How did you get on with the ticket office today?
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 10:11PM Ticket for Real Madrid at home?
Go ahead and share your stories if you can still muster the strength in your broken fingers having smashed the keyboard up with your clenched angry fists. Blood splattered over monitor whilst screaming 'Nooooooo' in the same way Anakin Skywalker did when he awoke to find himself as 'Darth Vader' in a galaxy far far away. I actually stood up in the cinema and also screamed 'Noooooo'. George Lucas, what have you done?
Many of you this evening are shaking your heads at incompetence a little bit closer to home relating to the process and resulting nightmare that is the lottery to get your hands on a ticket, as a member of the club. Daniel Levy, are you listening?
Some examples of complaints below.
Sent to: ian.murphy@tottenhamhotspur.com
Dear Sir
It is with a heavy heart I write to you today with regard to the online ticketing system.
I have in the last few months, come to hate the "lottery" that the system appears to apply to applications and feel if I do not raise it with you, you will be unaware of these issues.
As before, tickets are on sale at half past nine in the morning. Like everyone else I log on earlier than this to join the queuing system for a ticket. At one point the queuing bar jumped from 2/3 full back down to 1/3. I have no idea why. I finally was let in at around 10:30am (~2 hours queuing). This I would think, would be a good result. The map of the ground is before me and all orange. Orange is good - it means there is limited availability but not sold out. I only want 1 ticket so I should easily be able to get one.
This turns out not to be the case. Every block I select comes back with the response simlar to "you cannot buy that amount of tickets in this block". If there are no tickets left, the block should be red. If there are, I should be able to purchase one. Therefore I must assume that either there are seats reserved for sale at the ticket office, in which case they should be marked as sold on the website, or there are complex rules at work not wishing to seat only one person when it could perhaps seat 2 or 3 people next to each other. Can you please tell me which it is?
It is inordinately frustrating to spent 30 minutes clicking blocks trying to find an available seat on that system. It should not be this way and I would like to know if there are plans to make it more efficient and work better. Can you tell me what the plans are for the ticketing site, given that with Ticketmaster it is just shambolic. I cannot even select a seat that I might want - it is a pure lottery in terms of being able to get into the site, and then in terms of where I can sit. I presume this is again to enable larger groups to sit together. This is not acceptable to me and many fans however. I recommend that policy is rescinded. Can you comment?
I then jump on the popular forum, glory-glory.co.uk to find people not only in a similar boat, but worse off than I! Some talking about how they end up opening web browsers on more than one machine, and the latter machine is further in the queuing process than the one that has been queuing for an hour already! Then I hear someone logged in via their mobile phone at 09:35am and got straight in and secured 3 tickets!
I have no problem with a queuing system as long as it is fair and works. The current one clearly doesn't. Then, even when logged in it is nigh on impossible to purchase a ticket despite the site showing availability.
I am sure the Club are simply happy that again it is going to be another wonderful European night at the Lane and that it is sold out. The process of getting there is so arduous and disheartening to supporters however that it creates great depression and produces a lot of bad feeling towards the club. When we finally make a decision on what to do about a new stadia, and it is completed then hopefully this will mitigate people not getting seats but even so, it will not change the fact that the application process for tickets is shambolic and simply not good enough.
I hope you are able to respond to the points I raise here today, and that you have a good weekend.
best regards,
David Beamish
<member number>
Dear Mr. Murphy,
Another big match at White Hart Lane, another online ticketing farce. When it comes to high demand matches the current online ticketing system is not fit for purpose. It does not work. It's as simple as that.
I joined the online queuing system at 07:45 this morning. I did not get past the queue and into the site until 11:30 this morning. At around 09:15 when the progress bar indicated that I was nearly at the front of the queue, it reset itself to almost zero, for no reason.
I know several people who joined the queue over an hour after I did, yet they got to the front of the queue and were able to buy tickets long before me. This would not be possible if the system worked. I know several other people in the same boat as myself. The progress bar telling us our position in the queue is meaningless, it is random, it bears no semblance to reality.
Even if you are lucky enough to get past the queue, more pitfalls await. I spent nearly twenty-five minutes clicking on blocks which show as orange (indicating limited ticket availability) only to be told that no tickets were available when I did so. It was by sheer random luck that I happened to get a ticket in East Upper Block G, probably after the fifth or sixth time I had clicked on that block.
