worked for a travel company, & he had 100s of rag season tickets. When a big mob came over from somewhere like Norway, they would buy a package trip & be given a seasonticket to get in, rather than a match ticket, then they returned it after the game.

It could be that since we became successful, travel companies/ touts have bought up a load of season tickets but the demand is not high enough to always sell them all to foreign fans/tourists. If they sell about 30% of games they have probably paid for the season ticket just by overcharging for that, before they even add the travel charges.

Wonderwall wrote:I dont know if the club links with Viagogo are partially to blame for this as I have not met anyone yet that uses Viagogo because of the rip off prices.

I have used Viagogo many times to sell my seat when I couldn't attend games, thus ensuring that my seat is taken.

I think they are more likely to be part of the solution than the problem.

I think Ted is on to something regarding touts.
I had a job interview with a travel company specialised in sports travels a few years back, and actually asked how they could guarantee tickets to high profile matches like the Manchester derby, and got told that they relied on "contacts" who were touting season tickets.

I don think the club is aware of this, though, but chooses to turn a blind eye at it. Tourists are the way forward (don't shoot the messenger).

King Kev wrote:

Wonderwall wrote:I dont know if the club links with Viagogo are partially to blame for this as I have not met anyone yet that uses Viagogo because of the rip off prices.

I have used Viagogo many times to sell my seat when I couldn't attend games, thus ensuring that my seat is taken.

I think they are more likely to be part of the solution than the problem.

I dont think its individuals that are the issue thought mate, its the large blocks given to Viagogo and they done sell them

mr_nool wrote:I think Ted is on to something regarding touts.
I had a job interview with a travel company specialised in sports travels a few years back, and actually asked how they could guarantee tickets to high profile matches like the Manchester derby, and got told that they relied on "contacts" who were touting season tickets.

I don think the club is aware of this, though, but chooses to turn a blind eye at it. Tourists are the way forward (don't shoot the messenger).

I think there are many thousands of rag season tickets which are never ever used by the people whos name are on them. There used to be loads who were actually dead, but still renewing every year. I think they had some kind of 'amnesty' for that.

Ted Hughes wrote:

mr_nool wrote:I think Ted is on to something regarding touts.
I had a job interview with a travel company specialised in sports travels a few years back, and actually asked how they could guarantee tickets to high profile matches like the Manchester derby, and got told that they relied on "contacts" who were touting season tickets.

I don think the club is aware of this, though, but chooses to turn a blind eye at it. Tourists are the way forward (don't shoot the messenger).

I think there are many thousands of rag season tickets which are never ever used by the people whos name are on them. There used to be loads who were actually dead, but still renewing every year. I think they had some kind of 'amnesty' for that.

thats right they did hold an amnesty, the only people who came forward were rags who still had their long since died family members season ticket and the club agreed to give it back to them in their own name if they could prove they were related to the original holder.

My mate and his two brothers used to buy their season tickets from some fella who has 11 of them. He charged 100 over the odds for each season ticket and they had seats right at the back in the gods.

Wonderwall wrote:

King Kev wrote:

Wonderwall wrote:I dont know if the club links with Viagogo are partially to blame for this as I have not met anyone yet that uses Viagogo because of the rip off prices.

I have used Viagogo many times to sell my seat when I couldn't attend games, thus ensuring that my seat is taken.

I think they are more likely to be part of the solution than the problem.

I dont think its individuals that are the issue thought mate, its the large blocks given to Viagogo and they done sell them

My understanding is that they have a contractual entitlement to around 500 tickets per game, so if they are dotted around the ground, they aren't the sole cause of the problem. Still think it's shocking that the club actually reserve tickets for legal touting, but that's a row for another day.

I expect Ted's right about agencies who will have picked up many pairs/4s of season tickets right when we were looking to have hit the big time, although having said that, there's every chance from my understanding of Viagogo's practices, that they own many more tickets than City know about! I remember watching a program about them a while back where many of the staff in their office had season tickets in their name for god knows how many top clubs.

Wonderwall wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

mr_nool wrote:I think Ted is on to something regarding touts.
I had a job interview with a travel company specialised in sports travels a few years back, and actually asked how they could guarantee tickets to high profile matches like the Manchester derby, and got told that they relied on "contacts" who were touting season tickets.

I don think the club is aware of this, though, but chooses to turn a blind eye at it. Tourists are the way forward (don't shoot the messenger).

