Dear Sounders: Here’s Why You’re Having a Hard Time Selling CCL Tickets

Horrifically funny anecdote, but do you really think low sales are due in any great degree to TicketMaster not letting people choose their own seats?

I’d suggest a more worrisome explanation:  that the vast majority of tickets sold were to season-ticket holders during the off-season, giddy with the hope of an even-better year than 2009.  The fall-off you’re seeing now (and saw for, in particular, the Boca friendly) is in light of the disappointment that has been the Sounders 2010 season.  In short, I’m wondering if, as long as the Sounders are seen as a mediocre team rather than a challenger for the championship, turnouts of 13,000 might be what we can expect from now on?

I think it’s a combination of factors, actually.  Yes, there’s an interest drop-off.  But in light of that, wouldn’t you think Sounders would do everything possible to make it easy on the fans to attend the games? 

Telling Ticketmaster to go to hell would be a great first step for the FO. 

Laurie, you could have clicked on the ticket link to the right!

This is the service we provide Sounders Fans ! 

That would be a good first step, yes.

user your Sounders Account Rep. I have yet to not get a call or email response within a hour of sending in a request to mine.  I agree – Ticketmaster is awful but I believe the Account Rep’s are employees of the Sounders/Seahawks and they seem to be quite good and willing to help season ticket holders with these sorts of requests.  

Yeah, I’m still learning all of the services that GoSounders offers.  It’s just that…there’s so damn many! 

My reason for only selling 13K…Not enough publicity for the game. It seems that the sounders did not try very hard to get the attention of occasional fans. The only commercials I have seen are from Fox Soccer Channel (and Sounders FC Weekly, but that is on late, SUNDAY night), and I am the only person in my family and group of friends that has that channel.

I have same issue when buying regular season games though the monopoly.  They do that in order to force you to buy the more expensive tickets.  You have to select how much you want to spend in order to choose the part of the stadium you want.

i had the same issue because i was trying to buy tickets near a friend that had already bought theirs and ticket master would not let me see the available seats! it is incredible frustrating 

I’ve seen ads on during teh regular season sounders games, full banner ads on the seattletimes and seattlepi websites, and PA announcements at every home game. I don’t know what the problem is but I don’t think it’s lack of advertising.

Yah, I tend to just call my rep.  I have plenty of e-mails back and forth with him and have called him several times.  

I had issues with Ticketmaster when i first purchased tickets, the online application made it seem all the tickets were gone while i was testing out the quantity of tickets i could buy.

Maybe this team just sucks and the reality of being a “mediocre at best “side is settling in on fans after the initial ‘hooray, we have a team” Euphoria has passed.

I missed the deadline to get my season seats, but now I work my new job at nights and can only make weekend games. I would love to watch, but now I am checking online for updates during my breaks.

First off, to anyone who doesn’t want to renew season tickets next year after a lackluster first half following an inaugural year with an MLS Playoff Appearance and US Open Cup Title: Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

This isn’t the damned Mariners. Support your only successful club, Seattle.

As badly as we’ve played, we’re one point out of a playoff spot right now. This talk about us being a mediocre side is going to look silly if we string a couple more good matches together.

Secondly, for the CCL FO situation: It’s sad. But I honestly don’t think it’s due to lack of interest. The marketing has not been really great on TV, worse on the website and Ticketbastard is a well-documented labyrinth of pain when it comes to acquiring seats you want.

Couldn’t agree more with you Michael.  When it hits them in the ass, I hope it hurts a little.  I don’t think people really understand the CCL.  We are still filling the stadium for regular season games.  In my section, there were about 10 out of 30 seats filled with people I recognize.  The rest were people who either bought the seats, or were given them.  The section was still almost totally filled. The CCL is different.  Most fans that don’t read the soccer sights frequently, don’t grasp the meaning.  It is a mind-set that doesn’t fit with american sports.  If we win this game, then all of us season ticket holders should talk to our neighbors at the stadium and educate them on the importance.  This is lack of understanding, not a lack of advertising, or interest.

Lack of interest via lack of understanding of the competition and it’s importance. 

I’d expect some walk-ups on a nice summer evening. Lotsa people likely to make a game-time decision. Short notice (i.e. not on the original schedule) on a weeknight is tough, advertising or not. Portland brought out just over 18k under similar conditions (except weather) and I could see that number being a target of the FO. Perhaps that’s our true crowd right there after all the “customers” are weeded out, the FO must be asking themselves that question.

All I know is I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. There’s nothing like international competition and Seattle finally has a seat at the table.   

