MCG: When is a sellout not a sellout?

[Geoff Dickson]

88000 people attended the Carlton Collingwood game. The match was a sellout (a few days prior to the match) 12000 empty seats.

So how do we explain the 12000 empty seats?

1. Presumably some AFL/club members did not attend and did not pass their tickets on to friends/family.
2. Presumably MCC members did not take up their allocation of seats.

Any other explanations?

 

[Mkcaptain]

Someone can correct me if this is incorrect, but I don't think there is a 100,000 capacity for home and away games because they don't sell standing room tickets.

 

[kreuze_missile]

As per normal the AFL & MCC members were nowhere near full. The "walk up" nature of AFL & MCC memberships always leads to the ridiculous situation of a "sell out" with tons of empty seats.

Both membership types should be fully ticketed and grant preferred access over the general public, with the balance of un-used tickets being available on match day for purchase.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Someone can correct me if this is incorrect, but I don't think there is a 100,000 capacity for home and away games because they don't sell standing room tickets.

It's always been a grey area and one the AFL needs to address. I've been at plenty of games where I've been forced to buy a seat (including Grand Finals) but ended up in standing room anyway. There should be the option for purchasing a standing room ticket for any game.

 

[Underarm]

As per normal the AFL & MCC members were nowhere near full. The "walk up" nature of AFL & MCC memberships always leads to the ridiculous situation of a "sell out" with tons of empty seats.

Both membership types should be fully ticketed and grant preferred access over the general public, with the balance of un-used tickets being available on match day for purchase.

AFL members section is fully ticketed. MCC walkups was standing room only.

 

[kickazz]

Good question

 

[McOrist]

As per normal the AFL & MCC members were nowhere near full. The "walk up" nature of AFL & MCC memberships always leads to the ridiculous situation of a "sell out" with tons of empty seats.

Don't know about the AFL members, but the MCC Members was totally full. No spare seats anywhere. They made an announcement an hour before the game that only standing room was available for late arriving walk-up members.

 

[Ezayyak]

It quite ridiculous that a game that was beyond a sellout, all AFL and MCC visitor passes sold out that would only get 88k. 12k empty seats. Over 10% of the stadium empty for a game that was sold out one full week before the match.

 

[Walshawk]

Someone can correct me if this is incorrect, but I don't think there is a 100,000 capacity for home and away games because they don't sell standing room tickets.

Excellent point. There are 95K seats, 5K standing. If MCC lets in standing that would leave around 4k standing in the rest of the ground unavailable so capacity is 96K.

 

[Underarm]

Excellent point. There are 95K seats, 5K standing. If MCC lets in standing that would leave around 4k standing in the rest of the ground unavailable so capacity is 96K.

They sell standing, but I believe not as many as the GF.

It's the club members not showing up and there not being a legal way to pass those tickets on. And for Anzac day + a once in 5 year match isn't worth setting up a resale market.

 

[Black Panther]

AFL Member section was "sold out" for more than a week beforehand. Wanted to go, couldn't get a single ticket

 

[Bunk Moreland]

AFL members did not have any walk-ups. It was fully ticketed.

Also it's not just AFL and MCC members areas that have no-shows. It was a Carlton home game so a lot of the "outer" would've been their reserved seat holders.

It was about about a 12% no-show rate overall, which is a bit high. Normally it'd be under 10%.

 

[tigs2010]

AFL Member section was "sold out" for more than a week beforehand. Wanted to go, couldn't get a single ticket

Yep same here, tried to get a ticket for the missus (Collingwood supporter) and I and kept saying we couldn't.

 

[blue harvest]

As per normal the AFL & MCC members were nowhere near full. The "walk up" nature of AFL & MCC memberships always leads to the ridiculous situation of a "sell out" with tons of empty seats.

Both membership types should be fully ticketed and grant preferred access over the general public, with the balance of un-used tickets being available on match day for purchase.

There was no walk-up in the AFL Members for this game, all seats were pre sold, they even sold some standing room tickets.
However there may have been some AFL Member no shows because it only costs about $10 to reserve a seat and some people with money to spare book seats early and then decide on the day whether to actually go.

I can't speak for MCC but my understanding is a lot of their reserve is walk-up. With walk up it is hard to reach capacity because some people leave a seat between them and the next group, or save a seat for someone who ends up not making it. It may look full from a distance but even with just 1 seat empty in each row you are losing about 5% capacity.

 

[blue harvest]

Excellent point. There are 95K seats, 5K standing. If MCC lets in standing that would leave around 4k standing in the rest of the ground unavailable so capacity is 96K.

Yep, a lot of people don't realise there are only about 95k seats.
The only way to get to 100k is to pack the standing room areas and also pack all of the dining/corporate/box areas to the max. They don't bother even trying for a h&a game.

 

[HaroLad]

with the balance of un-used tickets being available on match day for purchase.

Are you suggesting that the unwashed masses be allowed into the MCC? No thanks.

 

[yodellinhank]

It quite ridiculous that a game that was beyond a sellout, all AFL and MCC visitor passes sold out that would only get 88k. 12k empty seats. Over 10% of the stadium empty for a game that was sold out one full week before the match.

Sounds like more tickets need to be allocated for AFL and MCC members, seeing as how 12k of the every other category failed to show.

 

[doppleganger]

I can't speak for MCC but my understanding is a lot of their reserve is walk-up. With walk up it is hard to reach capacity because some people leave a seat between them and the next group, or save a seat for someone who ends up not making it. It may look full from a distance but even with just 1 seat empty in each row you are losing about 5% capacity.

MCC was fully ticketed.

It was only standing room.

No different to the rest of the reserve.

People need to realise that the 100k capacity isnt seats, it includes standing room, corporate boxes, dining rooms etc.

 

[aCunningPlan]

Shame club members didn't all show up.

 

[Engimal v3]

Whatever capacity the MCC has spare at the opening bounce should be opened up to GA

 

[dave10]

It’s bits and bobs from all the above areas. My understanding is even for the best games, only about 75-80% of club reserved seats are actually occupied at a given match. If Carlton have 15,000 season seat holders, this means about 3-4,000 are empty on matchday. Seat holders may be on holiday, unwell, at a wedding or sitting in a corporate box with their work! Lots of reasons why.

Also, my company has a hospitality suite in the Olympic Stand. It seats 18 people yet it only had 13 attend this match. Now if we extend this across the 100+ suites in the ground you quickly get a sense of the stadium unused capacity leakage with maybe 500+ box seats unused on the day. This extends to unused capacity at coterie functions etc too.

It’s a bit here, a bit there and probably the 4-5,000 standing room not offered for sale that makes up the gap.

 

[Brad Goodman]

In the MCC there were 5 or 6 walk up bays on level 1

 

[catstorm]

Whatever capacity the MCC has spare at the opening bounce should be opened up to GA

You're just not going to bother to read the rest of the thread?

MCC was full they had no spare tickets.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

As per normal the AFL & MCC members were nowhere near full. The "walk up" nature of AFL & MCC memberships always leads to the ridiculous situation of a "sell out" with tons of empty seats.

Both membership types should be fully ticketed and grant preferred access over the general public, with the balance of un-used tickets being available on match day for purchase.

The AFL reserve was fully ticked for Sunday.

 

[Papa G]

The AFL sold out to the MCG when it signed that shitty corrupt contract.