Went down to the ground today and spoke with the ticket office about Wembley. They are almost certain that the 2nd tier won't open due to the poor uptake of tickets. If you are hoping for Club Wembley seats (I'm included in that group), start making new plans!
Sorry @arnos_grove only just seen your reply. I managed to buy Cat 2 seats eventually on Wednesday this week. Right down the front near the halfway line. 👍️🙄
Well the people that actually sell the tickets & have been looking at the data, patterns, trends etc say different. Could this be another one of Rob's over-positive comments that amount to nothing?
I'm still holding out, but may look to book my tickets at the weekend. At least it sounds like there's tickets available down the side now.
As there's no hurry to book tickets, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another small surge towards the end of the month when people have been paid. I'd also hope that excitement in the town will start to build up over the Easter weekend and in the week leading up to the final. Still over 2 weeks to the match itself, so plenty of time to shift a few thousand more hopefully.
15k would be a fantastic achievement. It’s broadly what we took to Wembley against Southend - and that was a playoff final. I would have been pleased to finish with 12k sales!
The club have today announced that over 12,000 tickets have been sold. I would suspect at least another 3,000 tickets will be sold in 16 days especially as they have gone on general sale today.
@flymofrank Think it was about 23k-24k wasn't it? Much as we were completely outnumbered that day, it was an impressive turn out. Lower tier was sold out and we even had a couple of (admittedly sparsely populated) blocks in the upper tier. Think the middle tier was mostly sold out.
Not quite the levels of the early 90's and the crowds we took to the Trophy finals, although the play off against Preston was a lower turnout. It's easier to shift tickets for a cup final, just because the build up is so much longer. Play off you only have a couple of weeks at best.
Selling unwanted blocks to Sunderland fans, whilst a short term tactical commercial choice, massively undermined confidence both on the pitch and in the stands. A strange atmosphere where it really felt like we were just there to make up the numbers. Next time, and there will be a next time, let’s take the long term strategic view and keep our end as our end. That goes for ‘big’ clubs occupying part of the FA stand at home games as well (after all we no longer want to appear to be ‘little Wycombe’)😉
I tend to forget we had 22,000 at Wembley for the Sunderland game. Partly it was my seat below the tier 2 floor, which meant I couldn't see (or hear) anything from the level above. It just felt like I was looking up at a wall of red and white. I wouldn't want to be in that position again, but have no idea how much pressure was applied by Sunderland / EFL etc - did we have the right to tell them to do one?
have to say I am very much of the view that if a football supporter wants to watch a game and there are seats available, he should be allowed to watch the game.
Yeah I didn't have any problem with Sunderland getting those extra tickets. The match itself was rather forgettable from a Wycombe point of view, but watching us play in front of 72k+ was quite special.
Completely disagree. It would have been a very bad look to deny Sunderland fans tickets which we wouldn't have sold. At the end of the day, football is entertainment, and people should be able to watch it if they can
I lean towards @perfidious_albion 's position on this while not discounting the alternative views. The MK issue isn't comparable as we weren't asking to have 2/3rds of their stadium.
I'm certain that Wembley takeover had an impact on both teams' performances.
But as we have seen recently, the Gasroom tends towards wanting us to become the Corinthian Casuals of the EFL. 'Nice training ground going cheap? Absolutely not if it means inconveniencing our friendly enemy. In fact, it's made me so cross I'll jolly well write a stern letter about it'.
Comments
No overtime ban on the Sunday, I understand.
Is there a day in this country when the trains aren't cock-eyed? My last three journeys on our glorious network have included:
a) major signal failure and a 'do not travel' mandate
b) cancelled reservations requiring standing from Grantham to Kings Cross
c) two cancelled trains before mine requiring standing from Birmingham to Nottingham
Thats why going on the Tube is a better plan of action
👋
Went down to the ground today and spoke with the ticket office about Wembley. They are almost certain that the 2nd tier won't open due to the poor uptake of tickets. If you are hoping for Club Wembley seats (I'm included in that group), start making new plans!
Need the Reading fans to come in clutch, as I believe the youngsters say.
Sorry @arnos_grove only just seen your reply. I managed to buy Cat 2 seats eventually on Wednesday this week. Right down the front near the halfway line. 👍️🙄
Rob Couhig on YouTube last night said the club are planning for “15-20,000” fans. In which case the second tier would be opened.