Oh yeah…EFF TICKETSHAFTSTER!!!

good luck with your ticket rep. I’m going to do a psychic prediction and say that he’ll be able to tell you what seats are available, but won’t be able to sell them to you. I talked to my rep before the Open Cup game, as I’ve frequently been able to get tickets through him, free of ticketmaster charges and he said that for that game, anyway, they (the Sounders ticket reps) didn’t have the Open Cup games in their purchasing system. I’m going to guess that the CCL games are the same.

Also, from talking to some of my teammates, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the general public doesn’t have a clue what the CCL is. If they wanted a crowd (I don’t think they really do; I think it’s a lot like the Open Cup: they’re not really going to market it until there’s a chance of actually winning it) they needed to start the education process a couple of months back. Most folks seem to think it’s the Open Cup.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.  There’s no way TicketMaster would sign on to do this without an exclusive contract that fans can’t get around by going to a better, no-fee  non-TM source.  Which is pretty stupid on the part of Sounders if they want to sell the tickets.

Its a Wednesday game, during the summer, and against an opponent even pretty hardcore soccer fans have not heard of. Plus there is the whole home/away thing which makes the match less than conclusive. And there is the fact that nobody knows what this whole tournament is or why they should care. 

But I’ll second the ticket nonsense. I had a hell of time finding the link as well, eventually going some roundabout way. And really, there is no reason the team cannot run its own tickets sales.  

I can’t even print my tickets through my Sounders account right now!  Ticketmaster is so frustrating.

Expect 13,000 turnouts? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Even the Mariners draw 27,000 and they haven’t made the playoffs in 9 years. You highly, highly underestimate this fanbase (and the walk up crowd).

Two things:
1) I agree with other commentors — call your ticket rep. I only deal with him. It accomplishes things quickly and I avoid TicketMaster, which is my ultimate goal in life
2) If you are a season ticket holder and have used the “My Account” section to sell your tickets, you should seriously consider reading my post about how ScrewYouInTheAssMaster is blatantly ripping you off and making things confusing… http://computrav.blogspot.com/2010/07/ticketexchange-by-ticketmaster-lets-see.html

My point, however inelegantly expressed, was that it would appear that most of these sales were to season ticket holders, and made in the preseason.  I’m curious as to just how many sales have been made to non-season-ticket-holders, and how far into the season (when it became clear the team was struggling this year) were they made.

Oh, I’d still expect season ticket sales to be able to count on a diehard core of supporters (although I very much doubt that, should we wind up near the bottom of the table and out of the playoffs, we can still count on 36,000).  But I don’t think that walk-up sales beyond that season-ticket core will be necessarily there, should the Sounders fare poorly in any given year.

I heard the 13000 tickets are not counting the season ticket holders

i’ll watch it on tv from here in DC, but I will be there next week in San Salvador…

I had a Sounders/Seahawks staffer hang up on me yesterday after calling them to find out about my Seahawks season tickets that were left on the porch of my old house 3 time zones away.

Maybe they were going thru Leiweke-withdrawal.

I wouldn’t read too much into this.  It is a mid-week game against an unknown, non-league opponent. 

I would say that the average fan has very little understanding of the importance of the CCL.  Heck, I have met several season ticket holders who still have no clue what the Open Cup is.

I think it’s great that the Sounders FO is using Quest field.  The fact that the game is on a week day is the major problem. Also getting there is a factor in that because it is not easy to get to Quest.. but for me I have a Free parking spot and a bicycle.  To get off work and then come down town and find parking is fun as getting your teeth pulled out, then factor in just getting off work.

Here is the thing though. Thanks to links straight from the team website and the fact that it is “official”, I get a much higher price than through stubhub. Plus I don’t have to mail the tickets. I have not used craigslist though because I hate dealing with all the crap that goes along with that (like negotiating, meeting the people, scams, etc). 

Yeah its a bit misleading for sure, but all I really care about is getting the highest price. 

A couple of things spring to my mind after reading this and the comments:

1)Ticketmaster fees do suck and I don’t think there is anyway around that.  Calling your rep is always better.

2)It was mentioned on another site that the preliminary round attendance record is 14k, meaning we should easily break that record.

3)I think most teams in the MLS would kill for 13k at a regular season, far less a prelim round against an opponent no one has heard of

4)Other media sources are saying how great it is being marketing so I think it depends on what media you consume on a daily basis: http://www.mls-rumors.net/9889/2010/07/photosvideos-marketing-the-concacaf-champions-league-in-the-usa/

5)I am a little confused people saying they can’t find a ticket link.  I was there yesterday and they had at least 4 buttons on their homepage promoting it.

