Heavy demand for Chelsea? 10:39 - Nov 25 with 3162 views | SuffolkPunchFC | The ticketing site seemed very under pressure this morning. Guess there must have been very high demand. It took me 12 minutes to even get into the waiting room this morning, with the game at first still showing as coming soon. Then when in I experienced : * ticketing sever under maintenance * server unavailable (500 error - so signs of it crashing) * tickets in the basket then coming up has being ‘unexpectidly removed’ * overall running very slowly, and not very responsive Would be fascinated to know what the potential demand for this Xmas fixate was 🙂 |  | | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:41 - Nov 25 with 2798 views | swede | Same here, but kept refreshing and finally managed to get one single in SAR Upper. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:43 - Nov 25 with 2781 views | SitfcB | Fixtures around Christmas are always in high demand, let alone this year! Big queue down at PR this morning aswell from 8am. |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:45 - Nov 25 with 2755 views | tractorshark | Yep terrible this morning. I was about 2200 in the queue, got through, got two restricted view tickets in the basket. Went to check out and the website crashed. When I got back in, it said the tickets as they had been unexpectedly removed. Wasn't after 20 mins or anything, just think the website had a meltdown. So now I'll miss a game which I'm gutted about but I do have tickets for Arsenal. Ironically, as a regularly attending non-season ticket holder, it's now harder for me to get a home ticket than it is to get an away ticket. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:50 - Nov 25 with 2699 views | ParisBlue |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:45 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | Yep terrible this morning. I was about 2200 in the queue, got through, got two restricted view tickets in the basket. Went to check out and the website crashed. When I got back in, it said the tickets as they had been unexpectedly removed. Wasn't after 20 mins or anything, just think the website had a meltdown. So now I'll miss a game which I'm gutted about but I do have tickets for Arsenal. Ironically, as a regularly attending non-season ticket holder, it's now harder for me to get a home ticket than it is to get an away ticket. |
Was #600 in the queue with a 2 minute wait, but multiple payment attempts all failed. So after all that no ticket.... |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 with 2691 views | jungleboy |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:45 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | Yep terrible this morning. I was about 2200 in the queue, got through, got two restricted view tickets in the basket. Went to check out and the website crashed. When I got back in, it said the tickets as they had been unexpectedly removed. Wasn't after 20 mins or anything, just think the website had a meltdown. So now I'll miss a game which I'm gutted about but I do have tickets for Arsenal. Ironically, as a regularly attending non-season ticket holder, it's now harder for me to get a home ticket than it is to get an away ticket. |
So many Chelsea fans have signed up to be Members for one match! This is the reason for the debacle with the tickets and website this morning. there were also many Man U fans in our seats yesterday. The Club should change the system and give priority to Town fans who have a record of going to many games. Otherwise this is just a farce. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 with 2676 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:50 - Nov 25 by ParisBlue | Was #600 in the queue with a 2 minute wait, but multiple payment attempts all failed. So after all that no ticket.... |
Ah yes, I forget to mention that - I had multiple payment attempts fail too. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:56 - Nov 25 with 2651 views | SitfcB |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 by jungleboy | So many Chelsea fans have signed up to be Members for one match! This is the reason for the debacle with the tickets and website this morning. there were also many Man U fans in our seats yesterday. The Club should change the system and give priority to Town fans who have a record of going to many games. Otherwise this is just a farce. |
Club making a lot of 40 quids then! |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:01 - Nov 25 with 2607 views | Chris_ITFC |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 by jungleboy | So many Chelsea fans have signed up to be Members for one match! This is the reason for the debacle with the tickets and website this morning. there were also many Man U fans in our seats yesterday. The Club should change the system and give priority to Town fans who have a record of going to many games. Otherwise this is just a farce. |
How do you know that, out of curiosity? |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:02 - Nov 25 with 2595 views | tractorshark |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 by jungleboy | So many Chelsea fans have signed up to be Members for one match! This is the reason for the debacle with the tickets and website this morning. there were also many Man U fans in our seats yesterday. The Club should change the system and give priority to Town fans who have a record of going to many games. Otherwise this is just a farce. |
