The UAFC

How much extra are you willing to pay for your ticket in order to avoid paying the booking fee?

Does anyone know the exact number of season ticket holders at Ravenhill? 6 additional tickets is a bit severe. Can't see many left after the second window closes.

big mervyn wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 2:19 pm
25% discount soured somewhat by the outrageous £2.75 booking fee. Cnuts

£2.75 ? It's £3.95 per ticket if you're a Grandstand S/T holder ! A different booking fee for the same ticket ? At nearly 11% those 'booking fees' are the worst I've seen in UR history - and according to TicketB*d are set by negotiation and agreement with the venue. How does that work Jonny Petrie ?

As I've noted before, Warwickshire CC @Edgbaston (who use Tktb*d) charge £2 per ticket, whereas Yorkshire CC (@Headingley), who use a different provider, charge £1 for the whole transaction. It's an absolute rip-off. No wonder Mike Rapino, the CEO of Live Nation (who own Ticketmaster) has a compensation package of:

• base salary of US$3m per annum

• annual performance bonus up to 200% of base salary

• share incentive package for 2017-22 of up to 1.75m shares, which vest if the price is above US£68.95 for at least 60 days in that period. The current share price is US$117.01

And that's on top of the shares already held. No wonder John Malone and the Saudis own over 40% of Live Nation shares between them.

I know TM get the arm in re booking fees, but if you want Ulster to use an alternative provider be careful what you wish for. Connacht use a different provider who charge minimal fee BUT their site crashed yesterday for 2 hours when the general sale for Connacht v Leinster in April went online.

Fully agree that we need to be careful what we wish for - I recall the previous UR system was not as robust.

However doing more arithmetic, 18,000 tickets @an average price of £30 * 10% booking fee = £54,000. That's a lot of money when 90% of customers either print their own tickets or put them on their phones. And given that these 'fee amounts' are only fields set in the code, then make the number smaller. I have zero belief that Ticketb*d could accurately state what is the actual cost.

More generally, this is now fairly standard IT competence and other providers are available e.g. EventBrite who during COVID ran the booking systems for all the 400+ E&W/NI National Trust properties - who have over 5m members, or AudienceView (the Yorkshire CCC service provider). Yorkshire have a 20,000 seat ground with huge demand that requires ballots etc, and their system also facilitates ticket purchases in sports stores around Yorkshire. I'd be very keen on Jonny Petrie and the marketing team taking a long hard look when the contract comes up for renewal at costs, fees and remote ticket sales to those without IT. And in particular the contract terms relating to fees for tickets for 'extraordinary events' (e.g. extra matches). It must be an expectation within UR that we will get to at least one 'extra' home match a season ? I would not be at all surprised if there is provision for a URC 'extra' match, but any further is 'by negotiation' or 'at rates set by the service provider'. Doubtless Mr Logan, our ex-Global Corporate CEO had a hand in that contract.

Finally, it needs to be pointed out again that S/T holders are getting one less match this season for the same amount too.

big mervyn wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:59 am Yes. One of the small advantages of a ST is that you are mostly spared these regular small acts of highway robbery. Sometimes you yearn for the days of rickety turnstiles and "cloakroom tkts".

or even a student card.

A while back when the season tickets were just like a credit card or drivers licence size plastic card, Junior rocked up to the turnstiles and pulled out his student card rather than his season ticket, but it was accepted and he was allowed in.

Often tempted but never attempted to do it on a regular basis.

WestDr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:38 pm Fully agree that we need to be careful what we wish for - I recall the previous UR system was not as robust.

However doing more arithmetic, 18,000 tickets @an average price of £30 * 10% booking fee = £54,000. That's a lot of money when 90% of customers either print their own tickets or put them on their phones. And given that these 'fee amounts' are only fields set in the code, then make the number smaller. I have zero belief that Ticketb*d could accurately state what is the actual cost.

More generally, this is now fairly standard IT competence and other providers are available e.g. EventBrite who during COVID ran the booking systems for all the 400+ E&W/NI National Trust properties - who have over 5m members, or AudienceView (the Yorkshire CCC service provider). Yorkshire have a 20,000 seat ground with huge demand that requires ballots etc, and their system also facilitates ticket purchases in sports stores around Yorkshire. I'd be very keen on Jonny Petrie and the marketing team taking a long hard look when the contract comes up for renewal at costs, fees and remote ticket sales to those without IT. And in particular the contract terms relating to fees for tickets for 'extraordinary events' (e.g. extra matches). It must be an expectation within UR that we will get to at least one 'extra' home match a season ? I would not be at all surprised if there is provision for a URC 'extra' match, but any further is 'by negotiation' or 'at rates set by the service provider'. Doubtless Mr Logan, our ex-Global Corporate CEO had a hand in that contract.

Finally, it needs to be pointed out again that S/T holders are getting one less match this season for the same amount too.

One less European match and 2 fewer league games than the old Pro12 format.

In the absence of a separate thread for Toulouse v Ulster on 9/4/22, anyone travelling and any recommendation for which section of the ground to buy tickets?

5 of us travelling - bought in green section (€50)

Same here.

big mervyn wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:28 pm

HammerTime wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:02 pm Anyone who doesn’t need their 6 extra tickets if they could get me a few there’d be a crate of beer in it for you.

PM'd you.

Thanks to this guy for sorting me out with 6 tickets !!

Received a link for Toulouse tickets this morning. I'm non season ticket holder so I just signed up for priority window before open sale. Seems to be a decent number of tickets still available. Luckily my mate sorted me with 2 anyway.

https://billetterie.stadetoulousain.fr/node/144405 - General sale link for the away game.

HammerTime wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:02 pm Anyone who doesn’t need their 6 extra tickets if they could get me a few there’d be a crate of beer in it for you.

Sihte - and you think TM booking fees are bad. I had assumed the usual pint transaction fee. You've just upped the ante, there!

Let's hope my sponsor is not reading this.

BR wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:16 pm

HammerTime wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:02 pm Anyone who doesn’t need their 6 extra tickets if they could get me a few there’d be a crate of beer in it for you.

Sihte - and you think TM booking fees are bad. I had assumed the usual pint transaction fee. You've just upped the ante, there!

Let's hope my sponsor is not reading this.

Just for the record I did waive the generous booking fee but Hammertime insisted on standing me a few beers which I graciously accepted