I have been told this morning that the 1700 tickets that we get from Leeds may be all we receive.
No, the game will not be a sell out and segregation is not a problem, but Leeds, so I am reliably informed work on the following basis.
Any additional tickets are NOT allocated on a sale or return basis. So if and when the initial 1700 are sold and Pools request more the club have to pay Leeds for them regardless whether we sell them or not.
So what do pools do, request another 1000, only sell 500 and then have to fork out £12500 to Leeds for 500 empty seats. I have only used the figures as an example, I dont know in what quantities Leeds will supply tickets (100's, 500's, 1000's).
What if Leeds insist that we can only request 2000, or 3000, you can see the problem.
Perhaps our new found friends in Leeds can advise if this is true, but I for one fear that it would be a typical Ken Bates money maker.

I do honestly think we should give them something back for the return leg, as I said before; maybe reclassify the match as Cat A but give a discount on production of match stubs.

The system at Leeds is that they give you 1700 for 'the wedge' i.e. the corner on sale or return basis.

If you want more they give you the South Stand, capacity 3500, i.e. another 1800 but these are NOT sale or return. So once they've sold 1700 the club has to decide to risk paying for another 1800 seats on the assumption that they'll sell them.

Personally I think they would bearing in mind the Darlo and Rochdale turnouts last season.

Is it all ticket in the home stands?

That's easy then: we take the 3500, sell all 1800 non-return tickets, then return the 1700 unused ones.

I am sure that was tongue in cheek richard. But just in case you are serious they wont give us the extra 1800 untill we have sold all (or expect to sell all) of the first 1700.

If we were to take up the extra 1800, personally I dont expect to sell more than 2500 in total which would mean a bill of £25000 to Pools. I cant see Ken sanctioning that, remember his comments recently about losing £10000 on the Alkmaar game, hence I think it will be 1700 and thats it.

This should have been an easy one to resolve.

1. Invite postal applications from all fans as early as possible (season ticket holders and all others).
2. Count up the number of applications on say 3 Sept and ask Leeds for that many tickets.
3. Any shortfall set up rules/ballot for allocating tickets.
4. Post them outby 5 Sept.

Job sorted.

Fair idea splod, but I think you are missing the point.
Leeds wont give you the precise number you need.
They give you 1700, which is the number of seats in one section.
If you require more it is an extra 1800, even if you say we defo only need 800 or 1100 or whatever number. Pools then have to pay for what is left from the extra 1800.

You reckon we'll take 1000 less than we took to Darlo and Rochdale??

Bit surprising seeing as I really don't think we've ever played at Elland Road and it's only an hour down the road?? Are you thinking more about the ticket price then??

Price to some extent, but also Darlington is a bit different given it was a local derby, it was the first away derby for several years, it was the first at the white elephant, the run we were on at the time and I think the sunday kick off helped in that some people who would otherwise have been working were able to go. Rochdale there was the chance it was a title winning day so that probably boosted the attendance. Also I think that some people will actually be a bit nervous about visiting leeds, despite the attraction to hundreds of us who think otherwise, because they may be concerned about crowd trouble. I personally dont believe that to be likely, but to some it may just put them off.

If you know how many you want then you can bargain with Leeds. If they don't play ball then you only take the 1700 and Leeds miss out on the revenue from say another 1000 or £25,000. Bates is a greedy sod and is unlikely to turn away that sort of money.

I think we would sell the 3500 ticket alloction, or very close to it.

All fair points like, and of course 1700 would still be an amazingly good following from us. But if they sell the whole lot to season ticket holders, I reckon they'll go for more.

It's the Rochdale thing that makes me think we'll sell quite a few though. You have to go past Leeds quite a long way to get to Rochdale so what you spend on the ticket you save on the travel, maybe. Elland Road is infinitely more legendary than Spotland, and we've always risen to the big occasion which this is, despite it only being a League game.

If cash strapped leeds have any sense there will be tickets available on the turnstile . There really is very little incentive for ken to buy the extra tickets unless pools are getting a cut if the tickets are sold.

Well, they aren't cash strapped any more. They've lost their debts, are getting 25000+ through the turnstiles and pocketed a huge wad of season ticket and transfer money.

It's a matter of where to put the fans. If they move the away fans intro the south stand, they deny 2000 Leeds fans entry into it. So they need the reason to do it first. I.E. They don't lose revenue.

Pooliekev, I agree 1700 would be v good, and I think we would exceed that.
But that is the whole crux of the problem, exceed 1700 by how many and be landed with a large bill for the sake of how many. If Leeds insist on doing this way.
BTW You are right Elland road is far more appealing than Spotland but it is only an extra 30 miles to Spotland so I am not sure travelling time or cost will have too much bearing on it.

Which they are doing so that's the dilemma Pools face innit??

I guess how we do tonight and Saturday will have an effect as well. I can't think of anywhere else that's saying sell up to 1700 or else sell 3500 but then again we don't run up against Leeds every season. I'd like to think we'd do it justice but it's a lot to ask a club the size of ours I agree. I still think we'll rise to the task, it's just a matter of whether the club will underwrite it.

Is she stitching them together again for you?


It would save her a job every season if you could convince the club shop to sell them in your size.

XXXL won't be good enough- make sure you ask them for "MARQUEE".

Didn't the Port Vale shorts have a bit of black in them, which might have constituted in a clash, some referees can be really picky that way.

The 20 and the 24.