But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well. Don't get me wrong there were clearly United fans among us yesterday but you'll always get that. There's nothing to stop a company buying a season ticket over the years and giving it to clients and friends as they see fit. I don't like it but you can't prevent it. Personally, I think the club set the bar too low for home matches when they required just one match attendance last season. I think it should have been 3, 4 or 5 like the Huddersfield match. However, they have rewarded loyalty for away supporters, so I suppose their thinking is they can't have a completely closed shop for home matches. If they redevelop the Cobbold, there won't be any seats for non-season ticket holders. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:05 - Nov 25 with 2543 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:02 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well. Don't get me wrong there were clearly United fans among us yesterday but you'll always get that. There's nothing to stop a company buying a season ticket over the years and giving it to clients and friends as they see fit. I don't like it but you can't prevent it. Personally, I think the club set the bar too low for home matches when they required just one match attendance last season. I think it should have been 3, 4 or 5 like the Huddersfield match. However, they have rewarded loyalty for away supporters, so I suppose their thinking is they can't have a completely closed shop for home matches. If they redevelop the Cobbold, there won't be any seats for non-season ticket holders. |
No, they wouldn’t have. The one game threshold is for the ballot only, when the sale window opens for members it doesn’t matter if you’ve been to 20 or 0 games |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:06 - Nov 25 with 2539 views | SitfcB |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:02 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well. Don't get me wrong there were clearly United fans among us yesterday but you'll always get that. There's nothing to stop a company buying a season ticket over the years and giving it to clients and friends as they see fit. I don't like it but you can't prevent it. Personally, I think the club set the bar too low for home matches when they required just one match attendance last season. I think it should have been 3, 4 or 5 like the Huddersfield match. However, they have rewarded loyalty for away supporters, so I suppose their thinking is they can't have a completely closed shop for home matches. If they redevelop the Cobbold, there won't be any seats for non-season ticket holders. |
Nope, the attended one game thing is just to enter the ballot. The next stage is all members who aren’t season ticket holders. |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:08 - Nov 25 with 2519 views | ParisBlue |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 10:52 - Nov 25 by jungleboy | So many Chelsea fans have signed up to be Members for one match! This is the reason for the debacle with the tickets and website this morning. there were also many Man U fans in our seats yesterday. The Club should change the system and give priority to Town fans who have a record of going to many games. Otherwise this is just a farce. |
I have an email exchange with the ticket office from last summer which basically says they no interest in having a priority system for home games based on attendance history, instead they want to encourage people who have never previous attended to enjoy the experience. (Heavily influenced by the £40 membership no doubt) |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:08 - Nov 25 with 2505 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:02 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well. Don't get me wrong there were clearly United fans among us yesterday but you'll always get that. There's nothing to stop a company buying a season ticket over the years and giving it to clients and friends as they see fit. I don't like it but you can't prevent it. Personally, I think the club set the bar too low for home matches when they required just one match attendance last season. I think it should have been 3, 4 or 5 like the Huddersfield match. However, they have rewarded loyalty for away supporters, so I suppose their thinking is they can't have a completely closed shop for home matches. If they redevelop the Cobbold, there won't be any seats for non-season ticket holders. |
"But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well." I'm pretty certain that is not correct. You just need to be a member this year to be able to enter the ticket 'lottery'. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:10 - Nov 25 with 2462 views | ParisBlue |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:06 - Nov 25 by SitfcB | Nope, the attended one game thing is just to enter the ballot. The next stage is all members who aren’t season ticket holders. |
But have purchased a £40 membership, being the crux of it. |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:12 - Nov 25 with 2433 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:08 - Nov 25 by ParisBlue | I have an email exchange with the ticket office from last summer which basically says they no interest in having a priority system for home games based on attendance history, instead they want to encourage people who have never previous attended to enjoy the experience. (Heavily influenced by the £40 membership no doubt) |
It’s almost like the membership/priority scheme isn’t really aimed at rewarding loyalty but selling as many memberships as possible On that note I am fully expecting some tweaks to the system for away games next year, which is likely to cause some angst [Post edited 25 Nov 2024 11:14]
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:30 - Nov 25 with 2279 views | tractorshark |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:06 - Nov 25 by SitfcB | Nope, the attended one game thing is just to enter the ballot. The next stage is all members who aren’t season ticket holders. |
