Seating issues

[Teigngull]

Cheers view
Look forward to you posting your news with baited breath.
And 'Will View 1t' with pleasure !

[brucie]

Portugal - quite simply in the circumstances you mention you wouldn't pre book the ticket obviously. Your friend would pay on the gate and you would vacate your normal seat and then sit anywhere you liked with your friend.

My idea is definitely the simplest solution.

[brucie]

Launceston gull - no one is going to go round and stick a label on your fecking seat just because you have booked it.

Obviously you would be miffed if you turned up and somebody was sat in your seat. Equally though the person who was sat in your seat would probably be equally as pissed off as you were particularly if he had got there early.

As the club are not capable of offerering a pre booking system that works adequately why bother booking the seat in the first place if there is likely to be someone sat in your seat when you get there?

The obvious answer is to allocate one block for pre booking - near the half way lime if you like and let everybody else sit where they like on a first come first served basis. Problem solved - it isn't rocket science.

[Launceston Gull]

Well brucie as my name suggests I travel 130 "fecking" miles (round trip) to get to a home game, I don`t think its unreasonable to expect to sit in the seat I pre selected days earlier. Perhaps I can let you know the next time I`m visiting and you can go stick a label on my seat for me.

[View1]

We travel from Tavistock to every home game when I'm not working, which I'm sure you appreciate takes just as long.

We can't pre book tickets as we don't know from day to day if my Grandad is well enough to attend or if its not too cold for him etc. We try to get to the game early to make sure we can drop him off outside, not be rushed into the ground etc.

I repeat I have no issue with people reserving seats, but we need to know which to avoid and both the people on the gate and the stewards need to follow the same procedures with a clear policy so we know what to do and where to go....if we are told we can sit anywhere not marked as reserved then I feel its fair for us to expect that to be the case.

Currently the club seem to make it up as they go along and due to the crowd size on Saturday (and some uncompromising arseholes who arrogantly insisted we moved after turning up 5 minutes before kick off and intimidated us untill my son started crying and asked to leave) we could not just move to the next row and were forced to walk my Grandad over to the family end and split up... That type of shite is not right and it was caused by the club and their failings.

[Teigngull]

Well brucie as my name suggests I travel 130 "fecking" miles (round trip) to get to a home game, I don`t think its unreasonable to expect to sit in the seat I pre selected days earlier. Perhaps I can let you know the next time I`m visiting and you can go stick a label on my seat for me.

Brucies right Launcestonw, No one is going to stick a sticker on pre booked seats, this idea is crap because there are more than one way in the system to purchase tickets for the bench.
Simple solution is going with brucies idea or the best & fairest way FOR ALL is, online or in person, you purchase a ticket for Bristows Bench, end of, you turn up you take your seat that is the best on offer when you arrive.
Nobody gets preferential treatment other than season ticket holders.
Interestingly, when you book & pay online is there a booking / reservation charge applied to your purchase & also Launceston ,how many league games do you attend each season ?
Something tells me enough to warrant purchasing a season ticket !!

[Dazza]

I am not sure which way you clock your mileage Launceson Gull but we live in Tavistock and your 130 miles seems a long trip. I don't feel it's reasonable for no one to know about any preselection and to get people swaggering in giving it loud and informing us we had to move at 2 55 as 'you are in our seats' when we had been sat peacefully there since 2.05 (because we had anticipated a good crowd ) . Clearly at that time,effectively at kick off, there are no seats likely to be available and effectively we get penalised through a situation that we couldn't have possibly avoided.

It is for the club to sort this out but the present situation is clearly unsatisfactory and whatever arrangement they have put in place requires revisiting.

[brucie]

What gets me with the likes of Launceston Gull is that everything is black or white in their world. No sane person is saying that it is unreasonable that you should be able to sit in a seat that they have pre booked.

The problem is though (as Dazza quite rightly says) why should he be penalized when he has turned up an hour early and has sat in a seat which isn't marked as reserved and then has to vacate the seat at two minutes to kick off time.

Unfortunately Launceston Gull he has just as much right to sit in the seat as you do - but of course you cannot accept that because it is "your" seat which of course it isn't because the club cannot satisfactorily sort their seating policy out.

Perhaps the club could employ an immigrant, let him live in a cupboard under the Family stand, arm him with a bag full of reserved stickers and when you book your ticket online he can spring into action, give him a torch in case you book at night and he can run over to Bristows and bang a sticker on your seat.

