Football crazy
Football doesn’t help itself.
For months I wanted to buy tickets for the Dundee derby (Dundee United versus Dundee) at Tannadice on Saturday January 3, but less than three weeks before the game they had yet to go on sale so the only people guaranteed seats were season ticket holders and those who had purchased the more expensive hospitality packages (which have been sold out for months).
I rang the ticket office two weeks ago and they told me they didn’t know when tickets would go on sale, but it would “probably” be within seven or ten days.
Two weeks later they still weren’t on sale which may not be an issue if you live locally but I live in Cambridgeshire, 350 miles away, and for a three o’clock kick-off we would have to travel north the previous day and book a hotel for two nights, which is what I went ahead and did, albeit at the cancellation rate in case we can’t get tickets.
Meanwhile an old schoolfriend also wanted to go to the game but his situation was complicated by the fact that he lives in Dublin and has to fly to Edinburgh. Needless to say he didn’t want to book flights (which are often not refundable) until he knew he had a ticket.
With this in mind, I rang the ticket office again yesterday morning only to be told that tickets would on sale “later this week”. In the meantime I was told to “keep an eye on the website” (which is what I’ve been doing!) and to look out for a “news story”.
To be fair, I don’t think United are alone in this practise, but it does seem strange that tickets can’t be purchased months in advance. That said, even if tickets can be booked well in advance, football is still a crazy business. For example, having purchased tickets at the start of the season to see Chelsea Women play London City Lionesses at Stamford Bridge at the end of October, the match was subsequently pushed back 24 hours to accommodate television and now I couldn’t go because the new TV-friendly date clashed with a prior commitment.
I was unaware I could get a refund so I didn’t bother trying, but it was the relatively late change of date that annoyed me more.
Football, eh?