thanks, I stand corrected. In which case the home bar was set way too low then and it probably explains why we had two United fans next to us yesterday. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:40 - Nov 25 with 2217 views | tractorshark |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:12 - Nov 25 by C_HealyIsAPleasure | It’s almost like the membership/priority scheme isn’t really aimed at rewarding loyalty but selling as many memberships as possible On that note I am fully expecting some tweaks to the system for away games next year, which is likely to cause some angst [Post edited 25 Nov 2024 11:14]
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thanks for clarifying the other point. I genuinely didn't know that. But that does make the bar very low for home matches and it also encourages away fans to infiltrate the home end unless they have something in place to monitor previous purchases, which we've seen in League One with teams like Wimbledon. On the away games, I am not sure how they tweak that without causing an absolute s**tstorm. Maybe they could slightly raise the ballot allocation but that is very unfair on those who have travelled up and down the country last season and this season. Maybe they could take the extra ballot tickets out of the official club allocation for staff etc!!! People go on about how they went to Accrington or Bristol Rovers but the reality is they could have gone to Preston, Blackburn etc last season. And if we go down, they'll have that same opportunity again and still probably won't go. It's not about away day availability, they just want to go to United, Arsenal, Tottenham etc. Pretty much every Prem club operates with a closed shop for away fans. It may not be ideal but it's inevitable given the demand. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:52 - Nov 25 with 2130 views | Dennyx4 |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:40 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | thanks for clarifying the other point. I genuinely didn't know that. But that does make the bar very low for home matches and it also encourages away fans to infiltrate the home end unless they have something in place to monitor previous purchases, which we've seen in League One with teams like Wimbledon. On the away games, I am not sure how they tweak that without causing an absolute s**tstorm. Maybe they could slightly raise the ballot allocation but that is very unfair on those who have travelled up and down the country last season and this season. Maybe they could take the extra ballot tickets out of the official club allocation for staff etc!!! People go on about how they went to Accrington or Bristol Rovers but the reality is they could have gone to Preston, Blackburn etc last season. And if we go down, they'll have that same opportunity again and still probably won't go. It's not about away day availability, they just want to go to United, Arsenal, Tottenham etc. Pretty much every Prem club operates with a closed shop for away fans. It may not be ideal but it's inevitable given the demand. |
I think the away system is fair, but do think they could have a larger ballot allocation. Season ticket holders buying memberships may not get any benefit for the membership purchase, which may be a reason for the club looking at a slight tweak. The 2% ballot is a token gesture, which doesn’t really serve any purpose. Would probably be better at either 10% or 0%. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:53 - Nov 25 with 2120 views | Earls_Jeans | Yep the site was a car crash this morning. I had the same experience as the OP of having secured tickets, assigned them to members and then payment failing and them being 'unexpectedly removed'. I get that demand was high but that is what the queue is for as it takes pressure off the website by filtering people through in small batches. Frustrating that as it couldn't handle a few hundred people online at a time, that tickets ended up being snapped up by those further back in the queue due to system failures - especially if some are Chelsea fans! |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:55 - Nov 25 with 2100 views | ParisBlue |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:40 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | thanks for clarifying the other point. I genuinely didn't know that. But that does make the bar very low for home matches and it also encourages away fans to infiltrate the home end unless they have something in place to monitor previous purchases, which we've seen in League One with teams like Wimbledon. On the away games, I am not sure how they tweak that without causing an absolute s**tstorm. Maybe they could slightly raise the ballot allocation but that is very unfair on those who have travelled up and down the country last season and this season. Maybe they could take the extra ballot tickets out of the official club allocation for staff etc!!! People go on about how they went to Accrington or Bristol Rovers but the reality is they could have gone to Preston, Blackburn etc last season. And if we go down, they'll have that same opportunity again and still probably won't go. It's not about away day availability, they just want to go to United, Arsenal, Tottenham etc. Pretty much every Prem club operates with a closed shop for away fans. It may not be ideal but it's inevitable given the demand. |
