Tickets Colchester Match - Club PR - Tickets selling fast!

[fred binneys head]

I get the safe capacity issue, no problem. What I find amazing is the many, many seats that were empty in the Stanno stand (and the Doble if comments on here are to be believed). There were loads. Which can only be people who bought their tickets and then decided they couldn’t come. I was just surprised by that, nothing against the club, not doubting the attendance given, etc, just surprised so many people didn’t turn up.

 

[denzel]

Like I said before, might it be Season Ticket holders who have gone away for Easter and didn't feel the need to let the club know?
I don't think we need to overthink this, we had a great crowd yesterday and it was a tremendous atmosphere

 

[Grecian Max]

Like I said before, might it be Season Ticket holders who have gone away for Easter and didn't feel the need to let the club know?
I don't think we need to overthink this, we had a great crowd yesterday and it was a tremendous atmosphere

Almost certainly this you’d think

 

[fred binneys head]

Like I said before, might it be Season Ticket holders who have gone away for Easter and didn't feel the need to let the club know?
I don't think we need to overthink this, we had a great crowd yesterday and it was a tremendous atmosphere

You’re right, it doesn’t matter and I’ve probably already mentioned it more than necessary, it just surprised me.

Great day, great atmosphere, great result!

 

[andrew p long]

You’re right, it doesn’t matter and I’ve probably already mentioned it more than necessary, it just surprised me.

Great day, great atmosphere, great result!

Indeed. And its not just season ticket holders not turning up (some away for Easter, as well as others unwell etc). Everyone bought tickets in advance.
I confess that I've not turned up for a game through illness earlier this season having bought an advance ticket (Hartlepool away). When nearly 8,000 people have bought advance tickets it only takes a small % not to attend to leave gaps.

Having said that the pictures were stark. The first images on ifollow were of the Stanno stand and my reaction was 'OMG - why are there so many empty seats?. Craig and others have explained on here about the wheelchair spaces, but I think it will be sensible for the club to give the full explanation because it did look odd.

 

[craigbratt]

Indeed. And its not just season ticket holders not turning up (some away for Easter, as well as others unwell etc). Everyone bought tickets in advance.
I confess that I've not turned up for a game through illness earlier this season having bought an advance ticket (Hartlepool away). When nearly 8,000 people have bought advance tickets it only takes a small % not to attend to leave gaps.

Having said that the pictures were stark. The first images on ifollow were of the Stanno stand and my reaction was 'OMG - why are there so many empty seats?. Craig and others have explained on here about the wheelchair spaces, but I think it will be sensible for the club to give the full explanation because it did look odd.

Let me see if I can help answer some of the confusion here from what I know:

IP Office: The large section of empty seats next to the Colchester fans segregation were unable to be sold because they had no direct aisle access (segregation net one side and press box on the other) so we were only able to have the first few rows in front of the press box open in this block. Any odd empty seats in other blocks of the IP could be for a number of reasons.

Stagecoach: From the two photos attached (One from PPA and one I took myself at kick off from the press box) I wouldn't say there were 'loads" of empty seats, perhaps 15-20, and for those that were, I'm sure there are reasons. As I've said in an earlier post, those at the front aren't actually seats as they cater for wheelchair users, but I appreciate it can look like it from other areas of SJP, while the others may well be absent season ticket holders, may have Covid, may be on holiday... could be anything, same for the IP.

In our comms over the past couple of weeks we had asked any supporters unable to make it to return their tickets to the ticket office to be re-sold legitimately, but to my knowledge (that doesn't mean it didn't happen!), I'm not aware of too many returns, hence why it continued to be a complete sell out on our system.

As much as we wish we could make absolutely every single ticket holder turn up, of course that is unrealistic. Added with a small away crowd from Colchester, hopefully that explains why the attendance was lower than some people expected

Anyway, UTC.

 

[Spoonz Red E]

To add to Craig's comments I can say that after every home match there are tickets in our collections box that, although ordered and ready to collect, have not been used.
This can be for a variety of reasons - illness, holidays etc.

If we are aware in advance that paid for tickets are not going to be used we do return them to the system to make them available. Yesterday I was able to sell a number of such seats from the ticket booth.

There were a fair few uncollected tickets yesterday so these would have been empty seats but there was nothing we could do about that while the tickets are there waiting to be collected.

 

[iscalad]

To add to Craig's comments I can say that after every home match there are tickets in our collections box that, although ordered and ready to collect, have not been used.
This can be for a variety of reasons - illness, holidays etc.

If we are aware in advance that paid for tickets are not going to be used we do return them to the system to make them available. Yesterday I was able to sell a number of such seats from the ticket booth.

There were a fair few uncollected tickets yesterday so these would have been empty seats but there was nothing we could do about that while the tickets are there waiting to be collected.

Daft question of the day, but...
Is the attendance counted by tickets sold or tickets scanned through the turnstiles?

 

[DawlishBouy]

Daft question of the day, but...
Is the attendance counted by tickets sold or tickets scanned through the turnstiles?

If your club is honest it’s the number of people who actually attend the game. If you’re dishonest like most clubs in the Prem & the WSL it’s tickets sold.

 

[iscalad]

If your club is honest it’s the number of people who actually attend the game. If you’re dishonest like most clubs in the Prem & the WSL it’s tickets sold.

I don't care about any other club, just Exeter.
Why is tickets sold dishonest?