Viagogo Announces Premier League Deals

Online ticket marketplace, viagogo, has announced partnerships with nine English Premier League clubs, five German Bundesliga clubs, two Dutch Eredivisie clubs, one Spanish La Liga club, and a number of Italian Serie A clubs.  

During 2011/12, season ticket holders in England missed an average of four Premier League matches each, resulting in around 1.8million unused seats – approximately 20% of the 8.75 million Premier League seats available. 

This means that season ticket holders have been missing out on around £64m a year on unused Premier League tickets. 

Furthermore, it is estimated that clubs lose around £50m a year from the reduction in food, drink and merchandise sales due to empty seats.

viagogo now has partnerships in place with Manchester City, Chelsea FC, Newcastle United, Fulham FC, West Bromwich Albion, Wigan Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, West Ham United, and Aston Villa in the UK, Bayern Munich, FC Kaiserslautern, FC Nurnberg, VfL Wolfsburg and Hannover SV 96 in Germany, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord in the Netherlands and RCD Mallorca in Spain, as well as a number of Italian La Liga clubs.

The issue of empty seats has been a prominent one in recent weeks, with Olympic Games organisers coming under fire when banks of seats reserved for members of the Olympic Family were left unused, despite millions of sport fans being desperate for tickets.

The viagogo partnerships combat the issue of empty seats by allowing season ticket holders to officially resell their tickets to matches they are unable to attend. 

The majority of clubs (excluding Chelsea FC) are allowing fans to set the price that they want for their tickets and are not restricted to sell at the ‘box office price’. 

This “free market” approach to ticket resale removes the incentive for fans to sell tickets through unofficial resale channels. 

Ed Parkinson, viagogo said: ‘We know from the Olympics that there’s nothing more frustrating for fans than seeing banks of empty seats at supposedly sold out events. This is a win-win situation where clubs and fans both benefit, and we’re delighted to be providing the solution to the problem.’

Dale Aitchison, partnerships manager at Newcastle United, added: ‘Our loyal fanbase deserve a place to sell tickets they can no longer use to other Newcastle supporters. By working with viagogo, we are able to extend and improve our service offering to season ticket holders. Demand for tickets and Memberships over the last couple of seasons has gone through the roof, and as the Newcastle United brand continues to grow, it makes absolute sense to offer this sort of scheme and to work with viagogo, the world’s largest ticket exchange.’