Away Tickets

[pasty]

i think an away season ticket would be a good option as this would let the regulars that think they can go to all away games get them early. i am sure any unwanted tickets for games could be sold on here !!!

Good call

 

[Faldo]

Like it or not - regular away fans who travel to every backwater town to follow the stripes do not have a divine right to every game. They know as well as everyone else (arguably better) which tickets they will need to get in on early, and should do so.

Although, I do admit things are not ideal. Rotherham could be interesting for example. But to change everything for one or two games a season?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Like it or not - regular away fans who travel to every backwater town to follow the stripes do not have a divine right to every game. They know as well as everyone else (arguably better) which tickets they will need to get in on early, and should do so.

Surely they deserve some priority on the popular games as they are the ones that go to the dumps on a Tuesday night. At the end of the day it is easier to retain an existing customer than to find a new one.

 

[Spiros]

This issue is regular fans deserve more than an equal chance to get a ticket than the day trippers and big game charlies.

Errr - why?

This runs the risk of turning away support into some sort of clique. It's already bad enough that I can't take my kids to the occasional home game because I can't get them a seat anywhere near mine. This suggests that those of us who look to the shorter trips for a chance to get the kids to games should have a lower priority than those who (by definition of the sheer amount of the time/money they spend following the albion around the country) don't have kids/families to consider.

The system as it stands is as fair as we can get - if I want to go to a game badly enough, then the chances are I can get a ticket. The only occasion I've missed out is Reading away a couple of seasons ago and that was because I believed the rumours of extra tickets and didn't get my finger out.

Just because someone goes to a lot of away games should not give them the divine right to get tickets ahead of anyone else.

 

[Faldo]

Surely they deserve some priority on the popular games as they are the ones that go to the dumps on a Tuesday night. At the end of the day it is easier to retain an existing customer than to find a new one.

So using that logic, why do anything to alienate potential new customers.

Im not against a loyalty type scheme for away fans - I just don't think it is necessary as yet. Especially given that the way things are done now are effectively on a shoe string. Any change would cost loads more in admin alone.

The "bigger" clubs with these schemes can afford to outsource, or fund them themselves. We dont have that luxury, and have to grin and bear it.

 

[bellsize seagull]

there are many games this season with nit enought ickets to go round if you want to go apply now.....ipswich away on sale only 1,700 !!!

 

[Uncle Buck]

Just because someone goes to a lot of away games should not give them the divine right to get tickets ahead of anyone else.

Actually I think it gives them a lot more right to tickets than somebody that will only go if the game is within 90 minues of Brighton.

 

[Uncle Buck]

So using that logic, why do anything to alienate potential new customers.

Im not against a loyalty type scheme for away fans - I just don't think it is necessary as yet. Especially given that the way things are done now are effectively on a shoe string. Any change would cost loads more in admin alone.

The "bigger" clubs with these schemes can afford to outsource, or fund them themselves. We dont have that luxury, and have to grin and bear it.

But surely by bringing in something along the lines of 70% of tickets for the most loyal and 30% balloted to the rest means that you are at least trying to cater for everyone.

The software is in place for to create a system, at the end of the day for Swindon, the club manually wrote down which seat each applicant had been allocated, I know this as my tickets never showed up and so I had to be issued duplicates. If they are doing this, why can this not be entered on the database?

 

[Indestructible Gull]

there are many games this season with nit enought ickets to go round if you want to go apply now.....ipswich away on sale only 1,700 !!!

Does that mean the Club will accept applications now for Rotherham away at the end of the season?

 

[fatboy]

Errr - why?

This runs the risk of turning away support into some sort of clique. It's already bad enough that I can't take my kids to the occasional home game because I can't get them a seat anywhere near mine. This suggests that those of us who look to the shorter trips for a chance to get the kids to games should have a lower priority than those who (by definition of the sheer amount of the time/money they spend following the albion around the country) don't have kids/families to consider.



Just because someone goes to a lot of away games should not give them the divine right to get tickets ahead of anyone else.

I see your point to an extent and I appreciate the fact that small kids are not going to want to sit in a car to Wigan for 5 hours but there are a lot of people who do not have kids that would happily go to Palace/West Ham/Reading away or any vital last game of the season, but who would not go somewhere like Derby away on a Tuesday night or to a game not considered a shorter trip.

The people who are prepared to travel all over the country every other week, and midweek - often at the expense of being at work - should not miss out on an attractive game just because someone else can be bothered to get off their arse and go and watch Brighton in that game, probably because Arsenal aren't playing on TV that day.

 

[Spiros]

Uncle Buck - why? Season ticket holders put their money into the club 4 months before the new season. They pay up whether the games are good or crap and pay for all of the games, whether they go or not. Perhaps they should have priority?

All the time the club is restricted to 6000 home supporters it needs a variety of different supporters at nearby away games or else there is a real danger that Falmer will get built and we'll still have sub 10k crowds, because we've excluded floating, occasional fans and they've gone off to watch Charlton/Crawley/Worthing/Man U instead

 

[Uncle Buck]

Uncle Buck - why? Season ticket holders put their money into the club 4 months before the new season. They pay up whether the games are good or crap and pay for all of the games, whether they go or not. Perhaps they should have priority?

