Early Bird Tickets

According to the FA website (http://www.thefa.com/news/competitions/fa-trophy/2015/feb/fa-trophy-final-date-confirmed-090215), tickets for the FA Trophy Final go on sale next week through an early bird purchase scheme.  Now, if this early bird scheme is similar to the early bird scheme for the Conference Play Off Final, it is possible that the "early bird" price would only be available until the end of February, meaning that, once the finalists are known the price will go up.  Therefore, I am wondering if it is worth opening some neogiations with North Ferriby United's supporters club about coming to an arrangement over purchasing a certain number of the tickets at whatever price the tickets are ahead of the price going up at the end of February (if they do).  What I was thinking was for each supporters club to get an idea of numbers, and then, one club or the other buy that many tickets at the "early bird" price.  Once the semi final is over, if it turns out that the club that bought the tickets loses the semi final, then the club that wins the semi final would buy the tickets from them.  Of course, if the club that buys the tickets wins the semi final, then no further action would be required.

I hope this makes some sense.  Is it worth investigating this?

Good idea. Worth the trouble if there is a price saving

Are these tickets for a neutral area as  opposed to areas allocated to finalists? 
If the other semi-finalists did the same it could result in supporters from both finalists  in the same location and away from their main supporter groups.

Still can't find any details online for this offer.  However, according to the bloke that was interviewed on BBC Non League Show on Saturday evening, tickets go on sale today (Monday 16th) for £20 for adults (£7-50 for kids), and £15 (£5 for kids) for groups of 15.  He said that the early bird sale runs until March 4th.  Presumably the prices will go through the roof after that.  You can listen to this at Non League Show from 27:24.  Note that March 4th is the Wednesday immediately after the second leg of the semi final, so we will have to move quickly at that point should City make it through that round.  These tickets can be bought from the FA's website at FA Tickets, but requires registration to proceed further.

Now that I've gone through the registration process on the FA website I can see that the early bird tickets definitely are in the areas allocated to the competing clubs.  The west end of the stadium is allocated to Torquay or Wrexham, and the east end is allocated to North Ferriby United or Bath City.  Therefore, when tickets are selected, they can be selected in the correct section.  However, there are no details of how to obtain the additional group discount. Also, I can see that the prices are £20 adult, £10 OAP / student, £7-50 under 16, with these prices going up to £30, £20 and £10 after March 4th.

If they're available til March 4th it'd be wise for everybody to wait until Feb 29th to ensure all die hard City are 'sat' together

I assume that now we know that the early bird offer lasts beyond the date of the semi final second leg, that there is no reason to buy tickets before that. By contrast the early bird offer for tickets for the Conference Play Off Final expires at the end of February, well before it will be possible to know which clubs will be in the semi final, let alone knowing who will win the semi finals.

Still can't find any information on how to access the discount for buying 15 or more tickets (I am hoping that, if we are going, there will be more than 15 of us).

Further to this again, there is now a page on the FA Website (here) giving details of this early bird offer, including a form to fill in to order tickets for a group.  Prices for a group of 15 or more are £15 adults, £10 OAPs / students, and £5 for under 16.  The form suggests that the closing date for group tickets is Friday 20th March.  However, the form does not appear to give any indication of how you specify which team's supporters you would be sitting with.

Palms wrote:If they're available til March 4th it'd be wise for everybody to wait until Feb 29th to ensure all die hard City are 'sat' together

On this note, will it be possible that we can get the core group of city supporters (i.e. the roughly less than 1,000 people who go TP week in week out) all seated in the same section, as so we can try to generate some sort of atmosphere for our big day?.... rather than be scattered about amongst the 'day trip to Wembley' "fans"

If we get to the final, wouldn't the club be selling the tickets?

I'll start worrying about seating arrangements if and when we get to the final.

A36 wrote:Now that I've gone through the registration process on the FA website I can see that the early bird tickets definitely are in the areas allocated to the competing clubs.  The west end of the stadium is allocated to Torquay or Wrexham, and the east end is allocated to North Ferriby United or Bath City.  Therefore, when tickets are selected, they can be selected in the correct section.  However, there are no details of how to obtain the additional group discount.  Also, I can see that the prices are £20 adult, £10 OAP / student, £7-50 under 16, with these prices going up to £30, £20 and £10 after March 4th.

Group discount form is here http://www.thefa.com/~/media/files/word/group%20ticket%20application%20forms/fa-trophy-2015-group-booking.ashx?la=en

Richard111 wrote:If we get to the final, wouldn't the club be selling the tickets?

The question there is whether the club will be able to sell tickets at the early bird price, or whether they would have to sell them at the inflated price.

2weirdtown wrote:I'll start worrying about seating arrangements if and when we get to the final.

That is absolutely right. My concern is that the period of time from the second leg on February 28th to the end of the early bird price on March 4th is quite a short time to get organised. The whole idea of putting the price up from £20 to £30 four days after the second leg of the semi final seems rather bizzare to me.

Palms wrote:Group discount form is here http://www.thefa.com/~/media/files/word/group%20ticket%20application%20forms/fa-trophy-2015-group-booking.ashx?la=en

The problem with that form is that there seems to be no way of indicating which team's supporters you would be sitting with.

A36 wrote: My concern is that the period of time from the second leg on February 28th to the end of the early bird price on March 4th is quite a short time to get organised.

I would imagine that should we win, the day after the 2nd leg this forum and social media will be awash with people arranging themselves into groups to take up the cheap offer.

CAN WE GET TO THE BL@@DY FINAL FIRST AND CUT OUT ALL THIS TICKET TALK

I fully agree with that, so, it would help if the FA didn't schedule a big price hike for just four days after the second leg.

Beau Nash wrote:If any financing is needed then that is not a problem.

That's a very kind offer.

Yes, thanks Nash. I knew those billionaire friends of yours would come in handy...

yuffie wrote:

Beau Nash wrote:If any financing is needed then that is not a problem.

That's a very kind offer.

Simply a "bridging" loan if required. My rates of interest are very competitive.

Will it be a big price hike? what were the ticket prices last season?

BenE wrote:Will it be a big price hike? what were the ticket prices last season?

The current price for tickets is £20 adult, £10 OAP / student and £7-50 under 16s.  After March 4th it will go from £20 / £10 / £7-50 to £30 / £20 / £10.  So, 50% increase for adults, 100% increase for OAPs and students, 33% increase for under 16s.

What we don't know is whether the £20 / £10 / £7-50 tickets will be available directly from the two clubs that reach the final, or whether those prices are only available from the FA website (and I can't imagine any of the four semi finalists publishing any ticket details until after the semi finals are over).

Note that tickets bought from the FA website are specifically for the sections allocated to the finalists, Torquay or Wrexham will be at the west end of the stadium, whilst North Ferriby or Bath City will be at the east, and when selecting tickets, you are asked to select between them.

However, there also appears to be an offer to groups of 15 or more for which adults are £15, OAPs / students £10 and under 16s £5, which, compared to the current price is 25% less for adults, same price for OAPs and students and 33% less for under 16s.  It is not clear in which part of the stadium tickets in such groups would be located.

Again, the real problem with all of this is that the FA have announced that this, rather large, price hike will be applied just four days after the semi finals finish, which is rather short to get such things organised, and a period during which none of the four semi finalists have a home game.

Why can't we worry about tickets for the final at 5pm next Saturday?

We've got 2 very tough games to get through yet.

Ashley wrote:Why can't we worry about tickets for the final at 5pm next Saturday?

We've got 2 very tough games to get through yet.

Absolutely agree with this, blame the FA!