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Why are our 'sell outs' not 32000 anymore?


Roger

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Well an away allocation might not sell out for starters, secondly, I believe when we declare games as 'sold out', usually there is hospitality remaining, and finally, I may be wrong on this, but since our PL return, haven't we had a couple hundred seats removed in order to facilitate PL requirements? that's really all i can think of.

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don't know the total capacity of the hospitality boxes?, or how many there are...but if they each hold 8-10 people each?...then it needs a good gang of people to fill them all.

 

think some of them maybe company /organisational reservations and perhaps some people don't make it to evening games for various reasons. ....or?

 

Certainly the lower ticket cost was an incentive for the " occasional fan" to see a game, and if they had been " normal price " - there probably wouldn't been half of that attendance.

Edited by david in sweden
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David

 

There were originally 47 Boxes each holding 10 people

 

However there is at least one conversion ie combining two into one (Sadio Mane and two friends were sat in one last night)

 

I think only about 10 -12 boxes are sold so potentially 370 unsold seats each game

 

The Mick Channon suite has a capacity of 500 which was probably not sold out last night plus at least one other smaller suite

 

Plus there is the row of segregation seats between the fans, normally a few hundred, and there always seem to be a smattering of 4 or more seats together which never seem to be occupied

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In the early 2000s we had 32000 quite a lot and even a few years ago I remember the biggest gate ever vs Coventry was 32,363. So why do our sell outs not never go over 31,700?

 

Partially due to more media seating as per Prem requirements, partially due to "other reconfigurations" during the summer, different segregation - and also last night because there were a pile of empty seats at the back of the Itchen for comps people/reserve players didn't take up and the boxes weren't full.

 

I noticed there's now an area of seating set aside next to the tv cameras at the back of the Kingsland too. About another 20 seats Northam end, don't know if that's the same for all of the tv platforms. At Notts County the other week the area next to the cameras was where the squad members who were injured or suspended were sitting - maybe we should do something similar (though obviously the config of the ground means the Kingsland is a bit of a trek for them which is why they use the back of the Itchen usually).

Edited by The9
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The segregation and size of the away support can have a big impact on number of empty seats too, certain configurations leave half a block of empty seats alongside the segregation in the Northam whether the away is sold out or not, and there are different mesh thicknesses too which cover different numbers of seats.

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Good question. A couple of weeks ago I tried to buy an additional ticket for the Bournemouth game for a family member. I telephoned the ticket line and got through to Ticket Zone (I think that was the name - certainly a designated agency rather than the Club). I was told the match was a Category A game and all such fixtures are expected to be a sell-out. The Club had therefore not given them a date when the tickets would be on General Sale and as I was a season ticket holder (and therefore already had a ticket) I was not eligible to purchase another ticket.

 

Our last Category A match (Manchester United) only sold 31,588 and therefore around 700ish seats must have been unoccupied. This suggests not all Category A games 'sell-out'.

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In the early 2000s we had 32000 quite a lot and even a few years ago I remember the biggest gate ever vs Coventry was 32,363. So why do our sell outs not never go over 31,700?

 

I'm seeing Ralph on Sunday so will ask.

 

For the Villa game it was the general home end and away end tickets that was announced as sold out, not the entire stadium.

 

St Mary's has...

 

- 470 box seats

- 1251 hospitality seats

 

Those two areas which have a total of 1,721 seats in them didn't sell out. Plus you also have segregation areas between the home and away fans.

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There are 30,741 general admission seats in the stadium. It is those that sold out in home and away end last night.

 

The 1,721 hospitality seats which didn't sell out are what takes the capacity up to over 32k.

Lot of empty seats last night considering it was a sell out.

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Lot of empty seats last night considering it was a sell out.

 

From the Northam after 20 minutes I could only see two blocks at the back of Itchen 4-ish which were empty, that's either comps or unsold hospitality. There were LOADS of empty seats all around the ground at kick-off, but they all filled up except those two blocks.

 

Obviously couldn't see the areas next to the segregation.

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Partially due to more media seating as per Prem requirements, partially due to "other reconfigurations" during the summer, different segregation - and also last night because there were a pile of empty seats at the back of the Itchen for comps people/reserve players didn't take up and the boxes weren't full.

 

I noticed there's now an area of seating set aside next to the tv cameras at the back of the Kingsland too. About another 20 seats Northam end, don't know if that's the same for all of the tv platforms. At Notts County the other week the area next to the cameras was where the squad members who were injured or suspended were sitting - maybe we should do something similar (though obviously the config of the ground means the Kingsland is a bit of a trek for them which is why they use the back of the Itchen usually).

 

The increased press area at the back of the Kingsland has taken out 5 rows and about 17 seats I think (it's just behind me) so that is only 85 seats. But what annoys me is that it is always empty unless a big team comes to town, and then it is usually the foreign press.

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There are 30,741 general admission seats in the stadium. It is those that sold out in home and away end last night.

 

The 1,721 hospitality seats which didn't sell out are what takes the capacity up to over 32k.

 

There's not that many seats available now for games.

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Yeah what caused it? never seen it that bad for years and missed first 5 mins of game

 

Steward said it was because of all the extra paper tickets due to it being a cup game but I'm not sure what difference that makes considering everything is still scanned at the turnstile.

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It was a joke getting in the ground last night.

 

The club do need to look at access/egress issues around the ground.

 

What time did you turn up? We got into the Northam at about 19:35 and there was practically no-one in the queue for the turnstile and half the people in the concourse there usually were.

