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No More Tickets for Villa Cup Tie
Wednesday, 19th Dec 2012 12:42

Town will not be given any further tickets for the FA Cup third round tie at Aston Villa on Saturday 5th January. The Blues sold out the 2,900 seats they had taken for the game soon after they went on general sale yesterday.

Chief executive Simon Clegg told the club site: “Our ticket office manager, John Ford asked Villa whether it was possible for us to have some more tickets.

“We were looking for another 500 or so which we believe would have satisfied demand, but unfortunately Villa have said they are not in a position to do that, which we can understand as they are likely to have sold tickets to home fans in areas that potentially would have been used for us.”

Away clubs are entitled to 15% of the capacity of the home side’s ground in the FA Cup, but Clegg says Town would almost certainly have lost cash had they taken all the available seats given the terms on which they were offered.

“As John has explained previously, we took the maximum number of tickets we could on a sale or return basis,” he said.

“The next figure available was 4,800, rising to the maximum 6,000 and we would have had to buy those tickets up front. That would have left us open to a big risk of substantial losses if we had failed to sell those tickets.

“Our average travelling support this season is 646 and while we knew that the numbers of fans wanting to go to the Villa game would be higher than that, we believe taking the 2,900 available on the sale or return basis was the right option.”

Meanwhile, Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws is hopeful that on-loan Town striker Nathan Ellington is close to a return after a calf injury which has forced him out of the last two matches: “Nathan has done ever so well this week. He has progressed well and we are hoping he will be available for Carlisle this weekend.

“I will be very disappointed if he is not fit and ready and, if he is, we will have a bit more fire power up front."

Ellington, 31, has made one start and two sub appearances for the Iron so far, without scoring.


Photo: Action Images



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Morgan added 08:57 - Dec 20
It's the R1 take over! ;-)
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blues1 added 10:17 - Dec 20
people seem to be overlooking the fact that apart from those part time supporters who suddenly because we playing a prem team in the cup want to go, the demand for tickets was not that great neway. we have 12000+ season ticket holders and yet some tickets went on general sale. yes, like lord mac i am a gold card/season ticket holder who has missed out on aticket for reasons beyond the clubs control as will always happen but i still believe the correct decision was made. certainly wouldnt want to work in a business some of you were running if you believe making a loss of £20-£40000 isnt a problem. would soon find myself out of work. yes, i konw football is a different entity but when you have the ffp coming in & ur club alreasy has a massive debt, albeit to the owner, and youll be wanting as much money as poss for new signings next month, throwing that kind of money away just doesnt make any sense
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Lord_Mac added 10:49 - Dec 20
I think the point that everyone is missing is that we shouldn't be dividing ourselves into part-time supporters and full-time supporters. The people who have missed out on tickets are a combination of both. Rather, we should be looking at how to convert part-time supporters into full-time supporters, so that we have more of them.

The £20k to £40k loss isn't really a loss if you can convert even 1 or 2 percent of them to season ticket holders. Then if you calculate the lifetime value of a season ticket (say 6 years average tenure), you cover your costs.

For example, why not capture these new "part-time supporters" by offering them an introductory offer of a season ticket for the rest of this season and the whole of next for the price of a one-year season ticket? - it's likely that next year will be the most exciting year for a while, so use it! By the time they come round to renewing in spring 2014, they'll be back in the habit of attending games.

On this basis alone, the club should have taken far more tickets. Say 4800. As has already been pointed out elsewhere, some simple market research at the outset would have provided guidance.

A bit of imagination, rather than one-dimensional thinking, is what's needed to build our fan base.
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Morgan added 13:04 - Dec 20
Am I really seeing grown adults arguing over who is a better supporter.

Jesus. Ipswich supporters are their own worst enemey.
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radiogaga added 13:26 - Dec 20
Michael11 - well done. That's why there are home areas and away areas at Villa Park...
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aj3wilson added 14:06 - Dec 20
Well said Morgan - really is pathetic
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neilvanlimbeek added 06:47 - Dec 21
Just booked tickets in R1 - more of us now :-)
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ONENIL78 added 18:58 - Dec 22
their web-site is saying.....any away supporter found in home sections,will be ejected.Best get 1's for away end then,plenty available by the looks of things,and at a very good price
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