[Albion] Season Ticket Farce @PaulBarber

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Local DJs aren't offered a parking space if they become a striker.
:

Don't bring Jurgen into this.

 

[faoileán]

Yes
Yes
Yes
&
No.


The ground won't be full until the team wins.

If IF the players, coaches & manager scraped the bottom of the barrel v Wolves.

If a few stonking wins appear, then the ground will be full.
We might even have some atmosphere to go along with it.

Of course more people will attend if we could actually win a match or three, but a lot of gaps will remain due to people finding it a hassle to pass tickets on when they can't attend. I am certain there will be a fall-off of season tickets next season if the current scheme continues.

 

[faoileán]

Maybe the club should do away with the discount for owning a ST ? If people aren’t buying them to go to every game then why should the individual match ticket be cheaper than for non ST holders ? I’m playing Devil’s Advocate but can’t you see that there is always a counter argument that also makes sense ?

But that counter-argument doesn't make sense. Us season ticket holders get a discount for committing our money up-front and not waiting to see how the team are performing...

 

[Stat Brother]

Of course more people will attend if we could actually win a match or three, but a lot of gaps will remain due to people finding it a hassle to pass tickets on when they can't attend. I am certain there will be a fall-off of season tickets next season if the current scheme continues.

Any such 'fall-off' won't even be noticeable if the team finish 12th, 11th, or dare we dream, higher.
Whereas finishing our customary 16th 17th, for the 5 straight season, will see quite a large 'fall-off'.

But that'll have very little to do with the current scheme.

 

[faoileán]

Agree with the bulk of your post apart from the last bit. Huge numbers of stay-aways were clearly and understandably trying to minimise their chances of catching covid prior to xmas

e.g.

Yes absolutely, but I bet a large proportion of those seats could have been taken up by people less worried by Covid, e.g. young fit vaccinated people, if it had been easier to pass the tickets on. It was noticeable that the Amex had the biggest gaps of any stadium in that round of matches...

 

[faoileán]

Please stop using the Wolves game in this discussion. That had everything to do with covid fears.

The Wolves match is 100% relevant; if it's a hassle to pass your ticket on to someone who has less Covid fear then the seat will remain empty...

 

[Springal]

The Wolves match is 100% relevant; if it's a hassle to pass your ticket on to someone who has less Covid fear then the seat will remain empty...

I still can't understand why fans 'care' per-se

It is Paul Barbers problem if the stadium is only 60% full compared to very busy crowds elsewhere in the league. He can sell less advertising, less sponsorship. Less revenue going through the catering kiosks. I imagine when the board / chairman look at the operational attendance for the game vs what they saw at other grounds they'll be asking a few questions, perhaps?

If a fan doesn't want to / can't go - they've still paid regardless. So the only downside is if fans were selling their tickets on to others, no? But also how committed are fans if they don't want to stump up £15 for MyAlbion+ ? Or paying one off ticket prices?

I am not defending the scheme as I don't think it is ideal, but I'm still missing why it is so outrageous. And there is no chance the club will make changes this season, as I reckon a few thousand fans will have paid up for their memberships and no chance the club will issue refunds mid-season.

 

[Stat Brother]

The Wolves match is 100% relevant; if it's a hassle to pass your ticket on to someone who has less Covid fear then the seat will remain empty...

I feel considerably more Covid fearful fans would have gone to the Wolves game if they could just walk to their seat, from where ever they parked.
Like you can with most other Premier League grounds,

But through no fault of the club, that option isn't open to over 90% of us.
It's not possible for most to get too and from t'AMEX without being 2 metres from 100's of complete strangers.


Then of course there's my drum to bang:-

Do you honestly think if a win would send the Albion top, for Christmas, there would have been empty seats?


This bloody 'I want to do what I want with my seat' (not your seat) is such a long way down on the list for reasons Wolves was empty and Brentford will be empty.

 

[Guinness Boy]

But we aren't supporting the same club we grew up with.
We don't have that 'all in it together' relationship, with 'our' club anymore.

Nobody is drinking fizzy pop in order to buy a player.
We aren't buying god knows who with our 20 & 40 quid.
Local DJs aren't offered a parking space if they buy a striker.

Tony has taken the club from a hand to mouth (if we were lucky) corner shop and turned it into Wilko.
(As supermarket analogies are the theme of the day)
With a stated aim of becoming Aldi, in the near future.