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I got those numbers very recently from the ticket office who gave me a block by block breakdown of the stadium general admission seats, box seats and hospitality seats.

 

Segregation seems to be the difference in the figures.

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Loads of people were struggling to get them to work. :lol:

 

Weirdly my ST, which hasn't worked by touching against the pad for ages and would only work by putting into the slot, decided to work on the touchpad last night... just as I was talking to a mate about how it didn't work. He had one of the paper tickets, which he'd prefolded - I'm guessing lots of people didn't do the folding bit before they got there.

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It was a joke getting in the ground last night.

 

The club do need to look at access/egress issues around the ground.

 

Queue was too long. I had cancelled and rebooked some tickets, and the TO had sent out a wrong one (one of the cancelled) before replacing it. Went to one of the stewards, said I'd left my glasses behind and said one of the tickets was wrong, got scanned and went in the side entrance. Ballox to queuing.

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Yeah what caused it? never seen it that bad for years and missed first 5 mins of game

Traffic into the city wasn't too clever last night M3 alone was backed up nearly to Winchester services and it ambled all the way to Southampton the guy at the place where we parked was getting ready to buzz off home at 7:25 as it was so quiet then said it just went mental with everyone suddenly turning up to park.

Daughter used the facilities by the Store and said for us to go ahead, she text to say she was in the car park still queuing to get in the. Chapel when the game began, when she got in she said the Turnstiles had broken and they were letting them in the big exit doors.

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David

 

There were originally 47 Boxes each holding 10 people

 

However there is at least one conversion ie combining two into one (Sadio Mane and two friends were sat in one last night)

 

I think only about 10 -12 boxes are sold so potentially 370 unsold seats each game

 

The Mick Channon suite has a capacity of 500 which was probably not sold out last night plus at least one other smaller suite

 

Plus there is the row of segregation seats between the fans, normally a few hundred, and there always seem to be a smattering of 4 or more seats together which never seem to be occupied

 

thanks for info. It's always been a mystery to me when they say " sold out " when we know that there have been larger crowds.

 

Obviously season ticket holders have their regular place, but it would take a group of 10 non ticket holders / occasional fans to book a box for themselves. Most unlikely.

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Weirdly my ST, which hasn't worked by touching against the pad for ages and would only work by putting into the slot, decided to work on the touchpad last night... just as I was talking to a mate about how it didn't work. He had one of the paper tickets, which he'd prefolded - I'm guessing lots of people didn't do the folding bit before they got there.

 

A few people in our queue expected the turnstile to open by just having the ticket on them.... :mcinnes:

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I got those numbers very recently from the ticket office who gave me a block by block breakdown of the stadium general admission seats, box seats and hospitality seats.

 

Seriously, you asked them for that? Jeez

 

I did so to make the stadium accurate on Football Manager 2016. The game now has a section in the database that allows researchers to enter capacities of individual stands.

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Good question. A couple of weeks ago I tried to buy an additional ticket for the Bournemouth game for a family member. I telephoned the ticket line and got through to Ticket Zone (I think that was the name - certainly a designated agency rather than the Club). I was told the match was a Category A game and all such fixtures are expected to be a sell-out. The Club had therefore not given them a date when the tickets would be on General Sale and as I was a season ticket holder (and therefore already had a ticket) I was not eligible to purchase another ticket.

 

Our last Category A match (Manchester United) only sold 31,588 and therefore around 700ish seats must have been unoccupied. This suggests not all Category A games 'sell-out'.

 

Following up on my earlier comment, the attendance on Sunday was 31,229 - even fewer than the Manchester United game and 1000 fewer than our record (32,363).

 

Roger, did you manage to ask Mr Kreuger how sell-outs are defined?

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Yes I spoke to ticketing lady who said that corporate aren't all

Getting sold, they've lost 250 seats at the back of kingsland and safety regulations mean they've lost some other seats so days of 32k appear to be over.

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Following up on my earlier comment, the attendance on Sunday was 31,229 - even fewer than the Manchester United game and 1000 fewer than our record (32,363).

 

Roger, did you manage to ask Mr Kreuger how sell-outs are defined?

 

Less than United because Sunday was not a sell out

 

at least 200 seats in chapel unsold, but more than Leicester as take up in Hospitality bettter

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Looking at the placing of the segregation netting in the Northam, there are some seats there that are unsold. I'm sure in the past the netting used to come all the way up to the end of the block? Could be wrong though.

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Netting seems such a waste. Surely it isn't beyond the wit of man to be able to construct a partition that is strong and safe and that effectively segregates the supporters, without getting into a panic about crushes and without taking up so many seats. I think the net stretches across 8 seats and there are 39 rows, so that's 312 seats taken out of use.

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They haven't lost 250 seats at the back of Kingsland. There was always the TV platform in the middle. In the 2nd season back in PL, they took out 17 seats from 5 rows = 85

 

They have also taken some seats out to accommodate cameras in line with the penalty area or thereabouts in both ends of the Kingsland. And the seats they left in and tagged "restricted view" actually have no view of one half of the pitch from behind the cameras, so I doubt they sell them very often.

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Thing is, do we actually know how many seats were sold for any given match - unless I have it well wrong and the numbers given are indeed the sales as opposed to just those that pass through the turnstiles?

 

So could it be the total published is STs + General Sales + Away alloc sold + Hospitality - Netting - No Shows?

 

In which case we may well be a 'sell out' for any number of games close to the 32k mark

 

Please, no flaming, too tired.....

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