Wigan Athletic have so far failed to sell at least 10,000 of their allocated tickets for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Millwall.
The Football Association has taken the unprecedented step of opening a neutral zone for 6,000 fans, and made a further 1,500 seats available to troops.
Both clubs were allocated just over 31,000 tickets and Millwall are expected to sell their full complement.
It is understood the FA expects at least 14,000 empty seats at Wembley.
The 6,000 neutral seats, in an area that was originally a Wigan section, will only be sold to supporters who are already registered on the FA's ticketing database.
Wigan's failure to sell out their section is not altogether unexpected, with the club averaging just short of 19,000 for home matches in the Premier League this season.
Jason Taylor, a committee member of the Wigan Athletic Supporters' Club, has pointed to several mitigating factors, including the size of the Greater Manchester club's existing fanbase.
"Our supporter base has grown phenomenally over the last 15 years," he said. "If you go back in history our crowds have gone from 1,200 to 15,000.
"They are continuing to grow but we are still a long way behind Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton, who have a lot of fans in the town.
"We have already sold more than our average attendance and we have only got around 12,000 season ticket holders, with around 25% of those aged under 16.
"So even if we sell 20,000 tickets then we have sold thousands more than usual."
Taylor said many fans were unable to travel to London by train with the last service back to Wigan leaving the capital at 20:30 BST. It means fans would not have enough time to get to Euston station from Wembley after the final whistle.
He added some supporters have decided to sacrifice going to the match in order to save money for the final - should Roberto Martinez's team reach the 11 May showpiece.
Tickets are still available for Sunday's semi-final between Manchester City and Chelsea, although that match is expected to sell out in the next 24 hours.
Wigan Athletic declined to give details of exact ticket sales when asked.
Lets be fair here.....Wigan is a relative young football club and afterall (you are shit Millwall - sorry couldn't resist) is really a rugby league town. I'm sure if it was the RL team then they would have easily sold out their allocation. Millwall are a small club too. Not sure what all the fuss is about.
That`s why holding this fixture at Wembley is the wrong decision. Villa Park would have been far more suitable. Now the FA are going to get shown up again when they can`t even give away tickets for it and there are going to be thousands upon thousands of empty seats.
But imagine saving your trip to Wembley for the final and not actually making the final? It would be a touch choice to miss seeing your team at Wembley - unless you were a supporter of one of the big clubs. How many times will Wigan make Wembley again?
Semi finals should not be at Wembley regardless, the return of tickets proves that, any other premiership ground (Villa Park as muted) would have been a sell out, better atmosphere and got rid of most of the glory hunters. They wonder why the FA cup has lost its appeal over the last few years, A Wembley appearance has been watered down by holding semis there.
Semi finals should not be at Wembley regardless, the return of tickets proves that, any other premiership ground (Villa Park as muted) would have been a sell out, better atmosphere and got rid of most of the glory hunters. They wonder why the FA cup has lost its appeal over the last few years, A Wembley appearance has been watered down by holding semis there.
I agree with that - we played at Villa Park and sold out mainly with true supporters as such but its certain we'd take a lot of fairweather fans to Wembley for the play-offs for example.
Southend had 31k the other day compared to Crewe's 12k - I suspect a bigger percentage of the latter had been to a Crewe game than the latter to a Southend league game.
Semi finals should not be at Wembley regardless, the return of tickets proves that, any other premiership ground (Villa Park as muted) would have been a sell out, better atmosphere and got rid of most of the glory hunters. They wonder why the FA cup has lost its appeal over the last few years, A Wembley appearance has been watered down by holding semis there.
I agree with that - we played at Villa Park and sold out mainly with true supporters as such but its certain we'd take a lot of fairweather fans to Wembley for the play-offs for example.
Southend had 31k the other day compared to Crewe's 12k - I suspect a bigger percentage of the latter had been to a Crewe game than the latter to a Southend league game.
Agreed, wonder how many local west ham/gooners/yids/manure from local boozers went for a wembley day out with the shrimpers.
Semi finals should not be at Wembley regardless, the return of tickets proves that, any other premiership ground (Villa Park as muted) would have been a sell out, better atmosphere and got rid of most of the glory hunters. They wonder why the FA cup has lost its appeal over the last few years, A Wembley appearance has been watered down by holding semis there.
I agree with that - we played at Villa Park and sold out mainly with true supporters as such but its certain we'd take a lot of fairweather fans to Wembley for the play-offs for example.