It cannot be right that loyalty points play no part when it comes to once in a lifetime fixtures such as our match with Real Madrid, or our match with AC Milan, which suffered a similar meltdown with the online ticketing system.
How can it be right that somebody with 400+ loyalty points, who has followed the club for years, has the same chance of getting a ticket as someone who may have bought a membership as a one off just to attend this glamour fixture and has no intention of going to another match until the likes of Real Madrid visit us again?
The current system shows loyal Tottenham fans, who have spent their money on the club for years, no respect at all. The way the club dismisses these concerns after every ticketing bungle gives the impression that the club does not care how loyal a fan is, just as long as there's someone there to step up and line the clubs pockets.
Surely the only fair way to sell tickets for these matches is on the same basis as away matches. Allow everyone who wants a ticket to apply, work out how many loyalty points are needed, and then allow everyone who exceeds that limit to purchase a ticket.
This would also have the effect of encouraging fans to attend the less glamorous fixtures in order to build up their loyalty points.
Obviously loyalty points would need to have some kind of time limit, otherwise it would be impossible for new members to catch up older members who have been attending matches for many years. I would suggest that at the start of each season any loyalty points over three years old be removed. That way, a new member can build up their loyalty points and within three seasons have just as much chance to get a ticket to the big games as long time loyal members.
At the very least, even if there is no change to take loyalty points into account, that the club looks into replacing the current online ticketing system with something much more robust. The server capacity clearly cannot handle the demand and strain placed on it and the design and implementation of the software is shoddy at best. It really does need to be changed for a better system.
Thank you for your time,
Yours faithfully,
EJG
From Twitter:
took me 115 calls and 6 pcs at work to get 2 tickets.. 15 mins before selling out. also, it wasn't 1st come 1st serve online as my colleague logged in 35 mins after me, and got in before me? - @Stevewfinch
Yes. Guy at ticket office said "this is why you should have supported move to Stratford". Hundreds there to hear it - @Shpates
From Spurs:
All available tickets for our forthcoming Champions League Quarter Final Second Leg tie with Real Madrid were sold out to One Hotspur Bronze and Lilywhite members within two hours of going on sale this morning (Friday).
We should like to thank all supporters for their patience as extended queuing times were experienced due to the unprecedented demand at the Ticket Office, on-line and via our Ticketmaster call centre service.
65,000 members were eligible to purchase a ticket, and at 9 30am this morning over 20,000 individual members were queuing on-line. We are aware that many fans will be extremely disappointed not to have been successful in acquiring a ticket. This demand shows the fantastic fan-base the Club has and we should like to thank you for your support.
Hands up if the steward who proclaimed "this is why you should have supported move to Stratford" should be stuck in a Gunnersaurus costume and pushed into the Park Lane toilets at half-time?
Only joking. Would never consider doing that. For a start nobody would see him from all the smoke.
There is no disputing we have a supply and demand issue and that moving to a new stadium is paramount. But this isn't about appeasing the masses. It's about having a system that isn't the equivalent of playing Gary Doherty and Ramon Vega in central defence. It's always been a complaint and today emphasis that fact tenfold.
It seems utterly random. If there are so many eligible people then perhaps the club can attempt to redefine the application process (which in this case was log in, hit, hope). Loyalty points perhaps. Building a 60,000 is hardly going to help unless we delay the fixture for five or so years. In all seriousness, if we were playing in a stadium twice the size of WHL as of right now, we'd still have fans applying and being made to pi** in the wind.
Fix the process, make it fair. Treat us like Tottenham fans not screaming teenagers after a JLS ticket.
If you haven't already, please visit Supporting our Future and complete the survey.
We, a group of supporters of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, intend to offer a practical proposal based on the opinions of the fans to resume development of a World Class football stadium worthy of the club and its ambition at our current home, White Hart Lane.
Have your say. We've all had something to moan about in the past six months, let's not all suddenly go quiet again until the next twist and turn rears it's head.
Reader Comments (27)
THIS IS (but one of many reasons) WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE SUPPORTED THE MOVE TO STRATFORD !
lol, you work for Spurs Stratty?
