Ticket Chaos at the Valley

First a happy Clive Mendonca Day to all Charlton fans.

Well as usual another Tuesday at Charlton Athletic didn’t let us down, this time it appears with shenanigans in the ticket office.  Sources state that the head of ticketing Mandy Anderson- Myers has quit apparently after a disagreement with the chief financial officer.

It would be a fair assumption to make that this was over resources for the upcoming season.  As the club is relegated to league one revenues fall and so cuts have to be made in all areas.  This happened last time the club was demoted and should not be an unexpected development.

So was Anderson-Myers right to protest?  To start with there is the issue of up to 2,400 refund requests for all those in the North Lower whose view was obscured by the posts and netting.  It appears that the club is dithering on its response with Anderson-Myers appearing to have passed the buck to another department according to various sources on twitter.  I wouldn’t hold my breath for a resolution any time soon, but fans should keep on insisting on a refund for a clearly unacceptable situation.

Looking towards to the new season, clearly, the more season tickets sold by a club prior to the start of the season, the fewer resources they require to issue tickets throughout the season.  The latest on season tickets sold from Dansk_Red on the Charlton Life forum is 3,429 at the back end of April.  This may have now risen to 4,000 but is well below last year’s 10,000 plus tickets.  Most of this is down to an effective campaign to boycott season tickets by CARD (see @CharltonCARD and www.facebook.com/CharltonCARD for details ).  This means at least an additional 6,000 tickets to issue for each game.

This of course makes a big assumption that all those boycotting actually do buy individual match tickets and of course that attendances are static which undoubtedly will not be the case.  Last year's average attendance at the Valley was around 15,000-16,000.  Putting the boycott aside I would normally expect this to drop to around 11,000-12,000 which from memory was the crowd size last time we were in League One.

Assuming an effective boycott then individual match day ticket sales will actually be the lower than the season just gone.

The introduction of the ticketing website with print at home tickets and bar code scanning to enter the ground mean that less staff are required as the process becomes more automated.  This is not a complete panacea as there is a need to monitor and restrict ticket sales for high profile games such as Millwall or Leeds to ensure proper segregation but again it requires less resources.

On the subject of ticketing many fans have said that they will only be buying away tickets so that they can continue to support the team without putting money into the owner’s pockets.  I will be doing the same but you should be aware that Football League regulations state that the away club may receive a commission of 5% for tickets sold so if you really don't want to give money to the regime it might be better to buy on the day at the away club.

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We want our Charlton back !

Passionate Protest by Charlton Supporters on Saturday

The ourcharlton.org.uk petition against the current owner has now passed the 5,000 mark.  If CEO Katrien Meire's argument that the number of discontented fans is a mere 2% this means that there is an active Charlton fan base of 250,000!

However, if you take Saturday's attendance at the match against Blackburn of 13,512 that's 37% of fans (more if you exclude the away support).

Of course the true figure is a little south of this, with a number of Blackpool and Leeds fans having also signed the petition in sympathy with our plight. 

However, one can't argue that this is now a significant figure, and considerably north of our CEO's dismissive 2% comments.  You also can't dispute that there were 3,000 fans protesting after the game.

It got a little foggy

I'd get the calculator out Katrien, it doesn't look like maths is your strongest point.  Alternatively, rather than dismissing us you could try and be a bit contrite.  We all make mistakes and it's not too late for you and Roland to properly engage with the fan base and attempt to make amends.  You never know, it might also improve the club's financial situation.

However, as it stands, the recent media releases by the club mean that it looks like there is a long way to go before the CEO and distant owner are prepared to properly engage with fans and so the protests will go on.

If you are a Charlton fan and don't like the way the club is being run or the way fans are being treated then please visit the site above but do read the petition first before you choose to sign it.

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Don’t cast aspersions

A quick synopsis for those who missed a soggy episode in Charlton’s history on Saturday.  Charlton were already trailing 3-0 to Doncaster after 20 minutes played in driving rain when play was suspended for half an hour.  The remainder of the first half was played in atrocious conditions with Charlton managing to pull a goal back and Doncaster down to ten men following two yellow cards for Keegan.  The match was then officially abandoned shortly into the second half.

I was too damp and bewildered to do much blogging after the game but issues surrounding referees at the Valley continue to abound (David Webb having to be stretchered off against Peterborough game, the disallowed goal against Colchester to name but two), and this was no exception.  I also wonder if 34 minutes of extra time also counts as a record in the football league?

While such abandonments are quite rare and difficult to handle, I believe all agree with me when I say that the officials didn’t really handle the situation well.  I didn’t get to the ground too early so may have missed it but I don’t believe I saw the referee or match officials once roll a ball on the pitch to test its suitability at any time during the match.  I also wonder what had changed during the half hour suspension to warrant the game continuing.  The water cleared by the ground staff was minimal and the rain continued to pour steadily.

It was clear that the conditions were different in separate parts of the ground with the East stand side and the North stand goal mouth appearing to be particularly affected with standing water.  However, having restarted the game in the second half I thought that the game would be played to a conclusion, after all the rain was down to a light drizzle and nothing else had changed since half time.  So I didn’t believe her when my fellow supporter said that she saw the match day announcer mouth “match abandoned” and it was with incredulity when I heard the official announcement calling the game off. 

I do feel for Paul Dickov and the travelling fans and while I am relieved to see us have another opportunity I didn’t identify with the fans in the North Stand who were hollering out for the game to be abandoned and voicing their delight when they got their wish.  Regardless of the merits of calling off the game we know we were fortunate to have another crack at the whip.

Two further points to note were that Dickov criticised the manner in which the referee handled the events leading up to the abandonment rather than the game being called off itself and fair play to him on that front.  Secondly, while conceding three goals in 22 minutes is extremely poor in anyone’s books, the statistics, otherwise, show a fairly even game.  Doncaster will know that they have goal stopper Ross Turnbull to thank for keeping them ahead with some amazing saves from great Charlton efforts.

I spent the rest of the weekend at the Real Food Festival (www.realfoodfestival.co.uk) on the South Bank.  The quality of local fare combined with craft beer from London brewers has made me think about the the food offering at the Valley but more on this later in the week.

Tonight we are away to Huddersfield in the Capital One Cup.  This is always a difficult fixture and I’m not looking forward to it.  It’s one of those awkward games in which no-one else outside of the two teams will pay much attention to, with the winner coming away with little to show for.  Powell has a dilemma in choosing his starting line up.  Does he go for a wholesale change in the team as he has always done in the competition, or does he continue with his normal match day squad to get some much needed cohesion between the players?  I suspect he’ll go for a wholesale change to the strike force as before but will try out some different pairings in defence to find the right combination to protect the goal mouth.  With Huddersfield putting five goals past Bournemouth at the weekend I have a feeling we’ll need it.