Ict And Ticketmaster

[Ritchie Sacramento]

..... start selling tickets via Ticketmaster ?

Linkage

[L_G]

I think Barry Wilson's testimonial was the first game available online

[Guest birdog]

Then why don't they sell all OF tickets for TCS through ticketmaster? No 5% levy for us and OF fans pay a fortune for booking fees.

Edited January 30, 2009 by birdog

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

?15 is the most expensive ticket for the Killie game , is the club reducing prices for this game ?

[L_G]

Cup games are usually a bit cheaper than the league ones

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Oops , forgot it was a cup tie

[Scotty]

Then why don't they sell all OF tickets for TCS through ticketmaster? No 5% levy for us and OF fans pay a fortune for booking fees.

Whilst I agree with you to an extent - ie. I am no fan of the "levy", unfortunately its not that simple. I think the club already replied to this in 2 of the 3 issues of Boardroom Banter so far but basically, if ICT sell the away tickets for any match then they are held accountable for the behaviour of all fans in the ground, not just the home fans.

Obviously, this is not deemed a problem for the travelling support of most other teams but the club have already said they are not prepared to do this with Celtic and Rangers. Because of this, Rangers/Celtic tickets are sold via those clubs themselves and because they have ultimate control over who they go to, then Rangers and Celtic are responsible for the overall behaviour of their own fans not ICT. I believe ICT have already had a few comments/warnings about conduct involving OF fans at a few games (sectarian singing at first game of last season for example) so this seems to be a necessary policy to protect our club.

If you want to blame anyone for this then blame the old firm, or blame the people who make the rules stating a minimum of 5% of the ground must be made available for travelling support. Not the club's fault on this one I think.

[Guest birdog]

Then why don't they sell all OF tickets for TCS through ticketmaster? No 5% levy for us and OF fans pay a fortune for booking fees.

Whilst I agree with you to an extent - ie. I am no fan of the "levy", unfortunately its not that simple. I think the club already replied to this in 2 of the 3 issues of Boardroom Banter so far but basically, if ICT sell the away tickets for any match then they are held accountable for the behaviour of all fans in the ground, not just the home fans.

Obviously, this is not deemed a problem for the travelling support of most other teams but the club have already said they are not prepared to do this with Celtic and Rangers. Because of this, Rangers/Celtic tickets are sold via those clubs themselves and because they have ultimate control over who they go to, then Rangers and Celtic are responsible for the overall behaviour of their own fans not ICT. I believe ICT have already had a few comments/warnings about conduct involving OF fans at a few games (sectarian singing at first game of last season for example) so this seems to be a necessary policy to protect our club.

If you want to blame anyone for this then blame the old firm, or blame the people who make the rules stating a minimum of 5% of the ground must be made available for travelling support. Not the club's fault on this one I think.

Firstly, I am not trying to blame anyone though the OF are the only ones to blame in this instance. Yes I would have preferred if the club took a similar stance to Falkirk on the matter but as you say problems can be posed with such a set up.

However, if what you say is true then ICT would be well within their rights to offer only 5% of the total capacity to Rangers/Celtic therefore retaining the protection of Celtic/Rangers being responsible for their own support.

I believe that the away stand holds 2000 assuming all are sold as adult tickets (for working example) that is a total of ?47000 giving the OF a slice of ?2350. If ICT only give the OF their agreed minimum allocation of 5% of the capacity then Celtic/Rangers would only get a cut on 388 tickets making the total screwed out of our club is ?456 letting ICT sell the balance of the 2000 tickets through Ticketmaster or the like and lots of OF support start crying about how they are being cheated through having to pay extortionate booking fees.

Workable?

Edited January 31, 2009 by birdog

[Scotty]

Firstly, I am not trying to blame anyone though the OF are the only ones to blame in this instance. Yes I would have preferred if the club took a similar stance to Falkirk on the matter but as you say problems can be posed with such a set up.

However, if what you say is true then ICT would be well within their rights to offer only 5% of the total capacity to Rangers/Celtic therefore retaining the protection of Celtic/Rangers being responsible for their own support.

I believe that the away stand holds 2000 assuming all are sold as adult tickets (for working example) that is a total of ?47000 giving the OF a slice of ?2350. If ICT only give the OF their agreed minimum allocation of 5% of the capacity then Celtic/Rangers would only get a cut on 388 tickets making the total screwed out of our club is ?456 letting ICT sell the balance of the 2000 tickets through Ticketmaster or the like and lots of OF support start crying about how they are being cheated through having to pay extortionate booking fees.

Workable?

Dont think its workable Birdog - but will certainly submit the question you asked in the BB thread which is along a similar line.

We are obligated to give away teams a minimum of 5% of the ground as tickets. Obviously, we know that we give away teams the South Stand and at 2500-ish, that is a little under 33% of capacity so way over our minimum requirement. We could give portions of the south stand to home fans if we wanted, but I believe we have to provide separate segregated facilities for opposing supporters, and for most games dont need it for ourselves so its pretty much a non-starter.

I understand what you are saying above, but I think any saving we might make in implementing that if we sold the tickets ourselves would be gobbled up by the cost of pre-sale security measures (trying to control the flow of tickets) or by additional stewarding costs.

I could be wrong on this, but I believe that Celtic and Rangers bring a portion of their own stewards to the TCS to police their own crowd and therefore we presumably employ less of our own on OF matchdays than we would if we had to do it all ourselves. If you think back to recent FBOs issued to rangers fans at a couple of grounds, i seem to remember in at least one of the cases, it was as a result of testimony of a club-employed steward at an away ground. (I wonder if they take their own stewards to Falkirk or whether Falkirk have to do it ?)

So taking out the ifs ands and maybes, the question becomes ... Is it worth ?5700 per season (less any additional ticketing, administration, and stewarding costs) to go along with the 5% levy. (5700 = the approx difference in your 2350 / 456 equation x 3 OF games at home per season). I would say no personally.

[Guest birdog]

The way I see it Scotty, it is not about saving the club a few pennies, it is more about getting our club to lead the way in sticking it to the OF. The South stand could be re-classified as non-home support (instead of away support) implying that neutral supporters would be catered for there too. OF mandatory tickets (their 5% share) could be split into blocks and spread throughout each section of the South stand making it hard for OF teams to reduce the amount of their own stewards. It could then be put to Celtic and Rangers that it would be easier for all parties to revert to the way tickets were sold previous to this season. Like I say, it's not about the money, it's about giving the playground bullies a bloody nose. I know I would prefer ICT paid a 5% levy to Ticketmaster rather than allowing rivals in the same league to use the money to strengthen their squad whilst we pay for the extra stewards which they have to bring up to control their animal fanbase.

I could be totally wrong in my assumptions and I am sure CaleyD would be able to dig out the relevant regulations, he seems to be very good at that. (If you don't mind CD it would be appreciated)