[Albion] Away Ticket Allocation - Your Thoughts

[el punal]

Maybe you friend wants to pick and chose nearer away games, as stated is he going to Burnley as plenty of ticks available plus he would gain 15 points to help him

Yep. I explained that to him. No pain, no gain and all that gubbins. Nothing like a trip to wonderful, downtown Burnley.

 

[Gazwag]

I do have some sympathy to be fair, many of the top away point holders are there because they did the miles in the championship (as I did) when it was pretty easy for anybody to go to most away matches including the easy to get to matches whereas newer supporters, maybe those who were not old enough in the championship years now can only go to the likes of Burnley or Liverpool on Easter Sunday and it's quite difficult to build up the points. However doing the miles in the championship enabled those to be first in line to do the miles in the Premier league so were rewarded for their loyalty.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Yep. I explained that to him. No pain, no gain and all that gubbins. Nothing like a trip to wonderful, downtown Burnley.

It's not just obscure, hard to get to northern games members can go to.
In the last few years, I've managed to go to matches at Southampton, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham, as well as games across the north and midlands.

For that matter, I went to Marseille and could probably have managed Rome if I'd felt like spending a whole morning refreshing the ticket page (and had the money to pay for the trip readily available).

 

[seagulls99]

I think the system is pretty close to perfect as it is. It rewards loyalty. What can be fairer than that?

I tend to agree other than less than 3,000 away allocations… a gap of 150+ points between tier 1 and 2 for Bournemouth (as an extreme example) simply isn’t fair. Those extra 150 points could conceivably have cost the individual an extra £1k in following the Albion up and down the country yet they’re given the same opportunity for tickets as 25% of STHs.

 

[drew]

Yep. I explained that to him. No pain, no gain and all that gubbins. Nothing like a trip to wonderful, downtown Burnley.

Can you confirm to us all that your mate is going to Burnley??

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

 

[doogie004]

I see it the other way . I’ve spent around £4000 travelling abroad watching Brighton plus going to a few aways and got 408 points. Frustrating that I missed the bmuff window by one point but accept the drawing of a line . But what did piss me
off is the next level dropped down to 256 points that seemed too
Unfair ? Too big a drop , lucky to bag three though in the scramble . So no way should we save any back

 

[dazzer6666]

I do have some sympathy to be fair, many of the top away point holders are there because they did the miles in the championship (as I did) when it was pretty easy for anybody to go to most away matches including the easy to get to matches whereas newer supporters, maybe those who were not old enough in the championship years now can only go to the likes of Burnley or Liverpool on Easter Sunday and it's quite difficult to build up the points. However doing the miles in the championship enabled those to be first in line to do the miles in the Premier league so were rewarded for their loyalty.

Don’t think very many of anyone’s loyalty points now are attributable to when we were in the championship………even if you had 500 extra points on top of your STH 200 at the end of that season they’d be worth about 8 now

 

[ATFC Seagull]

I see it the other way . I’ve spent around £4000 travelling abroad watching Brighton plus going to a few aways and got 408 points. Frustrating that I missed the bmuff window by one point but accept the drawing of a line . But what did piss me
off is the next level dropped down to 256 points that seemed too
Unfair ? Too big a drop , lucky to bag three though in the scramble . So no way should we save any back

This has happened to myself and others in my group this season (for the first time ever). We're still very regular away followers but families, mortgages etc have had us rein it in just a little. I find it hard to believe we're not still comfortably in the top 1000 but got to trust the system is correct.

Especially frustrating when a lot of us have jobs that make it impossible to be on a computer at 9am on a Wednesday morning.

I'm sure there's really good arguments against this but would love to see a system whereby you express interest like the European away games, and then tickets are awarded to those with the most points. If you don't buy by the deadline, then the people next on the list based on points get notified and given a day to buy, etc etc.

 

[Gazwag]

Don’t think very many of anyone’s loyalty points now are attributable to when we were in the championship………even if you had 500 extra points on top of your STH 200 at the end of that season they’d be worth about 8 now

what I was getting at was those points were used to guarantee PL away tickets so the points total could be easily maintained

 

[tomfitzz]

I'm Albion+ and do I'd say 75% of aways - I have about 280 points because of this and accept that I cannot do Bournemouth, fulham, brentford but until this season could stilll do the big london games (Europe obviously changed away attendances for points).

