Sales low for Wales' city return

From BBC Wales Website

Wednesday, 17 August 2005

The Football Association of Wales has said it is disappointed that Wales' first game in Swansea for 17 years may be played before a half-empty stadium.

Twenty-four hours before the friendly against Slovenia, around 10,500 tickets had been sold for the 20,000-capacity New Stadium.

It follows ticketing problems ahead of the game which saw some fans issued with and charged for duplicate tickets.

The company running the venue, Stadco, said the problems had been resolved.

FAW spokesman Ceri Stennett said the organisation had hoped for a larger crowd to mark the national side's return to Swansea, adding that "lessons need to be learned" over the ticket problems.

He told the BBC Wales news website on Tuesday: "Around 10,500 tickets have been sold. Tickets are on sale at the stadium until 2pm on the afternoon of the match, but realistically we are expecting 12,000.

"We're disappointed - we were hoping to get nearer a capacity crowd.

Prices were reasonable, but people may have had problems in other areas - there have been teething problems (with ticketing).

"Although those problems have been resolved, it hasn't been straightforward and lessons need to be learned for the future."

Some fans who are due to attend the match have said they still have concerns over ticketing.

Supporter Tony Jeffries said: "We applied for eight tickets, but were sent 16.

"Going to Swansea to return the eight tickets we didn't want, it was found out the 16 tickets we had received had been sold to someone else.

"If we would have turned up with those tickets on Wednesday, we would have been sat in someone's seat or someone would have been sat in ours.

"I can see Wednesday night being mayhem."

Fellow supporter, Gwyn Davies, added: "My concern is for the match is that two or three people might be allocated the same seat and that could lead to all sorts of chaos."
Stadco, which runs the stadium, said the problems had been rectified.

A spokesman said: "There was an initial error in the ticketing arrangements. That issue has now been resolved.

"Any supporter who has been overcharged will be fully refunded.

"Anyone who hasn't received their ticket can either contact the ticket office on 08700 400004 or come along to the ticket inquiry desk which will be open from 2pm until kick-off on Wednesday."

Several senior players including Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Simon Davies have withdrawn from the Wales squad.

Supporter Neil Dymock said the withdrawals and the early-season date for the Slovenia game were to blame for the anticipated low crowd rather than problems with the Swansea venue.

He added: "The stadium should be selling tickets right up to kick-off to make it easier for people to go.

"But at the end of the day, this is a friendly in August against Slovenia.

"If it was a qualifier, or a game against someone like Spain, it would have been a full house.

"Supporters from north Wales aren't going to take two days off work to travel to this game."