Dot Counting Watford Home Ticket Thread Saturday 15 March (3.00pm)

Attendance tracking
christenedinjericho said:
If you think the NS is bad....from my seat in the NS the SSU has more blue seats (empty) than the tory party had in the last GE!

And the SSL has..................shed 'the operative word here' loads too.

And, please don't tell me the ol' chestnut that the seats are taken in the SSL, but everyone congregates to the back by the executive boxes and sings 'sunshine on leith'...sorry leys.

COYY'S.
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There are empty seats in the South Stand, but apart from the front row SSL seats that are not usually sold due to wheelchair use, I don't think it's anywhere near as many. I counted about 60/80 in the whole South Stand (in the picture above) which includes the wheelchair ones. That's 60/80 out of 4,500 seats as opposed to over 100 out of 1,100 NS Family Area seats, a big percentage difference.

I think there will always be a number of people who can't make it, and there is probably a standard "wastage" figure at football matches, but what I'm trying to shine a light on is the large number of seats in a certain area that are ALWAYS empty. I suspect this is due to them costing next to nothing, thereby having no "value" to the season ticket holder, meaning they can't be bothered to attend, or put them on Ticket Exchange.

This is what needs looking at, and I don't think we should let a much smaller number of empty seats (some in quite expensive areas of the ground) cloud the issue. We can argue talk about it on the way to Norwich! :ROFLMAO:
 
Scotchegg said:
Game away at Barnsley mid 90's - the coldest I've every experienced a game. SSU pushes that close all year round!
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Coldest I've ever been at a game was an England kids friendly v Denmark I think it was, at The Manor. The temperature guage on the Cuckoo Lane was reading -9 that night. Just over a thousand in the ground for the game, absolutely bloody freezing.

Although to make up for it I was in the Smarts Chippy queue behind Kenny Dalglish afterwards. He was obviously doing a run as he left with 2 carrier bags full of food.

Edit: It was an U19 game, on 6th February 1991. England 1 Denmark 5.

England Team: I Walker (GK), D. Sutch, S Minto, I Hendon (c), D Tuttle, N Whitworth, J Kavanagh, A Cole, S McManaman, A Newhouse, B Small.
 
Scotchegg said:
Game away at Barnsley mid 90's - the coldest I've every experienced a game. SSU pushes that close all year round!
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The open away supporters terrace at Port Vale (before the “improvements). A freezing wind sweeping across from the Potteries. A threadbare turnout so noone to huddle behind.
And a 2-1 defeat so bloody miserable.
 
Colin B said:
There are empty seats in the South Stand, but apart from the front row SSL seats that are not usually sold due to wheelchair use, I don't think it's anywhere near as many. I counted about 60/80 in the whole South Stand (in the picture above) which includes the wheelchair ones. That's 60/80 out of 4,500 seats as opposed to over 100 out of 1,100 NS Family Area seats, a big percentage difference.

I think there will always be a number of people who can't make it, and there is probably a standard "wastage" figure at football matches, but what I'm trying to shine a light on is the large number of seats in a certain area that are ALWAYS empty. I suspect this is due to them costing next to nothing, thereby having no "value" to the season ticket holder, meaning they can't be bothered to attend, or put them on Ticket Exchange.

This is what needs looking at, and I don't think we should let a much smaller number of empty seats (some in quite expensive areas of the ground) cloud the issue. We can argue talk about it on the way to Norwich! :ROFLMAO:
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No need to talk about it, because from where we sit, the same bare patches are there it seems every week! If we, god forbid, were releg***d, the whole upper deck next season would be near on bald lol.

Perhaps, if you chose one game (except Leeds) to sit next to me, instead of rubber necking from your lofty perch hob nobbing, you'll see it for yourself lol.🫣🤢👺

See you Friday!

COYY'S
 
SteMerritt said:
Coldest I've ever been at a game was an England kids friendly v Denmark I think it was, at The Manor. The temperature guage on the Cuckoo Lane was reading -9 that night. Just over a thousand in the ground for the game, absolutely bloody freezing.

