[Albion] 10-game ban and 50-loyalty point deduction

[BrightonCottager]

Presumably everybody at Fulham nicely queues up to collect their tickets from the nice person at the ticket office, and then they all give them to their nan, because she's so nice and that's what nice people do and they are all so awfully nice.

Something like that, yes but with Victoria Sponge. We also have email which enables us to buy tickets for trustworthy friends in home parts of the stadium.

 

[zefarelly]

Yep you've got to be f***ing ridiculous to break a well publicised ruling with a well publicised punishment.

You've got to be f***ing ridiculous to go out of your way to alienate the core support for decades, that fought to kept the f***ing club alive, in favour of vacuous corporate cockwombles who just tick a box. No wonder the atmospheres like a morgue.

 

[zefarelly]

The problem is that every ejection, last season, was a fan who couldn't buy a ticket so therefore shouldn't have been there in the first place.

. .local loyal fans can't buy tickets Half the time

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Something like that, yes but with Victoria Sponge.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

We also have email which enables us to buy tickets for trustworthy friends in home parts of the stadium.

I've lost track of what we can and can't do now, but last time I tried I could buy tickets for other people at home games.

 

[jackalbion]

Don’t think so. Problem is T1 holders were allocating seats to people in T2 before 9am (which you could do at the time) then clicking through to purchase after 9am, so all the available tickets were allocated well before they actually went on sale.

Hmm while that is the case, surely then it would have sold out afterwards, as I remember when I desperately was searching for tickets in then Lockdown games. Even when every seat had been picked but not purchased it would not say sold out, until the ticket is officially sold and still only in the basket it didn’t (at least used to) not say sold out. Nobody could have purchased the tickets before 9am so it would have said sold out until after that.

 

[Justice]

It’s all about the control people. Facial recognition and all the other ID crap honestly it really puts me off, I used to like football as an escape from real life problems now it’s becoming one.

 

[Bozza]

Something went wrong with the Brentford tickets that the club never told us. If it was allocated properly it would have gone to the second day of sales. At about 8:45 when I was waiting to get someone in a lower group a ticket it flicked over to sold out, I think they miscalculated the allocation and points.

I posted this on the relevant thread at the time, but I contacted the club about Brentford tickets as something did seem amiss as you say.

This was the reply:

Firstly just to confirm at 9am we still had tickets left for Brentford. We were however aware of eligible fans holding seats online for others in the next window. This is not something we have noticed as an issue before and as a result we had to clear everyone’s sessions this morning.​

​

I think it is fair to say that the uptake on the Brentford tickets was unlike anything we have seen before. Virtually every single person eligible to buy bought. In addition to this we found a new issue of supporters holding seats and effectively blocking out others.​

​

The Fulham points update was scheduled last night in preparation for this morning. This didn’t push many people in to the first bracket but going forward will be standardising points updates for 8am the following day, for the rare time that a game is played during an on sale.​

​

We have increasingly found that away tickets are being passed on. Ejections and arrests that we have been notified of have not matched the ticket holders details. We are now looking in to checks at away grounds to try to stop this and ensure those that get tickets are the ones travelling.​

​

I hope the above helps to explain the situation and I’m happy if you wish to share it.​

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

It’s all about the control people. Facial recognition and all the other ID crap honestly it really puts me off, I used to like football as an escape from real life problems now it’s becoming one.

They were originally going to use arse recognition, until they realised that away fans almost always stand throughout.
Whether that's preferable to facial recognition or carrying ID is, I guess, a matter of opinion.

 

[jackalbion]

I posted this on the relevant thread at the time, but I contacted the club about Brentford tickets as something did seem amiss as you say.

This was the reply:

Firstly just to confirm at 9am we still had tickets left for Brentford. We were however aware of eligible fans holding seats online for others in the next window. This is not something we have noticed as an issue before and as a result we had to clear everyone’s sessions this morning.​

​

I think it is fair to say that the uptake on the Brentford tickets was unlike anything we have seen before. Virtually every single person eligible to buy bought. In addition to this we found a new issue of supporters holding seats and effectively blocking out others.​

​

The Fulham points update was scheduled last night in preparation for this morning. This didn’t push many people in to the first bracket but going forward will be standardising points updates for 8am the following day, for the rare time that a game is played during an on sale.​

​

We have increasingly found that away tickets are being passed on. Ejections and arrests that we have been notified of have not matched the ticket holders details. We are now looking in to checks at away grounds to try to stop this and ensure those that get tickets are the ones travelling.​

​

I hope the above helps to explain the situation and I’m happy if you wish to share it.​

That does explain it, it definitely didn’t follow with how the system works, so it sounds like it was a bit of both.

 

[BNthree]

I think the non-transferable ticket rule was introduced by the FA as one of the measures to curb hooligan problems and the club is now also using the rule to stop loyalty point abuse.

The rule actually says something along the lines of a ticket can’t be transferred without the club’s consent. Which is why the season ticket sharing and 1901 works as the club consents to it. There’s no rule saying tickets can’t be transferred ever in any circumstances. Just need the club to facilitate it and it can be done.

 

[drew]

You really think the clubs owner would bother himself with such matters? Barber gets paid handsomely so he doesn’t have to get involved with the trivial daily issues.

