ARCHIVE: ‘Post’ Traumatic Stress!!
When the club announced during the summer that it would be issuing tickets for away games by postal application only, I thought “oh fuck!”. Talking to fans of other clubs who operate a similar system concluded that applying by post heralded numerous problems.
The pre-season friendly at Crewe was made all-ticket (or so we were led to believe) and the Evening News stated that fans had to apply by post to the club for tickets, enclosing a cheque for the correct amount and an S.A.E. With approximately 900 seats available to away supporters, it seemed strange that a postal application system had been put in force. May be it was so the club could try it out prior to the Premiership campaign, when tickets for away games would be in high demand?
Anyway, I applied for two tickets for the Crewe game and enclosed both a cheque and a stamped addressed envelope. When the postman came and went the day before the match, I was slightly worried. This was cutting it a little fine, but I was told by a Geordie fan that this was normal for them, and that in some cases the tickets arrived on the morning of the game. A bit too close for comfort I thought, and so I phoned the BWFC ticket office. I was told by the person on the other end of the phone that no application had been received in my name and that they had no idea what had happened to my letter and cheque. They told me to contact the post office, as obviously they must have lost my letter. However, if I still wanted a ticket I could come down to the ticket office to purchase a ticket over the counter. This was not ideal, I work out of town and cannot possibly get to Burnden before 5pm, and so I uttered some derogatory remark.
“My application had been processed after all, but yet the club had told me it hadn’t arrived at their end. What the fuck was going on at the Burnden ticket office?”
I eventually made arrangements that night for someone else to go down to Burnden to buy the tickets. More hassle!
The day of the game arrived and on the doormat in the morning dropped my S.A.E. containing two tickets for the Crewe match! My application had been processed after all, but yet the club had told me it hadn’t arrived at their end. What the fuck was going on at the Burnden ticket office? Luckily I managed to make a phone call to prevent my brother from obtaining a further two tickets and he replied with more derogatory remarks towards the club.
Eventually we arrived at Gresty Road to find out that Bolton fans could pay on the turnstiles! In fact it turned out that less than fifty tickets had been purchased by postal application... fans obviously weren’t too keen on this method of ticket purchase.
The point I am trying to make is that if you apply for tickets for a game down south and don’t find out until the morning of the game if you have been successful with your application or not, how the hell can you arrange transport, time off work, babysitters and other obstacles associated with organising a big day out?
The best way to purchase away match tickets is to go down to the ticket office and buy them over the counter... but now I find that the ticket office has moved some six miles out of town... what a fiasco!!
First appeared in White Love Issue 18, October 1998.