All the time the club is restricted to 6000 home supporters it needs a variety of different supporters at nearby away games or else there is a real danger that Falmer will get built and we'll still have sub 10k crowds, because we've excluded floating, occasional fans and they've gone off to watch Charlton/Crawley/Worthing/Man U instead

Because I think you need to distinguish between home and away fans. The people that go to things like Grimsby last season, put a lot of effort in and time and money.

The club make little money from away tickets, but these should go firstly to the most regular away fans, end of.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Stop spouting the party line for once.

I do NOT spout the party line on ticketing.

When the AMS was first set up, I was one of the people who bombarded Martin Perry with e-mails objecting to the original plan to introduce loyalty points. We won that battle then. You obviously wish we hadn't.

I also complained about the unfairness of the Grimsby ballot and the way that the Club suddenly decided to abandon the priority system that had been in place for years.

I agree that a clear and fair ticketing system needs to be in place. This year the Club is operating a straightforward "first come first served", postal application system. I reckon that is better than the previous system and better than any practicable "loyalty points" system that will unfairly discriminate against some supporters.

 

[Saint Lennard]

Because I think you need to distinguish between home and away fans. The people that go to things like Grimsby last season, put a lot of effort in and time and money.

The club make little money from away tickets, but these should go firstly to the most regular away fans, end of.

I have a feeling that the longer we continue at Withdean the more people will just go to away games and leave the crass conditions of home games to others. Away games seem to get those that are 100% behind the team and who make some noise to support them through thick and thin. IMHO there are too many at home who criticise the team but only see half the games. The away game experience is ten times better than playing at home and i am getting more and more tempted to jack my season ticket in for aways because of the price of watching us in the wet week in week out. If it was a toss up between withdean or trips around the country i wouldn't plum for a trip to Preston Park each fortnight.

 

[Lammy]

I do NOT spout the party line on ticketing.

When the AMS was first set up, I was one of the people who bombarded Martin Perry with e-mails objecting to the original plan to introduce loyalty points. We won that battle then. You obviously wish we hadn't.

I also complained about the unfairness of the Grimsby ballot and the way that the Club suddenly decided to abandon the priority system that had been in place for years.

I agree that a clear and fair ticketing system needs to be in place. This year the Club is operating a straightforward "first come first served", postal application system. I reckon that is better than the previous system and better than any practicable "loyalty points" system that will unfairly discriminate against some supporters.

Totally agree.

We are a club this is having to turn new fans away on a weekly basis due to our current infrastructure. We are no in a position to tell these same fans to bugger off when it comes to away games either.

First come first served IS a fair system. There will always be people that don;t get tickets because they might not be able to go. Well in future I intend to buy a ticket first and think later. Let's face it I don't think I'd have too much trouble shifting a spare West Ham ticket now!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

in future I intend to buy a ticket first and think later. Let's face it I don't think I'd have too much trouble shifting a spare West Ham ticket now!

Spot on!



When do Rotherham tickets go on sale?

 

[Curious Orange]

I get the impression that some regular travellers feel they should be able to get a ticket for a game the day before irrespective of how popular the game is. Seems a little arrogant to me.

Believe it or not, not every person can actually afford either the time or money to attend every game, but still want a fair crack at going to away games closer to home. There is nothing fair about being told that your ticket application was unsuccessful because you didn't go to Crewe (£56 return on the train + £16 on the gate + whatever else you want to buy) for instance.

As an irregular away supporter I'm much happier knowing that my application failed because I didn't get it in on time (like happened to me with Bournemouth last season), that is fair enough and I can accept that.

 

[fatboy]

I agree that a clear and fair ticketing system needs to be in place. This year the Club is operating a straightforward "first come first served", postal application system. I reckon that is better than the previous system and better than any practicable "loyalty points" system that will unfairly discriminate against some supporters.

I do not think that it will discriminate against any supporters.I do not know how many people regulalry go to games, but there is obviously a hardcore support of people who would have collected enough loyalty points to guarantee them a ticket for a big game if they want it.

This number of tickets is highly unlikely to exceed the allocation that we receive for any attractive game.

Therefore the rest of the tickets can go to a ballot between the supporters who have not collected enough loyalty points and any big game charlies.

That is a fair system and does not discriminate against anyone.

If the number of people with enough loyalty points does exceed the ticket allocation we receive then Uncle Buck's idea of splitting the tickets 70/30 amongst loyalty point holders and infrequent fans would work.

 

[Titanic]

This number of tickets is highly unlikely to exceed the allocation that we receive for any attractive game.

If that is the case, then why do we need to waste time and money on a new scheme ??

 

[caz99]

I get the impression that some regular travellers feel they should be able to get a ticket for a game the day before irrespective of how popular the game is. Seems a little arrogant to me.

Believe it or not, not every person can actually afford either the time or money to attend every game, but still want a fair crack at going to away games closer to home. There is nothing fair about being told that your ticket application was unsuccessful because you didn't go to Crewe (£56 return on the train + £16 on the gate + whatever else you want to buy) for instance.

As an irregular away supporter I'm much happier knowing that my application failed because I didn't get it in on time (like happened to me with Bournemouth last season), that is fair enough and I can accept that.

at last someone speaks some sense