(h) v Middlesbrough League (Carabao) Cup 3rd Round - Tue 26 September 2023 7.45pm

Fine, so what you are saying is that City should foot the bill of whatever the ticketing company are charging and stop passing those costs onto fans?

 

Yes! They have gone down an automated route to reduce staffing requirements at the ground.
They’re saving on staffing costs.
And then the investment required to make those savings they have passed on to the customers.
They’ll be saving (exemplary figures made up of course) £1 per transaction in staff overheads and charging £1.50. They won’t be paying £1.50 to the provider.
This is what I work in, I know exactly how it works.
Automation is there to save businesses money (throw in some risk mitigation through reduced error rates), and nothing else.

 

Sounds the right decision for the club

 

Agreed 100%!
Just no point beating around the bush of why it’s done.
(There are a lot of other soft benefits but, in terms of motivators for the business, the financial gain that drives the decision)

 

My only gripe with it is it the cost per ticket rather than transaction. An extra £6 for 4 tickets in what is essentially a click of a button just seems steep

 

You would think it would be per transaction.
We don’t know how the pricing was negotiated - cost per ticket in return for free set up or we pay for the set up and service at a fixed rate then we take the £1.50 ourselves.
Payment could have been agreed in any way I guess.
We’d best get back on topic.
How many have we sold now?

 

About 10k which includes 4k Boro.
That’s pretty fecking poor!

 

Two days ago the club announced 13,000 sold including the 4k from Boro. With nearly two weeks to go I think that’s pretty good.

 

Lets see if Subborn old Hughes plays with a formation that is like the second half against Grimsby rather than the first.

I think most people expect him to go to a back 5 again like we have started each home game, and on that basis even a £5 looks steep to see us get pumped by Middlesbrough. However if he has finally learnt that 5 at the back doesn't work and we play in our far more comfortable 4 starting with Harrogate then a few more might feel it not a waste of time.

 

Do they ? It's the same "ticket price" and I would be amazed if the online fee doesn't include some sort of kickback to the club.

 

Bottom line is £6.50 a ticket is still stupidly cheap for a last 32 cup match.

 

After the Harrogate game with plenty of ticket office sales I’m certain we’ll be on over 15,000

 

I usually order 8 or 9 for the group I go with and feel like I'm ripping people off when having to ask for an extra £1.50 to cover the cost. Otherwise it would cost me a fortune over the season.

 

Would you be happier for Tesco to charge you extra to use the self service tills rather than the manned checkout?

Just because they explain that to offer you the extra facility they need to pass on the cost of maintaining the self service machines?

That's roughly what's happening here with the tickets.

 

I think the cup game will decide his fate.

If we're out of the cup and languishing in the bottom 8 of the league by the end of September then he's shown the door.

If we sh*thouse our way to pens again and go through, we're into the Last 16 with a plum tie televised he'll stay.

 

We'll get through I reckon. Boro will field a side that's conference north standard and the 'giant killers' tag will be mistakenly awarded.

 

Bloody good job JY won’t be allowed to play, I’d have been online looking for a price for him scoring.

 

No way boro will field a weak side against us. Carrick needs more of a result than hughes does, he will go all out to win this comfortably, which I think they will. I fully expect Lewis O’Brien to pull all the strings too

 

I expect this to go one of two ways, either we progress via penalties again, or we get battered the way Blackburn battered Harrogate. As things stand, and depending on Saturday's result, I think the latter could be preferable as it might be the final nail in Hughes's coffin.

 

Or we batter them just like in my dreams I keep having for every home game I turn up for the cup game might take the pressure off the league campaign just like when we beat Everton in the league cup many years ago but like you I don’t hold much hope