[fred]

As said by others, this has been an issue for a few years and all the time attendances are low people can more or less sit where they want. We all know that when the team is playing well it doesn't take long before attendances rise and the club simply needs to be more professional. We pre booked online for the first time this season for the very reason that we didn't want to get turfed out of our seats at the last minute. If we get to a point where we are approaching a full house the club must ensure allocated seating as finding a seat on the day would not work. Unfortunately it's the price of success. In the past we have gone to get a tea at half time only to find people sat in our seats on our return. This isn't a problem when there are plenty of other seats but would have been an issue on boxing Day. I agree the stewards do tell people to sit where they want but for me the only solution is that the club gives you an allocated seat number when you pay at the gate and if you want to choose where you sit then pre book!!

[portugull]

Sorry brucie why on earth would I give up my Season Ticket Seat to sit somewhere else.

The answer is very simple. I have just been on the Exeter City on line ticket website and bingo it solves all the current problems. Cost? I do not know.

It deals with all the issues I highlighted in my post yesterday at 21.02 on Page 2.

[Launceston Gull]

Face it seating has only become an issue because of the size of crowd our performances have generated and long may it last. The whole seating thing is not very important to me personally other than a very occasional nuisance but its an administration issue worth flagging up. In answer to how many home games I attend, its in the region of 10 to 12 a season and not justifying a season ticket but i appreciate the sentiment.

Dazza I`m guessing we are neighbours "age (Robin Stubbs) and geographically wise" but I`m from the wrong side of Launceston and driving to Torquay via A30 Exeter , Penn Inn etc is close to 130 miles round trip, I`m not sure why you would question that and I`m certainly not going to debate it.

[stefano]

Seems to happen everywhere really. I have been to the all seater San Siro about 30 times and only about 5 times of those has my numbered seat been unoccupied when I arrived. I have just sat nearby and have never been asked to move. Even on the big European nights it always seems to work. I suppose it needs the club to say what the system is, publicise it properly, and then stick to it. Should work ok at Plainmoor (no chance in Italy mind where rules are merely advisory)

[Midlandgull]

In my opinion OK is not OK. We have to strive for excellence in every single area if we are serious about rising again, it's a sign of a good culture if we can sort issues when they arise - the fans are the customers so we have to make things easier and a better experience for the customer if we want to grow, profit. Remember when someone has a bad experience how many other people find out - look at the views on this thread for example and take into account word of mouth. Someone from the club should be monitoring the forums and interacting with fans, even asking for issues BEFORE they arise - what a breath of fresh air that would be.

Italian stadiums are generally dreadful, I like the San Siro (apart from the idiots outside forcing bands upon you for money) but I have the misfortune of going to Hellas Verona's ground - my god, what a dive! But look at Italian football generally, it is miles off of England and Spain and I think the small minded thinking is evident in their stadia and reflected in their finances. I want to see a ruthless mindset at Torquay where we will fix things are all costs no matter how small they may seem to some people.

[greb46]

Lots of small problems eventually lead to major problems which in the end become more expensive to sort or a loss of revenue, same result money leaving the club.If a business runs efficiently it grows and that's what the club should be striving for especially while things at present are in the ascendancy.

[brucie]

Portugal - quite simply because you want to sit next to your friend I presume. What happens if your friend can't book the seat next to you? as usual its just another case of people thinking they are more important than other supporters.

As someone else said all supporters deserve to be treated the same whether its season tickets holders, pre bookers or the other surfs who apparently don't have any "foresight" and just pay on the gate to watch the game.

Had I attended the game on Boxing Day with my two sons I would have arrived at Plainmoor an hour early. Its not an option for any of us to pre book seats so being that I don't see that much of them paying at the gate and being given three numbered tickets which are all in different blocks would in my view be completely daft and would put me off going. Therefore finding seats on a first come first serve basis is a more sensible option for me.

I've got to say that had a pre booker asked us to vacate my seat at five to three there is not a cat in hells chance that we would have moved nor would we have moved if we were told to be by the stewards.

As I we wouldn't have committed any offence whatsoever the stewards havn't got the power to do anything. They cannot lay a hand on you because that is a common assault, so basically there is nothing at all that anyone can do.