Southend had 31k the other day compared to Crewe's 12k - I suspect a bigger percentage of the latter had been to a Crewe game than the latter to a Southend league game.
Agreed, wonder how many local west ham/gooners/yids/manure from local boozers went for a wembley day out with the shrimpers.
Semi finals should not be at Wembley regardless, the return of tickets proves that, any other premiership ground (Villa Park as muted) would have been a sell out, better atmosphere and got rid of most of the glory hunters. They wonder why the FA cup has lost its appeal over the last few years, A Wembley appearance has been watered down by holding semis there.
I agree with that - we played at Villa Park and sold out mainly with true supporters as such but its certain we'd take a lot of fairweather fans to Wembley for the play-offs for example.
Southend had 31k the other day compared to Crewe's 12k - I suspect a bigger percentage of the latter had been to a Crewe game than the latter to a Southend league game.
Agreed, wonder how many local west ham/gooners/yids/manure from local boozers went for a wembley day out with the shrimpers.
About as many as were at our Play Off final.
Whilst I agree we would have day trippers, I dont believe the numbers would be anything like Southend or for that matter gills. I went to Gills v man city (dickov late equaliser) as I had a free ticket, went with a charlton mate and a spanner, and saw people with shrits and badges of a lot of London clubs in their end.
Our capacity that year was in the region of 14-15k (old northstand, no corners, no to tier on the west, 300-odd seats fewer in the Jimmy Seed), so 13,275 was probably around the 90% capacity mark, maybe more.
Another way to look at it, the attendances for the semi is higher than Villa Park's capacity and therefore a success. I agree about the atmosphere though.
Got to love Wigan's arrogance, saving up for the final!!
Oh what short memories some of you on here have - the reason you left the sidings all those years ago was because of dwindling attendances etc about 7,000 or so! A lot of us Lions fans were vocal in getting you lot back to the valley - remember the article in the local rag, referring to the councils priorities, pointing out that a Nelson Mandella convention (hypathetical) would be given immediate perference if it were ever suggested....Now I wonder who wrote that???
Comments
The Football Association has taken the unprecedented step of opening a neutral zone for 6,000 fans, and made a further 1,500 seats available to troops.
Both clubs were allocated just over 31,000 tickets and Millwall are expected to sell their full complement.
It is understood the FA expects at least 14,000 empty seats at Wembley.
The 6,000 neutral seats, in an area that was originally a Wigan section, will only be sold to supporters who are already registered on the FA's ticketing database.
Wigan's failure to sell out their section is not altogether unexpected, with the club averaging just short of 19,000 for home matches in the Premier League this season.
Jason Taylor, a committee member of the Wigan Athletic Supporters' Club, has pointed to several mitigating factors, including the size of the Greater Manchester club's existing fanbase.
"Our supporter base has grown phenomenally over the last 15 years," he said. "If you go back in history our crowds have gone from 1,200 to 15,000.
"They are continuing to grow but we are still a long way behind Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton, who have a lot of fans in the town.
"We have already sold more than our average attendance and we have only got around 12,000 season ticket holders, with around 25% of those aged under 16.
"So even if we sell 20,000 tickets then we have sold thousands more than usual."
Taylor said many fans were unable to travel to London by train with the last service back to Wigan leaving the capital at 20:30 BST. It means fans would not have enough time to get to Euston station from Wembley after the final whistle.
He added some supporters have decided to sacrifice going to the match in order to save money for the final - should Roberto Martinez's team reach the 11 May showpiece.
Tickets are still available for Sunday's semi-final between Manchester City and Chelsea, although that match is expected to sell out in the next 24 hours.
Wigan Athletic declined to give details of exact ticket sales when asked.
He's next on the list now.
Maybe not. Can't stand Wigan though good luck to them.
Agree that Villa Park would have been the best location to play the semi final.
Southend had 31k the other day compared to Crewe's 12k - I suspect a bigger percentage of the latter had been to a Crewe game than the latter to a Southend league game.
brilliant...Sammy Spanner has got to be a real person surely.
I went to Gills v man city (dickov late equaliser) as I had a free ticket, went with a charlton mate and a spanner, and saw people with shrits and badges of a lot of London clubs in their end.
In 98 our average crowd that season was 13,275. We took 30k+ to Wembley.
Got to love Wigan's arrogance, saving up for the final!!