As picked up by those who have already bought away tickets, and discussed on the Southampton away thread, the process has changed this season, something the club has confirmed.
I wrote to Jenny Gower, the club's Head of Ticketing & Supporter Services about this, and she's given a detailed response as to why the change has been put in place, and she kindly agreed I could share this to help others understand the position the club are in with regards to away ticket sales, particularly the financial risk due to the club having to pay for all tickets requested, whether they are taken up by Albion fans or not.
Jenny's response below:
You are correct in saying the way we sell and allocate away tickets this season has changed.
As a club we are well aware that the second season in the Premier League often results in a drop to travelling support. Whilst in the first season we could pretty confidently say we would take the full allocation for almost every away match, we anticipate this being a more difficult decision for us in season two, as experienced by many other clubs who have been promoted.
As a result of this likely uncertainty we are trying to get games on sale as early as possible. This will allow us to gauge likely travelling numbers before we have to formally (and financially) commit to our ticket allocation 4 weeks prior to the fixture.
The issue we have in the Premier League with ticket demand from home fans so high for every club is that host clubs will give us a range of away allocations - this may, for example, be for 1,000/1,500/3,000 seats. In some cases the area that they allocate to us for, say, 1,000 seats may be entirely different to the area they would give us for 3,000 seats. It’s worth noting that, with demand for home tickets so high at the Amex, we also do this for visiting clubs to ensure we can maximise home ticket sales for the benefit of the team.
In light of this we are now selling a dummy block of seats for our away games and once we decide our allocation we are moving supporters in to the allocated seating plan. Where possible we are ensuring those fans that book the earliest get the best seats (which is often not the case if you sell from a block plan – for example, where host clubs dictate the order we must sell in – as sometimes those fans with the most loyalty points who book early can be stuck in the worst seats).
I’m aware from other emails to supporter services and to Paul Barber that some supporters still think that even with the new system they should be able to request a front/back/upper/lower preference. Unfortunately, this just isn’t possible and, for the reasons I’ve explained, it risks setting expectations that our eventual ticket allocation and seating plan may not be able to satisfy anyway. Unfortunately, we just don’t have the resources to answer the queries and complaints this would lead to when processing time between games is already very tight.
From a commercial point of view, we do need to be mindful to take the correct allocation of tickets for all of our away fixtures. If we get this judgement wrong, it can be extremely costly to the club. Unlike in the Championship where all tickets are sale or return, the tickets we request in the Premier League must be paid for, so if we estimate we will have demand for, say, 1,600 tickets we would have to look to take the 1,500 allocation rather than the 3,000 to avoid a large bill.
Finally, I should also mention that for the 17/18 season supporters booking online were never able to select their seats as it was done on a best available basis. However, supporters with special access needs or concerns about standing for 90 minutes did contact us by phone to try to request seats that best suited their needs. We will continue to do this but meeting these requests is more complex when we don’t know the lay out of the seating area we are selling or the allocation we will take. We will however build a small block of seats for those with access requirements and when we come to allocating seats in to the seating block we will allocate these seats in areas closest to the vomitories or where there are less steps.
I hope the above explains the changes we have made and the reasons.
I wrote to Jenny Gower, the club's Head of Ticketing & Supporter Services about this, and she's given a detailed response as to why the change has been put in place, and she kindly agreed I could share this to help others understand the position the club are in with regards to away ticket sales, particularly the financial risk due to the club having to pay for all tickets requested, whether they are taken up by Albion fans or not.
Jenny's response below:
You are correct in saying the way we sell and allocate away tickets this season has changed.
As a club we are well aware that the second season in the Premier League often results in a drop to travelling support. Whilst in the first season we could pretty confidently say we would take the full allocation for almost every away match, we anticipate this being a more difficult decision for us in season two, as experienced by many other clubs who have been promoted.
As a result of this likely uncertainty we are trying to get games on sale as early as possible. This will allow us to gauge likely travelling numbers before we have to formally (and financially) commit to our ticket allocation 4 weeks prior to the fixture.
The issue we have in the Premier League with ticket demand from home fans so high for every club is that host clubs will give us a range of away allocations - this may, for example, be for 1,000/1,500/3,000 seats. In some cases the area that they allocate to us for, say, 1,000 seats may be entirely different to the area they would give us for 3,000 seats. It’s worth noting that, with demand for home tickets so high at the Amex, we also do this for visiting clubs to ensure we can maximise home ticket sales for the benefit of the team.
In light of this we are now selling a dummy block of seats for our away games and once we decide our allocation we are moving supporters in to the allocated seating plan. Where possible we are ensuring those fans that book the earliest get the best seats (which is often not the case if you sell from a block plan – for example, where host clubs dictate the order we must sell in – as sometimes those fans with the most loyalty points who book early can be stuck in the worst seats).
I’m aware from other emails to supporter services and to Paul Barber that some supporters still think that even with the new system they should be able to request a front/back/upper/lower preference. Unfortunately, this just isn’t possible and, for the reasons I’ve explained, it risks setting expectations that our eventual ticket allocation and seating plan may not be able to satisfy anyway. Unfortunately, we just don’t have the resources to answer the queries and complaints this would lead to when processing time between games is already very tight.
From a commercial point of view, we do need to be mindful to take the correct allocation of tickets for all of our away fixtures. If we get this judgement wrong, it can be extremely costly to the club. Unlike in the Championship where all tickets are sale or return, the tickets we request in the Premier League must be paid for, so if we estimate we will have demand for, say, 1,600 tickets we would have to look to take the 1,500 allocation rather than the 3,000 to avoid a large bill.
Finally, I should also mention that for the 17/18 season supporters booking online were never able to select their seats as it was done on a best available basis. However, supporters with special access needs or concerns about standing for 90 minutes did contact us by phone to try to request seats that best suited their needs. We will continue to do this but meeting these requests is more complex when we don’t know the lay out of the seating area we are selling or the allocation we will take. We will however build a small block of seats for those with access requirements and when we come to allocating seats in to the seating block we will allocate these seats in areas closest to the vomitories or where there are less steps.
I hope the above explains the changes we have made and the reasons.