Although to make up for it I was in the Smarts Chippy queue behind Kenny Dalglish afterwards. He was obviously doing a run as he left with 2 carrier bags full of food.

Edit: It was an U19 game, on 6th February 1991. England 1 Denmark 5.

England Team: I Walker (GK), D. Sutch, S Minto, I Hendon (c), D Tuttle, N Whitworth, J Kavanagh, A Cole, S McManaman, A Newhouse, B Small.
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Its always like a refrigerated morgue in the breeze block (SSL especially) even when its fairly high temperature outside

The coldest Ive been at a match at the Breeze block was for an early round fa cup match, last season ( I think), maybe v Grimsby? - had to go in SSU due to only limited seats/ parts of stands open - I had thermals on, multi tayers of clothes, 2 pairs of socks, and even then the bitter cold got in

Can never recall being all that cold at the Manor - including on a couple of occasions as a youngster answering the call to clear snow off the pitch so matches could go ahead.
As you get older, well as Ive got older for sure, I seem to feel the cold more than in my younger years

The coldest Ive been at an away game is close run - either Accrington Stanley ( under MApp) on a baltic February evening ( lost 1-0 conceding right at the death!), or a similarly baltic evening match ( paint pot/ pizza trophy ) at Exeter ( where I met @Belgium Yellow ), it was so cold the sargemobiles central locking system/ key fob gave up the ghost after the game ( we lost on pens)
 
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Colin B said:
Currently 359 tickets left, but the inadequacies of our ticketing system remain.

Of the 359 seats remaining only 159 of them are in groups of two or more, meaning there are exactly 200 single seats out of 359, or over 55%. This will inhibit sales of the remaining seats, as most people don't want a single seat. It really needs looking into, as I've previously mentioned.

Another thing that needs looking at are the empty seats, particularly in the NS family area, when we have a Sell Out. On Saturday the ticket site was showing less than 20 seats available in the NS, but (sad individual that I am) I counted the empty seats there from my position in the SSU. I counted well over 100 in the NS family blocks alone, and many of these were in rows, or groups, together. I think if someone has a child season ticket (or two) in that area, but cannot or does not want to attend a game, the ticket exchange offers no real incentive to put the tickets up for re-sale, due to the incredibly cheap cost of the kids season tickets, and therefore paltry amount that would be paid out for doing so. The upshot of this is that we have a couple of hundred empty seats for a Sold Out game every time.

These seats appear to be pretty much the same ones every time too. I think there is a case that the owners of these season tickets clearly don't value them and they are denying somebody else the chance to attend. They are neither attending themselves, nor putting the tickets on the exchange, and I know this will upset some, but I think it's pretty selfish behaviour. If you're going to get a massive discount on your kids' seats then I don't think it's unreasonable to have some sensible conditions applied. I feel some sort of "three strikes and you're out" policy wouldn't be unreasonable in these cases.

For clarity, I have nothing against kids, or kids at football, and think the next generation should be encouraged, but I don't think we're doing it correctly, if someone can buy a young child a seat for the season for a tenner and then hardly ever attend.
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Just under 24 hours later and we now have 294 seats left, meaning we've sold 65 in that period.

What is interesting though, is that of the remaining seats 195 are single seats. Without going on and on like a long playing record, this means we've sold 60 seats in twos or more, and only 5 single seats out of the 65. I feel this is a clear indication that the system needs to be adjusted to avoid leaving single seats, wherever possible, as people want to sit with their friends and not alone.
 
Colin B said:
Just under 24 hours later and we now have 294 seats left, meaning we've sold 65 in that period.

What is interesting though, is that of the remaining seats 195 are single seats. Without going on and on like a long playing record, this means we've sold 60 seats in twos or more, and only 5 single seats out of the 65. I feel this is a clear indication that the system needs to be adjusted to avoid leaving single seats, wherever possible, as people want to sit with their friends and not alone.
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Last night we were at 258 seats left.

Of the last 100 sales, 87 were in groups, and only 13 singles. Given that we now have only 72 seats in groups, and 186 singles left I'd expect sales to slow once the 72 have gone. We'll then only have singles (just under 200 of them) left, and as previously mentioned, these go very slowly. I'd expect the Ticket Exchange to open once the 72 are gone. We'll also probably see some more club tickets become available in Blocks 9 and 12 at some point.

