FA Cup Semi Finals ticket shame

Ive just been reading how Watford have failed to sell out their ticket allocation for their big day, having 1,500 tickets left to sell. However, this is nothing compared to Blackburn and Chelsea who both have around 8,000 unsold tickets.

I find it incredible that these clubs cant sell out 20-30,000 tickets for such a massive game. What is wrong with their fans ? is this the effect of television or are their fans just shit.

I know Chelsea have a lot of games to play, meaning fans are spending lots BUT this is the FA Cup semi finals and its not like they have not sold 1,000 tickets but 8,000 which is fucking loads of empty seats. I think Blackburn fans are some of the worst ever, were are all those fans who used to go when they won the title ?

Its crazy that the semi final of one of the greatest cup comps in the world wont sell out. I know for a fact if we'd made it to the semi's we'd be able sell our allocation twice over.

That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

Burnley?

You mean Chelsea.

Sorry made a mistake i wrote Burnley hadnt sold out buti meant CHelsea.

Any Chelsea fans on the board going ?

I am going yes.

Reasons for crappy attendance:

1. It's in Manchester, which is far away from London.

2. It's at an absolutely ridiculous time, given that its late afternoon on a Sunday its tricky for people to get back for work on Monday.

3. Blackburn are not the greatest draw, let's be fair.

4. Fans are complacent because of success.

5. Its on TV.

6. We've been in 4 competitions this year and had an absolute shit load of games. This costs money, and if you look all the cheap seats have sold out only the 8k most expensive that haven't.

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Furthermore, we have sold 3/4k more than a "Villa Park" allocation. Given its being played in Manchester I would bloody well hope Man City would sell out if they were there. Like we would if it was being played in London or Birmingham...

Incidentally exactly the same thing happened last year (we didn't sell out the semi at Old Trafford). But Liverpool returned tickets last year as well, and Blackburn have sold a ridiculously low number given that its a very very short trip for them. Last year Wham/boro didn't sell out Villa Park either.

No I'm not going.

Reasons?

1. I've recently been to the Valencia game, and am hoping to go to the Liverpool game.

2. I'll either have to fork out £30 for the coach fare, or £30 in petrol. I also cannot be arsed to drive 300 miles on a Sunday morning.

3. I'll have to leave about 7:30 in the morning.

4. I have to go to work on Monday.

5. I can watch it on my sofa (if the game wasn't on tele, I might have considered going).

I'm hoping to get tickets for either the Bolton or Everton home game, plus the Liverpool game. I'll go to the FA Cup final should we get there.

Luis wrote:That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

What are you talking about?

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about revenue Kim, the top 4 get huge crowd attenances whereas the smaller clubs cant even fill out their own stadium never mind someone elses for a cup game, it's a huge loss of money for these clubs

Luis wrote:

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about revenue Kim, the top 4 get huge crowd attenances whereas the smaller clubs cant even fill out their own stadium never mind someone elses for a cup game, it's a huge loss of money for these clubs

Even if they did sellout their small stadiums they would still be miles away from the top 4, just look at us, Tottenham, and West Ham.

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about revenue Kim, the top 4 get huge crowd attenances whereas the smaller clubs cant even fill out their own stadium never mind someone elses for a cup game, it's a huge loss of money for these clubs

Even if they did sellout their small stadiums they would still be miles away from the top 4, just look at us, Tottenham, and West Ham.

Every little helps

Luis wrote:

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:

Kimbo wrote:

Luis wrote:That's crazy, and Kimbo wonders why the 'smaller clubs' cant keep up

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about revenue Kim, the top 4 get huge crowd attenances whereas the smaller clubs cant even fill out their own stadium never mind someone elses for a cup game, it's a huge loss of money for these clubs

Even if they did sellout their small stadiums they would still be miles away from the top 4, just look at us, Tottenham, and West Ham.

Every little helps

Little being the operative word there.

We've been debating over this for a while Kimbo, i'm just interested to see what you think should actually be done? surely you must have something to suggest, what you're forgetting is any club can get new investors not just the big boys, it's not as if there's a rule stating only the top 4 can have rich businessmen take over but yes it does help being already big

Kimbo - Toon's problems are Fat Fred's obsession with pleasing the fans and your fans obsession with signing strikers.

You've got enough money that you could put together a team that could consistently be challenging for 4th spot, if you'd have kept Bobby Robson you probably would be.

