West Ham has revealed they will hold a ballot process for the last three home games to played at the Boleyn Ground – but you need to be an Academy member to be eligible to apply and a ticket could cost you up to £126.50!
Fifth-placed West Ham play third-placed Arsenal on 9th April at 12.45pm with what appears likely to be the penultimate game against Swansea City on Saturday 7th May 3pm. The final game is widely expected to be played either Tuesday 10th or Wednesday 11th May evening against Manchester United, subject to Premier League final approval.
whufc.com announced yesterday: “West Ham United are pleased to announce details of how Academy Members will be able to apply for tickets for our final three Barclays Premier League games at the Boleyn Ground.”
“There has been overwhelming demand for tickets in this historic season for the Hammers, with the upcoming fixture for Crystal Palace selling out to Academy Members, several days before tickets were due to go on general sale.”
“Due to the expected rush to purchase tickets for any of our final three Boleyn Ground fixtures, the Club is opening a ballot process exclusively for Academy Members, to fairly allocate tickets for the visits of Arsenal, Swansea City and Manchester United.”
“The first ballot for the Arsenal fixture is open now, and will close at 5pm Tuesday 22 March. The lead client on successful applications will be notified by email.”
“If you are an existing Academy Member, you will receive an email with the link to the ballot form. Or alternatively you can download one here.”
“Each fixture will undergo a separate ballot process, with a different form for all three games. The forms can be accessed on whufc.com and will be emailed to Academy Members when each future ballot opens.”
Supporters are invited to become adult Academy Members for £40 if they are not members already in addition to the £85 for Band 1 adult ticket plus a £1.50 booking fee for the Arsenal or Manchester United matches. At £126.50 per ticket it would become the most expensive tickets in the Premier League!
How are we meant to fill in the section at the bottom?:
“Total no. tickets __ @ £__ plus £1.50 booking per ticket = £__”
Good question, I will find out
As it is Category A game prices are as follows for members
Adult Over-65 & U21 U16*
Band 1 £85 £45 £45
Band 2 £75 £43 £43
Band 3 £70 £38 £38
Band 4 £60 £35 £35
Read more at http://www.whufc.com/Tickets/Tickets-Information/Plan-Prices#V8rLmxFGUR4eUY8A.99
nice one, thanks 🙂
Just wished to say Happy Birthday to our sadly departed young player Dylan Tombides.Would have been his 22nd b’day today.RIP Dylan.Forever part of the West Ham Family.
All this is great, the stadium will be full and the atmosphere guaranteed.
That said, I have been trying for a good part of the season to get any ticket, and it has been impossible. Not helped by the fact that I live abroad. Does anybody on this forum have any suggestions on how to get tickets ? I was interested in the Arse game, but seeing that the ones for Palace are already sold out to the public even before the date of general sale, I am quite demoralized…
All suggestions/recommendations welcome…
Tickets go on sale to season ticket holders before the public. If you know a season ticket holder, ask him/her to purchase for you. Although I am not sure that will work with this lottery idea.
Just another suggestion. Someone on WHTID posted this which might work for you:
“if you want to be ensured of a ticket for the Swansea match, you’re better off joining the Swansea membership for £25 and then all away matches for members are £22. its probably cheaper then risking your luck in a ballot.
http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/swans-agrees-to-reduce-away-ticket
At least Swansea are not trying to rip their fans off and if you got a ticket through them it would be a third of the price your own club wants to stripe you for.
Sorry incomplete link above. Should be:
http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/swans-agrees-to-reduce-away-ticket-prices-2530806.aspx
I think it is an absolute disgrace that the club will sell Academy memberships at this stage to allow current non-members to enter the lottery for tickets. That is just not fair to people who have been Academy members all along. That is a really shabby decision, purely to bring in a few extra £40’s. It is really not a way to treat your fans if you have any respect for them.
Club officials supposedly read this site, perhaps they would care to respond.
I’d already worked out we would need to be academy members this year so signed my daughter and I up, even though it is of little use to us in the USA apart from tickets. (and we have to pay more than UK members I believe) I’d booked our flights for the Man Utd game for my daughter and for me to stay for the Swansea game. Now we will have to change our flights to see the game, (more expense) and may not even get tickets. So far I have spent around 1300 pounds and we may not even get tickets. My kid has never been to Upton Park (though I go every year) and this was her only chance, I’m doing everything I can, but this is ridiculous. I can get up at 1.00 am to be online when the ticket office opens, I’ve made several trial runs but even that may not be enough. I agree with Sparrow this is a really shabby way to treat us.
I feel the same way. The ones who live abroad, have the uncertainty of getting or not tickets. I would not mind that much if I lived in London, just go to the vicinity of the stadium and try get ticket at last moment, and if not just go home, but that is impossible if you live on the other side of the Atlantic. There is too much preparation and logistics involved (plane tickets, accommodation arrangements, taking time off from work…).
I just hope this ****ty panorama will not repeat itself once we go to the O.S.
I agree it is one thing to flog the 6,000 general sale tickets to the Academy Members but to market it’s not too late to join is wrong! Last season there were 20,000 Members and I can only guess that has increased significantly this season. With 26,000 season ticket holders and 3,000 away supporters there around 6,000 tickets for sale each Catergory A match. The ballot is likely to be oversubscribed at a rate of around 4/1 before flogging before memberships. It’s the same with the priority list, over 34,000 sold and still selling despite there being less than 9,000 seats remaining after the season ticket sales finished.
I will blog about this later!!!!!
I hadn’t thought of that Sean, if they already have more Academy members than available tickets I think it is morally wrong to sell “raffle tickets” to get into the lottery. If I had known sooner about Nobes Testimonial we could have timed our holiday to go to that. Great captain and it should be a good game.
Nevermind last game at Boleyn costing £126. Couldn’t get on the Box Office to buy tickets for the Palace game and when I could find them online they were £123.50 each, plus a processing charge of £45 each! Meaning it would have cost over £300 to go! Ridiculous! For a game of football? Seriously?
What a shabby way of treating your Supporters – the Club should be better than this, it’s just a rip-off!