It will sell out, as it's a very similar pattern to Coventry, but we don't make it easy for anyone who wants to buy a couple of tickets together in the week leading up to the game.
 
Colin B said:
Last night we were at 258 seats left.

Of the last 100 sales, 87 were in groups, and only 13 singles. Given that we now have only 72 seats in groups, and 186 singles left I'd expect sales to slow once the 72 have gone. We'll then only have singles (just under 200 of them) left, and as previously mentioned, these go very slowly. I'd expect the Ticket Exchange to open once the 72 are gone. We'll also probably see some more club tickets become available in Blocks 9 and 12 at some point.

It will sell out, as it's a very similar pattern to Coventry, but we don't make it easy for anyone who wants to buy a couple of tickets together in the week leading up to the game.
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Despite having people with decades of ticket management experience working for us.
 
Colin B said:
Just under 24 hours later and we now have 294 seats left, meaning we've sold 65 in that period.

What is interesting though, is that of the remaining seats 195 are single seats. Without going on and on like a long playing record, this means we've sold 60 seats in twos or more, and only 5 single seats out of the 65. I feel this is a clear indication that the system needs to be adjusted to avoid leaving single seats, wherever possible, as people want to sit with their friends and not alone.
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Perhaps like the theatre system where you can't buy a seat if it leaves one on its own?
Not sure how many free tickets there are for Sheffield United which has just gone on sale to Old Gold, and how many of those are already "single" seats.

Any dot counters able to see?
 
MarkG said:
Perhaps like the theatre system where you can't buy a seat if it leaves one on its own?
Not sure how many free tickets there are for Sheffield United which has just gone on sale to Old Gold, and how many of those are already "single" seats.

Any dot counters able to see?
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Unfortunately as a mere season ticket holder I'm not allowed to see yet. But I think @The Curragh Of Kildare is a member, so gets to see a week or so before me?
 
Colin B said:
Unfortunately as a mere season ticket holder I'm not allowed to see yet. But I think @The Curragh Of Kildare is a member, so gets to see a week or so before me?
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I haven't started a dot counting ticket thread for Sheffield United as I think that is one of the official dot counters' privileges.

Anyway, would be interesting to see the two seats / one seat situation as soon as the tickets go on sale. So how many seats are already blocked as a single seat. There isn't much the club can do at this stage of the season as they are presumably surrounded by season ticket holders.
 
Watford ticket sales update at 4pm Thursday

277 home seats available in total - 244 original seats and 33 exchange seats following the opening of the facility earlier today. The number of exchange seats will go up (usually settles around 100) while the original total will go down (until any block 9/12 seats are released).

Plenty of pairs of seats together now in different sections.

Will be a complete sell out and a sell out plus!
 
Manorlounger said:
The Loungers two seats in the SSU went on sale via the exchange yesterday, within 2 hours, both sold. Club makes £50, we get £20 credit against next season's season ticket. It's a win, win however, would have appreciated a little more win for us!
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Really?

You paid, I presume, £350 for a SSU Premium over 65 renewal? Pro-rata of £15 per game over 23 League games?

And you got £10 back for that.

What did you expect? £12? £13? Or did you expect to make a profit?
 
SirAndyOfCrosby said:
Really?

You paid, I presume, £350 for a SSU Premium over 65 renewal? Pro-rata of £15 per game over 23 League games?

And you got £10 back for that.

What did you expect? £12? £13? Or did you expect to make a profit?
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If the club are selling our seats for £35.00 each, having already sold them to us for a pro-rata rate of £15.00 a game then the club is now looking at an income of £50.00 for each seat. If the example set by Brentford FC were followed, then a pro-rata payment of the seat's value over a season would be paid. i.e. £15.00 (that payment follows whether the seats are sold or not)
Brentford FC Exchange

I'm sorry you see this differently. We are, of course, pleased that we can see a credit for being unable to use our seats and equally pleased that someone else can enjoy them. We had, originally offered our seats, free of charge, to another forum member so, we are not simply looking for payment. (They had obtained tickets in the interim period so did not need ours)

By the way, you may wish to re-read my original comment, digest the content and then maybe, come to the conclusion that there was an element of humour in the post. Failing that, I'm not sure that I can assist any further.
 
