Whitecaps / BC Place Virtual View Seating

[The Apprentice]

I spoke with Tom from the whitecaps who handles the club section and he mentioned something about that but never said how much or how it would work. Find it a little ridiculous to be paying 3300 for a pair of seats at Empire unless im sitting right next to Lenarduzzi


TA

 

[Luch]

I'm sure you all got this memo today... cutting it close no?

With March 19 just over a month away, we have many important updates regarding the inaugural season and your season tickets.

1. 2011 MLS Schedule
Now you can see when David Beckham and Los Angeles Galaxy are coming to town (July 30) and when New York Red Bulls and Thierry Henry will be here to take on your Whitecaps FC (May 28). You can also look forward to Whitecaps trips to arch-rivals Seattle Sounders FC (June 11) and Portland Timbers (August 20). View the complete schedule here.

2. Empire Field Seat Allocation
Season ticket holders will receive Empire Field seat location notification via email the week of February 21. Your inaugural season ticket holder booklet will include tickets for all Whitecaps matches that will be played at Empire Field, in addition to two Nutrilite Canadian Championship games (dates and times to be determined). BC Place match tickets will be sent to you later in the season.

3. Season Ticket Delivery
Inaugural season ticket booklets will be delivered by secure Purolator courier on one of three days: March 14, 15 or 16. Further delivery details will be provided in the coming weeks. Important: if your address has changed you must notify your account manager by Thursday, February 17 to ensure your tickets are sent to the correct address.

4. Single Match Ticket On-Sale
Single match tickets go on sale to the general public starting this Saturday, February 19 at 10:00am. Season ticket holders will have a presale opportunity later this week, watch for an email with further details.

If you have any questions, or have to update your address, please call 604.669.9283 to speak to your account manager.

Thank you again for your support, we look forward to seeing you March 19!

Whitecaps Ticketing Team

 

[dezza]

Empire Seating Chart is up:
Tickets | Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Toronto FC - Vancouver BC at Ticketmaster

All Green/Aqua/Teal seats are now a good 10 yards behind the goal line. From the pictures I've seen it appears the Greens will get plastic seats while Aqua/Teal are metal benches.

 

[sixfyv]

My yellows are looking pretty decent based on the seating map...

 

[Luch]

Single ticket pricing is now up on the site...

Single Match Pricing*

Purple $55
Blue $55
Yellow $38.25
Aqua $31
Teal $25
Green $20

*All prices include HST, but are subject to applicable service charges and fees

Anyone know what the policy on children's tickets is? In Seattle, children 3 and under are free. Althought, I believe it was 2 and under at Swanguard.

Ticket Policies - Seattle Sounders Football Club

 

[Luch]

2. Empire Field Seat Allocation
Season ticket holders will receive Empire Field seat location notification via email the week of February 21. Your inaugural season ticket holder booklet will include tickets for all Whitecaps matches that will be played at Empire Field, in addition to two Nutrilite Canadian Championship games (dates and times to be determined). BC Place match tickets will be sent to you later in the season.

Right. So week of February 28th maybe?

 

[johnnybluenose]

lol, me too... what a joke.

 

[jonny]

At this point I'd be surprised to get my tickets in time for the first game.

 

[Luch]

At this point I'd be surprised to get my tickets in time for the first game.

Yes. 16,500 STH at the will call window the day of...

 

[johnnybluenose]

So... had a nice little crisis to manage this morning.
A bunch of Southsiders (myself included) procured our seats for section 249. we got intel that we were being allocated for Tempire in the Northend, in a section between the no-booze family section and the traveling away support section... We got in touch with Roberto, the tickets director, and he assured me that I would be taken care of.

anyone concerned about where their seats are being allocated, if you have even been told, are well advised to contact your ticket rep asap... if you have requests like being in/out of the supporters area, away from the away supporters area, not being in a no-booze area, etc etc etc...

diabolical stuff: my mate and his missus gave their credit card info etc and heard nothing for two months, then out of the blue last week he gets an email (heavy handed tone) saying that if he doesn't contact them to arrange payment they would be allocating his tix to other people... he emailed them back telling them to just process the credit cards he gave them and that they have had on file for 2+ years ,and they said for him to call THEM!!!

He's not sure if he is going to call them back at this point. unreal.

ffs...

 

[Bronco]

A friend and I have purchased Purple season tix. Sent an email to our rep yesterday to ask when we might hear where we'll be located at Empire. His response. "you should be getting an email shortly"

Dissapointingly amateur stuff as far as customer service to your season ticket base is concerned!!

 

[johnnybluenose]

You know they just have a bunch of dime a dozen flunky's in there working off of a shared excel spreadsheet master list... that has to be the only excuse. If there was software to track and process this stuff the software should be thrown in the garbage and the person that purchased it should be publicly flogged during the tailgate at the home opener.

No Software (obviously)
No Communication (real, experienced as late as today, calling and leaving a VM at 9:15 and not having my call returned)
No Professionalism (horrifically written emails to customers, and see above)
No Customer Service (See all of the above)
Terrible stuff really...

You'd expect this for the up to 5k fans for Swangard in the "Minor leagues", but for a new franchise in a wannabe top flight pro league trying to compete with the Lions, Giants, and Canadians for the "Cheaper than the Nucks" ticket marketplace... you gotta be better than all of this!

 

[Bifficus]

Why? Most of you are still going to go..

 

[Bronco]

Why? Most of you are still going to go..

True to a certain degree. But there will come a tipping point where people will get fed up. Can you honestly imagine the Canucks treating their season ticket holders like this? Not in a million years.

 

[johnnybluenose]

That's just it.

The local soccer community and existing fan base from the previous era will still go...

but the average family looking to support something with no real connection to any sport will likely opt for Giants, Lions or Canadians... That's the risk...

You have to take the acquisition costs into account in every transaction, and they have shown themselves to be VERY difficult to do business with.

 

[Regs]

1 more week I will give them...

 

[Polska]

1 more week I will give them...

then what? watch from yer phone

Bell making all Whitecaps games available on mobile phones

 

[jonny]

That's just it.

The local soccer community and existing fan base from the previous era will still go...

but the average family looking to support something with no real connection to any sport will likely opt for Giants, Lions or Canadians... That's the risk...

You have to take the acquisition costs into account in every transaction, and they have shown themselves to be VERY difficult to do business with.

I don't think anyone in the head office knows what they are doing when it comes to dealing with the volume of clients the have this year, it seems like the just used the same buisness plan from last year to work with season ticket holders. That being that, for the average family going to the game they most likely aren't season ticket holders, and as much as they suck and have fees out the ass Ticketmaster is a reliable way to get tickets and easy to use. Same system the Giants Lions and Canadians all use.
The only people they are pissing off is us......The return customers. Who will continue to be return customers and hopefully forget all about this when they beat TFC on day 1.


As long as we get our tickets by then...

 

[Luch]

Everyone else get their Empire allocations yesterday? My seats seem comparable to my BC place seats, althought from the Empire layout, there are no rows or seats listed, so I'm not 100% certain. Anyone know if rows start with A and/or where the covered rows start?

 

[STD]

My understanding is you have to be atleast 15 rows up to be covered and it does not go as far as the end of the field. Maybe the six yard box.