I like Rob, but I factor in a boost of at least 20% when it comes to such claims. Still about 2,000 tickets to sell before the upper tier gets opened.
Well the people that actually sell the tickets & have been looking at the data, patterns, trends etc say different. Could this be another one of Rob's over-positive comments that amount to nothing?
I've caved but that number doesn't seem unattainable in a couple of weeks where the build up will gather noise.
I'm still holding out, but may look to book my tickets at the weekend. At least it sounds like there's tickets available down the side now.
As there's no hurry to book tickets, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another small surge towards the end of the month when people have been paid. I'd also hope that excitement in the town will start to build up over the Easter weekend and in the week leading up to the final. Still over 2 weeks to the match itself, so plenty of time to shift a few thousand more hopefully.
15k would be a fantastic achievement. It’s broadly what we took to Wembley against Southend - and that was a playoff final. I would have been pleased to finish with 12k sales!
How many did we take to the last playoff final?
The club have today announced that over 12,000 tickets have been sold. I would suspect at least another 3,000 tickets will be sold in 16 days especially as they have gone on general sale today.
Looks like 11650 sold from the ticket website as of now.
@flymofrank Think it was about 23k-24k wasn't it? Much as we were completely outnumbered that day, it was an impressive turn out. Lower tier was sold out and we even had a couple of (admittedly sparsely populated) blocks in the upper tier. Think the middle tier was mostly sold out.
Not quite the levels of the early 90's and the crowds we took to the Trophy finals, although the play off against Preston was a lower turnout. It's easier to shift tickets for a cup final, just because the build up is so much longer. Play off you only have a couple of weeks at best.
~22,000, out of the total attendance of 72k
Selling unwanted blocks to Sunderland fans, whilst a short term tactical commercial choice, massively undermined confidence both on the pitch and in the stands. A strange atmosphere where it really felt like we were just there to make up the numbers. Next time, and there will be a next time, let’s take the long term strategic view and keep our end as our end. That goes for ‘big’ clubs occupying part of the FA stand at home games as well (after all we no longer want to appear to be ‘little Wycombe’)😉
I tend to forget we had 22,000 at Wembley for the Sunderland game. Partly it was my seat below the tier 2 floor, which meant I couldn't see (or hear) anything from the level above. It just felt like I was looking up at a wall of red and white. I wouldn't want to be in that position again, but have no idea how much pressure was applied by Sunderland / EFL etc - did we have the right to tell them to do one?
Presumably you weren't one of the many people that complained about MK not selling additional tickets to Wycombe fans in their home playoff game?
have to say I am very much of the view that if a football supporter wants to watch a game and there are seats available, he should be allowed to watch the game.
I agree 100%
It would have been remarkably petty not to allow Sunderland to have those seats
And would be highly hypocritical after the ‘sporting advantage’ clapbacks at MK Dons following the semi final
Yeah I didn't have any problem with Sunderland getting those extra tickets. The match itself was rather forgettable from a Wycombe point of view, but watching us play in front of 72k+ was quite special.
Completely disagree. It would have been a very bad look to deny Sunderland fans tickets which we wouldn't have sold. At the end of the day, football is entertainment, and people should be able to watch it if they can
Each to their own. Generous spirited bunch. Clearly AP shouldn’t be a fortress, it’s an alternative day out to a soft play kids facility. My mistake.
As for the MK ‘sporting advantage!I actually enjoyed it, splitting us in two helped our dogged determination on the day. And the players responded.
If you believe the small band of Reading fans on Twitter we've added at least...erm...20 extra sales. Some even come with added malice.
https://x.com/ChrisElm1871/status/1771145509429756197?s=20
I lean towards @perfidious_albion 's position on this while not discounting the alternative views. The MK issue isn't comparable as we weren't asking to have 2/3rds of their stadium.
I'm certain that Wembley takeover had an impact on both teams' performances.
But as we have seen recently, the Gasroom tends towards wanting us to become the Corinthian Casuals of the EFL. 'Nice training ground going cheap? Absolutely not if it means inconveniencing our friendly enemy. In fact, it's made me so cross I'll jolly well write a stern letter about it'.
Take care everybody. A bloke on X has said he has bought a ticket and Wycombe fans should fear for their safety.
Wycombe vs Peterborough/Reading is going to make Boca Juniors/River Plate look like the soft play kids facility mentioned in the previous post.