Ticket Deal Annoys United Fans - 30/09/2007

One of the surprises of the third round of the Carling Cup was the defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford by Coventry City, perhaps proving that you can't win anything with kids. There was also apparently a record league cup attendance of 74,055 to see United's youngsters get turned over by their Championship opponents. But this figure had no relationship to who was actually in the stadium. Of course, clubs regularly count season ticket holders as being present whether they are or not for league matches. After all, they have paid for their seats and the transaction costs of working out whether their seat is occupied are too high to justify the effort. However, under a compulsory ticketing scheme, United's 57,000 season ticket holders are required to buy tickets for all three cup competitions regardless of whether they wish to attend or not. Fans living some way from the ground may understandably not wish to travel to Manchester on a weekday evening to see a reserve team play. The scheme is deeply unpopular among United fans who see it as symptomatic of the unwelcome changes since the Glazer family's takeover of the club in 2005. The club's defence is that three-quarters of season ticket holders were already signed up to the scheme voluntarily and that the discounted tickets offer great value for money. Nevertheless, it seems that a lot of fans want to offload them. Why force those who don't want them to buy them other than to help the club meet its financial targets?