;)
gotta say despite getting a ticket for the madrid game, the current online system is a farce. I have 260 loyalty points so feel 'worthy' of a ticket. however had joined online queue at 8.30 over 4 laptops, than at 9am decided to also add my HTC phone to the queue, my phone just blitzed the queing and by 9.45 on my phone i had got logged in and secured 2 tickets, however my 4 laptops running had continued to stagnate in the queue and they had hardly moved whatsoever and kept jumping backwards, the current system is flawed.
Yes stratty, Im sure that had I supported Stratford I would have no doubt managed to get a ticket for this game. Oh how I wish I supported it now.
Im mega pissed of at Spurs incompetence for this ticket farce.
How does a lillywhite get the same chance as a bronze member to buy a ticket when we have paid for an extra day??
Its not the first time Spurs show no loyalty to their fans. I had my season ticket for 4 years - how many loyalty points did that earn me...................0
I had similar issues to what you've already put in. I started queuing online at about 0830 thinking that that would probably be sufficient. How wrong i was, the status bar was advancing but on a couple of occassions jumped back (as well as forward). Whilst waiting I found through twitter that some people had been succesful through the phone booking system, so decided to give that a go. About 15 phone calls later having listened to the monotonous male voice explaining the busy nature (as well the patronising female voice telling you that all the operators were busy), I decided to give up on that avenue.
When I finally did get through to the stadium plan online about 2hrs later, like others, i was greeted with an amber colour throughout the stadium. So I went ahead and clicked on an area looking for a single seat, only for an error message to return saying there was not enough seats to fulfil my requirements. Fair enough, I thought, as I have had that message in the past where areas had sold out but the colouring had not updated.
Half an hour later, and having clicked through the entire stadium plan with the same message popping up, I gave up. I was thoroughly pissed off. I had given up 3 hours of work in order to watch a bar on screen and not get a ticket.
The club was too slow in updating the website (as usual) to say it had been sold out and save unnecessary queueing.
The current system is unfair as somone could buy lilywhite/bronze membership solely to get a ticket to a Champions League game ahead of someone who attends games throughout the season. I did find sitting in the West Stand at the AC Milan game (not my choice and only thanks to another ticketing cock-up for the Inter Match) there did seem to be a large number of people who had never been to WHL before.
A conversation a few of us had a conversation via twitter that for such games like NLD, Man Utd, top Champions League games should be assigned something like an A* category where members with higher loyalty points should be allowed first access to tickets ahead of those that basically "gloryhunt".
This is what I think of the ticket office/ticketmaster at the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqNlTudqkQ
It does seem a bit of a farce.....this should have been treated a bit like the away leg for a season ticket holder.....make your application and we will see who has the most loyalty points at that time and issue a cut off, this can also feel like a flawed system as the 'Thomas Cook' package queue jumpers get more comfort of getting a ticket by parting with more cash than anyone else. Thank god the club 'acquired' a bigger allocation for the away game as I was 15 points short at the first count and 6 clear when the extra 227 become available.
And whilst we're talking about ticketing, what about the season ticket waiting list! Apparently, according to the members office, every single season ticket from last season was renewed and therefore nobody moved up the waiting list this season (I have the email from them telling me this).
Do they not realise how statistically improbable that is? Out of c25,000 people, nobody died, nobody fell on hard-times and decided they couldn't afford it, nobody moved away or emigrated, nobody went from junior to adult and decided it was too expensive. Do you smell bullshit in the air?
Now the problem I have with this is that there are probably close to 40,000 people PAYING each year to remain on the waiting list. Surely that means they must have a legal obligation to make sure it is being managed properly? They're taking money for it FFS.
Yes, I'm pissed off. Off the pitch our club is a money grabbing farce....... DVD anyone?
The first letter, from a SIlver member can have no complaints....his ticket buying period was at the start of the week!
Oops.
Funny (we'll maybe not so) how every post is a moan... So many tales of this and that and I've for 4 trillion dollars worth of loyalty points yet haven't got a ticket/s. Agreed, it's probably not the greatest ticket system in place - it's ticketmaster, not Spurs - I guess cup games (?) could/should be based on loyalty points?
Yidal - you're an idiot and a waste of air. You say you have a season ticket yet couldn't get a match ticket? You, like every season ticket holder were given priority.
