Latest ticket sales for the 2022 National League playoff final

We’re now counting the days for the 2022 National League playoff final, with that in mind, we look at the latest ticket sales.

Solihull Moors and Grimsby go head to head at the London Stadium with the winner sealing a place in the fourth tier of English football.

The Mariners were involved in a thrilling 5-4 victory over Wrexham in their last match while Solihull had no scares as such in comfortably getting past Chesterfield in the end with a 3-1 win at home.

As expected, Moors go into the game as favourites considering they finished higher than their opponents, but that will be all forgotten about in the final, with Grimsby showing their ability to get results against teams around them in the table. With the quality both teams have in attack, it could be another great game for the neutral.

Nearly 12,000 Grimsby fans bought tickets for Sunday’s National League play off final.

The Mariners confirmed on Tuesday that 11,655 tickets had been been sold for the clash with both sides allocated 25,000 tickets each. Then 12,612 was revealed on Thursday.

As we know however, there has been controversy with the price of tickets branded as ‘daylight robbery’, prices starting at £40 for adults and those who tried to purchase a ticket when they went on general sale at 4pm on Monday found they were unable to book £22 child tickets in the upper tier with the only seats that were left after the sale being opened first to season ticket holders.

The Mariners Trust stepped in, raised money for fans who can’t buy tickets, Vanarama said they will match what is raised and the club has also been working with the National League to help fans who were forced to buy adult priced tickets for under-16s.

Grimsby Town posted on Twitter on Tuesday: “The Mariners have now sold 11,655 tickets ahead of Sunday’s Promotion Final! Be sure to join us in the capital.” Meanwhile, Solihull Moors said on the 2nd of June that they had sold over 5,000 tickets.”

Grimsby fans suggest another 600 tickets were sold on the 1st of June while 400 were sold by 3pm June the 2nd with 13,000 in their sight on Friday.

Data Analysis (via SportsMole)

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats, suggests the most likely outcome of this match is a Solihull Moors win with a probability of 45.58%. A win for Grimsby Town has a probability of 30.48% and a draw has a probability of 23.9%.

The most likely scoreline for a Solihull Moors win is 2-1 with a probability of 9.25%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome are 1-0 (8.37%) and 2-0 (6.98%). The likeliest Grimsby Town win is 1-2 (7.34%), while for a drawn scoreline it is 1-1 (11.07%).

Head to Head

Mar 22, 2022  Grimsby Town 1-2 Solihull
Nov 23, 2021 – Solihull 2-0 Grimsby Town

FORM

Solihull 3-1 Chesterfield
Boreham Wood 0-3 Solihull
Solihull 3-1 Dag & Red
Solihull 3-0 Bromley
Weymouth 2-4 Solihull
Solihull 2-1 Aldershot

Wrexham 4-5 Grimsby Town
Notts County 1-2 Grimsby Town
Eastleigh 4-4 Grimsby Town
Grimsby Town 1-0 Boreham Wood
Grimsby Town 1-3 Maidenhead
Barnet 2-2 Grimsby Town

Solihull Moors manager Neal Ardley praised Paul Hurst and the Grimsby Town team as he prepares to face off on Sunday.

“The final will be great,” said Ardley. “Grimsby have been unbelievable! I spoke to Paul Hurst and Doigy [Chris Doig] before the game [with Chesterfield].

“The way they have conducted themselves and how their team has fought for them has been incredible. I was at the Notts [County] game, and their fans were magnificent, so I am sure it will be a big occasion.

“One team is going to go home devastated and the other celebrating, all we can do is prepare the boys to put in a good performance and we’ll see if we’re good enough.

“People don’t realise how much goes into preparing for a final with tickets for the players and other complementaries you have to get out of the way.

“You get that stuff out the way and box it up, so the rest of the week is all about preparing for the game, and then hopefully we’ll get to the final in one piece and then it will be a case of the best team winning.”

Grimsby Town boss Paul Hurst hopes of a “fairy-tale ending” for the final and believes the return of the his side’s fans helped the team bounce back and achieve great things this season.

“The fans are always going to be there,” said Hurst. “It’s their football club. It was strange getting relegated with no fans; it just didn’t feel right.

“Did I think we’d be in this position after that? I had hope; of course, I did, but some people still won’t think getting into the play-offs was an achievement with this club. I believe it was, and we will prepare the best we can [for the final] and see if we can make it a fairy-tale ending.

“Solihull have been fantastic, probably less fashionable, but they are building something. They have beaten us twice [this season], I spoke with Neal after both, and we agreed that they were both very close games.”

LATEST NATIONAL LEAGUE STATEMENT:

In light of recent discussion regarding Sunday’s Promotion Final, The National League would like to provide the following background information.

