18/08/2009

Presentation game

I am cross today, the club has always gifted the presentation game to season ticket holders but this year they have decided that everyone should pay 10 euros for their seats. The money will apparently go to the people who lost their homes in La Palma. I do not begrudge them the money and if asked would happily have put my hand in my pocket for the same amount or more. The club will not sell your seat to someone else so by the sound of it a lot of seats will be empty. On the Zoneros forum there are an lot of people who either because they don't have the money or because they don't think it is right are not going on Saturday for the game. It is a shame for the players. This is their opening game at home even if this one counts for nothing as this is still pre-season. It would have been great to have the stadium filled.

Still there you go, The stadium repairs are still going slowly and it seems clear there will be no presidents and VIP area for the first home game and a few more if the photo on the club website is anything to go by.
I don't begrudge the club my time or my money but there are moments when I could sit in a corner and cry. You all know I waited 17 hours for our season tickets. My other half's club Rapid Vienna are really good with their fans. They are playing Europe league qualifiers this week. When they announced the date of sale they offered the seats to their season ticket holders and after that had 2000 seats left. They then offered half these seats online and for the folk who had had no internet they offered 2000 tickets through their box office. The night before the sale people started queuing at about 4am, at 8am the club sent an official to count them and at 2000 they left an official there and sent the rest of the people home. It bought back the waiting in June and the hope late in the afternoon that if we just got through the stadium doors then we would get our season tickets the same night as the club wouldn't force us to leave.
I think that day/night is one of the things that will be talked about in the history of the club for a long time. That and the 2 memories I have from last season that must be in everyone's heart. The game in Girona which I would have loved to have gone to but instead got to celebrate in The main Santa Cruz Square then the teams coming back to the city and the Jerez game where the players performed miracles and the fans as you can see in this video. It is towards the end and from Tribuna even look at them jump. These seats were full on people from the south who had waited hours and hours for tickets on 2 separate days. The atmosphere was outstanding and singing could be heard from all around the stadium. One of the reasons we have seats near the goal is so we can be near the Popular end. It was either that or above the Zoneros corner as although we are getting older I need to be near the noise.

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