‘Coach Tim can we watch Chelsea on our London tour?’…’For £1,800.00 we can’…

…Live football is getting further away from the normal fan, the family & it is simply losing touch with the passionate fans.  As clubs look to charge big money to help pay the crazy wages of their so called super stars they would rather the real supporters & families stay at home.  Why?  Well they would rather sell their seats as hospitality & make more £££…’it is an expensive business’ as Chelsea FC box office informed me on a recent telephone conversation.

The Background…

Is football clubs out pricing themselves for the next generation of fans?

My Twitter friend, Hugo Langton, has kindly organised a tour to London for my academy to play against his.  We also play Fulham.  Keen to organise activities & more great experiences for my players I wanted to take them to a Barclays Premier League game.  As a cross community group from Northern Ireland with children coming from different backgrounds I thought I’d do my best to see what clubs could offer them an experience of watching a live Premiership game.  After checking the fixtures (along with 2 of the boys in the Academy supporting Chelsea!) I sent an email to Chelsea FC to see if they could provide tickets for their home game against West Brom.  What I am about to share with you will show the amazing difference in how clubs operate…

After receiving no reply from my email to Chelsea FC I thought I would phone them.  I phoned the box office & spoke with a member of their staff.  I explained who we were & what we wanted to do.  She quickly informed me that Chelsea FC offer no group discount.  I then asked her what tickets she had available for their game against West Brom.  She informed me she had seats available at the top of the Matthew Harding stand.  Obviously not the best seats in the house but the main thing was for our kids to experience a live Premiership game.  So how much would these tickets at the top of the stand cost us?  ‘£70.00 per ticket Mr Wareing.’

Shocking…

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!  I asked about child discount but was quickly informed there was none!  So for each father to take their son to the Chelsea game it would cost £140!  Some of the dads have 2 children on the tour – it would cost £210!  This is before the match programme, food, drink & the normal visit to the club shop.  For me to take my party of 14 children & 11 adults it would cost a staggering £1,750.00! This is for 1 game, 90 minutes & not meaning any disrespect to West Brom but you would hardly call it a premium game.  I was so frustrated & asked the box office that surely they would have cheaper tickets or assist a group of children?  Well her reply was casual & how Chelsea FC operate, ‘It’s an expensive business.’ For an extra £48 it would offer some of the best seats in the house, a 4 course meal, drinks & entertainment.  Although the best line hadn’t come.  When I pressed for Chelsea to be more accommodating I was then informed to phone West Brom!  Yes, you are reading that right.  Even though it is Chelsea’s house & I want to visit they informed me to contact the away side for better priced tickets!

I was so disgusted I phoned the main number I could find for Chelsea FC, I got as far as reception.  I suggested I spoke to the community department or someone further up.  I simply wasted my time, not that Chelsea FC minded – they had me on their premium line!  So my last resort was to send an email.

The email to Chelsea FC…

Subject: Disappointed

The only credit I will offer Chelsea FC is that they phoned me the very next morning.  ‘Graham’ informed me they have a family stand that normally fills instantly which means that premium tickets, like the ones we were offered, is generally all that is available for general sale.  He also informed me that they do a lot in the local community & they have done a lot of free coaching in Asia (that I am sure is to boast shirt sales!) & that they offer ‘cheap’ tickets for Carling Cup & the FA Cup.

I informed Graham that it all sounds very good but how does this help a group from Northern Ireland that can only attend the West Brom game that weekend?  Unfortunately we can’t offer anything apart from the £70 tickets.  That was that.  Nothing.  Not even a suggestion of come along for a stadium tour or anything else.  It left me feeling very bitter towards Chelsea.

West Brom FC…

I did take Chelsea FC Box Office advice & phoned West Brom.  I decided to click on the number to speak to the community department.  It was 4.53pm on a Monday afternoon yet a lovely woman called Jan answered my call.

During the next 20 minute call I found out the following;

• Jan purchased tickets for the West Brom end at Chelsea for herself & son.  Her son’s ticket only cost £25!  She was shocked & angered at how Chelsea FC dealt with my request.
• She informed me that West Brom offer visiting youth groups a £25 match day ticket.  I butted in saying that was great but Jan told me to ‘hold on luvy, I haven’t finished’.  This £25 offered a coaching session by a West Brom coach, the Premier League game & a stadium tour!  Bloody hell, this is how all Premier League clubs should operate.
• Jan took my details & informed me she would contact Chelsea FC along with other London clubs that may accommodate us.

This was customer service.  I felt important & that Jan couldn’t do enough for me.  I have a new love for West Brom FC!  I am also going to look at taking my academy side over to a West Brom game this season!  I haven’t heard back from Jan yet but for sure will add comments to this blog piece to keep you all updated.

Other London Clubs at home…

My next move was to check to see what other Premiership, Championship & League 1 clubs were at home on Saturday 20 August or Sunday 21 August.

Premiership

• Arsenal vs Liverpool
• Chelsea vs West Brom
  

Championship

• Reading vs Barnsley
• West Ham vs Leeds
  

League 1

• Charlton vs Scunthorpe
• MK Dons vs Chesterfield

I sent the following email on Tuesday 2 August at 2am…

Subject: Youth Academy from Belfast to attend a game…

‘Dear Sirs

I have a party of 25 including 14 children along with parents & coaches.  The academy is mixed.  It brings children from both sides of the community together; catholic & protestant.  There is also a mix in terms of personal background.  Some come from dis-advantaged areas with some parents out of work.