Also, a question as a non-techie guy, does logging on to 4-15 pc's and/or mobiles actually increase or decrease the possibility of finally signing in?
Any 'anti-Stratford / anti-move' people moaning? ... Thought not.
We can be so fucking fickle about this and that yet believe we are 'more loyal' than the next man. Wake up, we have a massive following yet a small stadium.
PS - I'll be at both games
The complaint remains with the process and the system rather than the amount of fans applying. Not everyone was going to get a ticket. The frustration will always stem from the ones who failed, but the ones that got tickets are equally miffed at the manner and desperation of the experience.
It's not that hard to fix this.
Well, this won't be a big problem next season should we continue to 'forget' the bread and butter.... No big issue next season and we can get back to normal.
How many of you are coming to Wigan!!? Or is it not a big enough game?
@ Well well well...
Have I understood you right? Are you having a snidey, "told you so" kind of pop at those who were against the Stratford move?
Really?
As others have hinted at above, how would a move to Stratford in August 2015 have helped anyone to get tickets to Spurs v Real Madrid on 13th April 2011?
Once you've figured that one out, I hope you'll have room in your head to realise that you've completely misunderstood the point of the complaints about this morning's farce.
No one is complaining about the fact that there are too many fans trying to get their hands on too few tickets. What they are complaining about is:
1. The utter inadequacy of the online ticketing system.
2. The failure of the club to implement a fair allocation policy.
Neither of the above has anything to do with the size of Spurs' stadium. Stratford or no Stratford, it is scandalous that the club should treat loyal fans in such a manner.
Regarding the online ticketing system, it surely isn't asking too much that there should be a proper queuing system which tells you where you are in the queue and how long you are likely to have to wait. Above all, it shouldn't be too much to ask that if you log in at, say 9.30 am, you will have to wait your turn until those who logged in earlier than you have finished. Nor should it be too much to ask that all those who logged in after you should have to wait until you have finished before they they get their turn. That is how queues are supposed to work, after all.
Yet what I have heard today (and previously for big games) paints a picture of utter chaos and random chance. Some people got tickets despite logging in an hour and a half after others who didn't get tickets. It's a complete fuck up and it has happened too many times. Not good enough. The club should be answerable.
Regarding a fair allocation of tickets, isn't it about time that the club began allocating tickets for the really big games along the same lines that they allocate away fixtures? That way, the most deserving fans (those who have been to third round Carling Cup games at home against League One opponents or Premier League away games, midweek, against the likes of Bolton) will get priority over those who only ever bother to apply for home games against Arsenal, Man United, Milan and Real Madrid.
Even if Stratford had become magically available for this game, it would have been WHU's ground. A few more well meaning, but ultimately lost, Spurs fans wouldn't have changed the minds of the OPLC.
ENIC/AEG and those who supported the move were played like a two bob banjo by the OPLC.
As for the ticket thing, typical Tottenham. Don't know why they don't go back to the system they had a few years back, where you could see the seat and if it were available or not in real time. Or how about physically queuing again? That used to sort the wheat from the chaff.
International break appears to turn all blogs into sleep zones. Where is everybody?
I agree that the system should be changed and be based on loyalty points. It is a joke. I was lucky enough to get 2 tickets albeit with restricted views in the east. I had 8 internet sessions across 3 pcs and I logged on at various times to see if it made a difference. Strangely my mobi got in first which I started running at 730am!
I think there are some simple steps in the interim to make it better
- have a priority period for bronze like they do with the PL games
- put an option on the website which let's it allocate any available seats by cost rather than selecting a stand. this is useful for big games where you know is going to be busy so you don't mind where you sit. They do that on the main ticketmaster site so why not here. Saves clicking on every single block to find available tickets
People just need to accept supply and demand is always going to be an issue. The club needs to make money - so they sell memberships.
Loyalty system won't work. Some people cannot afford to attend all games, up until 3 years ago I worked weekends, what was I meant to do, buy a ticket and sell it to a tout? Or just buy a ticket and not go?
And under a loyalty system would it be fair that to watch a CL game at WHL you would need to attend 10 other games minimum with a potential outlay of £500+? That's quite elitist really.
And that won't encourage the new supporters the club needs if it wants to expand and move to a bigger more expensive stadium.
