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[Albion] Paul Barber on the ticket exchange



Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
Paul dropped me an email last night which, unfortunately, I only saw this morning. A few points on the club's ticket exchange, including some interesting stuff about how it will work. One bit in bold (my emphasis) as it's something oft-discussed on here.

- the Newcastle game is very likely to sell out in next few hours;

- as is normal, however, tickets get returned to us in the final few days/hours leading up to a game (from players, coaches, staff, club sponsors, league sponsors, broadcasters etc) so availability moves around a bit during this period, hence “lumps” of tickets becoming available late in previously sold out areas;

- different/better operational information leading up to the day of the game, and/or lower than expected final sales total from our visitors may also mean we can move a segregation line by a column or more, also meaning new seats becoming available late;

- our current ticket exchange system requires a high degree of manual input. It’s clunky. We therefore don’t deploy it until we are certain the game will sell out as otherwise we waste a lot of valuable staff time listing tickets that we can’t then activate for sale. Even when we do, the “exchange” is highly manually driven;

- the new exchange system will allow listing - and exchange - without manual input and, all things being equal, will allow fans to list their tickets prior to a game selling out. However, this doesn’t mean to say that those tickets will be available to buy until all/the vast majority of the club’s available tickets have been sold (this is quite normal);

- the new system will also be able to provide cash rebates (to a registered card) and, at some point in the future, the choice of cash rebate or, possibly, higher value club retail voucher/credit;

- the system’s introduction has been delayed because there were some payment system issues during testing that we wish to resolve before going live; while the current Amex sell-out pattern means we are not under great pressure to operate the ticket exchange anyway;

- we could have introduced a new ticket exchange sooner if we had bought an "off the shelf" system - which requires a big fee/cut of any exchange to be taken from fans to make the economics work for the supplier/club - but we have opted for a hybrid which means we can provide better value to fans and, hopefully, add our own features over time: a slower introduction, yes, but better value and more flexible for us in the longer term;

- finally, in my experience and to set reasonable expectations, ticket exchange volumes are usually much lower than most fans expect. I don’t really know why. Perhaps some clubs get the fees/numbers/economics wrong, perhaps some fans like the ultimate flexibility of holding on go to their tickets for as along as possible, or simply not giving them up at all!
 






Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
19,322
Good stuff. In theory that pretty much answers all my gripes about it. I do like the fact that STHs can get money back as opposed to shop vouchers. There's only so much stuff you want from the shop, and the promise of hard cash may entice more people to list their tickets.
 








trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,349
Hove
- finally, in my experience and to set reasonable expectations, ticket exchange volumes are usually much lower than most fans expect. I don’t really know why. Perhaps some clubs get the fees/numbers/economics wrong, perhaps some fans like the ultimate flexibility of holding on go to their tickets for as along as possible, or simply not giving them up at all!

Credit to him for providing good information as usual.

Weren't there initial indications that if you list your ticket for exchange, it's immediately cancelled whether someone buys it or not? If so, I'd suggest that would be a reason it's not a popular system. Most people would want to be able to withdraw their ticket from sale if circumstances change or otherwise will leave listing it until the last second, if they can be bothered by that point. Apologies if I missed something in there that covers that....
 


Shuggie

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2003
666
East Sussex coast
Only taken 6 years at the Amex to sort it out and the new exchange hasn't even started. :whistle:

Cheeky!

Remind me ... which option did TB take 6 years ago?

1. pay for the early development of a richly functional ticket exchange system

2. spend absolute millions on an extra 8,000 seats, thereby removing the need for a ticket exchange until we were promoted
 














Blue Valkyrie

Not seen such Bravery!
Sep 1, 2012
32,165
Valhalla
How is sorting out a striker for jan 1st comming along !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We are where we are with that one.

I wouldn't expect any updates just yet, but it's not hard to guess that it's a top priority for the club.
 



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