Roger Hunt wrote:Kimbo - Toon's problems are Fat Fred's obsession with pleasing the fans and your fans obsession with signing strikers.

You've got enough money that you could put together a team that could consistently be challenging for 4th spot, if you'd have kept Bobby Robson you probably would be.

A common misconception, the fans have been crying out for defenders(not strikers) for years now.

Luis wrote:We've been debating over this for a while Kimbo, i'm just interested to see what you think should actually be done? surely you must have something to suggest, what you're forgetting is any club can get new investors not just the big boys, it's not as if there's a rule stating only the top 4 can have rich businessmen take over but yes it does help being already big

I think Newcastle, Tottenham, and maybe West Ham are clubs that have the fan base to compete.

Newcastle - A good manager could see us break the top 4, but we wouldn't stay there. We need a good chairman if we want to compete consistently.

Tottenham - They need a much bigger stadium if they want to be able to pay their best players enough to keep them.

West Ham - See Tottenham.

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These changes aren't going to happen overnight which is why i don't think we'll see any real power shifts in the next 5 or so years.


All i've been doing is pointing out the lack of competitive clubs outside the big 4, for some reason all the 'big 4 lovers' on the board seem to think i'm attacking them. If anything i'm attacking the rest of the league.

I didn't think you were attacking us Kimbo - I'm just saying that I think that you could be breaking into the top 4 places - albeit not consistently maybe - if you had better managment and leadership.

Look back pre-Abramovich, yourselves, Leeds, Chelsea and arguably even Liverpool were all chasing CL spaces at the end of the season.

No way should Bolton and Everton be ahead of you and Spurs in the table.

Well you think a good manager would see you get 4th, that has nothing to do with money, if Newcastle had a full strength team they could finish top 6 easily IMO

Luis wrote:Well you think a good manager would see you get 4th, that has nothing to do with money, if Newcastle had a full strength team they could finish top 6 easily IMO

That's only because Arsenal are so poor at the moment. If they play as well as they should be playing next season then i expect a BIG gap between 4th and 5th.

If we had a full strength squad we wouldn't finish top 6, we would finish 7th-10th. Having a full strength squad doesn't change the fact that we have a shit manager with a dodgy selection process which has nothing to do with which players are talented or on form.

Kimbo wrote:

Roger Hunt wrote:Kimbo - Toon's problems are Fat Fred's obsession with pleasing the fans and your fans obsession with signing strikers.

You've got enough money that you could put together a team that could consistently be challenging for 4th spot, if you'd have kept Bobby Robson you probably would be.

A common misconception, the fans have been crying out for defenders(not strikers) for years now.

Luis wrote:We've been debating over this for a while Kimbo, i'm just interested to see what you think should actually be done? surely you must have something to suggest, what you're forgetting is any club can get new investors not just the big boys, it's not as if there's a rule stating only the top 4 can have rich businessmen take over but yes it does help being already big

I think Newcastle, Tottenham, and maybe West Ham are clubs that have the fan base to compete.

Newcastle - A good manager could see us break the top 4, but we wouldn't stay there. We need a good chairman if we want to compete consistently.

Tottenham - They need a much bigger stadium if they want to be able to pay their best players enough to keep them.

West Ham - See Tottenham.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These changes aren't going to happen overnight which is why i don't think we'll see any real power shifts in the next 5 or so years.


All i've been doing is pointing out the lack of competitive clubs outside the big 4, for some reason all the 'big 4 lovers' on the board seem to think i'm attacking them. If anything i'm attacking the rest of the league.

What about City ?

Kimbo wrote:I think Newcastle, Tottenham, and maybe West Ham are clubs that have the fan base to compete.

Newcastle - A good manager could see us break the top 4, but we wouldn't stay there. We need a good chairman if we want to compete consistently.

Tottenham - They need a much bigger stadium if they want to be able to pay their best players enough to keep them.

West Ham - See Tottenham.

so west ham have a bigger fanbase than man city, villa and everton now?

this will sound biased, but after tottenham i'd put villa as best placed to challenge the top 4 over the next 5 years - in terms of ownership, we now have one of the best in the league and a good manager to go with it. no guarantee of anything, but promising nonetheless. newcastle/man city certainly have the fanbase but i don't think they have the ownership/management to get there currently.