Furious Spurs fans accuse club of ripping them off over FA Cup tickets

Angry Tottenham fans have accused their club of ripping them off for FA Cup semi final tickets.

Spurs supporters are being charged a big hike in booking and postage fees for the Wembley showdown with Portsmouth on April 11.

Fed-up Tottenham season ticket holder Steve Wheeler, a plumber who lives in Islington, said: “I go to every game home and away, have done for years and yet loyal supporters like myself are being ripped off as soon as we begin to get a bit of success and are back at Wembley.

“We’re being charged a booking fee and for special delivery when back in the day we would go an queue up at the ground for cup final tickets, have a bit of a laugh and it would be part of it.

“It was part of the build-up to a cup final or whatever, you’d go in rain or shine, the clubs could handle it then, so why not now?

“But they’ve farmed out the tickets to Ticketmaster who are charging postage and while you only have to pay that once for a group of tickets you have to pay a booking fee for every ticket.

“We are going as a block of 12 tickets so why is it that you should have to pay £2.50 booking fee for each ticket. Surely it’s only one booking? It’s not fair on loyal fans like myself.”

Tottenham claim they cannot handle the demand for their 31,000 ticket allocation through their own box office and have farmed out the booking system to Ticketmaster like many other Premier League clubs.

But Ticketmaster are charging a £2.50 booking fee on each ticket and £4.95 delivery charge. Group bookings for several friends together only ave to pay one delivery charge but every ticket is subject to a booking fee.

Tickets range from £30 to £60 and it could leave some supporters having to pay an extra £7.45 even for a £30 ticket.

Tottenham yesterday issued a statement and said: “Due to the volume of tickets involved, the Club’s appointed ticket agency, Ticketmaster, rather than the Club, have processed, printed and are responsible for the dispatch of our entire allocation of semi-final tickets.

“There is no increase in booking fees from the Wembley Cup finals of the previous two seasons and postage charges are per order, with tickets sent out via Recorded Delivery.

“As with all ticketing operations, accessible and timely processing along with secure delivery of tickets is of paramount importance.”

Tottenham have around 23,000 season ticket holders and their box office normally then handles less demand with the club’s home capacity at 36,000.

But with 31,000 allocated for the semi final, the club has nearly three times as many tickets on sale as for normal home games and the box office is struggling to cope with also time ticking away before the semi final date.

The Football Association have moved the FA Cup semi finals to Wembley to help pay for the national stadium with two extra money-spinning fixtures.

Tottenham face Portsmouth and the semi final is expected to be a sell-out while the other semi final is between Aston Villa and Chelsea.

Spurs expecting fans to pay a booking fee for FA Cup tickets is a joke - The John Cross Column