Fans Parliament: Cup Tickets

Gerry Collins raised what he called 'an old chestnut' by saying he was unhappy to be charged a £1.50 booking fee per ticket when buying cup seats on his credit card - especially as he bought a season ticket every year and then committed to extra matches as well through the cup scheme.

"There are three of us, so that's £4.50 and it rankles," he said. Lynne O'Reardon replied: "We're actually doing three transactions for you, not one. We still have a very transparent booking policy, which is £1.50 per ticket. The technology wouldn't support anything else. And the fee goes towards servicing our ticketing operation, whether that's on technology or paying the people in the department." Jez pointed out that booking fees were commonplace and said it was a policy which had been discussed many times. John Maslen-Jones said he used to be in the cup-tie scheme but now avoided the fee by going to Molineux to buy cup tickets.

Adam Bate said he knew someone who had paid £58 for two adult tickets and one for a child for the recent FA Cup tie against Stoke. It was pointed out that this was higher than for the replay against Doncaster, so Jez pointed out: "We thought the pricing for a Premier League side on a Sunday (rather than a Tuesday night) was the right one. But it was concerning that we didn't have a good attendance." Lynne said visiting clubs were looking to maximise profits from cup-ties and they had to agree to pricing levels.

Lynne wondered whether Wolves should publicise a table of preferred pricing levels at the start of a season. Then, if the actual prices differentiated from that, fans would realise it was at the away clubs' insistence. "It would make it clear what we wanted to charge for the Carling Cup and FA Cup and it's an idea we're discussing," she said. Jez added: "There's an enormous amount of pressure in the club to strike the right balance of special offers. Wolves 4 Family Football,

for example, is all about attracting young fans, so they catch the bug. Over 20,000 people have come here through W4FF and benefitted at just ten quid a time."