Cambridge Ticketing Fiasco

[Mattyblue]

Without even touching on the debacle of the budget and resulting squad this season, off the pitch we’ve seen the fiasco of the closed Blackburn End, the shambles of ‘Digital Day’ and the embarrassment of Liverpool FC nights at the home of Blackburn Rovers.

I’d say this has to be the nadir with the club making ridiculous decisions on a seemingly weekly basis, but there’s probably going to be some other nonsense announced in the near future. Where’s the common sense, where’s the accountability? Where’s the humility?

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

One of two things has happened here.

The club have been scared witless about the numbers of tickets that have been sold digitally.

Or

The number of complaints and representations from fan groups and individuals has caused them to swallow their pride and give supporters the option (which is all we asked for In the first instance).

Going forward I at least hope they have the courtesy and sense to gauge supporter opinion before trying something as radical as this.

It is through gritted teeth I say well done because we shouldn't have got to this in the first instance.It

I will be buying ours tomorrow.

 

Combination of both i'd say although it could have been avoided altogether then 3k home tickets might have been sold and another 3k at least between now and kick off,

They really are a set of prats but it all comes back to Waggot the buck stops with him and it just shows the staggering level of incompetence before we even get to ownership level.

This club never stands a chance of really moving forwards it's beyond debate.

[Mattyblue]

That meeting the Trust had with him last night just summed him up, a Liverpool FC event going on at the ground of the club he runs and he hasn’t heard a thing about it. Then to top it off nodding sagely that it’s a disgrace that a load of club murals had been just lobbed at the back of a stand (when they should actually have been unceremoniously lobbed in a skip, of course), less than 24 hours later they’d been put on display on the Riverside as planned - he was non the wiser either way.

Absolute clown show down there, you’d laugh if it wasn’t so depressing to have that cretin as the club figurehead.

Edited January 4 by Mattyblue

[Oldgregg86]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Without even touching on the debacle of the budget and resulting squad this season, off the pitch we’ve seen the fiasco of the closed Blackburn End, the shambles of ‘Digital Day’ and the embarrassment of Liverpool FC nights at the home of Blackburn Rovers.

I’d say this has to be the nadir with the club making ridiculous decisions on a seemingly weekly basis, but there’s probably going to be some other nonsense announced in the near future. Where’s the common sense, where’s the accountability? Where’s the humility?

Anyone know where I can buy one of those NFTs 🙄

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

13 hours ago, Tom said:

So it’s been a success AND the club are graciously helping fans:

’Whilst the digital process has worked well, with a number of supporters managing to switch to a digital and more sustainable form of ticketing, we do not want to be a barrier to anyone wishing to attend the match.’

Could have fooled me as it looks like a catastrophic failure and panic reversal from where I am 

Its comical it really is..the swaths of empty seats tell a different story.

[wilsdenrover]

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Its comical it really is..the swaths of empty seats tell a different story.

[Roverthechimp]

Managed decline is a phrase that has stuck in my mind. Part of me wonders if this sudden change wasn’t planned all along - why wait until 6pm if the decision is made?? Get the tickets moving asap

Unless the goal is to keep the crowd number “manageable” (cost wise) - screw revenue as that seems totally unimportant…

[ABBEY]

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

somene really needs to photoshop maggot on this and meme it up

[TonyM]

Was considering coming to this game with my son, but looking at the tickets sales on-line the other day it looked like we would be in a virtually empty stadium, so decided against it.

Too late to change now - other plans made.

[RoversClitheroe]

5 hours ago, Roverthechimp said:

Managed decline is a phrase that has stuck in my mind. Part of me wonders if this sudden change wasn’t planned all along - why wait until 6pm if the decision is made?? Get the tickets moving asap

Unless the goal is to keep the crowd number “manageable” (cost wise) - screw revenue as that seems totally unimportant…

Spot on I fear 

[Upside Down]

Absolutely managed decline. 

Deliberately reduce the fanbase to as low as you can then when the deliberate relegation to League One happens, as a League One club will be cheaper to run, there won't be too much upheaval.

The goal this year is to just about survive that way when we go down next year it doesn't look too suss. 

Its all about keeping the attention away from the owners whilst they downgrade the club even more.

[RevidgeBlue]

11 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Spot on I fear 

Got Waggott's fingerprints all over it.

[Ossydave]

16 hours ago, TonyM said:

Was considering coming to this game with my son, but looking at the tickets sales on-line the other day it looked like we would be in a virtually empty stadium, so decided against it.

Too late to change now - other plans made.

Things like this make me sad, but it highlights the situation perfectly. 

There were times when I was a young boy and times were hard for both my family and the club. My dad would sometimes take me to sit on the Riverside hill to catch some of a game. It worked and I ended up hooked. I wouldn't dream of taking my youngest to a game now (she's 4) as I fail to see how she'd last longer than 5 minutes before deciding its awful.

Growing up we were shite for large chunks of my school life, but I was still proud of the club and would wear my blue and white shirt at any opportunity. How can kids growing up now be proud of a club that the owners don't give a flying fuck about? 

