Portsmouth FC have today announced the ticket allocations and schedule for buying tickets for the FA Cup final against Cardiff. While its not going to please all fans the club have taken on board the issues with the scramble for FA Cup Semi Final tickets.
From the Official Portsmouth FC Website
Portsmouth Football Club today outlined plans to sell its 24,789 allocation of tickets for the FA Cup Final against Cardiff City at Wembley on Saturday, May 17.
Tickets will be sold via Ticketmaster on seven separate days – from 11am to 10pm - between Monday, April 21 and Tuesday, April 29.
The club has consulted supporters' groups and will begin by selling tickets to season ticket holders stand by stand (see timetable below).
Every season ticket holder, club member and Junior Blue is guaranteed a ticket. This will be one per ticket holder. This together with tickets for commercial partners amounts to 18,000.
Supporters groups, including exiles and away ticket holders, will receive 1,800 tickets and the groups themselves will supply details of their members to Pompey.
Every fan on the database who has been to three or more matches at Fratton Park this season - nearly 900 supporters - can also purchase a ticket. This will be one per person named on the database. They will be notified of their eligibility by post.
A further 196 will be made available to those fans (excluding season ticket holders and members) who made the journey to Preston North End for the fifth round FA Cup tie. This will be one per person named on the database. They will be notified of their eligibility by post.
A total of 100 pairs of tickets will be made available to disabled supporters and another 50 pairs to visually impaired fans. These will be handled by the club’s ticket office. But only postal applications will be accepted, with proof of disability and correct remittance. Send correspondence to: Allison McNeil, Disabled Liaison Officer, Portsmouth Football Club, Rodney Road, Portsmouth P04 8SX.
Supporters with hearing difficulties can purchase their tickets via Ticketmaster’s text phone service on 0870 145 1178.
There will be 3,000-plus tickets made available for general sale after the ticket allocation for players, club staff and officials.
The 3,000-plus tickets will be on general sale to the 13,500 supporters on the club’s database who have bought tickets to one or two home matches this season. Of those more than 10,000 have come to only one match. This will be one per person named on the database.
Ticketmaster will have 200 lines dedicated to Pompey and there will be only telephone bookings taken - there will be no automated service. The phased purchasing system will ensure waiting time is kept to a minimum for fans.
All Pompey's tickets are in an arc on the east side of the stadium from one side of the 18-yard box to the other. The vast majority - some 18,000 - are in the £60 and £80 categories. Other prices are £95 and £35 but the club has only a limited supply of the £95 tickets. There is a £10 discount for those aged 16 and under and 60 and over.
Ticketmaster will be applying a fixed charge of £3.50 per ticket and £4.90 for registered post per delivery. The postage fee is necessary as the FA do not issue duplicate tickets. Fans can also book coach travel at the same time as buying their tickets.
FA Cup Final ticket timetable (tickets go on sale on each day from 11am to 10pm):
April 21: South Stand Upper (220 tickets at £95 and 2153 at £80)
April 22: North Stand Upper (220 tickets at £95 and 2271 at £80)
April 23: South and North Stands Lower (3201 tickets at £80 and 1171 at £60)
April 24: West Stand (Fratton end) (3201 at £80 and 1300 at £60)
April 25: Club Members and Junior Blues (100 at £80 (Junior Blues only) and 1910 at £60)
April 28: Three home matches/ Preston (357 at £60 (Three Home Matches only) and 739 at £35)
April 29: General Sale to 07/08 database (3150 at £35)
Only call on your allocated day.
Ticketmaster can be contacted on 0844 847 1898.
Season ticket holders can order in groups with operators able to take bookings for up to eight tickets in one transaction providing they have the reference numbers of the other season ticket holders.
If they require more than eight people sitting together another transaction can be completed in the same call so long as the operator is informed at the beginning of the call.
Season ticket holders who have children as Junior Blues members can also book them at the same time to ensure they sit together.
The club would like to point out that it is a criminal offence to sell tickets to a third party and any tickets traced back to Pompey fans will result in a ban on future purchasing by both the FA and the club.
Peter Storrie, Chief Executive of Portsmouth Football Club, said: "We have tried to be as fair as we can to supporters across the board and have consulted the representatives of our supporters clubs around the country, as we did with the semi-final.
“They were very positive in their feedback to us and believe this to be the best way of selling our allocation.
"The decision to allow fans of different areas of the ground to purchase their tickets on dedicated days will mean that we will avoid the majority of supporters calling at the same time as was the case with the semi-final.
“The small number of £95 tickets have been made available to those supporters in the upper north and south stands who have the most expensive seats at Fratton Park.
“Ticketmaster has 200 lines and each operator will be averaging around 10-12 transactions a day so there should be no problem with fans getting through this time. With only seven lines and seven windows in our ticket office we could not possibly cope with the number of calls coming in.
"Once a fan has completed his telephone transaction he will be removed from the database, which will also stop duplication purchases."
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