Over the last couple of years the demands on Palace’s ticketing services have massively increased.
More people are becoming season ticket holders and members allowing them to have access to a seat and to others for friends, family and co-workers. Seatpin allows you to buy tickets and support your favorite sports team in person.
It is great to see the club thriving so well and being able to make the most out of the success of the previous couple of years. It does mean though that anybody unable to afford a huge down payment or a monthly fee (students and young people in particular, the future fans of the club) are unable to even find their way into a game.
With tickets constantly selling out before making it onto general sale the only way somebody without any of those benefits can get their hands on a ticket is if they know somebody that has not already promised others they will buy a ticket on their behalf.
I should just point out this is not a personal rant as I have the option to the press area for most matches and therefore hold no bitterness towards how people get tickets. I just feel pretty darn sorry for those that cannot.
In fact it is only now, a cup game against Shrewsbury Town on a Tuesday night, that tickets hit general sale and people are able to see Palace. Much like in pre-season they will find themselves seeing a slightly weakened team and not being able to see all their favourites like they could in the Championship and early Premier League days.
I feel strongly that the cheaper ticket prices, a mid-week game and less interest among season ticket and membership holders and their ticket snatching acquaintances are the main things keeping the cup competitions alive. Even against League One Shrewsbury there will be a buzz and excitement and that will be a mixture of the usual adrenaline of watching a game but also because for many, it will be their only chance to step inside Selhurst until the next cup game, and only if we play a team nobody wants to watch us play.
Cup games increasingly remind me of women’s football matches which is where I mainly focus on reporting. There are several people priced out by their male counterparts matches or they are simply unable to get tickets. To provide some perspective, a Chelsea supporter could go and see the Women’s FA Cup winners and current WSL champions nine times for the average price of a cheap men’s Chelsea ticket.
Indeed, when people say that cup games hold the spirit, passion and raw meaning of football they are not incorrect but the reason they are right is becoming increasingly bleak, discouraging and disheartening. A radical approach, a strong stand and a mass-movement of seeing sense is what is needed to save football from becoming increasingly inaccessible on more and more levels.