Manorlounger said:
If the club are selling our seats for £35.00 each, having already sold them to us for a pro-rata rate of £15.00 a game then the club is now looking at an income of £50.00 for each seat. If the example set by Brentford FC were followed, then a pro-rata payment of the seat's value over a season would be paid. i.e. £15.00 (that payment follows whether the seats are sold or not)
Brentford FC Exchange

I'm sorry you see this differently. We are, of course, pleased that we can see a credit for being unable to use our seats and equally pleased that someone else can enjoy them. We had, originally offered our seats, free of charge, to another forum member so, we are not simply looking for payment. (They had obtained tickets in the interim period so did not need ours)

By the way, you may wish to re-read my original comment, digest the content and then maybe, come to the conclusion that there was an element of humour in the post. Failing that, I'm not sure that I can assist any further.
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How do you only get £10 per ticket credit? I get £15 for an adult east stand ticket. Seems reasonable as that’s just under 1/23 of the season ticket. If I got more like face value I could just put my seat for exchange every match and make money on it.
 
MarkG said:
How do you only get £10 per ticket credit? I get £15 for an adult east stand ticket. Seems reasonable as that’s just under 1/23 of the season ticket. If I got more like face value I could just put my seat for exchange every match and make money on it.
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£10 is the going rate for an over 65 concession SSU premium seat. Full price would give a return of £19.

I also think it a little harsh on those purchasing our seats. Regardless of their circumstances, there are no concessionary rates. (Hence why we also thought it would be nicer to help someone else by 'lending' them our seats)

Regardless of all that though, we are still pleased to get something for our seats when we are unable to attend and, of course, it allows someone else to see a game or maybe get a taste of sitting somewhere else for a change.
 
Manorlounger said:
For interest and reference, this is the OUFC exchange system explained. Ticket exchange
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Ok sounds like you’ve got a bargain for arguably the best seats in the house.

Not sure how the ticket forwarding works ? Think it opens up same time as the ticket exchange if at all. Or how it deals with concessions vs full price.
 
MarkG said:
Ok sounds like you’ve got a bargain for arguably the best seats in the house.

Not sure how the ticket forwarding works ? Think it opens up same time as the ticket exchange if at all. Or how it deals with concessions vs full price.
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You can forward a ticket to anyone in your network*. They do still have to pay the difference in price. e.g. My ticket is an over 65 concession. If I wish to forward to someone who should pay full price, I make up the difference via the ticket site.
www.oufc.co.uk

Ticket Forwarding & Upgrades | Oxford United Football Club

www.oufc.co.uk www.oufc.co.uk

*They would have to join your network if not already listed - That requires a fan number, quite simple to set up.
 
Just did a total count of tickets available for the Sheffield Utd match, which became available to Members this afternoon.

Overall there are 1,806 home seats currently available of which 303 are single seats and the remaining 1,503 are connected.

By Stand

North 106 single and 307 connected - 413 in total
East 99 single and 165 connected - 264 in total
South Upper 64 single and 262 connected - 326 in total
South Lower 34 single and 769 connected - 803 in total
 
158 original seats and 49 exchange seats left.

Only single seats now, no pairs or groups at all, either in the original seats or exchange seats. As the supply reduces, sales will slow, but we're still shifting about 50 a day of these odds and ends. I suspect when the inevitable extra seats are released by the club in a few days time, in blocks 9 and 12, they will sell immediately.

I have to say, as great as it is to sell out every week, it makes the dot counting experience much less fun, and much more predictable.
 
Colin B said:
It will sell out, as it's a very similar pattern to Coventry, but we don't make it easy for anyone who wants to buy a couple of tickets together in the week leading up to the game.
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But beggars can't be choosers - leave it that late and you've got to take what you can get!
 
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