I'm a big cricket fan. I love the sport more than any other. And for the past 12 years I, along with other family members that never amount to more than 3, have gone to the first day of the New Year's test in Sydney. No matter who the opposition was, and for many of those years, there was some horrible competition, we've been.
Well, as other Australians would know, this year's ticketing system was a fiasco. I'd be happy to explain the whole problem to you, but I'll let my email and my reply from the A.C.B. do the talking.
I am extremely disappointed in the lack of foresight and 'security' made by those responsible for the ticketing problems that have occurred. Prior years seemed to have worked fine without the bullshit that has gone on this year, what with the stupid "Cricket Family", tickets being permitted to be sold on eBay and further crap that has gone on. Why implement these failed policys to register online for tickets when, in fact, I can't get a mere three. And as for being able to buy TEN TICKETS in one go, who in God's honest name requires ten tickets for one day!? I, my father, and my grandfather have been attending the first day of the New Year's test for the past TWELVE YEARS, and never have we had a problem like this. Also, I might point out, have we never not been able to get tickets. Now, I can't not only get the prefered tickets, I wasn't able to access the website and the phone lines were a catasrophe. I don't honestly expect any sort of response to this mere comment as the minds behind the "great" Cricket Family idea and further chaos involved with getting three tickets, just three tickets, honestly would not be intelligent enough to be able to string two words together or smart enough to employ anyone who could.
Clayton Northcutt.
The reply was as follows, uneditted and complete with grammatical errors:
Thank you for contacting Cricket Australia. Our apology for the experience you had trying to buy cricket tickets. And our apology for not sending you an individual reply. There have been a lot of emails, which have not made it possible to send each and every correspondent an individual reply. However, most people have made fairly similar points about their frustration and disappointment with their experience buying tickets to 3 mobile Ashes games and other international cricket over summer.
It has been a mixed experience.
On the up-side, the systems used by the three ticketing agencies who sell Australian cricket tickets operated at full throttle and managed to sell nearly 300,000 tickets in the first two days on sale.
On the down side, many people had to wait a long time to get on, or found they couldn~t get through, or found that the tickets they wanted had sold before they could get through.
And in some places, demand was much higher than supply, as can happen with premium events.
Our apology for those frustrations.
Some particular suggestions and issues you have made or raised included:
Q: Why not stagger the selling so tickets for different states go on sale on different days?
A: This is something we will have to look at in future, including when normal tickets go on sale on 19 June. The experts told us it would work by having everything go on sale on the one day but this might be the way we need to go in future.
Q: Why are there tickets for re-sale via on-line organisations?
A: We have structured the terms and conditions of sale to give ourselves theright to cancel tickets which appear for sale on line, and have been talking to on-line retailing to ask for their help. One of our messages to the public is to be aware that there is risk buying on-line - - you could find the ticket cancelled and lose your money. We congratulate the Trading Post and other organisations that have refused to help scalpers.
Q: Will there be more UK fans getting tickets than Australians?
A: The experts advised us that setting up the Australian Cricket Family system would give Australian fans the best opportunity they could have for getting access to tickets. However, we were always aware there was no absolute guarantee that UK or other overseas visitors will not get tickets through the system. Leakage, they call it. Indeed, various estimates we have seen predict between 10,000 and 30,000 UK fans here over the full summer, and a lot of red and white (the colours of the St George Cross) in the stands. But we are still confident there will be more Australian than UK fans in the stands.
Q: Why let people buy up to 10 tickets in one transaction?
A: We are reviewing this in the light of this experience. However, we let people buy between 6 and 10 tickets per transaction, depending on city. This was based on local historic experience, although we did cut back the ~ration~ in a number of cities. Historically, a lot of loyal Aussie fans come in groups and like to sit together for their big day out at the cricket. They might be a group from one street, or from a footy club, or members of one family, who have traditionally got one of their group to buy on behalf of the group to get tickets together. We didn~t think it was fair to say: ~Thanks for your support in previous years but we now have a really popular series, so you can~t do this any more~. What we tried to do was seek a balance between their way of buying tickets and ensuring others could still get tickets.
