- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
This week was David Gallop’s first in the job since taking over as chief executive of Football Federation Australia from Ben Buckley, and fans have had plenty to say about his appointment.
Most have been refreshingly open-minded about Gallop’s appointment and are no doubt keen to see where one of Australian sport’s most respected administrators takes the game.
But with so many stakeholders to try and please, I thought I’d open the floor to some debate about what measures you would like to see Gallop and the FFA take to improve the fan experience in the A-League.
It’s a topical issue for me because tonight I’ll be putting on my fan’s hat (I won’t really be wearing a hat, just in case anyone at the ground wants to buy me a drink) for my annual pilgrimage as an ‘away’ fan to Suncorp Stadium.
I watch a lot of football both professionally and for pleasure, but every year I try to make it out to at least one home and away game of each of the clubs I first joined on day one of the A-League.
It gives me the chance to indulge in a couple of unfailing idiosyncrasies: namely nursing a beer while complaining bitterly about the shortcomings of my chosen team to a disinterested audience of my wife and a few friends who’ve flown up for the occasion.
My particular club membership ensures a ticket for this fixture lands in my mailbox every year, and I for one think that’s a sensible and very welcome initiative on the part of all A-League clubs.
I also think it’s important to put something back into the game I love, so I’m always happy to shell out on another ticket for my significant other, who often acts as a cheery buffer between me and the less surly travelling support.
But when I bought an extra ticket yesterday I encountered one of life’s infuriating little kicks in the teeth – the outrageous ‘transaction fee’ charged by unscrupulous ticket agencies.
In my case, I was actually charged two separate transaction fees totalling just under $12 because I happened to purchase a ticket to another event at the same time!
Last year Ticketek, from whom I bought the ticket, was fined $2.5 million by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for anti-competitive practices.
The company still made upwards of $50 million in profit, presumably by ripping off customers with its extortionate transaction fees.
Had I printed the ticket at home myself – using the printer and ink I paid for – I’d have still been slugged $4.75 for the privilege.
Add to that the credit card surcharge – they don’t bother offering an alternative method of payment, mind you – and suddenly a $23 ticket costs you closer to thirty bucks.
It’s an absolute joke and quite frankly it only exists because of the ‘put up and shut up’ apathy so many of us have for the mediocre customer service we endure in this country.
And though I’m sure it’s not something FFA are either capable of or even willing to do anything about, I hope the beancounters at HQ take into account these sorts of niggling additional costs when it comes to attracting fans through the gate.
In the end, the joke’s on the Queensland Government (who run Suncorp Stadium), since out of spite I’ll simply buy one less drink at the ground to make up for the more than $6 I paid in transaction fees to get into it in the first place.
It’s a minor gripe – and not even one solely related to football – but it’s a pet peeve of mine that I felt worthy of kick-starting a discussion.
And to mark Mr Gallop’s first week in charge, I’d like to open the floor to some ideas about what measures you think would help improve the overall fan experience.