Aberdeen chief executive Alan Burrows has issued an apology to supporters after backlash over ticket sales for their upcoming League Cup final with Rangers.
The Scottish Professional Football League previously announced that Rangers will receive about 25,000 tickets – roughly half the capacity of Hampden – but the Dons will only be allocated up to 19,500 seats for the December 17 showpiece.
Aberdeen expressed their “extreme disappointment and frustration” after a “robust” case for a 50-50 split of tickets for the Viaplay Cup final was rejected.
The Pittodrie club have now sold out their initial allocation of 17,000 tickets with the first batch going to supporters with 200 loyalty points.
Briefs then went straight to a general sale and some fans have been left disappointed after missing out.
Burrows has now apologised to fans regarding the ticket arrangements, but he insists season ticket holders and high points holders will be given priority as a second batch of 2,500 tickets go on sale.
Posting on Twitter, Burrows said: "Dons fans, I understand that from the tweets and replies, we’ve a lot of frustrated Dandies posting about Viaplay Cup Final tickets. We have, at the moment, sold out our INITIAL allocation. We have been given up to 19,500 tickets - the first lot of circa 17,000 have gone almost immediately.
"The ticket office set a threshold at 200 points to buy one ticket each then, this afternoon at 5pm, the remainder went on full general sale. Although it was for the right reasons, in hindsight, this was an error on our part. We should’ve had a second sales period for lesser points before - I.e. 100-199, before full general sale, ensuring there was more control. That’s a lesson we’ll learn. I take responsibility for that and I am very sorry to those who are currently feeling frustrated.
"The good news is that we are still expecting another approx 2500 tickets and we will ensure, when we get them, that priority is given to season ticket holders / higher point holders. If you have so far missed out on tickets and want to go - please email Ticketoffice@afc.co.uk and the team there will look to sort you out as soon as we receive the additional batch through (we’re putting pressure on SPFL to have these to us asap).
"This does bring into sharp focus our plea to have been given the opportunity to sell out Hampden on a 50/50 split. Given we’ve sold 17,000 tickets in just a few short days, I think it’s fair to say there is a high probability we could’ve sold out a 50 per cent share had we been given the chance."
After Burrow's tweet, a number of Rangers fans responded claiming they were able to purchase tickets in the Aberdeen end for the Hampden showdown.
One wrote: "Thanks for putting them on general sale Alan. Just thinking from a practicality point of view is it possible to allocate a specific section for the Rangers fans who bought today? Will help with security and everyone’s enjoyment."
A second tweeted: "Will there be a Rangers section within the Aberdeen end? Me and a few friends have bought tickets from your allocation as we don’t go to Ibrox for the wee games, so won’t be offered a ticket from Rangers. Thanks Alan."
And a third added: "What are you going to do about us rangers fans who have bought tickets in the Aberdeen end?"
Aberdeen had proposed that they hold back five sections of the North Stand and hand back tickets to pass on to Rangers by a certain date if the demand among their fans was not evident.
An SPFL spokesperson explained: “Deciding ticketing allocations for cup finals is always a challenging task, as more fans invariably want to attend than the stadium can accommodate.
“We take a range of factors into consideration, including the number of tickets each club sells in the semi-finals, as well as their historic ticket sales in any previous League Cup finals and semi-finals.
“In addition, the design of the stadium and its ability to split sections is a major factor which influences our decisions, together with input from safety and security authorities to ensure fan safety and appropriate segregation.”
The league added that the split was broadly the same configuration as Aberdeen’s previous League Cup final appearance against Celtic five years ago.
There were 28,295 fans at the semi-final between Aberdeen and Hibernian.
The Dons were confident of selling a 50 per cent allocation given they took 43,000 supporters to Celtic Park when they last won the League Cup in 2014 by beating Inverness in the final.
