Play off final tickets: Owls fan accuses club of 'manipulating' ticket sales

A frustrated Owls fan has accused the club of ‘manipulating’ ticket sales for the play off final at Wembley.
By David Walsh
Published 26th May 2023, 18:36 BST
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Mick Ransford said when he logged on he could only buy three tickets together in the top tier which he said were ‘totally unsuitable’. But when he went back on five hours later the lower tiers were showing ‘plenty’ of availability.

Sheffield Wednesday play Barnsley FC at Wembley on Monday May 29 to decide who gets promoted to the Championship.

Mr Ransford, aged 67, said he was trying to buy seats for his daughter and grandson, aged 8, and clicked every available block before finding tickets together in the top tier.

Mick Ransford said when he logged on he could only buy three tickets together in the top tier which he said were ‘totally unsuitable’. But when he went back five hours later the lower tiers were showing ‘plenty’ of availability.Mick Ransford said when he logged on he could only buy three tickets together in the top tier which he said were ‘totally unsuitable’. But when he went back five hours later the lower tiers were showing ‘plenty’ of availability.
Mick Ransford said when he logged on he could only buy three tickets together in the top tier which he said were ‘totally unsuitable’. But when he went back five hours later the lower tiers were showing ‘plenty’ of availability.

He added: “I logged back on to the website at 7pm to see how the ticket sales were going only to find that the blocks in the lower tiers were now showing plenty of available seats including front row seats which are more suited to us and where we wanted to sit originally, also there were now front row seats available in the upper tier that weren’t showing earlier. What a disgrace, once again fans getting ripped off.”

A Sheffield Wednesday spokesperson said any hint of manipulation was "completely untrue".

He added: “With such a huge number of supporters who could buy at separate times we saw in some cases over 2,000 fans with tickets in their baskets and many seats released after discarding seats.

“We also received an additional allocation of tickets within the sold areas on Tuesday afternoon.

“With over 30,000 season ticket holders and members and in excess of 15,000 seats in the Lower Bowl of the stadium, of course we could not fulfil everyone’s desired seating requests nor control the number of fans clicking on seats they did not buy. There was never a question of even the smallest number of our allocation remaining unsold as evidenced by the expected sell out.

“Wembley is a fully accessible stadium with a stunning view from any seat and to suggest any hint of manipulation is completely untrue.”

Wednesday are set to have almost 44,000 fans at Monday's showpiece fixture, while Barnsley have sold more than 20,000 tickets.