FA defiant amid poor ticket sales

[russe||]

The Football Association has defended its choice of venues for the FA Cup semi-finals amid slow ticket sales.

Watford are reported to have 1,500 tickets left unsold for Saturday's semi-final against Manchester United at Villa Park.

Blackburn and Chelsea, who meet at Old Trafford on Sunday, have both failed to sell 8,000 seats of their allocations.

An FA spokesman said: "Old Trafford and Villa Park are established venues, used to dealing with the logistics."

United are the only club to have sold out their allocation for the semi-final at Villa Park, which has a capacity of 42,000.

Old Trafford's capacity has been reduced to 70,900 for Sunday's game because of segregation requirements.

Blackburn's failure to sell their allocation of 30,900 is all the more surprising given that Old Trafford is only a 37-mile trip for their fans.

But Mike Graham, of the Blackburn Independent Supporters' Association, blamed the cost of tickets.

"Our catchment area is basically just Blackburn, which is a small town," he told The Times.

"It's also a low-wage area. Even forking out the minimum of £25 per ticket is a lot, never mind the maximum £55."

Chelsea fans, meanwhile, are upset that they face a long trip to Manchester for a 1600 BST kick-off on Sunday.

However, the FA argues that even if Old Trafford is not full, it will still mean more fans can attend the game than if it had been held elsewhere.

"The crowd will be bigger than at any other ground we could have staged the game," said a spokesman.

"We want to make these occasions accessible to the fans. We feel the ticket prices are fair, and are appropriate to staging a big semi-final."

From next year, the semi-finals will be held at the new Wembley Stadium, which has a capacity of nearly 90,000.

"We are confident we will see big crowds at Wembley for the semi-finals," the FA spokesman said.

Blackburn's biggest game in years, Watford's too and they can't sell out their allocation - pretty poor IMO.

As for Chelsea, it is understandable considering how Chelsea FC rip the fans off. When you think that they struggle to sell out their home games, selling 31,000 tickets for an away game kicking off at 4pm on a Sunday up in Manchester was always going to be a struggle. Besides Chelsea fans have got to save up for that expensive European away trip to Liverpool.

[Sven]

You seen the time travels to Manchester on the sunday? It's a joke.

It's no struggle, main reason is travel.

[Werdna]

However, the FA argues that even if Old Trafford is not full, it will still mean more fans can attend the game than if it had been held elsewhere.

"The crowd will be bigger than at any other ground we could have staged the game," said a spokesman.

Hypocrits!

If the size of the stadium is so important why isn't the Emirates being used, or St. James Park?

Villa always gets a semi-final match as they have (I believe) the most VIP boxes in their stadium...

[mr.watford]

Originally Posted by russe||

Blackburn's biggest game in years, Watford's too

no way is it our biggest game in years. the play-off final last year was much bigger than saturday's game. i think we would have sold out had the fa set their prices cheaper, the majority of tickets are £45-£55.

[kyan]

Originally Posted by Sven

You seen the time travels to Manchester on the sunday? It's a joke.

It's no struggle, main reason is travel.

Chelsea fans near the stadium can take the coach which I don't think is too expensive.

And otherwise they could take the train, which is around £30 to go and return from London.

It's an FA Cup SF!

[Sven]

Train is the problem.

[russe||]

Originally Posted by mr.watford

no way is it our biggest game in years. the play-off final last year was much bigger than saturday's game. i think we would have sold out had the fa set their prices cheaper, the majority of tickets are £45-£55.

Fair point.

[russe||]

Originally Posted by Werdna

Hypocrits!

If the size of the stadium is so important why isn't the Emirates being used, or St. James Park?

Villa always gets a semi-final match as they have (I believe) the most VIP boxes in their stadium...

Because staging it at the Emirates would have meant holding in at a smaller stadium and still left one of the teams facing a look trip. St. James would have been further away for both teams.

Considering both SF games are North v South Villa Park was the obvious choice for one match and OT is the next best choice so therefore the best solution was to hold the Man Utd v Watford game at Villa Park and the Chelsea v Blackburn game at OT.

[Olzy]

Plus we've actually done well considering our ground capacity size of our town % if you know what I mean.

The price, the travel / time and slim chance of winning is the main reason why several Watford fans arent going.

We didnt sell out all of our tickets last semi final either I dont think.

[russe||]

Originally Posted by Olzy

Plus we've actually done well considering our ground capacity size of our town % if you know what I mean.

The price, the travel / time and slim chance of winning is the main reason why several Watford fans arent going.

We didnt sell out all of our tickets last semi final either I dont think.

Apparently you guys got a bigger allocation than us too. You got 17,800 tickets to our 17,600.

[mr.watford]

considering we only have 13,500 season ticket holders, selling over 16,000 tickets isn't that bad, especially considering the prices. wonder where the rest of the 27,000 who went to cardiff are?

[MUMUFMUFCOK!]

They should have played the United - Watford game at the Emirates and Chelsea - Blackburn at VP. Or both at VP, one on each day.

Although United playing in London means it's a further travelling distance, United are the only one of the four clubs who you can guarentee would have enough willing to travel and pay the price of a ticket. That isn't a dig at any of the other clubs - Blackburn's and Watford's support is pretty much all within their small towns.

[Olzy]

so true ^.

Mean most of Man Utd supporters are London

[Murphy]

Or it could be because the Ticket Prices are so expensive.

[Ben_W]

The tickets were £25, £35, £45 and £55; I don't know what the split was in terms of percentage of tickets at each price band.