Monday, March 06, 2006
Finally, we get our tickets
After what seems like an eternity, the English Football Association finally announced the allocation of tickets to supporters in the England Fans club. With 25,000 members and less than 5,000 tickets available for each game, you don't need to be very bright to realise a lot of people were going to miss out.
England probably run one of the fairest ways to distribute tickets to their fans. People who go to away games get awarded 2 caps with 1 cap for home games. For any over-subscribed away match, 70% of the allocation goes to the top-cappers and the remaining 30% is in an open ballot. This rewards loyalty but also doesn't make it a closed shop. Of course, it's not perfect but things never are when demand outstrips supply. There has been an extra level of complication for the FIFA 2006 World Cup as there are 4 price categories of tickets (1 being the highest price). Not everyone was prepared to pay for the higher priced tickets so the only way the top cappers were guaranteed a ticket was by stating on the application form they would pay for every category. If you were allocated a category you were not prepared to pay for, no alternative was offered.
For the top cappers, travel reservations haven't been a problem. You may remember from an earlier Blog entry, the frantic hours on the internet following the draw to reserve hotels and flights. The borderline cappers, however, had a dilemna. Should they book flights without a ticket. Unless you book business class, airlines won't offer refunds and hotels aren't being much help either. Each person will have made their own judgement but you can be sure there has been a flurry of activity on the airline and hotel websites tonight. For the record, I got a full collection for Cat. 4 tickets - total cost £340.
We also learned our fixtures for Group E in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. After a 2nd meeting between the competing teams finally saw the fixtures confirmed. Due to deadline problems with Wembley, it now appears the first competitive match at the newly renovated stadium will be the opening home fixture. The opposition for this prestigious match will be.............Andorra. Obviously, it's not the most glamorous team in the world but football is a global game for people at all levels so in a strange way, maybe it's the right thing that a smaller team is the first to play a competetive match at the most famous stadium in the world.
England probably run one of the fairest ways to distribute tickets to their fans. People who go to away games get awarded 2 caps with 1 cap for home games. For any over-subscribed away match, 70% of the allocation goes to the top-cappers and the remaining 30% is in an open ballot. This rewards loyalty but also doesn't make it a closed shop. Of course, it's not perfect but things never are when demand outstrips supply. There has been an extra level of complication for the FIFA 2006 World Cup as there are 4 price categories of tickets (1 being the highest price). Not everyone was prepared to pay for the higher priced tickets so the only way the top cappers were guaranteed a ticket was by stating on the application form they would pay for every category. If you were allocated a category you were not prepared to pay for, no alternative was offered.
For the top cappers, travel reservations haven't been a problem. You may remember from an earlier Blog entry, the frantic hours on the internet following the draw to reserve hotels and flights. The borderline cappers, however, had a dilemna. Should they book flights without a ticket. Unless you book business class, airlines won't offer refunds and hotels aren't being much help either. Each person will have made their own judgement but you can be sure there has been a flurry of activity on the airline and hotel websites tonight. For the record, I got a full collection for Cat. 4 tickets - total cost £340.
We also learned our fixtures for Group E in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. After a 2nd meeting between the competing teams finally saw the fixtures confirmed. Due to deadline problems with Wembley, it now appears the first competitive match at the newly renovated stadium will be the opening home fixture. The opposition for this prestigious match will be.............Andorra. Obviously, it's not the most glamorous team in the world but football is a global game for people at all levels so in a strange way, maybe it's the right thing that a smaller team is the first to play a competetive match at the most famous stadium in the world.
// posted by Big Blue Marble @ 10:33 pm 
