Thank you for your email and I am sorry to hear of your disappointment
Firstly in respect of Guimaraes tickets, these were all processed and issued immediately they were received from Guimaeres. Indeed there are many examples of UK Clubs who due to the late arrival of tickets from the opposing Club, are left in the often difficult position of having to distribute tickets to their supporters from the opposing clubs venue, a situation that Bolton Wanderers have successfully avoided during this campaign.
The Clubs policy in respect of applications for UEFA Cup tickets has been widely publicized, with applications for tickets invited 2 weeks ago mmediately Marseille had confirmed the ticket price. The club has always made it clear that all applications would be date stamped and processed in the strict order they were received, a process that has been followed to the letter.
At no time has the club published any information suggesting that demand would be lower than for Portugal.
With regard to Corporate Hospitality packages, under UEFA rules, each Club is allocated 200 tickets for Club guests, players and business clients, which are over and above the Clubs ticket only allocation. I should stress that these are not part of the clubs 2,800 ticket allocation. I should also stress that corporate clients and customers are a very important part of the Clubs recent success, with the vast majority being lifelong supporters of the Football Club and the vast majority having being corporate season ticket holders for many years.
With regard to your own application, if it was received before the end of the day on Saturday 28th January, then it will have been successful. The majority of those received on Monday 30th January have also been successful with any additional applications being held on a waiting list should the club receive any returns, which is often the case.
In summary, the Club have acted in strict accordance with our widely publicized ticket policy and procedures and while we are sorry that a small number of applications may have been unsuccessful, such an eventuality is inevitable when the number of applications received exceeds the tickets available to the Club.
Thank you however for writing to the Club with your concerns.
With kind regards
Gareth Moores
Commercial Director
-----Original Message-----
From: wigg [mailto:wigg@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 31 January 2006 14:10
To: Gareth Moores
Subject: Hugely disappointed and angry fan
Dear Mr Moores,
I just wanted to let you know how extremely disappointed I am (yet again) with the way that the club and ticket office have handled arrangements for a big match. After the Guimaraes fiasco (tickets arriving literally the day that we left for Portugal) I thought you would have learnt something ... but apparently no.
Like many fans I was very surprised to see that the club waited so long to invite applications. Why not do it sooner? The number of tickets given to us by the other team would have no effect on the application process.
If you had asked any fan on the street they would have told you that more of their friends were hoping to travel to Marseille. As far as I am aware, the only information given out by the club suggested that there wouldn't be problem with tickets as interest was significantly lower than for Portugal. As a result of this I booked flights and accomodation for myself and my Dad and put in my application for tickets as soon as they were requested.
I phoned the ticket office this morning to buy tickets for 4 other matches and on enquiring about Marseille I was informed that all tickets had gone and that not all even all of the season ticket holder applications have been successful.
I understand that Marseille will not be releasing any more tickets, but if that is the case then why have the club not announced that the match is now sold out? As it is, more people could be booking travel today with the assumption that they are still likely to get tickets.
And now for the bit that makes me really really angry. On realising I wouldn't have tickets I decided to enquire about corporate packages. I was told that these were still available and on double checking was
assured that if I wanted to I could get a seat in with the away fans rather than at the box. Now that is a joke.
And the club wonders why only 13,000 turn up for the FA cup game when they are treated like this.
Thanks for listening. I hope some lessons can be learned!
PS. Looks like there will be a lot of Bolton fans in the home end in Marseille
Thank you for your email and I am sorry to hear of your disappointment
Firstly in respect of Guimaraes tickets, these were all processed and issued immediately they were received from Guimaeres. Indeed there are many examples of UK Clubs who due to the late arrival of tickets from the opposing Club, are left in the often difficult position of having to distribute tickets to their supporters from the opposing clubs venue, a situation that Bolton Wanderers have successfully avoided during this campaign.
The Clubs policy in respect of applications for UEFA Cup tickets has been widely publicized, with applications for tickets invited 2 weeks ago mmediately Marseille had confirmed the ticket price. The club has always made it clear that all applications would be date stamped and processed in the strict order they were received, a process that has been followed to the letter.
At no time has the club published any information suggesting that demand would be lower than for Portugal.
With regard to Corporate Hospitality packages, under UEFA rules, each Club is allocated 200 tickets for Club guests, players and business clients, which are over and above the Clubs ticket only allocation. I should stress that these are not part of the clubs 2,800 ticket allocation. I should also stress that corporate clients and customers are a very important part of the Clubs recent success, with the vast majority being lifelong supporters of the Football Club and the vast majority having being corporate season ticket holders for many years.
With regard to your own application, if it was received before the end of the day on Saturday 28th January, then it will have been successful. The majority of those received on Monday 30th January have also been successful with any additional applications being held on a waiting list should the club receive any returns, which is often the case.
In summary, the Club have acted in strict accordance with our widely publicized ticket policy and procedures and while we are sorry that a small number of applications may have been unsuccessful, such an eventuality is inevitable when the number of applications received exceeds the tickets available to the Club.
Thank you however for writing to the Club with your concerns.
With kind regards
Gareth Moores
Commercial Director
-----Original Message-----
From: wigg [mailto:wigg@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 31 January 2006 14:10
To: Gareth Moores
Subject: Hugely disappointed and angry fan
Dear Mr Moores,
I just wanted to let you know how extremely disappointed I am (yet again) with the way that the club and ticket office have handled arrangements for a big match. After the Guimaraes fiasco (tickets arriving literally the day that we left for Portugal) I thought you would have learnt something ... but apparently no.
Like many fans I was very surprised to see that the club waited so long to invite applications. Why not do it sooner? The number of tickets given to us by the other team would have no effect on the application process.
If you had asked any fan on the street they would have told you that more of their friends were hoping to travel to Marseille. As far as I am aware, the only information given out by the club suggested that there wouldn't be problem with tickets as interest was significantly lower than for Portugal. As a result of this I booked flights and accomodation for myself and my Dad and put in my application for tickets as soon as they were requested.
I phoned the ticket office this morning to buy tickets for 4 other matches and on enquiring about Marseille I was informed that all tickets had gone and that not all even all of the season ticket holder applications have been successful.
I understand that Marseille will not be releasing any more tickets, but if that is the case then why have the club not announced that the match is now sold out? As it is, more people could be booking travel today with the assumption that they are still likely to get tickets.
And now for the bit that makes me really really angry. On realising I wouldn't have tickets I decided to enquire about corporate packages. I was told that these were still available and on double checking was
assured that if I wanted to I could get a seat in with the away fans rather than at the box. Now that is a joke.
And the club wonders why only 13,000 turn up for the FA cup game when they are treated like this.
Thanks for listening. I hope some lessons can be learned!
PS. Looks like there will be a lot of Bolton fans in the home end in Marseille