OT - Manchester United Tickets
Hey all, very random question.
Wife and I are traveling to England/Scotland next month and are looking for ManU vs Cardiff tickets for May 12th. Lots of places online tell scary stories about Americans getting tickets unless through the official team website (they're sold out). Anyone doing this before and it worked out? I talked to Stubhub and their guarantee extends to the UK.
OR am I lucky enough to discover someone in Manchester on MGoBlog who is selling tickets?!
After what happened to my Wolves today, I never want to think about soccer again.
In all seriousness, I would go to a ManU forum or something like that and ask. Heck, they might even be willing to part with some of their tickets as Cardiff ain’t exactly a top opponent.
My humblebrag today is that I went to The Chicago Theater for the Mott the Hoople concert this past Wednesday and paid top $$$ to sit in the 2nd row.
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/mott-the-hoople-74-chicago-concert-review-1203180951/
(And, BTW, it was well worth it! Great concert, MTH only has a few more USA stops left, including New York City, before they return home to England to conclude their tour)
If you can't find legit ManU tickets, OP, spend the money instead on seeing Ian Hunter and Mott when you get to England.
Went to London during Xmas of 2016, and bought tickets for a Chelsea game. Heard all the same stories about about tickets from sources other than the team. (Team site had no tickets available below packages that were at $500 plus per seat, not realistic for family of 5.) We bought tickets via TicketBis (which I remember being affiliated with StubHub, but may no longer be.) Tickets were delivered to our hotel, and were waiting for us upon arrival. Tickets were the original team issued ones, not the StubHub like printouts.
Overall, after some hesitation, process worked well. Tickets were still $200 plus, but was the trip highlight for the kids.
MacGregor!!!
Just came back from a 10 day trip to London which consisted of 5 EPL and Championship league matches with my fellow soccer nut friend. Wives wanted no part of this unless we were visiting Buckingham Palace... and wouldn't you know we saw, on a soccer off day, while avoiding a Brexit demonstration at Parlaiment, the whole royal family coming out of Westminster Abbey from a Commonwealth Day Service. Anyway...
You may know all this but ...This match is the last one of the EPL league. ManU is in a four team hunt for spots 3 through 6 which has huge money/pride implications for next years Champions League and other Cups ....soooo tickets will NOT be cheap. Plus they play City the Wednesday before and Manchester people will be out of their minds.
ALSO dates can change this time of year (especially weeks out) due to other cups ,and if ManU beats Barcelona (insert jokes here) in the UEFA Champions League home and away series, they may have extra matches.
Things that are different than at the Big House... you can bet on all the games quite openly at local sports books. In fact some International betting agencies are the official club sponsors! ..Drinks are sold and massively consumed on the stadium grounds but you cant bring them to your seat. The visitor fans are all sectioned off and usually arrive and leave the stadium with a roped off police escort on horses usually to public transport with dedicated train cars out of town (great idea for OSU and MSU).
Ticket scalping and brokers like StubHub are not as well developed YET as they are in the US. I really haven't seen any public scalping like you do in A2. Most big clubs require you to get a club membership to buy tickets directly from the club. Each club also has an official relationship with some sort broker ( and these do appear sketch but I have used them and they have worked - I used ticketgum.com for a Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge but you are paying $200 for a ticket. Bought a membership for Westham a got two terrific seats (not right next to each other) at Olympic Stadium to see them almost lose to Huddersfield Town for about $80 each. I learned lots of creative swearing at that game.
If you or your wife are not big United fans and soccer fanatics or want to spend big dollars I would suggest taking an Old Trafford stadium tour and seeing some "lesser teams". I went to Old Trafford years ago and it was awesome (Rooney scored) it was great like going to Fenway Park but to also went to see the then EPL Bolton Wanderers and had a very different, less expensive, but more hands on experience. Bolton is now on the verge of being relegated out of the Championship league (next level down).
The Championship league regular season ends May 5th so this may not be an option for you. If you went midweek, tickets are relatively even cheaper and the fans are less "wine and cheese" fans and usually VERY nice to Americans. QPR was such an experience. Preston, Blackburn, Wigan, Bolton and Sheffield are in the Manchester area.
Good luck on your travels and remember to add 30% dollars to pounds conversion.
I've been going to Liverpool games for 10 years or so, although I'm a club member and buy directly through the team. However, I always go on a week when Liverpool play a double during the week (Saturday and Tuesday, or Sunday and Wednesday). Those aren't always both home games, so I've used stubhub when purchasing for an away game, say in London or Southampton. I've not had any problems getting a ticket. I know EPL are the most expensive tickets in Europe, but honestly it's not much different from a decent NFL ticket ($100-200). I've gone to away games at Fulham v Liverpool and a Crystal Palace game vs Liverpool and gotten tickets for around $80-90. Not going to get that against the big 6, but I love the smaller stadiums too
I go to a few EPL or Serie A matches every year. But tickets from the team site or Viagogo.
I went to Chelsea game two years ago and went through a broker. I wouldn't recommend that. I wouldn't use StubHub either. I assume ManU is the same they have an initial gate with "ticket stewards" that check the tickets. Resales are illegal generally, and they police it vigilantly. I saw a family of four who bought from a scalper get their tickets taken away. Your best bet would be to check on suite packages or overnight stay/game packages that the clubs sell.
Super jealous! Always been a dream of mine to watch a match at the Theatre of Dreams. Hoping to get there in the next year or two. Went to go watch them at the Big House last summer but just not the same experience. GGMU
I’m a Liverpool supporter and went to a match around 4 years ago at Anfield. I’m part of the Liverpool fan club. I bit the bullet and purchased hospitality seats which provided food, drink, meet and greet with a former Liverpool player, and match tickets for like $270 for both after the exchange rate. Money well spent. Enjoy
YNWA brother. before it was the American hipsters choice and all of Boston.
/eyeroll