Your friend unfortunately has come up with a solution for a problem that does not exist, but he assumes does.

My issue is not being able to get a season ticket to actually transfer my member points into anything actually meaningful.

 

[Commander]

I recently had a discussion with an old friend of mine, who happens to be an Albion + member. The point of our chat was that he found it nigh on impossible to be able to get a ticket for an Albion away fixture. This, obviously down to him not being a season ticket holder and therefore way down the pecking order for loyalty points.

I pointed out to him that the club, quite rightly in my opinion, rewarded those fans that showed the most commitment and loyalty in supporting the Albion - by paying for a season ticket and following the team up and down the country. My friend agreed with this strategy but nonetheless felt he was penalised as he was never going to be able to earn enough points to get on the first rung of the ladder.

His suggestion, and I can see his point, is that the club should set aside a nominal amount of away tickets, say 10%, to be allocated to Albion + members wishing to go to an away fixture who otherwise would not be able to. This process would be done by those wanting a ticket entering a ballot to decide the lucky winners. This sounded reasonable to me but would you be for or against this proposal?

All for it personally. Yes 10% of eligible people will miss out if they aren't quick enough to buy. You're talking about 300 people at most. I could live with that, it would be a great way for new fans to get to go to some of our more glamourous away games, and help get them hooked properly.

 

[el punal]

Can you confirm to us all that your mate is going to Burnley??

I think the answer is no as he said he has to renew his passport and subscribe to Duolingo.

 

[peterward]

It was NOT my idea but my friend’s, I’m just putting it out there. Personally, I’m happy with the current system but then I’m an ST holder with a wodge of loyalty points.

You should tell your mate to join ST queue and buy a ST.

He'll get one soon enough, and if he can't attend all games (as I can't due work) he can sell most on exchange, so he won't lose money for games he doesn't attend.

A ST in North is under £50pm, £50pm to the club you love is something I'd personally donate to........... and for that donation it comes with added bonus of all your money back for sold tickets or option of 19 PL fixtures following the lads.......

and, theyll love this part!, a really special added bonus of being in away allocations for all those easy local away days in London they crave!

 

[el punal]

I'm Albion+ and do I'd say 75% of aways - I have about 280 points because of this and accept that I cannot do Bournemouth, fulham, brentford but until this season could stilll do the big london games (Europe obviously changed away attendances for points).

Your friend unfortunately has come up with a solution for a problem that does not exist, but he assumes does.

My issue is not being able to get a season ticket to actually transfer my member points into anything actually meaningful.

Thanks for that. As I’m an ST holder with generally top tier points allocation I’ve always taken the selfish view of my needs come first. I am aware that to accrue points you have to do the hard yards (miles) to football’s far flung outposts. My mate is probably aware of this but chooses to ignore it with his 1970s view that he should be able to just rock up and watch the game. I will inform him accordingly that that is bollocks and he needs to come kicking and screaming into the 2020s. Bless him!

 

[HangletonGull]

In short no, Iv e been a season ticket this season and got Everton Chelsea Arsenal city West Ham Liverpool all 3 cup games and Burnley so even for a year one st holder it’s not impossible oh and could of got all 4 away euro games if I wanted

 

[el punal]

In short no

Could you elaborate?

 

[HangletonGull]

Could you elaborate?

Have done as a year one season ticket holder for Chelsea
Arsenal
Everton
Liverpool
Burnley
All 3 cup games and could of got all 4 euro away ties if I wanted too

 

[hans kraay fan club]

what I was getting at was those points were used to guarantee PL away tickets so the points total could be easily maintained

'Easily maintained' = spending a ton of money, and a chunk of their annual leave, following the club all over the country.

 

[Bozza]

Whilst broadly agreeing with the general view of "do the hard yards to get to the less attractive games", I do retain some sympathy.

The system is heavily-weighted towards STH (and I say that as a STH) to the extent that there are some fixtures that non-STHs are never likely to have the opportunity to attend, regardless of how many hard yards they cover.

But, despite having that sympathy, I'd struggle to get on board with 10% of regularly-attending away fans missing out on games so that others who don't travel often (or even at all) get to go instead.

It's also worth highlighting that this season has been unusual in terms of demand for away games, as a lot of people went to games they might otherwise miss in order to give themselves the best chance of getting to Europa League fixtures.