I would appreciate if you could help source match tickets & / or a friendly or coaching session on the Sunday morning / early afternoon.  I see from your fixtures you are due to play XXX

Thank you for your time reading this & I look forward to your speedy, but favourable reply.’

The response…

Arsenal…First of all I struggled to find an email address on the club website for tickets.  I ended up having to send the request through to ‘disability@arsenalXXXX’.  They don’t seem to welcome supporters to get in touch with them.  Arsenal seem to want people to find the answer to their query on a ‘frequently asked questions’ section on their site!

I got this reply on Thursday 4 August at 2.10pm (2 day response)

‘Dear Mr Wareing,

Many thanks for your recent email which was forwarded on to the Arsenal Academy.

I am sorry but we are unable to help you with your request for match tickets.

On behalf of Arsenal FC may I take this opportunity to wish you an enjoyable and successful visit to London.’

Reading…Received a reply on Wednesday that looked promising but haven’t had any further contact?  * UPDATE * I received a telephone call from Reading on Friday 5 August.  They are able to offer us a ‘Match Day Experience’ with group discount.  £20 for adults, £15 for 17-21 year olds & £7.50 for U16′s.  This allows pitch side access for photos & a tour around the ground along with the game.  They are also looking to source a game for us on the Sunday against their Academy!

‘Hi Shelley please could you sort out reasonable priced tickets for Tim and I will speak to Chris/Ryan about a game.

Thanks very much

Kind Regards

XXX

Office Manager’

West Ham…I had already contacted West Ham & again I received the same automated email the next day from my email.  It basically informed me that members get first choice.  If there was tickets left they could offer us them but to do that I need to supply them with my credit card!  No thanks!  So the club that have just been relegated & boast about their youth academy but do very little in terms to assist other elite youth players.  Here is that email…

‘Dear supporter

Thank you for your recently enquiry,

We can offer you the chance to purchase these tickets, however our members have priority purchasing so if this fixture sells out to our members we will not be able to complete your purchase.

We would require;

1)Seating details where you would like to sit , please note that for bulk booking we can usually only offer band 2-3 in the West or East or Bobby Moore Upper , these will be situated in the corners of the stand

2)The age bracket of the people attending the fixture and how many are coming

3)A full postal address so we can send the tickets to you as soon as they have been processed

4)Full payment details

We will ask if you could forward the relevant information via post and then we will try and allocate these seats for you once the game goes on general sale

You can also telephone the call centre 0n 0871 222 2700 via option 3 and the customer service team will be able to process these for you, however they will not be able to sell these seats until the game has reached general sale dates can be found on the website for the upcoming fixture, some may not be on the website as of yet, but please revisit nearer the fixture as the website will be updated as soon as we have the information

Fixture information and pricing

The fixtures currently available can be found here; http://www.whufc.com/page/TicketNews/

If the fixture you require is not on the above link then we do not have the information available at this time, please check back nearer the fixture as these are usually made available 6-8 weeks prior to the fixture .

Ticket prices can be found here;

http://www.whufc.com/page/MatchTickets/0,,12562,00.html

We hope this information helps and you manage to gain the tickets you desire

Kind regards

Ticket office’

Charlton…They replied on Wednesday at 4pm with the most positive response…

‘Dear Tim

Thanks for getting in touch.

We would really like to welcome your group to our game against Scunthorpe on 20^th August 2011.  We would be able to offer you our group rate of £5.00 per person (including adults) for this game.  If you give me a call on xxxxxxxxxx, I can organise this for you.

Kind regards.

XXX

Club Development

Charlton Athletic Football Club’

MK Dons…* UPDATE * Received a reply on Friday 5 August…

‘Hi Tim,

Thanks for the e-mail.

I have forwarded your e-mail on to relevant members of staff regarding the ticketing request.

Unfortunately, the Academy department is unable to help with your request as we have pre season games; however, we hope our SET department may be able to help with a coaching session.

I have asked the relevant members of staff to respond to you.

Many Thanks’

Our Academy tour last year to Holland offered us great rates for stadium tour & a game at PSV Eindhoven

Summary…

Related posts:

1. Tour to Holland
2. 2010 Review
3. Coach Tim’s Academy Session
4. Coach Tim’s Session Notes
5. Do you coach enough 1 v 1′s?

2 Responses to “‘Coach Tim can we watch Chelsea on our London tour?’…’For £1,800.00 we can’…”

1. Will O says:

   August 5, 2011 at 11:01 am

   Hi, I live in South-East London and see matches at clubs all around the city and home counties through the season. Charlton is a fantastic place to go with youths. It’s a friendly atmosphere, U18 tickets are incredibly cheap relative to other league clubs, and the stadium is fairly impressive (although often very sparsely filled!).

   Chelsea and Arsenal are disgusting. Their ticket prices are wildly high, but that is the way with all the Premier League London teams, including QPR and my own team, Spurs.

   The West Ham game you refer to looks like it will be an entertaining one. The Hammers have a perplexing pricing system, but they are very flexible and often offer deals for groups & families, so if you can actually get in contact with someone there, then you might have a chance of getting some well-priced tickets!

   Reading have a nice ground with a good atmosphere. I certainly recommend them if you can get well-priced tickets.

   Good luck,
   Will
2. admin says:

   August 5, 2011 at 11:06 am

   Will, thank you for your very detailed reply.

   I love the pricing structure of Charlton, they have offered us a great deal as have Reading with their Match Experience.

   I’ll be contacting the parents & kids to let them decide where they want to go. It just goes to show you the difference between clubs attitudes.

   Some treat you as a number (or maybe how much will you speand with us!) while others show an interest in you & welcome you to their home as a guest : )

   T