I very much suspect that PB and TB talk regularly and this is not a trivial matter as you put it and TB would have been briefed. If he hadn't like it he would have said so. There would be a lot of potential for bad publicity either with fans being banned or with fans with no rights to a ticket getting themselves arrested.

 

[drew]

. .local loyal fans can't buy tickets Half the time

Rubbish. The vast majority of fans in the first tier are the most loyal fans.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

The rule actually says something along the lines of a ticket can’t be transferred without the club’s consent. Which is why the season ticket sharing and 1901 works as the club consents to it. There’s no rule saying tickets can’t be transferred ever in any circumstances. Just need the club to facilitate it and it can be done.

QPR use Twickets as their ticket exchange, which seems slightly bonkers.

 

[Weststander]

Rubbish. The vast majority of fans in the first tier are the most loyal fans.

But the club told @Bozza.

“We have increasingly found that away tickets are being passed on. Ejections and arrests that we have been notified of have not matched the ticket holders details”.

Increasingly loyal fans are passing away tickets onto their mates. So others never get a look in.

 

[drew]

But the club told @Bozza.

“We have increasingly found that away tickets are being passed on. Ejections and arrests that we have been notified of have not matched the ticket holders details”.

Increasingly loyal fans are passing away tickets onto their mates. So others never get a look in.

That sentence doesn't mean the majority of those in the top tier are passing on tickets though does it.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Modern football bollocks, as I told Mr. Barber a few weeks ago. As far as I am concerned: you buy a season ticket, you give it to whomever you choose if you can't use it, .... And the argument that the season ticket is discounted and someone else should pay full price is, in an age when we don't know what day or time we're going to be playing because of TV schedules and the huge revenues they bring, absolutely untenable. If the whims of TV mean we can't attend a game then we should be able to pass the ticket on.

I really disagree with this. A season ticket was only ever a bonus for people who knew they could make every single game. In the old days, if you knew you could only make two thirds of the games, and weren't loaded, you just bought matchday tickets.

Now it seems people want their cake and eat it. People want a season ticket so they get one of the best seats in the house, priority on away tickets and various discounts, but also want to be able to sell it on or decide who sits in their seat if they can't go. Even the ticket exchange isn't enough for some. People like me who can only make a handful of games have to pay £10 more for a ticket, are usually stuck down in the corners and have next to no chance of an away ticket south of Birmingham. I accept that's my lot as a non-regular, but I do resent other non-regulars getting the season-ticket discounts and better seats, and in the case of this thread, tickets to away games.

Thats a part of modern football bollocks I hate, the idea that virtually all the seats are hoarded by a a group of people for the exclusive use of them and their mates. There are many ways the ticketing system can be improved, but making it even more of a closed shop than it currently is is not one of them.

 

[Justice]

I really disagree with this. A season ticket was only ever a bonus for people who knew they could make every single game. In the old days, if you knew you could only make two thirds of the games, and weren't loaded, you just bought matchday tickets.

Now it seems people want their cake and eat it. People want a season ticket so they get one of the best seats in the house, priority on away tickets and various discounts, but also want to be able to sell it on or decide who sits in their seat if they can't go. Even the ticket exchange isn't enough for some. People like me who can only make a handful of games have to pay £10 more for a ticket, are usually stuck down in the corners and have next to no chance of an away ticket south of Birmingham. I accept that's my lot as a non-regular, but I do resent other non-regulars getting the season-ticket discounts and better seats, and in the case of this thread, tickets to away games.

Thats a part of modern football bollocks I hate, the idea that virtually all the seats are hoarded by a a group of people for the exclusive use of them and their mates. There are many ways the ticketing system can be improved, but making it even more of a closed shop than it currently is is not one of them.

If you had a mate that could easily get tickets but couldn’t make that many aways and offered you the ticket are you going to turn it down on a moral basis knowing the mate is going to spend the £30 anyway to keep points up?
Your point is flawed as you aren’t investing or committing as much as the ST holder is by only going to a few games a season.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

If you had a mate that could easily get tickets but couldn’t make that many aways and offered you the ticket are you going to turn it down on a moral basis knowing the mate is going to spend the £30 anyway to keep points up?
Your point is flawed as you aren’t investing or committing as much as the ST holder is by only going to a few games a season.

You’re right in that many people won’t turn it down on moral grounds. That’s why we have to have the rules. That’s why we have to have any rules. ST holders who sell on their tickets aren’t investing in the club when they are selling them on and accumulating loyalty points to cherry pick the best away games.
Your post pretty much sums up the reason many people (and the club) are so pissed off with what has been going on. You can’t even see it.

 

[Bold Seagull]

You've got to be f***ing ridiculous to go out of your way to alienate the core support for decades, that fought to kept the f***ing club alive, in favour of vacuous corporate cockwombles who just tick a box. No wonder the atmospheres like a morgue.

get back in you box you chamois clad crutchstain! ;-)

Aren’t the rules in place to protect the core support so that fans who are genuinely entitled to get tickets have a chance of getting them?

Your statement is somewhat contradictory. It’s okay that someone’s girlfriend can go to a massively oversubscribed game who doesn’t really go to football much, at the expense of a genuine fan who may well have fought for the clubs survival 25 years ago. How is that alienating the core support exactly?

Strikes me the club has little to gain sending staff to away games and increasing their workload/costs for no return other than in the interests of fairness to their system of ensuring the most loyal fans who attend the most games get access to tickets.