I think we need to put this in perspective.  If the situation was that we are drawing less than other MLS teams for these types of matches it would be a concern, but the fact is that we should break the CCL attendance mark anyways.  We are not going to have 36k at every match we play.  We would not have 36k for a US Open Cup game either if it were at Qwest. 

I blame Ticketmaster and their BS fees. Charging me an additional fee for printing the tickets out on my home printer..Really??

Yeah.. I don’t have season tickets, I get some through ticket exchange when I can make a game and sweet jesus there are a LOT of people there every game I’ve been to that have absolutely NO idea about things you guys here take for granted everyone knows. Offsides, substitution rules, even our players’ names! I’m talking more than half of the people around me at 9 or 10 games in 2 years. Obviously these people are not going to understand what the CCL is… But they may be wondering why they didn’t get it with their season tickets… uhhhhh.

About finding the link:

1)  They’ve changed the homepage since I was there yesterday to make the links more prominent.

2)  Yesterday there was a small link to the ticket page and a much larger link to info about the tournament.  Which, oddly, did not seem to include a link to tickets.  I wasted a lot of time there looking before eventually going to “Single Tickets”  and finding what I wanted. 

After seeing Laurie’s tweet, I just bought 3 tickets through my ticket rep for the CCL match tomorrow night and 6 for the Open Cup on 9/1.  No fees.  Yay.  Thanks Laurie!

Putting up a post on this later, but SUCCESS with the ticket rep.  He found tickets for me in my row that apparently weren’t in the TicketMaster inventory.  And no stupid Ticketmaster fees. 

Due to CCL regulations this Match must be held at Quest and during a weekday.

I still blame ticketmaster for lack of sales for the most part, although the sounders really need to do more advertising on FSN, and KING affiliate networks. Anyone who is familiar with UEFA champions league games knows how important this match is for the Sounders and there Branding to gain international recognition the FO is striving for.

1) I had no trouble purchasing tickets via TM, but really really wish I had my brain plugged in that day and had called our awesome ticket rep, Chris, instead. I ended up with club seating that I suppose in theory is great, but I would have liked my working-class north-end season seats.

2) I haven’t watched the commercials, so I cannot speak to those, but the print promotions are GORGEOUS. I mean, just lovely graphic design. Serious kudos for those. I have the poster up in my office.

Personally, I had never heard of the CCL until we won the USOC last year. Suffering from late onset SOD (soccer obsessive disorder) the internet searching began. My first reaction,”what the he’ll kinda format is this?! i like it!”

The STH next to me had no idea that there was a CCL match tomorrow until I mentioned it today. Missed the email apparently.

Thanks to all for research and suggestions for ticket purchase options.

Yes, it doesn’t make sense from a consumer prospective (printing a ticket and mailing should cost more than having the customer print it).  However, businesses (like Ticketmaster) have learned that people will pay more for convenience. In the end, Ticketmaster is in the business of making a profit.

That’s why I just opt for getting the tickets in the mail.  Overall it costs less and I don’t use my own ink.

Also, going to the Qwest box office bypasses Ticketmeister altogether. If you live near downtown…

I got so frustrated that I ended up just driving down to the stadium so that I coud talk to a real person.  That went very well as she could look up specific seats and tell availability.  But still, there went an hour of my day.

It doesn’t seem to have changed since I purchased tickets since I purchased tickets about a week ago. I guess I was just looking in different areas than you.

(1) This is a play-in game, not an actual tournament game even though the way they lay things out it looks like a group-stage match.
(2) Prices are outrageous
(3) CCL play-in games often draw tiny crowds. Like 1000 people tiny.
(4) Metapan plays in a ghetto version of Starfire.
(5) Sounders will be crazy to play their starters in the middle of a tough playoff drive
(6) Prices are outrageous
(7) No discounts for season ticket holders
(8) Prices are outrageous
(9) CONCACAF is corrupt
(10) MLS plays an overlapping season with CCL, whereas the central american countries have a much more natural schedule leading into the CCL
(11) CCL gives the impression that Mexico’s First Division is way better than MLS.

13000 tickets will be the highest tally I’ve ever heard of for a CCL play-in game. You should be kissing the feet of the Sounders marketing team that they got that many sold for such a bizarre and unnatural tournament (Toronto are champions? Of what? A three-team tournament involving two USL clubs and Totocrap FC? Whoopie ding-dong).

Can you buy them at the door? I hope so. I’m planing on going to buying at the door.

I used my Sounders account rep. Very helpful! I need two tix three weeks ago, and when I called today to at another tix he remembered me and helped me out in four minutes. NO TICKETMASTER charges! $10 tix equaled $10 cost! 

Thank for the help Tyler (SSFC account rep)