Wigan away next week has gone to general sale. So the majority of ST holders and members could not care less about going to that game. We all have a big match mentality.
And finally Sevilla in the QF of the UEFA cup did not sell out, where were most of these people then?
Gloryhunters everywhere, I get tired of the complaining, watch it on the the telly and spend the money saved to support the club at Wigan instead - we need 3 points there for CL next year.
Diaz - you too have missed the point.
The complaints are about the utter inadequacy of the online ticketing system. People who logged in at 10.30 were getting tickets while people who logged in at 9.30 weren't. People would wait an hour and a half to access the ticket site and, just as they thought they were about to get in, they would suddenly find themselves put to the back of the queue. Random. Chaotic. Broken.
You think that's okay?
You want to excuse the club for such an inexcusable fuck up?
Seriously?
As to allocating tickets on the basis of loyalty points, it may not be perfect or entirely fair. But it is infinitely more fair than the complete lottery that we have now. How can it be right that someone should sign up as a member only days after the Real Madrid game (or Milan game) was announced - having attended no games in the past few years - and stand as much chance of getting a ticket as someone who has been to countless games, home and away, over the same period? It's not right. There should be a reward for loyalty.
I appreciate that there may be concerns that some members have earned so many loyalty points in the past that it would be impossible to catch them up and that, therefore, new members would never get the opportunity to go to the big games.
But the simple answer to that would be to implement a a more fluid loyalty point system. Instead of loyalty points accruing indefinitely, it should be on a rolling, five year basis. In other words, only the most recent five years of loyalty points count. Any points earned longer than five years ago would be erased. Similar to how UEFA coefficient points are calculated.
@ well well well
Im an idiot - I think you should have read my post where I say I had.............HAD a season ticket for 4 years yet when I reverted back to bronze membership because of other financial commitments I start off with 0 loyalty points.
I can't be bothered with name calling and being rude but I would advise you to read posts properly before telling people they are an idiot and a waste of air.
The ticketing web site is very poor and unpredictable at the best of times. Loyalty points would have been fairer (even though that would probably have counted me out, but I didn't get a ticket anyway so no harm done to people with lots of points). Failing that, a pure lottery for which you register in advance would waste less time and be less frustrating all round. At least the game is on proper telly and not on Sky.
Not that surprising the clubs website crashes/ freezes when it seems everyone trying to get a ticket is making multiple simultaneous attempts to get on the site.
I beleive some supporters queued up outside the ground all night to get a ticket and a lot of them were turned away empty handed the following morning.
Jim B - Not trying to excuse the club, just saying this demand is unusual = gloryhunters.
If every game had the same demand then yes, the club is to blame.
I know the limits of my own business, most clients orders 2-4 times a month, if they all ordered 2-4 times a day I would be royally screwed. Whose fault would that be?
Every now and then the world and his dog wants a ticket - and then each member trying to get 1 ticket also has between 1 and 6 computers trying to log in. You blame the club for that? I blame supply and demand.
I went on at 8am - got in at 10.30am and got 1 ticket, however I wanted two tickets so I let some other lucky fan get the ticket. My only hope would be that ticket ended up in the hands of a genuine fan rather than a tout.
Loyalty points system is too open to abuse. I know of an ST holder who has not been to a game in 2 years, but still has an ST and frequently buys tickets for away games which he passes on. His loyalty point total is massive - but he never goes to a game. Go figure that one out.
And I get the point of the article - I think you miss the point I am trying to make.
I find it incredibly sad that people like MartinH above has had to miss out on a ticket when I know for a fact that he visits WHL frequently. I asked on Twitter who was going to their first game of the season against Real Madrid surprisingly no one responded. However it's not the fans fault, I hope the club can see it in themselves to review this in time for next season and show that they do listen *holds breath*
Kudos to Spooky for bringing it to the public domain.
Kudos to the fans who reported on it. Power of twitter.
Funny how this arises for the Madrid game. No questions that the process is shambolic, but i'd recommend that everyone should get to apply and then we cut it out on loyalty points.
This doesn't effect me as a season ticket holder but id be devastated if i wasn't and i was denied a ticket at the expense of someone less loyal (in terms of games attended than me).
This is how the process should work and would solve the issues of 'this seat is taken' as the ground would allocate your seating after.