For all the good AitC does, the bottom line is the club has positioned itself away from the fanbase in order to chase more coinage.

We either accept that and deal with the club accordingly.
We move onto pastures new.
Or
We just kvetch about the good old days.

None of which is mutually exclusive.


At best we currently support laundry.
And half the time we can't agree on that.

We've cut out the middle man and now play a local DJ at striker

You're answering a different point in a different way though. We don't get a choice of Tesco, Aldi or Sainos, we get Brighton and Hove Albion or no Brighton and Hove Albion. Or possibly non-league, but that's a choice between Waitrose and the 24 hour "convenience" off licence on Boundary Road.

Before the Amex, the ground was named Falmer Community Stadium. I go to games more to see my friends and give my son something to do that isn't his x-Box. A good day out at the football is funny, elating, depressing, life affirming, Take out Maupay's last minute goals and the way we beat Watford and my highlights of the season have been going for a curry with the lads after Leeds or the time a bloke just yelled out "OI, MORONS" to a bunch of chavvy girls on the train who couldn't work out how to get to Fareham and thought that a train carriage full of football fans represented "social suicide" or maybe even discussing how to get back from Southampton and getting five different answers from five different people all in various different stages of inebriation.

That's community Stat, every bit as much as the (very admirable) things Muzza is doing in educating kids at local schools.

 

[drew]

That could equally be said the other way round. It is the same (very few) contributors that keep arguing that everything is fine and dandy as they don't mind so are unable to comprehend how anyone else may have a problem with it.

Firstly, not sure anyone has said everything is fine and dandy.

As for not being able to comprehend, utter tosh. Correct me if I'm wrong but the argument is that something you weren't allowed to do under T & Cs before but could not be prevented is now being prevented.

 

[Stat Brother]

We've cut out the middle man and now play a local DJ at striker

You're answering a different point in a different way though. We don't get a choice of Tesco, Aldi or Sainos, we get Brighton and Hove Albion or no Brighton and Hove Albion. Or possibly non-league, but that's a choice between Waitrose and the 24 hour "convenience" off licence on Boundary Road.

Before the Amex, the ground was named Falmer Community Stadium. I go to games more to see my friends and give my son something to do that isn't his x-Box. A good day out at the football is funny, elating, depressing, life affirming, Take out Maupay's last minute goals and the way we beat Watford and my highlights of the season have been going for a curry with the lads after Leeds or the time a bloke just yelled out "OI, MORONS" to a bunch of chavvy girls on the train who couldn't work out how to get to Fareham and thought that a train carriage full of football fans represented "social suicide" or maybe even discussing how to get back from Southampton and getting five different answers from five different people all in various different stages of inebriation.

That's community Stat, every bit as much as the (very admirable) things Muzza is doing in educating kids at local schools.

I wholeheartedly agree but none of that is in anyway connected with what Tony Bloom does with his seats.

We own the laundry, we own the stripes, we own the history, we own the memories.

But we are no longer the lifeblood of the club.
The club has eyes on bigger fish than my £70 a month DD.


If the B's want to charge £100 for a swapsies they can.
If they want to charge nothing, they can.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I wholeheartedly agree but none of that is in anyway connected with what Tony Bloom does with his seats.

We own the laundry, we own the stripes, we own the history, we own the memories.

But we are no longer the lifeblood of the club.


If the B's want to charge £100 for a swapsies they can.
If they want to charge nothing, they can.

Of course, but perhaps when they do something that isn't universally popular then a little self awareness would be better than wholesale criticism of the fans. They get an awful lot right but it's not a 100% hit rate. You'd only think that if you read Andy Naylor because he's always one slightly critical sentence away from being cut off and leaving The Athletic with a boring writer who gets no inside info.

 

[Stat Brother]

Of course, but perhaps when they do something that isn't universally popular then a little self awareness would be better than wholesale criticism of the fans. They get an awful lot right but it's not a 100% hit rate. You'd only think that if you read Andy Naylor because he's always one slightly critical sentence away from being cut off and leaving The Athletic with a boring writer who gets no inside info.

Which bring me right back to my one consistent point through this thread.

'It would be pretty much universally popular, if, IF, the team improved after Anfield instead of suffering from some kind of collective football amnesia'.

With those opposed easily waved off as 'clickbait trolls, just looking for an angle'.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Which bring me right back to my one consistent point through this thread.

'It would be pretty much universally popular, if, IF, the team improved after Anfield instead of suffering from some kind of collective football amnesia'.

