Thousands of seats at Wembley Stadium will be empty for Monday’s Championship play-off final, provoking an outcry among Albion fans who have failed to obtain tickets.
A delegation led by club chairman Jeremy Peace went to London to negotiate more tickets yesterday but returned empty-handed.
Albion were alerted that more than half of the 17,000 Club Wembley seats – bought on a 10-year debenture – will be empty on Monday.
But they failed to buy any of the unused tickets after Wembley refused to put them on general sale, citing fears over crowd safety. Albion fans have criticised the club’s 33,000-seat allocation – little over a third of the 90,000 capacity – which sold out on Monday.
And news today that League Two side Bristol Rovers have been given a second allocation of tickets for their play-off game against Shrewsbury Town this Saturday has fuelled the Baggies fans’ anger. The club had already been allocated 40,000 tickets for the match, but following talks yesterday between the Football League and Wembley Stadium officials, Rovers were granted 5,000 more.
The Football League was handed a total of 69,910 tickets for Monday’s play-off final. After Derby and West Brom’s allocation, the remaining seats have gone to guests of the Football League. That leaves 20,000 seats for corporate and Club Wembley members.
Albion held talks with Football League and Wembley officials in the hope of buying tickets to sell to Baggies fans. But after two hours of meetings, they were told that the tickets could not be released. Crowd safety issues were cited as Club Wembley seats were in an unsegregated area.
Mr Peace said: “We appreciate that the new Wembley is on a learning curve. Nevertheless, it is disappointing there will be thousands of empty seats on Monday.”
Albion’s mascots for Monday have been chosen.
One is lifelong Baggies fan Kieron Ball, of Sedgley. The 13-year-old has suffered from globulin anaemia since the age of one and has to be admitted to hospital every three weeks for treatment.
The other mascot will be 12-year-old Katie Clasen, of Worcestershire. Her name was pulled out of a hat containing all the names of Junior Baggies members.
17 Comments
Fears for crowd safety what a joke, why build a stadium which is so grand and staite of the art and then you have fears for safety.
Was this a concern before last weeks FA Cup bore draw.
Up the baggies!!!
this is typical of the ‘red tape’ culture surrounding every single wembley decision.
unsuprisingly pathetic decision making.
i have a ticket but feel for those who haven’t especially when a large number of seats remain empty.
you would have thought that wembley would jump at the chance to maximise revenues in an attempt to repay the hideous amount of debt financing the development of the stadium.
Up the baggies!
PS - wolves bought for £10?? i remember when rover got bought for a tenner and look what happened to them !!!
This really is a sad state of affairs, that Wembley would want rows and rows of empty seats, when they could be sold to Baggie and Dery fans.
I have a ticket but have tried in vain to get one for my partner, who does go to the Baggies but will sadly have to miss out.
Albion till I die……..
Remember all you Tesco’s HE WHO LAUGHS LAST LAUGHS LOUDEST.
AND WE ARE GOING TO BE LAUGHING AT YOU SAD LOT ON MONDAY EVENING
SEE YOU IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP NEXT SEASON
CAN’T WAIT TO START
UP THE RAMS
WOLVES TILL WE DIE
Merlin Mick you are a sad case. Watch us again on Monday if you must - I bet you can’t get enough of watching such good football on the quiet.
We’re just too good for you, we’ll never play you again.
MERLI THICK WANTS TO HOPE WBA ARENT IN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS COS THAT WILL BE 6 POINTS LESS FOR HIS BELOVED WOLVES AFTER WEVE STUFFED UM AGAIN….UP THE BAGGIES….
Wembley officials obviously realise that Bristol Rovers are a bigger club than Sandwell Town.
C’mon the RAMS!!!
Why oh why are the crunchy nut cornflake box looky likeys having the nerve to spout off about the baggies going to Wembley when they were thought of so much they got sold for a tenner. What a waste of a tenner, i’d rather buy 10 things at poundland to be honest. And Sandwell Town…whats all that about!!!! Jealousy will get you nowhere and even if we do lose on Monday we are still WBA the PRIDE OF THE MIDLANDS….and all you yellow and blacks..don’t forget it.
BOING BOING!! BOING BOING!!
Baggie79 mentions £10 but I think he meant to say £3,000,010.
Anyway, I think that it is fairly obvious that Albion need to get promoted on Monday in order to keep their squad together. I think some of the big names such as Camara will be on their bike.
Whatever happens, good luck on Monday you lot, have a great day out!
nice to now derby staff got free tickets shame albion dont look after there staff as well
Hope the roof’s been fixed. My friends were at the Kiddy vs Stevenage game and there was a heavy shower prior to kick-off. They got soaked.
the ticket policy is pathetic albion sold there tickets to anybody were as derby sold theres to the fans albion have 14000 season ticket holders dery 18000 albion give 2 tickets to a season ticket holder so genuine members who cant afford season tickets cant go cus so called loyal season ticket holders are taking there gran with them were as derby it was 1 per person were was you season ticket holders against cheltenham 10′974 were was your grans against qpr 17′417 guess tescos will suffer this weekend tickets should be for supporters not the 1 game glory hunters so many supporters lost out through this hold your head in shame you know who you are
as a albion and was a season ticket holder until last season and have seen games this season not being beable to get a wembley ticket i am a bit pissed off that people fly in from Australia and havent seen game all season get tickets
I can see the day when all big matches are watched live by a 100%corporate audience and the humble fan who can watch games all the way as far as the semis, will have to be in front of a TV at home or in a bar.
Boing! Boing!
ITS AMAZING HOW ALL THESE DINGLES KEEP POKING THERE NOSES IN OUR AFFAIRS NOW THERE BORING LITTLE SEASON IS OVER…THEY WILL NEVER GET TO PLAY AT THE NEW WEMBLEY,MUST BE SOUR GRAPES AGAIN…WOLFS MORE LIKE PUSSY CATS …
We aint poking our noses in, I am geniunely hoping you guys go up as you are the better team then us during the season. The difference is strikers and I be glad to see the back of Kamara and Phillips.
However, If you dont go up you can say goodbye to:-
Davies, Phillips, Kamara, Gera, Koumas, All sold and money back to J.Peace back pocket.
£3,000,010? hehe, another Wolves fan who didn’t go to school!