Burnley Tickets

[Glenn]

So what's the answer, employ additional staff all year round just on the off chance we have to sell tickets for such a desirable game at such short notice again ? Do they get a bunch of agency staff in who will not only be slow, inefficient and prone to error but also cost the club a fortune ?

Or do they do the best they can with the resources they've got ?

Now, I admit the whole online side of things should be sorted, which in turn would have eased the burden.

For all those "3rd division administration" muppets. Talking about this to people at work reminds me just how good our ticket office is. Have you ever had to send a blank cheque so you can be allocated any seat in any part of the ground ? No ? United fans have to do it regulary. Fancy watching the Arsenal vs Sheff Utd ? Personal applications only, meaning to get a ticket for a game at Sheffield my mate has to drive to London and back to get a ticket.

The ticket office comes in for a lot of stick, but I think other than the odd cock-up, they seem to get it as right as possible most of the time.

[trueblue]

Fancy watching the Arsenal vs Sheff Utd ? Personal applications only, meaning to get a ticket for a game at Sheffield my mate has to drive to London and back to get a ticket.

Tell him to drive to Ewood instead... not half as far

[Hasta]

I left trying to get my ticket till this afternoon because I thought no rush. I intermitently rang (about every 15 mins) this afternoon but couldn't get through. I've since found out that queing at Ewood was at least an hour all day. Also at lunchtime when a neighbour went down apparantly he says that all ticket office windows were open and a guy was told that due to this they weren't taking any orders over the phone at that time.

If I can't get through tommorow on the lines I'm going to have to try and find a way to take 2 hours out of work tommorow to get a ticket - something I know is going to be very difficult and that I wouldn't like if any of my staff tried to do it at short notice.

Not happy.

I'll find a way though

[Paul]

I think we need to do the maths to realise the task the TO is facing.

Capacity 31500

Dingles -7000

Segregation - 1500

Rovers fans 23000

Working days to sell: 7

Working hours per day: 7

Tickets to sell EVERY hour if it is a capacity - 470

At 5 minutes per transaction and 4 tickets on EVERY sale - 48 tickets per hour for one person. Every fan who doesn't have the right cash, wants to get a seat next to his mate etc makes it worse by the minute.

Basically the club need ten experienced staff to sell 48 tickets every hour for 7 days straight. Give 'em a break guys they're doing what they can. Every time a punter buys less than four tickets the numbers get worse. I bought three so that's a 25% drop in one sale.

If we beat Burnley these people are going to have to do it all over again, in eight days though, because surely the momentum will build and Leicetser would be close to capacity?

As others point out the online purchase needs organising for ST holders in future. It shouldn't be that tough.

[Blackburn Ender]

Agree with the online thing. It's ridiculous that Rovers have more of my personal details on thoer database than any one other than my bank.

When I finally got through the only info I gave was my season ticket number. The woman just read my seat number, address, etc, to me.

I can buy anything else online.

Can this not be an issue the messageboard can push the club to sort out?

Does Lee not have any influence on this sort of thing?

[jim mk2]

This is all ######.

It's the biggest game for years, a local derby, massive interest, the ground should be full with punters getting all the tickets they need.

The ticket office should be open from 6am to midnight every day in the run up to the game and the same for the Leicester match if we beat Burnley.

So what if the staff are overworked ? - that's why they're there. They've got a whole summer to have a rest.

Edited February 23, 2005 by jim mk2

[boris bear]

I went yesterday at about 4.45 and queued for about half an hour before getting my ticket. They had every window but one open as I think they were trying to clear the queue ready to close so had fewer people answering the phones and more selling in person. They were going to let people join the queue up to 5.30 and serve everyone who was waiting at that time. I thought that was pretty fair and given the number of people waiting I was served quite quickly.

However I found it really frustrating when I tried to phone as you have to listen to all the info about the game before being told the option you have selected is busy. If you had the option of information only or going straight to the queue it would be much better.

I realise there are a lot of tickets to sell in a limited time however according to Burnley's website they had sold all the top tier of the Darwen end by 11.30 this morning i.e. 3,000 tickets in 2.5 hours.

Another thing I noticed on their website was that their ticket office was staying open until 7pm on Wednesday and Thursday. Somebody asked do we employ more staff on the off chance of a big game like this, well no we shouldn't but given this is a one off situation I don't think it would be unreasonable to open late a few evenings.

[JAL]

Why cant the club e-mail every season ticket holder within a short time scale asking if the client supporter requires x number of tickets for a particular match and that a reply is required within a specified timescale i.e. 48 hours or whatever time is of the essence. Then the problem is sorted, failure to respond means no tickets.

[Ossydave]

Why cant the club e-mail every season ticket holder within a short time scale asking if the client supporter requires x number of tickets for a particular match and that a reply is required within a specified timescale i.e. 48 hours or whatever time is of the essence. Then the problem is sorted, failure to respond means no tickets.

Probably because a large number don't use Email on a regular basis?

[Flopsy]

Im not going as we might win then

plus i cant get the time off work :'(

[ABBEY]

EVERY ROVER HAS A PC?not!!!

dave hee hee

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Some of us have work to do and can't spend over an hour on the phone. How are we supposed to claim our seats?

Oh and I don't particularly feel inclined to make a round trip of 100 miles to queue at the ground.

Come on Rovers sort it out.

It's not good enough

[clitheroe_claret]

Any chance of any spare tickets at your place????

Apparently only a few hunded tickets left for Clarets after today - not even going to go on open sale.

