I went to the ground this morning at 9am. Leeds have not sent the tickets over yet so Saints are taking the ticket orders and you can either collect them or have them posted out to you. There were about 20 people in the queue and most seemed to be exchanging a few season ticket vouchers. I didn't hear many asking for the extra tickets.

I doubt many will, when you think about it the whole reason for allowing season ticket holders to buy four and get one free is to ensure healthy gate receipts.
you see if saints get an allocation of 4k they will hope they get rid of this in a way so most tickets are paid for.

The methodology is one that both clubs will be hoping legitimately restricts the amount of freebies on offer, and allows the clubs to say they have complied with contractual obligations concerning free tickets.
They can also blame any shortfall on freetickets as season ticket holders taking up an additional paid allocation. Therefore the clubs absolve themselves of blame in their eyes and say its fans fault you cant get a ticket.

Season ticket holders can only buy 2 extra tickets as from yesterday at 10am. I noticed on Southstander that Leeds have downloaded ALL their season ticket holders with their free match 'ticket'. That's 12k tickets gone already.

Ok so its not quite as bad


the rationale behind it stays the same though

Look at my edited post above yours re Leeds allocation of freebies.

How long do you think it'll be before Heathrington and/or McMannus moan about lost revenue?

Same length of time as it would take your owner.

I'm not disagreeing, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see complaints.

I would estimate that the clubs will lose somewhere between 100 to 140 thousand pounds because of the free ticket offer.

I think the plan to get better gates has backfired on the RFL. Who would have thought at this stage of the comp. that there would be 5 all SL clashes. I doubt that we will see this offer next season to be honest.

strictly speaking they arent free though, they have already been paid for as part of the season ticket package

In that case then every season ticket holder should be given one no matter what. Why should they have to apply for one. On the voucher it states that it is a voucher to receive a complimenary ticket to the 4th round tie. Leeds have all been given their ticket as an upload onto their season ticket card.

Exactly.
Just suppose Saints had drawn Wigan at KR, and Wigan had said we have 10,000 season ticket holders, you need to give us 10,000 tickets.

If it's part of the season ticket then surely it's a contract.

We're going to have real fun with Barrow. The game has been made all ticket, but I've not a clue how they are going to get the allocation sorted.

Barrow season ticket holders have to pay.

We may get away with as many may chose not to travel, but had it been Leigh or Warrington it could have been interesting.

It does say subject to availability though I think.


On another note though, nobody in the queue was being asked for ID as it was suggested they would be.

The voucher clearly states that it must be redeemed at the club ticket office.

I think the Leeds decision has been made for purely pragmatic reasons. It is far easier to programme their central turnstile system to accept their season tickets than to produce thousands of extra tickets and then physically exchange these for the vouchers.

The voucher also states that the offer is subject to availability and that "terms and conditions apply".

Ignoring the terms and conditions, which are presumably being hastily rewritten at RL HQ, I wonder how the "subject to availability" would apply to RG's scenario above. Wigan could certainly argue that they do indeed have 10k season ticket holders. However Saints could argue that Wigan traditinally bring , say , 5k and merely release that number in which case ther are insufficient available to Wigan season ticket holders.

Suppose not all season ticket holders at Leeds can go. Then those tickets which have been up-loaded onto their card have been wasted. when there could be people wanting to buy one.

simple really. RFL Operational rules state that the visiting club is only entitled to 30% of available tickets, so Wigan would get 5,130 tickets - regardless of the number of season ticket holdesrs they have.

So what you're saying now, based on your figures is that all Saints season ticket holders can not have a ticket for Leeds.

And if that is so why are they being allowed to purchase two extra tickets?

I think that is so that at least there is some revenue coming in.
Isn't it the same at Barrow. If all Wigans season ticket holders had a ticket then there would be none left for the Barrow supporters because they all have to pay for this match as they have had their voucher in a previous round.

according to the rules, Leeds have to make available a minimum of 6,150 tickets (30% of the 20,500 capacity), which is less than the number of season ticket holders - however, under this scheme I presume that where the capacity exists the free tickets have to be given to any ST holder who wants one.



Presumably Leeds have made more tickets available.

the game wont sell out, so there isnt an issue IMO.

It's not been very well thought out has it.

The next thing will be a seeding system for the CC.

to be fair, the only major issue is the Wigan / Barrow one - all the other games will be able to accomodate all season ticket holders.

Leeds and Saints will complain about the lost revenue from what would have been big gate receipts, but they agreed to it and knew there was a chance it could turn out that way.

All the games will get bigger crowds than they would have done normally, and although revenue will be down, the clubs have got a good marketing opportunity on their hands.

Presumably Leeds find that very real risk a small price to pay for not having to print over 10k tickets and then have to exchange them for the vouchers.

Spare adult west stand ticket available for £15.00 if anyones interested.

This was my first thought too.
How many season ticket holders do you have. I'd guess 8 000, so if I am correct, and you all turn up, you will more than fill the Western Terrace which would look brilliant on the TV.

I'd say it's closer to the 6k or 7k mark.