Edited January 6 by Ossydave

[Mattyblue]

It’s very difficult, I think back to my time as a kid/teenager/early 20s and think of the buzz, the pride everybody had for Blackburn Rovers and you can only feel gutted for that generation now.

But I always try and remember (before I get all Bobby Robson 😁) that we are the club. The collective memories, the bug being passed generation to generation.

Steve fecking Waggott, that teenage ‘Head of Consumer’, those utter disgraceful owners just happen to have the keys at this time, they will go at some point, they always do and we can rise again, I just don’t know what pieces will be left to pick up when they do.

[arbitro]

I don't for one minute think the club will release the numbers of tickets sold digitally before 9 am yesterday and paper tickets sold after this time. I'll wager a months earnings though that it was a ratio of at least 3:1 in favour of the latter.

Hopefully they have learned a lesson but somehow, based on previous wacky schemes I doubt it.

[47er]

On 06/01/2024 at 09:10, Upside Down said:

Absolutely managed decline. 

Deliberately reduce the fanbase to as low as you can then when the deliberate relegation to League One happens, as a League One club will be cheaper to run, there won't be too much upheaval.

The goal this year is to just about survive that way when we go down next year it doesn't look too suss. 

Its all about keeping the attention away from the owners whilst they downgrade the club even more.

If we go down there will be plenty of "what do you expect on crowds of this size'?  Shift the blame onto the fans has become the norm.

Give fans something to excite them and they'll come. (depending on pricing of course). Always been the case.

[Mattyblue]

4 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

What's this about a Liverpool FC event held at Ewood Park?

Genuinely anyone involved with that should be taken round the back of the Riverside and executed. We don't need that scum infecting this club. 

https://www.superstarspeakers.co.uk/event-details/an-evening-with-liverpool-legends-blackburn-29th-february-2024

[matt83]

I can remember the days when Blackburn rovers was run for the benefit of Blackburn rovers and its fans. Those were the days.

Now what are we a club house for east Lancashire based Liverpool fans and a glorified academy for the benefit of mid table premier league sides.

There was a point in history I used to talk about rovers to fans of Man Utd/Liverpool/Arsenal and I could proudly say rovers are a better club than your club, whoever they supported. Of course they’d initially sneer at that confusing having a better team with being a better club but there was no doubt we were the best club around. Those days have well and truly gone and I’d be hard pushed to find a worse club to support. 

[philipl]

Doesn't take a genius to work out that Blackburn with Darwen is not unusually highly represented with people with debit and credit cards holding unspent balances in the first week after the Festive Season.

All Digital Day has probably done is send a message to the hard working fan facing people in ticket sales that SWAG would get rid of them if he could.

 

 

 

[ABBEY]

12 hours ago, arbitro said:

I don't for one minute think the club will release the numbers of tickets sold digitally before 9 am yesterday and paper tickets sold after this time. I'll wager a months earnings though that it was a ratio of at least 3:1 in favour of the latter.

Hopefully they have learned a lesson but somehow, based on previous wacky schemes I doubt it.

Learnt a lesson ... haha come on you've been a fan long enough under these idiots to know that they don't learn lessons .

Edited January 7 by ABBEY

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, ABBEY said:

Learnt a lesson ... haha come on you've been a fan long enough under these idiots to know that they don't learn lessons .

Precisely why I doubted it 😉.

[Mattyblue]

You know what’s coming:

‘Digital Day big success! Our data tells us that 67% bought a digital ticket up from 57% previously with many fans taking the opportunity to go digital for the first time as the club continues its green journey’

The fact 3,000 fewer Rovers fans were present than last January’s tie and sales were truly horrendous pre the last minute u-turn obviously won’t be in the press release.

[Wheelton Blue]

They must have sold the bulk of the tickets yesterday.

I bought ours around 6pm on Friday when the seat map thing was showing very few sold.

[Rogerb]

5 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

They must have sold the bulk of the tickets yesterday.

I bought ours around 6pm on Friday when the seat map thing was showing very few sold.

Considering all the issues re tickets prior to the game thought the attendance with the help of Cambridge wasn't as bad as I expected. Swansea had less for the visit of Morecambe and Sheff Wednesday had less than 11000 for the visit of Cardiff.

[tomphil]

But they had to retract the digi ticket only 24 hrs before the game in order to reach 6k home fans by allowing regular physical ticket buyers to just roll up as normal.

Like the previous idiocy with the BBE they probably lost a thousand punters so over the two games thousands of pounds have been lost in an attempt to save a few hundred. And yes it was an attempt at experimenting for future digital tickets only for every game which men in suits will be all over if they think they can do it all that way and then leave it to an AI system and get rid of wage earners.

So just like everything else unless people stand up to it and say no and give them no choice but to not remove choices there'll be jobs lost and all customer service will be through chatbots.  Of course it'll all be hidden neatly behind saving the planet whilst the systems to run these things will cost an arm and leg to install and that will have to be paid for somehow.

And it won't all run on fresh air either.

Edited January 7 by tomphil