[Albion] Albion Fans vs Ticket Window ****Official Bun Fight Thread****

[Hamilton]

I think you missed a vital point. Going to away games is about supporting our team not just getting points for loyalty.

I didn’t miss that at all. What a bizarre comment.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

@Dave the hatosaurus indeed yes, if I had my time again, me, the boy and even the wife (Albion +) would be off to Marseilles. Sadly by the time the penny dropped it was too late. Our fault.

 

[Milano]

Yes, they should. Next

Yes, I'm saying this as someone going to all three, but anyone could have bought a ticket to Marseille? It didn't even sell out. If anyone missed out due to cost, fear, wrong time of year or whatever, well that's just unfortunate. Or do you want to pick and choose what "special" game you want to experience?

To be fair I think the club/police put a lot of people off. Marseille is not much harder to get to than Amsterdam, it’s a cheaper night out too. Had we drawn Toulouse it would have sold out.

 

[Bozza]

This is where the word ‘loyalty’ is wrong IMO. I’ve done all the nasty aways but not for the past decade or so due to changed family commitments. I now get to 4-5 aways per season. I know that over time I’ll go back to 80% of aways again. Calling it ‘away points’ or similar would be less annoying to me personally.

The club did change the name some time back, presumably for that very reason.

I see "Season Ticket Points". I'm assuming non-STH see "Member Points" or similar.

 

[Commander]

This is where the word ‘loyalty’ is wrong IMO. I’ve done all the nasty aways but not for the past decade or so due to changed family commitments. I now get to 4-5 aways per season. I know that over time I’ll go back to 80% of aways again. Calling it ‘away points’ or similar would be less annoying to me personally.

Maybe email PB and tell him?

 

[Baldseagull]

Feel bad for people who didn't get them. The club definitely got the tiering wrong on this one. Tier 2 should have been 260 ish and then Tier 3 220.

Maybe they got it wrong, but then Marseille tickets didn't shift as quickly as most expected. Difficult for the club to know what actual demand would be, even with the pre registration.

 

[Hamilton]

I can only assume that you don't often look to buy tickets for big events. As someone has already mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Glastonbury tickets are a real bun fight. My son has gone to Glastonbury a few times, and all his group have as many devices open as possible for when tickets go on sale, and even then there's no guarantee of getting a ticket.

How do you know that the threshold of 220 was too low, given that the club have not published the spread of points from those that pre-registered, only that those in tier 1 were guaranteed a ticket. I see this as no different to away games at small grounds (Bournemouth and Brentford) and there will be an huge scramble if any Luton away tickets go to tier 2 later in the season.

If the system can cope with the number of people signing on, there is zero need for a queuing system, as everyone is in the same position when the window becomes open.

The sold out position view really depends on how in tune with club comms you are and how well you can remember what they have stated previously. I checked on Sunday and knew then that there were around 350 tickets left. The change to sold out didn't worry me too much as I knew that if people were looking to reserve tickets for tier 2 friends, that the club would clear the system, so that all those eligible to buy when the window opened would all have the same chance.

The interesting thing is whether the club can see who in tier 1 were trying to beat the system by putting tickets in their baskets before 9 am to then allocate these tickets to friends and family. If they can, do they issue a warning email about this inappropriate action, or issue a more severe punishment.

At least the club do not use dynamic pricing, otherwise with all those looking to get a ticket would have seen £29 tickets being inflated to around £2900.

There will always be winners and losers but the loyalty system has been in place for years and works very well. It's just that from time to time demand far exceeds availability.

Your argument comes unstuck when you look at the tiering points for Marseille which were different, starting at 308 points rather than 265.

As for all your comments about not looking at club comms, I think we can just consign those to the file marked ‘patronizing’.

 

[Muzzman]

From a selfish point of view, I'm tier 3 and would have loved to have gone to the Ajax away game, been a STH for decades but struggle to get to away games, so going away is a special occasion for me wherever it may be. It's obviously a fair system, but I can't help feeling it's unfair to those who have committed themselves to watch the Albion for years, only to be trumped by someone who may have had a ST for one season but went to a few away fixtures.

Back in the day, I went away to a lot of games, mostly in League one/two. I think I'm more loyal than someone who decided to glory hunt with the Albion who bought a ST from last season.