The ACF allocation today, exceeding 700,000 tickets over all international cricket, was the biggest allocation per day for any ground, not counting members~ enclosures. Some tickets have been held over for general public sale on 19 June. For example, over 2000 tickets for each day of the Sydney 3 mobile Test will go on sale that day.
Our apology for the disappointment you had. And thank you for letting is know how you felt. All of the feedback we get - - positive and negative ~ helps us improve how we do things. If you are still having an issue with any membership details of the Australian Cricket Family, please call the Help Line on 1300 553 234.
Thank you
Cricket Australia Public Queries
It has been a mixed experience.
On the up-side, the systems used by the three ticketing agencies who sell Australian cricket tickets operated at full throttle and managed to sell nearly 300,000 tickets in the first two days on sale.
On the down side, many people had to wait a long time to get on, or found they couldn~t get through, or found that the tickets they wanted had sold before they could get through.
And in some places, demand was much higher than supply, as can happen with premium events.
Our apology for those frustrations.
Some particular suggestions and issues you have made or raised included:
Q: Why not stagger the selling so tickets for different states go on sale on different days?
A: This is something we will have to look at in future, including when normal tickets go on sale on 19 June. The experts told us it would work by having everything go on sale on the one day but this might be the way we need to go in future.
Q: Why are there tickets for re-sale via on-line organisations?
A: We have structured the terms and conditions of sale to give ourselves theright to cancel tickets which appear for sale on line, and have been talking to on-line retailing to ask for their help. One of our messages to the public is to be aware that there is risk buying on-line - - you could find the ticket cancelled and lose your money. We congratulate the Trading Post and other organisations that have refused to help scalpers.
Q: Will there be more UK fans getting tickets than Australians?
A: The experts advised us that setting up the Australian Cricket Family system would give Australian fans the best opportunity they could have for getting access to tickets. However, we were always aware there was no absolute guarantee that UK or other overseas visitors will not get tickets through the system. Leakage, they call it. Indeed, various estimates we have seen predict between 10,000 and 30,000 UK fans here over the full summer, and a lot of red and white (the colours of the St George Cross) in the stands. But we are still confident there will be more Australian than UK fans in the stands.
Q: Why let people buy up to 10 tickets in one transaction?
A: We are reviewing this in the light of this experience. However, we let people buy between 6 and 10 tickets per transaction, depending on city. This was based on local historic experience, although we did cut back the ~ration~ in a number of cities. Historically, a lot of loyal Aussie fans come in groups and like to sit together for their big day out at the cricket. They might be a group from one street, or from a footy club, or members of one family, who have traditionally got one of their group to buy on behalf of the group to get tickets together. We didn~t think it was fair to say: ~Thanks for your support in previous years but we now have a really popular series, so you can~t do this any more~. What we tried to do was seek a balance between their way of buying tickets and ensuring others could still get tickets.
The ACF allocation today, exceeding 700,000 tickets over all international cricket, was the biggest allocation per day for any ground, not counting members~ enclosures. Some tickets have been held over for general public sale on 19 June. For example, over 2000 tickets for each day of the Sydney 3 mobile Test will go on sale that day.
Our apology for the disappointment you had. And thank you for letting is know how you felt. All of the feedback we get - - positive and negative ~ helps us improve how we do things. If you are still having an issue with any membership details of the Australian Cricket Family, please call the Help Line on 1300 553 234.
Thank you
Cricket Australia Public Queries
I am sending another email in order to clarify that they are, in fact, not remaining loyal to the fans in that they will not deny massive, bulk purchases, but they are remaining loyal to their bank balance and would prefer to make more money out of one purchase than risk only selling, say, 5 of those tickets and having a few of them go unsold.
Clayton Northcutt.
Clayton Northcutt.
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