Boro match set to sell out...

A couple of days to go until what has been widely described as the most important Charlton game in years. Middlesbrough at home in the FA Cup Quarter Final.

Ever since the fixture was announced there has been much debate as to whether we would be able to sell The Valley out on the night. The way the club has gone about pushing the remaining few thousand tickets could almost be described as a form of harassment! The official site has had numerous interviews with the clubs staff, and all of them have stated at least once just how important it is that we all attend; also, the club have repeatedly mentioned a promise for preferential treatment when it comes to the ticketing arrangements for any potential semi final, or even a trip to Cardiff. Some fans have even had letters sent to their homes, and text messages from the club, despite already having bought their tickets.
It’s been almost relentless over the course of the last week, but now with a day to go, it looks like it has all been a success.

I have just called the ticket office for an update on how well the sales were going, (it took 10 minutes on hold at 10p a minute), and I was told that there are only 200 seats left on sale in the home areas.
The bloke I was speaking to also claimed that they were expecting some tickets back from Middlesbrough tomorrow, so some home fans will be able to pay on the gate tomorrow night. Boro’s official site claimed that they were allocated 3350 tickets for the match, and most estimates seem to be that they have sold a shade under 2,000 of them. I was unable to confirm that with Middlesbrough because their ticket office closed at 5pm, but if we take that as the correct number, it will leave somewhere around 1,000 tickets for sale on the door.

I would imagine that most it not all Charlton fans planning to attend will already have their tickets now. Seeing as the game is on the telly, and that most of the tickets have been sold, I don’t imagine that too many fans will be turning up on the night to scrap over the remaining 1,000 seats. My estimate for the attendance is 26,685 and I don’t think that is too shabby at all. Even the Massive’s had 10,000 seats left spare for their match against the Hammers last night.

Anyway, the clubs battle to get bums on seats looks like it has been a success, but I wonder how far short of capacity we would have been without all of the propaganda. Is there really a fan out there who had decided not to go, but was persuaded to buy a ticket only because of the desperate please made by Varney, Peacock, Kishishev, and Curbishley? I rather doubt it.

Lets just hope that the team's performance lives up to the hype that the club have built for it.

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Update - Just spoke to the Boro ticket office. As of now, they have only sold 1400, they have 300 left to sell, and the rest have been returned to Charlton for sale on the night.