Yes I'm bitter. f*** you guys.

 

[trueblue]

Trueblue, you said for this 3 matches and possibly the ONLY time in our history you did not think the system worked. However can i point out that, what i think is being alluded to by Peacehaven Wild Kids, there were some 400 tickets that remained unsold for Marseille. So that means that ANY Albion supporter could have got a ticket to our FIRST EVER competitive game in Europe even an american student studying in Spain i think it was!
I was completely staggered that we could not sell this out and i wonder now how many regret not going for it and instead putting all their eggs in one basket i.e. Ajax as Athens will be even fewer available.

Reasonable point but you’re comparing apples with oranges. Marseille away, penned in with very heavy restrictions away from the game, is not what a European trip is about for the vast majority of people - as slow ticket sales showed. A total anomaly. It’s unfortunate we drew them and reduced the number of enjoyable (or, more accurately, ‘safe’) looking away matches to 2 - almost anywhere else would have been better. It is sold out now so it’s good that some who otherwise wouldn’t get to take the plunge.

 

[Horses Arse]

Not sure how that works with loyalty tiers and pre-reg?

The pre-register gives a pool of interested people. The home club gives a number of properly available (i.e. not taken by club or UEFA) tickets. The cut off for guarantees is the nth person's loyalty points where n = number of tickets. A proper lottery is different to that. I'm not sure having a lottery for Europe and loyalty for domestic is a good idea. And then what happens with difficult domestic games? Only 1100 or so for an easy away at Bournemouth. What if we get somewhere really small in FA Cup 3rd round? Cup semi? Cup final? Must win away game at end of season to get in Europe / stay up?

There will always be more people wanting to go to big games than tickets available. Last season I could barely see anything at Palace because we got the very last tickets at the back of the Arfur. I could have got decent view tickets at the front but my son was in the next window. Our points difference? 1. One. ONE. That was the way the cookie crumbled though.

(Yes, I know I'm writing this as someone lucky enough to get tickets here but it's taken work, money and arguments with her indoors to get both our points up and even now we're only on 274 and 275.)

Absolutely re the last point, years of managing this and growing the number of games. Expenses increase as I'm accused of spending more and more time with my youngest than with her, with knock on impact of her doing additional stuff with her mates and my daughter - bloody spa day coming up apparently. No loyalty points for that! It's like a game of one upmanship but I'm paying for it all!

Anyway, glad its not just me and those arguments are going to be nothing compared to the school when they find out. Strict rule on not mentioning it to his mates at school or it could unravel. What does he do? Tells the sodding PE teacher - "he's OK, he doesnt mind, he's an Everton supporter who always goes to games all the time." .

 

[Bozza]

Agree, let's see what it's like for AEK. Suggest the demand will drop significantly.

Demand for AEK will be a lot lower than for Ajax...

- More expensive to get to and/or requiring more time away from home
- Many of those who just wanted to see Albion play in Europe once anywhere/any time will have done that.
- We could be Played 2, Lost 2 by then, so some may be initially put off attending what could be a dead game for us (hopefully not)

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

Demand for AEK will be a lot lower than for Ajax...

- More expensive to get to and/or requiring more time away from home
- Many of those who just wanted to see Albion play in Europe once anywhere/any time will have done that.
- We could be Played 2, Lost 2 by then, so some may be initially put off attending what could be a dead game for us (hopefully not)

Thank you for reassuring one of our party who was three points off!

 

[Bozza]

Your argument comes unstuck when you look at the tiering points for Marseille which were different, starting at 308 points rather than 265.

As for all your comments about not looking at club comms, I think we can just consign those to the file marked ‘patronizing’.

If you're comparing Marseille and Ajax then you have to compare Tiers 1 and 2 for Marseille with Tier 1 at Ajax.

The club divided the "guaranteed a seat if you want one" into two tiers for Marseille, giving the very top points holders the pick of the seats.

