Post by Macmoish on Jun 6, 2011 9:23:14 GMT
Swansea Evening Post
Swansea City fans hit out at stadium’s ticket sales process
By julia bosnyak
AFTER hours of queuing, hundreds of fans have been left disappointed after supply failed to meet demand for the hottest sporting ticket in town.
On Saturday, Swansea City Football Club confirmed that the last 2,000 season tickets had officially sold out following record "sales of 16,000 after they went on sale at the beginning of March to new and existing holders".[/b
]Thousands of Swans supporters from across Wales queued for hours on Friday and Saturday, braving the scorching sunshine in the hope of getting their hands on a Premier League ticket.
And while for many the waiting paid off, others who failed to get tickets have been left feeling angry and frustrated.
Dad-of-three, Simon Richards, 36, of Maesteg said after queuing for more than 24 hours he failed to get tickets for himself and his brother. "We've never had season tickets before," he said. "Ordinarily, I'd never queue like this for anything, but we went to Wembley and decided there and then we had to have them."
Mr Richards said he was "bitterly disappointed" not to get tickets.
He added that he felt his mistake had been not to stay overnight on Friday.
"They issued us with red bands and told us it was best to come back on Saturday morning. But some people camped overnight on Friday, so when I came back I ended up being behind people who I had been in front of on the day before."
A statement on the club's website, said: "Due to the huge demand for the remaining 2,000 season tickets, the club was forced to cut the queue at the Liberty Stadium on Friday and introduce a wristband system depending on their priority positioning in the queue. "And with an estimated 10-hour waiting time, supporters were encouraged to return on a stipulated day depending on the colour of their wristband."
Supporters with green wristbands had first priority, while red came second and yellow were third.
The statement added that all season tickets had sold out with the "40 people with red wristbands who failed to get a ticket placed on a waiting list for returns and finance refusals."
Steve Sheriff, 52, of Birchgrove was one of the lucky fans who managed to get two season tickets, after being issued a red wristband and camping out at the stadium on Friday night.
He said he first turned up at the stadium at 6am on Friday, and eventually got his tickets at 12.15pm on Saturday.
On Friday stadium officials asked South Wales Police for help. Officers remained all day as tempers frayed, sunburn kicked in, and the queue inched along.
Sergeant Chris Davies, who was present at the stadium throughout the queuing, implemented the wristband colour scheme.
Many fans praised the police presence at the scene while waiting for the ticket doors to reopen at 10am on Saturday.
Andrew Hire, 28, from Pontarddulais, said that most of the information about what was going on with the ticketing had come from police.
But he and many others expressed anger towards stadium officials about "a lack of staff presence and a lack of information given".
Another angry fan emailed the Evening Post branding the way the sale of the last 2,000 tickets had been controlled as "totally unacceptable".
www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Angry-fans-hit-stadium-s-ticket-sales/article-3629158-detail/article.html
