[Albion] Liverpool Allocation

[redoubtable seagull]

It's worth a try but at the end of the day, the only hope is the club getting an increased allocation which exceeds any demand from STH. If we weren't in the EPL then demand would be lower and more opportunity for the exiles to get tickets! STH will always get priority.

The club could come up with a different approach to awarding tickets through a points system. Leicester used to have a system where their equivalent of the ex-pat Albion Plus members were awarded a very small percentage of the away allocation. If they didn’t sell within a timeframe then they went onto general sale to season ticket holders.

If the club are going to only request smaller allocations to games north of Watford then they need to rethink a better system for the northern fans who’d love to go away but now can’t as the allocation is too small.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

The club could come up with a different approach to awarding tickets through a points system. Leicester used to have a system where their equivalent of the ex-pat Albion Plus members were awarded a very small percentage of the away allocation. If they didn’t sell within a timeframe then they went onto general sale to season ticket holders.

If the club are going to only request smaller allocations to games north of Watford then they need to rethink a better system for the northern fans who’d love to go away but now can’t as the allocation is too small.

Been debated on here many times. There is no proof of address required on the website and I very much doubt whether the club would want the onerous task of managing such a system. They just need to start taking bigger allocations again because the points system as it stands is the fairest and best way to distribute tickets.

 

[redoubtable seagull]

Been debated on here many times. There is no proof of address required on the website and I very much doubt whether the club would want the onerous task of managing such a system. They just need to start taking bigger allocations again because the points system as it stands is the fairest and best way to distribute tickets.

Surely this is covered when logging in to buy a ticket. Your fan number is unique to the individual and their personal details including address. You’d have thought some additional coding in the ticketing system could sort this.

But you’re right. The nub of the issue is club have taken smaller allocations for Norwich and Liverpool but both sold out quickly.

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Emailed back within 30 minutes!

Dear Dave

Thanks for your email.

As far as tickets to away matches are concerned, I can really appreciate your frustration. It’s a dilemma a lot of clubs face - and no loyalty scheme is perfect. I’ve worked with a few now, including England’s cap scheme (which I helped design), here and overseas, and they all have flaws or gaps for certain groups at certain times.

Our loyalty points scheme was designed by Tony Bloom himself, and he does expect us to manage it fairly and consistently at all times. It’s something he is very passionate about. This makes setting aside tickets for overseas-based fans, or fans living in different parts of our country, very difficult.

As soon as you start making exceptions to the loyalty point scheme rules, or altering the basis of how the system works, where do you stop? How many tickets do you set aside for different groups? There will always be demand for more, and then you start to face complaints from those fans with more points that sometimes miss out.

When it comes to ticket allocations, our ticketing team uses a range of different data to determine how many tickets we take - historical sales, KO times, time of year, travel considerations, current form, attractiveness of opposition, and other seasonal based trends. Obviously, COVID-related concerns is the biggest one of these.

The ticketing team have to make a commercial judgement on the tickets we need as well as how we can ensure the best support for the team. If we take too many tickets, the club is left with a large bill - money out of Tony’s pocket - and we also have a frustrated host club who may or may not be able to sell the space left.

We also often have to sell tickets in the order the host club determines. This can be another frustration for loyal travelling season ticket holding fans as they can sometimes end up in worse seats/areas than those who are further down the loyalty point chain or are club members. Again, it creates another issue for our staff that we can’t easily solve.

In reality, based on four full seasons in the Premier League, we can fairly clearly see a fair number of our away matches each season - league and cup games - go to sale way below the highest loyalty point thresholds, and there are decent opportunities for fans in all groups to secure tickets. Fans often expect demand for some games to be higher than historical and directly comparable data actually actually shows us it is.

Unfortunately, Dave, we don’t have a magic wand to solve the issue you raise but it is something we will keep under review.

Best wishes, Paul


Paul Barber​
Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman

 

[dwayne]

Emailed back within 30 minutes!

Dear Dave

Thanks for your email.

