Barnet v Torquay 2001 - Ticket Fiasco

[eastbarnetsupporter]

I'm a little too young to have gone to the infamous relegation clash of 2001 but the ticket fiasco keeps on getting mentioned on here from time to time and I'd love to know what actually went down.

From what I've read, it wasn't an all-ticket meaning people were rocking up really early and before they knew it, it was already packed out and season ticket and match day ticket holders couldn't get in. How on earth did they get it so wrong?

I assume they had X number of tickets already sold per stand from tickets sold and season ticket holders with an allocation available on the day, so how exactly did it go so wrong?

What also happened after? As well as anger and disappointment of being relegated, was there a backlash against the club from those who missed out (which by the sounds of it was core Barnet fans who thought they could get in anytime as they already had a ticket)

Did TK issue a statement or apologise? Who was in charge of the ticket situation and at what point did fans get locked out? I've read people were in the queue from lunchtime (which is unheard of for Barnet).

This happened before the days of social media or even online forums (barely) so how did Barnet fans vent their fury?

Was Torquay's allocation all-ticket? as they seemed to have thousands in the ground too occupying the south and south-east stand to the brim.

So many questions... I look forward to hearing your answers.

[Sam_BFC]

I think part of the thinking was that our Boxing Day game that season at home to Brighton was all ticket but only about 3,800 people bought tickets, leaving people that turned up on the day without tickets unable to get in.

[DerekRocholl]

I'm a little too young to have gone to the infamous relegation clash of 2001 but the ticket fiasco keeps on getting mentioned on here from time to time and I'd love to know what actually went down.

From what I've read, it wasn't an all-ticket meaning people were rocking up really early and before they knew it, it was already packed out and season ticket and match day ticket holders couldn't get in. How on earth did they get it so wrong?

What also happened after? As well as anger and disappointment of being relegated, was there a backlash against the club from those who missed out (which by the sounds of it was core Barnet fans who thought they could get in anytime as they already had a ticket)

Did TK issue a statement or apologise? Who was in charge of the ticket situation and at what point did fans get locked out? I've read people were in the queue from lunchtime (which is unheard of for Barnet).

Was Torquay's allocation all-ticket? as they seemed to have thousands in the ground too occupying the south and south-east stand to the brim.

So many questions... I look forward to hearing your answers.

Several hundred didn't get in.

It was pretty obvious that it was going to be a heavily attended game because it was effectively a play off to stay up or go down decider and got masses of publicity because of the popularity of Helen Chamberlain (vocal Torquay supporter) on Soccer AM at the time. Anyone who decided to turn up less than an hour before kick off was taking a chance.

My son and I queued for an hour to get into a packed North stand and even Chris Kamara struggled to get in on time to reach his commentary position before kick off (mind you that might also have been something to do with the directions to the ground he was given by a couple of supporters in Finchley )

[eastbarnetsupporter]

If it sells out that's understandable but that doesn't answer why barnet fans who already had tickets didn't get in? They had a ticket.

[Barnetchris]

It was crazy, queues stretching right down Barnet Lane an hour before kick off, I nearly didn’t get in with a season ticket and people literally throwing £20 notes at the turnstile operators to get in, the word ‘bedlam’ doesn’t even half describe that day.

[Reckless]

If Lee Harrison hadn't been taken out after three minutes and Darren Currie had scored that penalty to go 1-2 it would have been so different.

[CrawleyBee]

Agreed was mental! Luckily a long time friend let me and my dad in. Was a bizarre day all round.

[WinchyBee]

This was a horrible day. I started queuing to get into the North Stand at about 1:30 and didn't get in, I was 8 at the time and there was nothing worse than coming home and seeing the score on Teletext.

[alexbach]

and if a face could launch a thousand ships..... Torquay would not be in national league south

yes the club messed up badly. my mate was just one who pointed out to the sales person..... that all ticket might be prudent

[shankbee01]

We didn’t get in but realised well in advance the ET would sell out before we got in so went down the back of the main stand and hopped over the fence into the NE terrace. After a bunch of people got in that way they put a steward at the back to stop any more getting in.


