Blog: The Farce And The Furious

LAST Friday night, for the first time ever, I considered leaving the match before full-time. This was not because I was disappointed in The Mariners' performance or because I was annoyed that Tiatto escaped a red card after his foul on Gumps.

Both these things paled into insignificance compared with my anger at how I had been treated as a committed Mariners' fan.

For the first three A-League seasons I attended Mariners' home games regularly and this season I decided to take up membership. After attending virtually every game at Bluetongue in season three and loving every minute, it seemed like the logical thing to do.

Although we live an hour's drive from Gosford, my whole family have formed a passionate attachment to CCM and going to home matches is the highlight of our week. Like every other member, I wanted to show my commitment to the club and ensure that I had seats of my choice to all home games.

When you sit in the same place in the stadium week in, week out, you begin to feel part of the club in a very special way. You share the team's highs and lows with the same neighbours and it becomes "your patch" from where you make your contribution to the colour and excitement of match day and cheer on your team.

Club members usually receive a few exclusive items of merchandise and at CCM we have regular opportunities to meet the players. But the most important privilege members are supposed to enjoy is the opportunity to purchase tickets to the Finals Series, AFC Champions League etc before anyone else.

The reality is that the Finals Series is a FFA organised event and the sale of tickets does not appear to give members any advantage at all. We purchased tickets online at 9.00am on the day of "Members Only" ticket sales and were only able to buy tickets upstairs - we normally sit downstairs and would never choose these seats.

The club had sent us an email stating that we may not be able to purchase our usual seats as this was an FFA event, so we were disappointed but not surprised. You can imagine our anger, however, when we subsequently discovered that many other members had been able to purchase tickets in their preferred area because they had bought them in person rather than online.

As I gazed down from my restricted view seat on the second tier (it was described as a "Platinum" ticket, but about a third of the pitch was obscured by railings) I saw a man in Sunderland shirt with "Yorke" on the back sitting in my usual spot - surely some kind of cosmic joke.

Words cannot describe how bitter I felt knowing a casual A-League supporter had taken my place in the stadium for the most important match of the season. Instead of feeling part of the club I felt as if my commitment meant nothing to them. Hearing the crowd was a mere 9,500 just added insult to injury.

For reasons that seem shrouded in mystery, Ticketek's archaic system obviously offers customers a different range of tickets online than they do in person. For members of A-League clubs, this is totally unacceptable. We are not living in the 1980s : club members should not have to camp overnight at Ticketek in order to purchase their preferred tickets. The FFA needs to ensure that online ticket purchasing does not disadvantage the very people who are the most dedicated football supporters in the country.

And clubs have a responsibility to ensure their members are kept informed and given a fair deal. If members were only able to purchase their regular seats in person, the club should have told me before hand. Also, the system for buying tickets as a member involved simply giving a four-digit membership number without a name: what prevents anyone doing this ?

There are only 3,200 Mariners' members. I fail to understand why the club can't ask the FFA (and Ticketek) to give them 24 hours to purchase their usual seats. It really doesn't seem much to ask for a whole season's dedication to the team. Particularly when the stadium ends up half-empty.

Tickets for the AFC Champions League will soon be on sale and Mariners' members are being given an ‘exclusive' opportunity to purchase tickets through the club. We can only hope that this time they are treated with the respect they deserve.

Not Happy, Ben.