As far as tickets to away matches are concerned, I can really appreciate your frustration. It’s a dilemma a lot of clubs face - and no loyalty scheme is perfect. I’ve worked with a few now, including England’s cap scheme (which I helped design), here and overseas, and they all have flaws or gaps for certain groups at certain times.

Our loyalty points scheme was designed by Tony Bloom himself, and he does expect us to manage it fairly and consistently at all times. It’s something he is very passionate about. This makes setting aside tickets for overseas-based fans, or fans living in different parts of our country, very difficult.

As soon as you start making exceptions to the loyalty point scheme rules, or altering the basis of how the system works, where do you stop? How many tickets do you set aside for different groups? There will always be demand for more, and then you start to face complaints from those fans with more points that sometimes miss out.

When it comes to ticket allocations, our ticketing team uses a range of different data to determine how many tickets we take - historical sales, KO times, time of year, travel considerations, current form, attractiveness of opposition, and other seasonal based trends. Obviously, COVID-related concerns is the biggest one of these.

The ticketing team have to make a commercial judgement on the tickets we need as well as how we can ensure the best support for the team. If we take too many tickets, the club is left with a large bill - money out of Tony’s pocket - and we also have a frustrated host club who may or may not be able to sell the space left.

We also often have to sell tickets in the order the host club determines. This can be another frustration for loyal travelling season ticket holding fans as they can sometimes end up in worse seats/areas than those who are further down the loyalty point chain or are club members. Again, it creates another issue for our staff that we can’t easily solve.

In reality, based on four full seasons in the Premier League, we can fairly clearly see a fair number of our away matches each season - league and cup games - go to sale way below the highest loyalty point thresholds, and there are decent opportunities for fans in all groups to secure tickets. Fans often expect demand for some games to be higher than historical and directly comparable data actually actually shows us it is.

Unfortunately, Dave, we don’t have a magic wand to solve the issue you raise but it is something we will keep under review.

Best wishes, Paul


Paul Barber​
Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman

It's an interesting one.

For Liverpool we could have had an extra 1000 but it would have been all or nothing. After the first day of season ticket holder sales there were still 50 tickets left I think. Which would probably suggest we would have struggled to sell another thousand to less loyal fans or fans that are in other parts of the country.

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[Moshe Gariani]

It's an interesting one.

For Liverpool we could have had an extra 1000 but it would have been all or nothing. After the first day of season ticket holder sales there were still 50 tickets left I think. Which would probably suggest we would have struggled to sell another thousand to less loyal fans or fans that are in other parts of the country.

Precisely. And we as fans would like the decision to fall on the side of "As long as we sell most of them then it must be worth it" whereas the club actually go with "We need to be very sure that we will sell all of those tickets otherwise the avoidable cost to TB cannot be justified".

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

In the lower leagues for away games I'm sure we took a quota and they were all on sale or return - I guess that's because the host club knew they wouldn't be able to sell out?

I'm with Captain Dave - I would love to go to Anfield but having only done Getafe & Everton at home this year and Walsall u23 away - I've got two chances - fat & zero :-(

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

900 tickets at 30 quid is 27 grand. They'll sell most of them. They won't pay that much anyway considering loads will end up being concessions. Plus they'll get a cut of every ticket sold.

Maybe they'd make a small loss, maybe they wouldn't, but it would be peanuts in the great scheme of things and it would actually serve their customers better. This is one of those times I'd actually like to be considered a customer. Because at the moment as a MyAlbion+ member I feel very unloved. Would have been very easy to have just cancelled the membership during the closed doors season, but I didn't out of loyalty for the club. Getting complete zilch in return.

