Is the club defrauding loyal supporters?

[Paaalaaace]

Today I have received a reply from the club. Not satisfactory in the slightest but at least we have some numbers to go on. I am told that there are 2500 matchday tickets available to 13,000 members who supposedly can use the 72 hour window to buy them. On the assumption that the vast majority of these members buy these memberships for the sole purpose of utilising the window then even if, for arguments sake, 75% of them want a single ticket then demand outweighs supply by nearly four times. If a member wants to buy any more then obviously the demand increases further. This clearly is a ludicrous situation and the club must have known that by selling so many Gold and related memberships (which they are still advertising!) there would be trouble.

None of this however explains the fact that at 10am at the opening of the 72 hour window there are nothing like 2500 tickets 'reserved exclusively' for these members. I'd be surprised if there were 200 and these are all single seats or restricted view.

I shall be responding to this response to the club and will report back.


Hi John,

Thank you for your email, and I sincerely apologise for the delayed response as I have been on annual leave.

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had difficulty purchasing tickets despite being a Gold Member. The first 72-hour buying phase for home games is reserved exclusively for Gold Members and Season Ticket+ holders. However, with a significant increase in Gold Memberships this season, securing tickets—especially for Category A matches like Liverpool and Manchester City—has become more challenging.

For each game, we typically have around 2,500 tickets available for purchase, while over 13,000 members (including Gold Members, Junior Gold Members, and Season Ticket+ holders) are eligible to buy during the first phase. This number increases to over 19,000 in the second phase, which opens up to Adult Members, Standard Junior Members, and International Members.

However, additional tickets do become available through our resale platform. On average, around 800 tickets per match have been resold, with between 20 and 30 remaining unsold for most games.

We are aware of the issue with tickets being sold at inflated prices on unofficial sites. This is a widespread problem across Premier League clubs, and we are actively working, alongside the Premier League, to find effective solutions. In the meantime, our Box Office team is diligently identifying and blocking touted tickets. For the Manchester United match, 300 tickets and corresponding accounts were blocked, and another 200 for the Liverpool match. We’re aiming to match or exceed these numbers ahead of the Tottenham game. Additionally, several season ticket holders were found selling their tickets on unofficial sites and have faced appropriate sanctions.

Please rest assured that we are committed to improving the ticket-buying experience for Gold Members. I completely understand your frustration and in response to similar concerns raised, we’ve restricted tickets to one per membership to ensure fairer access for all in the meantime.

All the best,

Nikki

Nicola Gibbons
Supporter Liaison Officer and Disability Access Officer

What an absolute disgusting response. So now if I wanted to take my 2 kids to a match I cant, only one. Or of course buy a second useless membership. This response has not been thought through and makes them look plain THICK. They are not pulling the wool over anyone's eyes and just not dealing with this properly. I have generally found Palace fans a pretty intelligent bunch, yet Nicola Gibbons is treating us like a bunch of numptys.....Just not on

 

[Paaalaaace]

All we need to know from the club is how many memberships have been sold and approx. how many tickets are made available for the membership window, But they will not tell us as the answers would show them up for what they are!

The answers they have provided just do not add up, the response is total rubbish.

 

[Spiderman]

I am not a user of social media but my son has just relayed this little snippet to me: apparently a supporter gave his ticket to another Palace fan for the Liverpool game, Palace banned his ticketing account as they said he had sold the ticket for £80. He proved this was not the case, which they accepted but he has still been banned for 3 games as he had given his ticket away on Twitter!
WTF is going on?

 

[Pierre]

I am not a user of social media but my son has just relayed this little snippet to me: apparently a supporter gave his ticket to another Palace fan for the Liverpool game, Palace banned his ticketing account as they said he had sold the ticket for £80. He proved this was not the case, which they accepted but he has still been banned for 3 games as he had given his ticket away on Twitter!
WTF is going on?

Is it because he sold his ticket for more than the face value rather than the fact it had been sold on Twitter?

 

[Spiderman]

Is it because he sold his ticket for more than the face value rather than the fact it had been sold on Twitter?

He didn’t sell it, he gave it away which the club have accepted but still banned him for 3 games

 

[Pierre]

Then send the details of this issue to info@cpisa and we will raise it with the club.

 

[Johng]

Reply sent. Watch this space.

Hi Nicola

Thank you for your reply although I don't believe it addresses the issues. You say there are 2500 matchday tickets available to 13,000 members who supposedly can use the 72 hour window to buy them and a further 6000 members thereafter. On the assumption that the vast majority of these members buy these memberships for the sole purpose of utilising the window as a purchasing advantage then even if, for arguments sake, 75% of just the 13,000 want a single ticket then demand outweighs supply by nearly four times. If a member wants to buy more,which is more than likely to be the case, then obviously the demand increases further. This clearly is a ludicrous situation and the club must have known that by selling so many Gold and related memberships (for which it is still advertising by the way) there would be problems and feelings of justifiable resentment towards the club from members.

However, all of this is immaterial as none of this explains the fact that at 10am at the opening of the 72 hour window there are nothing like 2500 tickets 'reserved exclusively' for these members. I'd be surprised if there were 200 and these are all single seats or restricted view. I'd be grateful if you would be kind enough to produce evidence that at 10am on selling days there are 2500 tickets available and visible. I'd also be grateful if you could provide evidence of how many Gold members were able to purchase tickets for the Liverpool, Spurs and Fulham matches at this time. It would also be of interest to know how many seats were sold together (2 or more).