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[ninestein]

The queue for the Westcombe Drive entrance stretched right round the corner into Grasvenor Avenue.
I came home from work that lunchtime and put Football Focus on as usual whilst eating. They had a short feature on our game, and the live pictures even at that time showed people queuing up waiting for the turnstiles to open. Needless to say I left the house and walked down Mays Lane pretty sharpish. In the end I just went up to the front where the big exit was. Beverley, the ticket office manager (bless her) looked very stressed, and eventually they let some people with season tickets walk through the big gate. I had an East Terrace season ticket, but ended up having to watch from the North Terrace. At that point I was just glad I'd found a way in.

Apart from not making the game all-ticket, the biggest problem was that none of the turnstiles were labelled up. There should have been one for season ticket holders and bees members, then others for pay on the day cash. As it was, everyone was just aimlessly queuing up hoping for the best.

The club clearly misjudged how popular that game was going to be, but then a match like that was unprecedented. I reckon there were well over a thousand fans locked outside, possibly even two thousand. Some managed to climb trees in the Cricket Club to watch the game. A few forced the big gate open at one point, and around 20-30 managed to get in at the top end before the stewards restrained the door shut.

Because a lot of our regulars were locked out, the atmosphere was flat, and after Harrison went off injured in the first minute, what followed had an air of inevitability about it.

The lighter moment came just before the end where two streakers appeared, jumped the perimeter fence, and Greg Heald and Danny Naisbitt were trying to catch them. Like the rest of our defence that afternoon, they couldn't get close! We had just pulled 2 goals back, but the likliehood of us finding another two even without that incident was very slim.

I remember being on the pitch after the game, and Torquay fans were also on there with us. One lady gave me a big hug and apologised for beating us.

I recall Chris Kamara didn't endear himself to a lot of Barnet fans, when he said he thought Torquay should stay up as they were the more professional club. How the roles have reversed...

[jerroll]

If it sells out that's understandable but that doesn't answer why barnet fans who already had tickets didn't get in? They had a ticket.

Health & safety- once capacity was reached the turnstiles were closed regardless of whether ticket holders were in or not!

[Edd1]

One thing people aren't mentioning is that other than season ticket holders the club specifically did NOT sell advance tickets. It was the policy at the time that unless it needed to be all ticket because a large crowd was expected that it was pay on the day only. You mention your age, you'be probably grown up with smart phones and broadband t'interweb. Wasn't the case in 2001. At that time probably around half of adults had a mobile, but it would have been dot matrix and no internet. Similarly around half would have had internet at home but it would mostly have been dial up. In short, ticketing over the internet was unfeasible, the club would have to print the tickets manually so they chose to not go through the expense unless there was a specific reason for it.

Now anyone could see it was going to be crazy. Winner takes all, most London clubs weren't playing at home so we attracted an awful lot of ghouls but the club made the wrong call. TK admited that as such later on. He expected a bottom of the table game to pull in a below average crowd. Totally wrong call but that's life.

It was a truly horrible day.

I'd like to finish though by saying it is in the past. It is the one and only time we've had a signifcant ticketing cock up. Didn't happen before (and we hosted a number of high profile cup games in the years leading up to that, Man City, West Ham, Middlesborough, Norwich) and hasn't happened since (Halifax, Carlisle, Plymouth, Bristol Rovers, Gateshead), it was a one off.

[DerekRocholl]

"Because a lot of our regulars were locked out, the atmosphere was flat, and after Harrison went off injured in the first minute, what followed had an air of inevitability about it."

The main reason the atmosphere was flat was because our team's performance was dreadful and we went 3-0 down without even suggesting that we deserved 0.

In fairness to Torquay they tried to make a game of it in the second half by bringing on substitutes who should never have been near a football pitch let alone playing in the league, and making a good fist of out performing us in the dire stakes.

[becbee]

The one home fixture that season that I missed. My daughter and I thought we were arriving early - how wrong we were.
Many of the regulars made the same error of judgement. Probably we were just too used to being able to turn up at 2.55pm and never realised we needed to be about 2 hours early that afternoon.

Hindsight is always a wonderful thing.