 

[amexer]

Would be good to see club err on side of what could be needs of supporters. Possibility of having larger away support must out weigh occasional loss to club.
Like most of his emails mentions it is done to avoid cost to Tony Bloom. We all appreciate what he has done but using this to justify everything is a bit tiresome. Especially in a year we will be back to a £140m plus income and £50m from Ben White

 

[Arkwright]

No fair way of allocating tickets for away games. Controversial I know but how many in the top band of loyalty points buy tickets for a third party and don't attend in person?
I will be honest in our small group who do most games home and away we have a new member a STH for three years now (couldn't get a ST due to work commitments) but we manage between us to get tickets for most matches, we couldn't get spare for Brentford and Palace so unfortunately our newbie couldn't attend.
My point is this long standing fan is desperate to build up points and attend away matches as themself but the to circumstance simply can't so we find a way round the system. Yes, it's wrong but needs must.
Now obviously I don't know everyone who attends away games but at Brentford I remember saying in the pub that loads of new faces were in attendance. Being in the top loyalty point bracket almost becomes an obsession as you simply don't want to miss out on the big games but is this being fair to new supporters both old and new.

 

[drew]

No fair way of allocating tickets for away games. Controversial I know but how many in the top band of loyalty points buy tickets for a third party and don't attend in person?
I will be honest in our small group who do most games home and away we have a new member a STH for three years now (couldn't get a ST due to work commitments) but we manage between us to get tickets for most matches, we couldn't get spare for Brentford and Palace so unfortunately our newbie couldn't attend.
My point is this long standing fan is desperate to build up points and attend away matches as themself but the to circumstance simply can't so we find a way round the system. Yes, it's wrong but needs must.
Now obviously I don't know everyone who attends away games but at Brentford I remember saying in the pub that loads of new faces were in attendance. Being in the top loyalty point bracket almost becomes an obsession as you simply don't want to miss out on the big games but is this being fair to new supporters both old and new.

Nobody has come up with a fairer way. For example, why should your newbie be getting tickets to games that longer serving fans are missing out on? Of course the person who is giving up the ticket is happy because they are also getting loyalty points for a game they don't attend. The problem will only be solved when supply outstrips demand.

 

[drew]

900 tickets at 30 quid is 27 grand. They'll sell most of them. They won't pay that much anyway considering loads will end up being concessions. Plus they'll get a cut of every ticket sold.

Maybe they'd make a small loss, maybe they wouldn't, but it would be peanuts in the great scheme of things and it would actually serve their customers better. This is one of those times I'd actually like to be considered a customer. Because at the moment as a MyAlbion+ member I feel very unloved. Would have been very easy to have just cancelled the membership during the closed doors season, but I didn't out of loyalty for the club. Getting complete zilch in return.

If the club thought they would sell the vast majority I'm sure they would have taken them. If they only sold 100 to northern supporters then they make a loss. I'm not sure why you think they would pay less because some would be concessions? I don't know but I suspect the home club will charge the maximum poss for each unsold seat, ie £30.

 

[S.T.U cgull]

Anybody had their tickets through yet?

 

[spoonie]

Anybody had their tickets through yet?

no I have not yet

 

[Is it PotG?]

Anybody had their tickets through yet?

Yup, this morning.

 

[Simonf93]

Anybody had their tickets through yet?

Still waiting


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[Charlies Shinpad]

Tickets arrived in Devon today

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[dwayne]

Ok this might be a really stupid question but do trains sell out ?

Only reason I ask is that I looked on Trainline today for buying a standard return off peak ticket which is around £100. But some trains don't offer that option (like the 9.07 from Euston which also doesn't show as 'off peak')

Back in the olden days you just bought a ticket on the day and got on any eligible train. Is that still the case?

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[dwayne]

Selfish bounce

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[tronnogull]

Nobody has come up with a fairer way. For example, why should your newbie be getting tickets to games that longer serving fans are missing out on? Of course the person who is giving up the ticket is happy because they are also getting loyalty points for a game they don't attend. The problem will only be solved when supply outstrips demand.

Agree with this completely ! The system should absolutely not allow a top tier individual or a group to decide that their mate should get a ticket which he is not entitled to and leave second or lower tier folks without a ticket which they are entitled to. Or to boost their own loyalty points by obtaining points for matches they didn't attend, and thereby increase their lock on top tier tickets. There is so much wrong with all this.

In theory the system does prevent this because tickets are not transferable. But none of us have ever seen identity checks at away games.

( I'm not especially having a dig at the individual who was honest and said he did this. There are probably many groups taking advantage of the system this way. )