Following yesterday’s (10.12.20) announcement by @ChelseaFC of the selling arrangements and prices for the fixture Vs. West Ham, the CST has released the following statement.
On 1st December, the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) wrote a letter to senior officials of Chelsea FC (CFC). The letter made the following points (summarised):
- The CST was disappointed with the selling arrangements for the Leeds/Krasnodar matches.
- The loyalty-point system is a club-initiated scheme which has been used in the past to allocate tickets for ‘big’ games and stadiums with a smaller capacity. The CST stated that it was questionable that this system had not been implemented for a percentage of tickets sold for reduced capacity fixtures.
- The £75 fee (plus £2 admin fee) charged by CFC for the majority of available seats (Vs Leeds) was frustrating and disappointing. The CST expressed that following a year of financial hardship for many loyal supporters, this pricing was a real betrayal of their longstanding support.
- The CST asked the club to immediately reconsider its ticket selling arrangements for future fixtures and that the CST would be open to dialogue in order to provide an outcome which was satisfactory to both the club and Chelsea supporters.
The CST is appalled by the lack of consideration towards supporters with the announcement of the selling arrangements for the West Ham fixture.
CFC was fully aware of the widespread negative reaction that the Leeds/Krasnodar selling arrangements brought about. For CFC not to divert from the same approach demonstrates a worrying sense of naivety by the club. CFC could be considered to be ‘out of touch’ with many of its supporters.
The CST again requests that the club reconsiders any future selling arrangements and that it stops with this exploitative ticket pricing.
We are supporters, not customers!
