Pompey fans are going to Wembley
Lets face it no matter how the tickets were allocated and distributed someone would be unhappy and a lot of people are so who if anyone is to blame?
The Fans
Most fans have been more than patient, running up large phone bills and ended up pulling out hair trying to support their team, however there do seem to be some bad apples who may of obtained more than they should have done and some seem to be wanting to make a profit out of the shortages of tickets but these are a very small minority and overall all they have wanted to do is see their team at Wembley.
Ticket Master
This may be a bit controversial but I think Ticket Master have done a good job after all they have sold over 30 thousand tickets in a matter of days, ok the phone number fans were given were clogged solid however if you knew alternative phone numbers most people I have spoken too got through fairly quickly and the whole process was reasonably painless. So its clear that Ticket Master had the capacity to handle this event it was just the dedicated club line that causing a large number of issues. The postage and handling charges could have been less especially as there were no collections or ticket office sales but these werent completely unreasonable although did come as a surprise to some.
The only parts I have heard that was a bit shambolic was the online offering in phase 4 with no-one really knowing what to put in for the “Client reference number” including it seemed Ticket Master themselves and the availablity of the different types of ticket (£55, £45 and £25) in Phase 1 being a bit hit and miss.
The Club
Where do we start here, the club has put out conflicting, misleading and plain wrong information, changing the goal posts, especially with the original statement that any unsold tickets will go into the general sale pot only to announce later unsold tickets from Phase 1 will go on sale again to season ticket holders only giving season ticket holders the chance to buy 5 tickets (1 in phase 1, 2 in phase 2 and another 2 in remainder of phase 1), yes the club has asked for season ticket holders who already have Wembley tickets not to apply but doesn't seem to be actually stopping them. Also had the club advertised other numbers to call and buy tickets on perhaps some of the carnage on the phones this morning and other phases could have been avoided. Even so by Pompey standards this has been quite sucessful although things could be improved.
So what lessons can be learned?
• Put out accurate information and stick to it
• Don’t use the lure of getting a ticket to fill games that may not have been sold out otherwise.
• Publish alternate numbers for Ticket Master to avoid meltdown of the published one
• Ensure people who have played the system to get extra tickets cannot do so again
Overall I think Pompey have allocated the tickets pretty fairly and yes caused heartache for many but that was always going to happen, and if we progress to the final the club will have a chance to iron out the issues with the process.
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