There is also the likelihood I suppose that many of these Gold memberships are bogus and the accounts are somehow are managing to 'hoover up' many of the tickets at sale time. I wonder if the club is looking into this possibility and are prepared to be transparent about it should this be the case. If this, however, is not the situation then the club has some further explaining to do.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

John

The response to the above:

Hi John,

There isn’t a simple way for me to produce the evidence you are asking for I’m afraid. I have submitted requests through my colleagues in other departments to see how this can be achieved, but as I’m sure you can appreciate they will have different priorities with a very busy period of games coming up. As soon as I have confirmation I will be in touch.

All the best,

Nikki

 

[Paaalaaace]

The response to the above:

Hi John,

There isn’t a simple way for me to produce the evidence you are asking for I’m afraid. I have submitted requests through my colleagues in other departments to see how this can be achieved, but as I’m sure you can appreciate they will have different priorities with a very busy period of games coming up. As soon as I have confirmation I will be in touch.

All the best,

Nikki

I am sure they do have different priorities, like hiding what they are actually doing and covering it up, honestly all very grubby.

 

[eritheagle]

I am sure they do have different priorities, like hiding what they are actually doing and covering it up, honestly all very grubby.

Yep, don't trust the lot of them after the way I and others have been treated!!

 

[Paaalaaace]

Yep, don't trust the lot of them after the way I and others have been treated!!

Yes indeed, you were treated very badly, I was following your plight. The days of a Palace being friendly family orientated club have I fear gone.

 

[Dubai Eagle]

The response to the above:

Hi John,

There isn’t a simple way for me to produce the evidence you are asking for I’m afraid. I have submitted requests through my colleagues in other departments to see how this can be achieved, but as I’m sure you can appreciate they will have different priorities with a very busy period of games coming up. As soon as I have confirmation I will be in touch.

All the best,

Nikki

With 13000 memberships sold & the product still being offered for sale on the website the problem is only going to get worse if someone in the organization doesn't make it a priority -

In this day & age website ticket queuing / transaction traffic surely cant be that difficult to review.

 

[Isley46]

With 13000 memberships sold & the product still being offered for sale on the website the problem is only going to get worse if someone in the organization doesn't make it a priority -

In this day & age website ticket queuing / transaction traffic surely cant be that difficult to review.

The club / ticketmaster also haven't answered how online tickets can be in you basket but then disappear from the basket during the payment process.....

 

[Phil’s Barber]

I seem to no longer be able to get 2 home tickets together for me & my son, despite us both having been Gold Members for many years (I am on the Season Ticket waiting list). The only benefit re Gold Membership and acquiring tickets for me now is having some priority for buying tickets to Away matches.

 

[eritheagle]

I seem to no longer be able to get 2 home tickets together for me & my son, despite us both having been Gold Members for many years (I am on the Season Ticket waiting list). The only benefit re Gold Membership and acquiring tickets for me now is having some priority for buying tickets to Away matches.

Lucky to get away tickets. Saw a few individual Columbian fans in away end at Brentford which I'm guessing was quite difficult to buy tickets for. I did wonder how they managed to get them when I thought fans probably needed quite a few points for.

 

[Johng]

I seem to no longer be able to get 2 home tickets together for me & my son, despite us both having been Gold Members for many years (I am on the Season Ticket waiting list). The only benefit re Gold Membership and acquiring tickets for me now is having some priority for buying tickets to Away matches.

As no satisfactory resolution to this is going to be coming in good time, I'll be demanding a refund for my Gold membership. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Phil’s Barber]

Lucky to get away tickets. Saw a few individual Columbian fans in away end at Brentford which I'm guessing was quite difficult to buy tickets for. I did wonder how they managed to get them when I thought fans probably needed quite a few points for.

Yeah, tickets for Away games such as Brentford, Spurs, Brighton, Bournemouth etc. normally sell out to Season Ticket holders before going on sale to Gold Members, obviously due to demand or very small allocations. I am sometimes lucky enough to get these tickets from family or friends who are season ticket holders but in general I just like being able to get tickets to the other matches, in particular non London games such as Villa, Wolves, the Merseyside and Manchester clubs, Leicester, Forest, Newcastle, Ipswich & Southampton as I’ll make a long weekend of it and incorporate a nice hotel and some sightseeing etc.

 

[Spiderman]

Lucky to get away tickets. Saw a few individual Columbian fans in away end at Brentford which I'm guessing was quite difficult to buy tickets for. I did wonder how they managed to get them when I thought fans probably needed quite a few points for.

I have a s/t with nearly 9000 points, never been successful in getting tickets for Brentford

 

[Paaalaaace]

I have a s/t with nearly 9000 points, never been successful in getting tickets for Brentford

Same here, s/t with over 12000 points ant s/t pus, never get a look in for any away games.

 

[eagleman13]

Same here, s/t with over 12000 points ant s/t pus, never get a look in for any away games.

Have you got an 'Away ST'?

 

[eritheagle]

I have a s/t with nearly 9000 points, never been successful in getting tickets for Brentford

I've been to all 4 of the games away at Brentford but the first one the club contacted me close to the game as a ticket had become available (as I didn't have enough points to be in first lot for this game). I think i'd requested to be in balot or on standby.