With those opposed easily waved off as 'clickbait trolls, just looking for an angle'.

Sorry, no.

Maybe online but everyone around me was moaning about the ticket swap policy before the Leicester game (which we won) and it's been a constant gripe all season.

 

[tronnogull]

It's interesting that the folks who are most upset with the ticket policy say that ' all the guys in the pub ' or ' all my mates' or ' the people sitting around me ' are all also upset with the policy.

I've pretty much only heard from upset people on nsc. I'm not upset and nor are most of the people talk with. I understand why some people are upset but they don't speak for me and there is no way to know what percentage of sth they do speak for. In fact, the club are in the best position to know this and I seem to recall that they quoted quite a high number of sth shelling out the 20 quid and you'd imagine that most of these folks are not too upset.

I hope the club find a way to make this work better for all sth but there are a lot of things which upset me much more about footy in the Prem than this.

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

Too long, would be more practical and less wordy just done as an acronym on the banner maybe: ‘STP! GROTGTSS!’

That’s cheeky

 

[dazzer6666]

It's interesting that the folks who are most upset with the ticket policy say that ' all the guys in the pub ' or ' all my mates' or ' the people sitting around me ' are all also upset with the policy.

I've pretty much only heard from upset people on nsc. I'm not upset and nor are most of the people talk with. I understand why some people are upset but they don't speak for me and there is no way to know what percentage of sth they do speak for. In fact, the club are in the best position to know this and I seem to recall that they quoted quite a high number of sth shelling out the 20 quid and you'd imagine that most of these folks are not too upset.

I hope the club find a way to make this work better for all sth but there are a lot of things which upset me much more about footy in the Prem than this.

I’ve got several pals that are critical of it (wouldn’t say ‘upset’) - most don’t use NSC. Some of the Facebook groups have a lot of criticism on them as well, along with Twitter. Must be clickbait

Be interesting to see how many have taken it up, and what the usage is like.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Firstly, not sure anyone has said everything is fine and dandy.

As for not being able to comprehend, utter tosh. Correct me if I'm wrong but the argument is that something you weren't allowed to do under T & Cs before but could not be prevented is now being prevented.

Exaggeration for sure, just as exaggerated comments were aimed at 'our' side of things....somehow we are all calling for Barber's head or something. And yes keep trotting out terms and conditions all you like. The club acknowledged that for years and were happy to turn a blind eye as just about all other clubs do as it doesn't cause a problem.

I am fine with you disagreeing with it and wouldn't consider trying to change your entrenched view as what is the point? Maybe you could consider that some of us are equally entrenched, but just as you have reasonable contentment with the scheme, some have reasonable justification for dissatisfaction.

 

[Bozza]

It's interesting that the folks who are most upset with the ticket policy say that ' all the guys in the pub ' or ' all my mates' or ' the people sitting around me ' are all also upset with the policy.

I've pretty much only heard from upset people on nsc. I'm not upset and nor are most of the people talk with. I understand why some people are upset but they don't speak for me and there is no way to know what percentage of sth they do speak for. In fact, the club are in the best position to know this and I seem to recall that they quoted quite a high number of sth shelling out the 20 quid and you'd imagine that most of these folks are not too upset.

I hope the club find a way to make this work better for all sth but there are a lot of things which upset me much more about footy in the Prem than this.

Exactly.

I've moaned on here about it, for the game where a 50th birthday do clashed with a fixture and I was in that "expensive/pain in the arse to pass on my ticket" camp.

I wouldn't have moaned if I'd paid the £20 at renewal time, but I didn't foresee missing a game, at least not early in the season so didn't pay it. So, when the time did come for me to explore passing on my tickets, it obviously stung that I'd had to have paid £20 (in fact 2 * £20) to do someone a favour.

I've not moaned about it since because I go to games. I'm not sure how anyone can be constantly in uproar about the scheme unless they rarely use their season ticket. If you're using the seat you've paid and committed to use then the scheme is irrelevant to you.

(Sorry for lack of write-up, my Christmas disorganised state has caught up with me big time, and I've still not had the chance. Heading out for the evening now, so tomorrow morning will be my next possibl opportunity)

 

[Stat Brother]

Sorry, no.

Maybe online but everyone around me was moaning about the ticket swap policy before the Leicester game (which we won) and it's been a constant gripe all season.

If the draws remained draws but the losses were wins, irrespective of the chin-music, would the seats around you be full or empty?