Good afternoon.
Today I am finally glad to see your corrupt system exposed and highlighted in the mainstream media.
Your ticketing policies and unfit system has been a disgrace over the last decade and undoubtedly became worse since the takeover of our club.
I shall start with the hot topic of the upcoming fixture vs Barcelona -
Tickets are available in abundance on certain 3rd party websites for extortionate prices. Not only are they available they are available in groups of 3’s and 4’s if you so wish to spend that kind of money.
If you believe the supporters of this great club are naive enough to believe that 4 ST holders are collaborating together to make a few extra quid at the cost of missing out on one of our most anticipated fixtures in years, then you need to seriously reconsider.
It is totally apparent that you are holding back tickets to sell onto these sites.
Your greed has already been shown with the increase of price and number of available hospitality tickets (a seat that would have been a standard ticket last season I may add).
Throwing in a meal down the road at local restaurant does not equate to tickets going from £70 to over £700. It’s pure greed, and in turn takes away opportunity for everyday working folk of the North East to attend fixtures.
You claim today through the media to have cancelled 45 season tickets. Will those ST tickets go to someone else? Or will they just go onto these sites for you to profiteer a little more money out of people?
What has become very clear over the last few years is that you couldn’t care less about ST holders, in fact you want as little as possible in the ground so you can sell each ticket at an inflated absurd price. I hope the day never comes when you really need that constant stream of revenue through STs.
Memberships - Selling over 100k memberships for people to squabble over around 10k tickets is absolute lunacy and just another money making scheme. Made completely worse by a ‘ballot’ system with zero transparency.
Website - Speaking of zero transparency, the away ticketing process is now also a closed process which allows you to cream tickets from the allocation. Taking away from loyal supporters who’ve attended fixtures up and down the country far longer than you’ve been ruining this whole system.
3000 corporate tickets as an example for Sunderland away early last year. You’re having a laugh aren’t you?
Sat in the away end with people who couldn’t even tell me the last time we played Sunderland. An utter shambles.
Then you have a nerve to add in little sneaky T&C’s at the beginning of this season saying if someone doesn’t take up their ST 5 times this season you’ll be taking it off them. I wonder why that is 💰 god forbid anyone ever became ill or served in the armed forces and ended up away for a short spell as two examples. (All whilst increasing ST prices)
I’ve sat and watched this happen for a number of years now, I’ve also asked to move seats many times so that I can sit with a mate, even adding that I’ll be happy to pay more as I know the seat next to him is a non ST holder seat. Why is this so difficult to allow? It’s fast becoming a one way process this. The club on the take with nothing in return for the standard fan. Hey, even Mike managed to send us a key ring each year as a thanks.
To conclude I’ve genuinely never felt so distant from the club, when I go to games I feel like I’m just a customer sat mingled in with a bunch of tourists who don’t really care. We’ve all got friends & family who would love a ticket here and there but you’d rather sell to the highest bidder.
Will you do anything about it? Or will just continue to fleece the fanbase and then conveniently blame them for reselling tickets when in actual fact it’s you.
We’re not blind,
We’re not daft,
Don’t treat us as such.
ST Holder
London Mags
