The demand for Manchester United Tickets is almost always greater than the supply.
Because the chance of getting a ticket to a single Manchester United game is small, obtaining a season ticket to Old Trafford might be seen as only an impossible dream.
However, if one looks more closely, the obvious advantages season ticket holders have of being guaranteed a seat for all home games and priority for away games, might be outweighed by the disadvantages.
Some examples:
A season ticket holder is not guaranteed a seat in his choice of stand, and if allocated one in an area he does not like the only way to get it changed is to prove exceptional medial hardship.
For this reason, there are those who choose not to renew their tickets at the end of the season, choosing instead to take their chances in the search for single tickets that may be in a more preferred stand.
There is a Manchester United Club policy named the Automatic Ticket Scheme ensuring that every season ticket holder is guaranteed a ticket for all Champions League and FA cup home games.
Although this might appear to be a good thing, further examination shows that the season ticket holder is charged for each of these tickets even if he has no intention of attending one or any of those games.
In the 2006/2007and 2007/2008 seasons, there were 10 of these extra games – and with a ticket to each game starting at almost 50 pounds, this is a significant extra cost on top of the price already paid for season ticket.
Any Manchester United fan who purchases a season ticket thinking they can offload tickets to games they can’t attend might find that that is more difficult than anticipated.
Manchester United has an official ticket exchange where season ticket holders can post their unwanted tickets for sale at face-value, but tickets cannot be listed for sale there until the club announces that the game in question has been sold out.
However tickets put up for sale may not get sold, and the prospective seller then not only loses the ticket he is unable to use, he is out the substantial listing and handling fee it cost him to attempt to sell the unwanted seat.
There is no question that the price of a season’s 16 single tickets is more expensive than a season ticket, but when the other costs – close to 500 extra pounds for the Cup games; the possibility of getting a seat in disliked part of Old Trafford; and there being no guarantee of being able to sell any unwanted game tickets are added up, investing in season Manchester United tickets might not be worth it to even the most fanatical fans.
