h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sheffield United have been a bit sneaky in the sale and distribution of tickets for the forthcoming home derby against Sheffield Wednesday.

If you want a ticket, you've also got to buy a ticket for one of two less popular games ie Millwall and Burnley. OK, the club have discounted the tickets for these other games a bit - it's £30 for the pair instead of £34 with my membership discount added on top. But this does mean in my little hand that I've paid for a ticket for a game I don't really want to go to.

I'll decide in time what I'm going to do. Suffice to say, if you see me posting around the site at 3pm this Saturday, then I'll have decided not to make the 500 mile round trip and will be listening to the Millwall match on the radio instead.

BG aka GD, olympique lyonnais does the same thing for their derbies and all the biggest league matches. for example, tickets for OL-PSG go on sale first as a mini-season ticket for 3 matches. after that they go on sale individually, but the 3-match deal is good enough that they generally almost sell out before that.

England Rugby have been doing the same thing for years. Seems to be almost de rigeur for sales these days.

There is a further complication that Millwall is one of the family teams. So therefore it's about third or fourth in my affections, and I'm not that keen in travelling all that distance to watch them get ripped apart as they surely will be.

Harsh though it sounds I personally agree with this sort of thing.

Although I am not an "every weeker" at Argyle any more. When I was (but not a season ticket holder) it used to irritate me intensely when I went to almost all the home games, and most of the away ones but I couldn't get tickets for Derbys and FA cup matches.

Getting "Brownie points" for attending less glamorous ties is a good way of rewarding loyal following IMHO.

The message on the club website is that the game against Wednesday is now sold out. They are apparently still processing some internet sales, but once those have been completed there won't be anything much left over.

And I suppose I ought to get used to this sort of thing. I mean demand overall for tickets is going to be going up next season, after we go up in May

So will prices.......

Given that it's a quarter to one and I'm sitting at home watching Football Focus. You can safely assume that seat X147 on the Hallam FM Kop will be empty this afternoon.

Radio Sheffield are doing the Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley games on their two frequencies. The United game is web-only, but they haven't made the switch over to the webcast yet. And it's only 3 minutes to go before kick-off

*Finally* they make the switch over.

I mean I don't pay thirty-five quid a year to listen to effing Wednesday games

And now that it's half-time, they've forgotten to switch back to Radio Sheffield's main frequency. So what I'm getting is the commentators gossiping amongst themeselves. They're complaining about the cold, and the need for a pee and a coffee. One of them has forgotten his gloves and has made a run for the club shop to buy a pair.

Oh the fun and games of dead air and an unguarded microphone