My guess is they merged these tiers for Ajax as they have data showing a lot of Marseille Tier 1s waited for Tier 2 in order that they could buy with others who didn't have as many points as they did.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

Even on missing out, I don’t think the club have anything to answer for on how these were distributed. The club have sold 2600 tickets to time served Albion fans that have purchased STs year on year and travel away regularly. Yes, I know fans with that description have also missed out but the issue here lies with UEFA and a constantly inadequate 5% allocation. However where the club have failed is by towing that 5% line and only giving Ajax 1600 leaving no room for negotiation. (Their fans probably needed the equivalent of about 350 points to get a ticket at ours!) How loyal we all are is open to different interpretation, and without interviewing each one of us, what can they do?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Absolutely re the last point, years of managing this and growing the number of games. Expenses increase as I'm accused of spending more and more time with my youngest than with her, with knock on impact of her doing additional stuff with her mates and my daughter - bloody spa day coming up apparently. No loyalty points for that! It's like a game of one upmanship but I'm paying for it all!

Anyway, glad its not just me and those arguments are going to be nothing compared to the school when they find out. Strict rule on not mentioning it to his mates at school or it could unravel. What does he do? Tells the sodding PE teacher - "he's OK, he doesnt mind, he's an Everton supporter who always goes to games all the time." .

My 'lad' is 17 now so will only miss a couple of lectures at college luckily. It's going to be more of an effort keeping tabs on him. Don't think he's got Anne Frank's house on his itinerary.

As for that first paragraph, are you me?

 

[Horses Arse]

The interesting thing is whether the club can see who in tier 1 were trying to beat the system by putting tickets in their baskets before 9 am to then allocate these tickets to friends and family. If they can, do they issue a warning email about this inappropriate action, or issue a more severe punishment.

I was thinking the same - seems reasonable to me to let people know it isn't on, warn them and then deal with future attempts. That said, if I was one point over the threshold and buying for my son who was one point under, I'd feel pretty justified in trying to secure one in that way.

Its a difficult thing to deal with, a really good problem to have though; the price of success

 

[Silver flying chariot]

Our scheme is way fairer than most - Friend is a west ham season ticket holder, - They run a similar type scheme for games, BUT.. The chances of moving up in their band is near on impossible. they get 1 point per away game or cup game, but away fans can pass their tickets around. - effectively a closed shopt. They don't have the same rules as we do in terms of passing tickets on.

in our scheme, you can move up tiers fairly quickly at the moment (due to the way the scheme is set up) - it rewards long term season ticket holders (with the 200 bonus) as well as newer fans. - It also erodes points each year. You can also go up the points ladder fairly quickly if you commit to go to games regulalry. You can get c90 points in about 3/4 months..

 

[Hugo Rune]

Huge rush home after dropping kids at school. It was around 09:01ish before I logged on. All tickets were sold out initially. I refreshed once and a single ticket came up, I selected it and pressed buy and it was mine. Bitter/sweet as my partner in crime is ticketless - this is a problem.

If anyone could be generous sought to PM me prior to sending their tickets back - that would be appreciated

 

[Guinness Boy]

Even on missing out, I don’t think the club have anything to answer for on how these were distributed. The club have sold 2600 tickets to time served Albion fans that have purchased STs year on year and travel away regularly. Yes, I know fans with that description have also missed out but the issue here lies with UEFA and a constantly inadequate 5% allocation. However where the club have failed is by towing that 5% line and only giving Ajax 1600 leaving no room for negotiation. (Their fans probably needed the equivalent of about 350 points to get a ticket at ours!) How loyal we all are is open to different interpretation, and without interviewing each one of us, what can they do?

Everything UEFA do is designed to stop people going away as far as I can see. Closing perfectly good seats at the front of stands, taking up way too many comps so that they can get every nose in the trough possible, 5% away allocations, ground closures at the drop of a hat and this silly 'away fans in one area and bussed straight to the game' nonsense.

They'd honestly prefer the whole ground to be full of their approved suits.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Our scheme is way fairer than most - Friend is a west ham season ticket holder, - They run a similar type scheme for games, BUT.. The chances of moving up in their band is near on impossible. they get 1 point per away game or cup game, but away fans can pass their tickets around. - effectively a closed shopt. They don't have the same rules as we do in terms of passing tickets on.

in our scheme, you can move up tiers fairly quickly at the moment (due to the way the scheme is set up) - it rewards long term season ticket holders (with the 200 bonus) as well as newer fans. - It also erodes points each year. You can also go up the points ladder fairly quickly if you commit to go to games regulalry. You can get c90 points in about 3/4 months..

It's been designed by Bloom. A fan who understands fans (and systems).