Agreed, but with that knowledge we had the opportunity to do so much better. For home tickets most clubs implement tiers of priority based on attendance. We dont, we followed a model designed to maximise memberships, similar to Newcastle (and I've not seen anything positive about their scheme) I'm sure the away scheme will be tweaked. If you're a season ticket holder with 14 points it's a waste of money. I imagine some sort of "guaranteed one ticket a year" gets implemented. The exciting bit is that once 23/24 points are wiped, we'll have 3000 split between 25+ and 30+. And nothing else. A bit of foresight could have avoided this and made it good. |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:56 - Nov 25 with 2090 views | Dennyx4 |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:02 - Nov 25 by tractorshark | But those Chelsea fans would have had to have gone to one game last season as well. Don't get me wrong there were clearly United fans among us yesterday but you'll always get that. There's nothing to stop a company buying a season ticket over the years and giving it to clients and friends as they see fit. I don't like it but you can't prevent it. Personally, I think the club set the bar too low for home matches when they required just one match attendance last season. I think it should have been 3, 4 or 5 like the Huddersfield match. However, they have rewarded loyalty for away supporters, so I suppose their thinking is they can't have a completely closed shop for home matches. If they redevelop the Cobbold, there won't be any seats for non-season ticket holders. |
Re The Cobbold stand, this is why Ashton has said, he is looking at increasing the West stand before doing the Cobbold. Wants to get an extra 4000 to accommodate the Ipswich fans from the Cobbold, albeit no timescale for that . |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 12:34 - Nov 25 with 1952 views | tractorshark | But playing devil’s advocate, why should season ticket holders get any extra away priority? I’m not a season ticket holder. I live in Sussex, I’ve followed Ipswich probably equally home and away for 30 years but it wasn’t financially or logistically viable to become a season ticket holder in the past as I could never commit to 75% or so of home games a season. And until now there was no reason to as tickets were readily available. Now I can’t become a season ticket holder even if I wanted to. But I have gone to pretty much every home and away game this season with my youngest son and my financial outlay at the end of the season for 14-15 home matches will probably exceed that spent by a season ticket holder. Then you factor in we’ve been to every away game apart from Brentford. People tell me season ticket holders have invested in the club and that’s correct. But so have loyal members like myself. If I’m not owed anything, then neither are season ticket holders. You pay your membership to guarantee access for tickets both home and away. Season ticket holders have always had the option to go to away matches (and with extra priority in the queue) but those aggrieved at not getting away tickets now, clearly weren’t too worried about going to away games last season. I don’t know how many season ticket holders don’t go to away games now but if you guarantee all 21,000 of them one away game as part of their membership, you eat up 7 away allocations which would be ridiculously unfair. And we all know which games they’d fancy…United, Arsenal, Spurs etc. Increasing the ballot to maybe 5% would be the only route I would consider. And maybe only for those games not against the big six so you can judge who genuinely wants to go to a Wolves and who just fancies a big day out. The membership system isn’t perfect, it doesn’t favour my eldest son for instance, but you’ll never please everyone and most people advocating change just want something that suits them better. At least right now, it’s fair even if not everyone agrees with it. |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 12:41 - Nov 25 with 1908 views | Chris_ITFC | Easy way to fix the Chelsea fans problem is to say “Must have been a member on X date, i.e. the start of the season / a few months in advance of the game”. Plenty of clubs do this and it all but stops that opportunism. |  |
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Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 13:38 - Nov 25 with 1765 views | Vaughan8 |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 12:41 - Nov 25 by Chris_ITFC | Easy way to fix the Chelsea fans problem is to say “Must have been a member on X date, i.e. the start of the season / a few months in advance of the game”. Plenty of clubs do this and it all but stops that opportunism. |
You're right and i'm sure it wouldn't have been a too difficult task. The club have clearly sold as many memberships as they can due to the fact this is the only way to actually have a chance for a ticket. I don't blame them, maximise the revenue and all that, but all these £40s is not thing on the premier league money. I'll have to try for a "lesser" games as i've only got tickets for Everton game so far (1/7 so far) |  | |  |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 20:16 - Nov 25 with 1487 views | andytown |
Heavy demand for Chelsea? on 11:53 - Nov 25 by Earls_Jeans | Yep the site was a car crash this morning. I had the same experience as the OP of having secured tickets, assigned them to members and then payment failing and them being 'unexpectedly removed'. I get that demand was high but that is what the queue is for as it takes pressure off the website by filtering people through in small batches. Frustrating that as it couldn't handle a few hundred people online at a time, that tickets ended up being snapped up by those further back in the queue due to system failures - especially if some are Chelsea fans! |
I’d like to know how, regardless of demand, tickets which have been selected and put in the basket can then be unexpectedly removed. Surely, once they are in the basket they should be there until any time out occurs. I’d question the provider which runs the ticket website; they get a lot of booking fees from the supporters, so how the hell did this happen? If anyone has any insight which might help me understand, I’d appreciate knowing. I’m really quite angry and upset by this today. |  | |  |
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