Wigan Fail To Sell 10,000 Of Their 31,000 Allocated Tickets For FA Cup Semi Final At Wembley

Chris Wright

10th, April 2013

8 Comments

By Chris Wright

Given that their average Premier League attendance has bobbed around the 17-18,000 mark for the last few years it’s prehaps not altogether surprising, but the FA have announced that Wigan Athletic have so far failed to sell around 10,000 of their 31,000 allocated tickets for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Millwall at Wembley.

With that in mind, the FA have taken the unprecedented step of opening up a zone for 6,000 neutral fans where the Wigan fans should’ve been sat, as well as making a further 1,500 seats available for members of the armed forces.

Millwall, for the record, are expecting to sell their entire batch but, as is, there are still currently expected to be around about 14,000 empty seats come kick-off at Wembley on Saturday.

As we alluded to earlier, Wigan are only above QPR in the “average Premier League attendance” stakes so far this season and are rock bottom in the “average attendance as a percentage of their stadium capacity” table. Once you factor in a 410-mile round trip, it’s perfectly understandable that tickets aren’t exactly selling like recalescent flour and egg-based confections.

Millwall, on the other hand, are based right round the corner.

Anywho, hopefully the FA will do the decent thing and start handing out the rest of the unsold tickets to schoolkids and whatnot, though we can’t imagine for a moment that that kind of straightforward, altruistic sense will prevail given the governing body in question.

Posted in FA Cup, FAIL, Newsnow, Wigan Athletic

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8 Comments

  1. tipo 00 says:

    “1,500 seats available for members of the armed forces”. for free? i think i heard that happening somewhere else recently. why can’t they buy a ticket like everyone else?

  2. Terry Shedingham says:

    Recalescent (゜o゜)

  3. Roberto M says:

    I’m not surprised – have you seen how expensive pies are in London?!?

  4. Jarren says:

    Definitely give the remaining seats to schools.

    What a day out for kids, might even inspire some to give football a go.

    Besides, empty seats at an FA Cup semi final is not a pleasant thought.

    Plus it’ll look bloody depressing on TV.

  5. Gazza says:

    @tipo 00 – agree 100% with you, would it not be better to give free tickets to all of those people who give up their time every week to coach kids for free? Seems like an easy way to help encourage grass root football

  6. tipo 00 says:

    @Jarren. Schools – a much better idea.

  7. Degs says:

    Wigan’s average home attendance may be about 17000, but it is bolstered hugely by away fans. I’d be surprised if the home average was more than 10000 to be honest. Not having a go at Wigan – if anything this shows how they’ve been punching considerably above their weight for some time now. The FA’s decision to have all-Wembley semi-finals is farcical in this situation. The match should be played at a packed Villa Park.

  8. Mr H says:

    The poor ticket sales does not reflect the poor support of the club unfortunately Mr Whelan or someone high up in the food chain at the DW decided to place sanctions on their ticket allocation for the semi final. This meant you had to be either a season ticket holder or have had some history of buying tickets for Wigan’s home matches throughout this season before you could buy a ticket for the FA Cup semi final against Millwall. Couple this with the fact Wigan Athletic only allow tickets for what can be classed as the lower end of the Premier Leauge fixtures to go on general sale means it was impossible for non regular attendance fans or those on a budget to obtain a non black market ticket for the semi final. This was a blatant attempt by the club to force people through it’s turnstiles and it has backfired and been an embarrassment to both the club and the town of Wigan. One can only hope this policy will be reversed for the final due to take place next month.

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