I think there are many thousands of rag season tickets which are never ever used by the people whos name are on them. There used to be loads who were actually dead, but still renewing every year. I think they had some kind of 'amnesty' for that.

thats right they did hold an amnesty, the only people who came forward were rags who still had their long since died family members season ticket and the club agreed to give it back to them in their own name if they could prove they were related to the original holder.

My mate and his two brothers used to buy their season tickets from some fella who has 11 of them. He charged 100 over the odds for each season ticket and they had seats right at the back in the gods.

If you look at any rags game on tv, there are loads of people in prime seats who are quite obviously football tourists, with all the gear on, taking pictures of everything. At one time you could actually try to figure out where the different nationalities, ethnic groups would be, before the game.

On the right hand side for example, to the right of the goal (now a disabled area possibly) there used to always be a different gang of (often pissed looking) Irish geezers (probably tickets owned by a travel company there). I used to try & spot Norwegians (they always look a bit confused & are often certain facial types ) & there were always pockets of them in certain areas. Probably still are.

A lot of these will be season ticket seats. Nowardays, you see folks from South Korea etc, smack bang in the middle of the lower tiers at City. I doubt all of those seats are available for the general public to buy.

Ted Hughes wrote:
If you look at any rags game on tv, there are loads of people in prime seats who are quite obviously football tourists, with all the gear on, taking pictures of everything. At one time you could actually try to figure out where the different nationalities, ethnic groups would be, before the game.

On the right hand side for example, to the right of the goal (now a disabled area possibly) there used to always be a different gang of (often pissed looking) Irish geezers (probably tickets owned by a travel company there). I used to try & spot Norwegians (they always look a bit confused & are often certain facial types ) & there were always pockets of them in certain areas. Probably still are.

A lot of these will be season ticket seats. Nowardays, you see folks from South Korea etc, smack bang in the middle of the lower tiers at City. I doubt all of those seats are available for the general public to buy.

With regards to the Irish thing, my missus is a liverpool fan and goes to almost every game on a ticket by ticket basis, however, she missed out on Arsenal tickets. The club advertised it as sold out, but over in Ireland you could still get them via Thomas Cook! She has a friend over there who offered to get it for her. Its all rather silly when real fans are missing out due to greedy companies

Wonderwall wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:
If you look at any rags game on tv, there are loads of people in prime seats who are quite obviously football tourists, with all the gear on, taking pictures of everything. At one time you could actually try to figure out where the different nationalities, ethnic groups would be, before the game.

On the right hand side for example, to the right of the goal (now a disabled area possibly) there used to always be a different gang of (often pissed looking) Irish geezers (probably tickets owned by a travel company there). I used to try & spot Norwegians (they always look a bit confused & are often certain facial types ) & there were always pockets of them in certain areas. Probably still are.

A lot of these will be season ticket seats. Nowardays, you see folks from South Korea etc, smack bang in the middle of the lower tiers at City. I doubt all of those seats are available for the general public to buy.

With regards to the Irish thing, my missus is a liverpool fan and goes to almost every game on a ticket by ticket basis, however, she missed out on Arsenal tickets. The club advertised it as sold out, but over in Ireland you could still get them via Thomas Cook! She has a friend over there who offered to get it for her. Its all rather silly when real fans are missing out due to greedy companies

As regards season tickets.

If you bought one for say 700 quid. Then you sold a couple of package deals to an overseas fan for games v rags, Liverpool, you could have almost already paid for the season ticket out of the profits for two games. Then you can buy a ticket for the Barca game etc for each season ticket you own, & flog that as part of a package.

If the seat doesn't get used for 5-6 games per season, it doesn't matter. You're already quids in.

Bear60 wrote:I have to confess that due to ill health I have been unable to attend the last four games on my season card so my seat was empty , I have now sold my seat back to the club so hopefully it will be used for the rest of the season.

Sending positive thoughts for the future.

Rag season season ticket holders being told buy a ticket for the FA Cup replay against Cambridge or be suspended for the next home League match against Sunderland. Some waving two fingers and saying they'll miss both.

blues2win wrote:Rag season season ticket holders being told buy a ticket for the FA Cup replay against Cambridge or be suspended for the next home League match against Sunderland. Some waving two fingers and saying they'll miss both.

That's standard for their cup games, I remember finding out about it a season or two ago. Threatening their fanbase just so they can pad out their cup attendances.