There has been some mention of 1,000 extra tickets being made available by doing away with the empty "segregation seats" on either the BFC or brfc end.

Hope so then we`ll have 8,000!!!

[JAL]

Everyone must have an e-mail address surely if not then either use a friend a library or college for internet access - THERES NO EXCUSE not to have one this is the year 2005 afterall.

[FourLaneBlue]

This is all ######.

Not like you to swear Jim...I'm quite disappointed to be honest.

It is about time season ticket holders can book their own seats online. The technology is there (if not maybe at Ewood yet then it should be) and would at least relieve some of the stress experienced by those trying to get tickets and those trying to process the orders in such a tight timescale. This should be available for all cup games and would be a reason for getting people to buy season tickets. They have all the details...sort it out Rovers. Not too bothered about those others having to queue up as that is just the way it is but the fans who put their hard-earned cash down season after season should be able to book their seat with as little inconvenience as possible. They make the effort to support the club again and again, the club has their details so make it easier for them. It might just stop our season ticket sales from continuing to dwindle...

Edited February 23, 2005 by FourLaneBlue

[Hasta]

Cough. Hmm, T'internet is the only way, cough, I can see that this would have been resolved easier. Cough splutter. Bit late for the Burnley game though.. Cough Cough

I can feel a Sicky coming on tommorow.

ah, ah, aahhhchooooooo

[ABBEY]

doing away with the empty "segregation seats" on either the BFC or brfc end.

yea right the police are gonna sanction 1000 dingles in the rovers end ....

jal?library?never been in one since i was 12...so if you dont go online you wouldnt give tickets never heard owt as daft in my life!!

[clitheroe_claret]

Just to put you right on your own ground abbey .

It was a blue that said on the Clarets mad website that 1,000 seats on both the darwen end and the jwalker stand are being kept back for segregation purposes.

Whoever sells all there tickets first, obviously BFC, will get the extra.

He said the upper tier sits 3,000 and the lower 5,000 = 8,000

[Tris]

I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever with Season Ticket holders who are moaning about having a struggle to claim their own seats.

If you're all so bothered about it, why haven't you opted for the home cup scheme????

Ah - because you didn't think we'd draw Burnley. Ah - because you didn't fancy having a tenner leave your bank accounts in order to watch the likes of Colchester.

Well tough - we have drawn Burnley. You lot have opted to pick and choose your cup games so you have to slum it with us non-season ticket holders in the queue for tickets, be that at Ewood or on the phone.

And stop this bloody moaning about the ticket office staffing levels. There is no other fixture - NOT ONE - which would cause this level of demand. Some of the whingers on here appear to be suggesting that Rovers should be fully geared up to respond to a situation which last happened 45 YEARS AGO!!

Yet week after week after week after week, the existing ticket office staff have little to do, and anyone calling in for whatever tickets gets answered within 3 or 4 seconds on the phone, and at the ground there is rarely a queue of more than a couple of folk.

None of this is rocket science, yet people are once again picking holes in the club without even stopping to think about the circumstances.

[Hasta]

Just to correct you Clitheroe-Claret the resaon there's only around 7000 seats available in the Darwen End is because the bottom 7 rows are covered with netting presumably to stop pitch invasions. The extra segregation areas are the Darwen End side of the Riverside and JW stands to the side of the pitch. I would presume the reason for this is to stop coins etc.. being lobbed across into them areas.

There is not a cat in hells chance that these seats would be sold to Burnley fans.

[boris bear]

I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever with Season Ticket holders who are moaning about having a struggle to claim their own seats.

If you're all so bothered about it, why haven't you opted for the home cup scheme????

Ah - because you didn't think we'd draw Burnley.  Ah - because you didn't fancy having a tenner leave your bank accounts in order to watch the likes of Colchester.

Well tough - we have drawn Burnley.  You lot have opted to pick and choose your cup games so you have to slum it with us non-season ticket holders in the queue for tickets, be that at Ewood or on the phone.

I am one of the moaning season ticket holders but I went to the Colchester game, the Cardiff replay and the Cardiff away game, so if I want to moan I will bloody well moan!

Seriously though, like I said before, the ticket office could open late a few nights to help people who can't go or phone during the day to get their tickets.

[Scotty]

Seriously though, like I said before, the ticket office could open late a few nights to help people who can't go or phone during the day to get their tickets.

That's the point isn't it. For once, the club have the prospect of a virtually sold out stadium for the Burnley game. If that doesn't happen because people can't get hold of tickets then the club need to take a serious look at their ticketing arrangements. At the end of the day the club are just stopping themselves from making money.

[stuwilky]

Being my normal interfering self what i did do earlier this evening was send an email to the ticket office manager, saying that ST holders especially were getting frustrated with not being able to either get through or get down to Ewood and would they consider extending the claim your own seat deadline....

Be interesting to see if they take note. Bit of a PR opportunity available.

EDIT - I wasnt quite as blunt as that!

Edited February 23, 2005 by stuwilky

[Tris]

I am one of the moaning season ticket holders but I went to the Colchester game, the Cardiff replay and the Cardiff away game, so if I want to moan I will bloody well moan!

Seriously though, like I said before, the ticket office could open late a few nights to help people who can't go or phone during the day to get their tickets.

??????? automatic cup ticket scheme ???????

[Ewood Spark]

With the Dingles due to sell out for 'their Cup Final' sometime tomorrow and the fact that they play at Dumpdale on Saturday afternoon it could make for an interesting cross-section of folk queing for tickets at Ewood on Saturday morning.