At the National League the staff and management are acutely aware of the current financial challenges facing fans across the country and equally recognise that without the fans the game doesn’t exist.

We don’t always get everything right, but we make every decision in the best interest of our clubs and the competition and we hope that fans will understand the challenge of balancing, securing a showpiece venue and the consequent costs involved with doing that. While we were able to keep the base price tickets lower than last season and that of Under 16’s, we do acknowledge that there is a premium on the higher ticket prices and that the lower priced tickets sold out quickly.

By way of background it was in the spirit of creating a showpiece occasion, befitting a Promotion Final, that we undertook a search for a venue, that began back in October, and the challenge we faced was finding a suitable stadium that wasn’t undergoing a pitch renovation as soon as the current football season had ended, more complicated this year than usual as there will be an earlier start to next season because of the timing of the World Cup.

Both the clubs and fans deserve a memorable final after what has been a fantastic season. We enjoyed an incredible day in Bristol last season and at Wembley in previous years. The competition this year has seen many teams with large followings compete for a place in the play-offs. This meant we needed a stadium that was also capable of providing the capacity to cope with the anticipated high demand for tickets. We didn’t want to disappoint the fans with a lack of available seats.

The London Stadium has shown this season in particular what a special atmosphere it can create for big games. West Ham’s Europa League exploits are a strong reference point to this. It is a stadium with world class facilities, and we believe it’ll stage a brilliant final on Sunday.

Our main goal at The National League is to administrate and deliver income to our member clubs and any proceeds generated from the final and all other commercial activity will go to our clubs. To be clear, The National League will not be taking any profits from Sunday’s final – 100% of the proceeds will go back to our member clubs.

We’re passionate about what we do and we take great pride in the fact that clubs who have joined us from the EFL are able to return there better from being in The National League and likewise that a new breed of clubs proceed through our ranks to challenge the accepted order of the leagues above.

Overall, behind the scenes we are working really hard to generate increasing incomes for our clubs, with the help of fantastic commercial partners like Vanarama and BT Sport.

On that note we have had incredible support from Vanarama who have been actively looking at ways of directly supporting fans in the cost of the final, and The National Lottery who are working with community groups to ensure families and deserving individuals who otherwise would have struggled can get there on the day – with much of the transport costs being covered for this initiative.

If the final is anything like as exciting as the semi-finals and indeed last year’s final, then it should prove to be another memorable occasion. With over 17,000 tickets sold in the first couple of days we are assured of a fantastic atmosphere on Sunday.

We will always listen to clubs and fans to help inform any decisions for future occasions and we always seek to act in the best interests of all parties. Going forward, we want to continue the dialogue with our member clubs and fans to ensure they’re being heard.

– STATEMENT ENDS –

Fans reacted to the latest ticket sales for the 2022 National League playoff final…

@KyleDonSAFC: 👏👏 see you there

@Veechy77: Can’t bloody wait. Believe it……… it’s happening 🐟⚽️🙌🏻🐟 #GTFC

@Grumpy_GreyHead: Bit lower than I was expecting but with the venue, pricing and cost of living its understandable

@kevclem82: Decent turn out especially as ticket prices are an absolute joke. Good luck hopefully see you next season 🤞👍

@Chattatollah: Great support that 👏👏

@DannyT1816: Time we forget about #Ticketgate now which by the way has and is a tremendous effort from the footballing community and the @MarinersTrust. Let’s focus on the football and task ahead and enjoy the Bank holiday 🇬🇧 #UTM #GTFC

@OliverSwaby1: Imagine how many we would sell if these were affordable tickets, in an affordable place and not on jubilee weekend.

@ComputingMr: Definitely would be more if travel was easy. People are having trouble getting coaches and train prices are sky high 😓

@stanshreeve: It is amazing that nearly 12000 tickets sold already. The rate will slow but we will beat 15000. And Mariners Trust – well done on your financial help for families.

@lukeohara5 (Replying to @SolihullMoors): Good effort! Look forward to meeting and chatting to you lads at the weekend in and around London, hope you all have a safe journey and great weekend (but not result) 👍- Grimsby fan

@aarongtfc2015: Well done solihull fans 👏

@Chris5968: I feel for both sets of supporters. The game should have been arrange in the North!

@HdmrCentral: Should be back at Ashton Gate far less empty seats and made a great atmosphere.

@daleskitt: Villa Park would be the perfect regular venue for the National League promotion final, why does it have to be at Wembley? One of the best days of supporting my club was winning promotion back to the League and that was at Stoke…

@Wxmscully: @VanaramaLeague really need to get a grip…thoses sales are poor for final… an i don’t blame the fans for not going

@since_1883: Crazy. How everyone from the start can see what a ludicrous decision it was to go there. Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Coventry, Leicester. I mean come on, surely one of those could arrange a 20,000 crowd at short notice!