STH +3 - a fair solution?

[southcoastdaz]

I have posted the following on ask the club. What do people think?




The STH +3 situation has angered a lot of long standing fans. I don't need to reiterate why as this has already been stated many times on this board.

Why not limit STH's to 1 additional ticket each for priority groups 1 to 4. This will greatly limit the queue jumping we are going to see otherwise, whilst still giving an opportunity to have a family member or friend sitting with you.

If a STH absolutely has to have 3 additional tickets, why not introduce a priority group 5. These STH's can then decide if it is more important to them to be at the front of the queue, or to sit with their friends or family.

As we are assured there will be enough tickets for everyone, the +3 and +4's could then buy their tickets after priority group 5, rewarding all existing STH's with the opportunity to buy their preferred seats.

Please pass this suggestion on to the club for consideration.

Many thanks.

 

[Everest]

They can't change it now that the system is up and running already.

Waste of time really.

 

[clippedgull]

I have posted the following on ask the club. What do people think?




The STH +3 situation has angered a lot of long standing fans. I don't need to reiterate why as this has already been stated many times on this board.

Why not limit STH's to 1 additional ticket each for priority groups 1 to 4. This will greatly limit the queue jumping we are going to see otherwise, whilst still giving an opportunity to have a family member or friend sitting with you.

If a STH absolutely has to have 3 additional tickets, why not introduce a priority group 5. These STH's can then decide if it is more important to them to be at the front of the queue, or to sit with their friends or family.

As we are assured there will be enough tickets for everyone, the +3 and +4's could then buy their tickets after priority group 5, rewarding all existing STH's with the opportunity to buy their preferred seats.

Please pass this suggestion on to the club for consideration.

Many thanks.

I think you have a fair point, but as the die has been cast I can't see anyway they are now going to change this system. How many years have you been a STH?

 

[cjd]

I have posted the following on ask the club. What do people think?




The STH +3 situation has angered a lot of long standing fans. I don't need to reiterate why as this has already been stated many times on this board.

Why not limit STH's to 1 additional ticket each for priority groups 1 to 4. This will greatly limit the queue jumping we are going to see otherwise, whilst still giving an opportunity to have a family member or friend sitting with you.

If a STH absolutely has to have 3 additional tickets, why not introduce a priority group 5. These STH's can then decide if it is more important to them to be at the front of the queue, or to sit with their friends or family.

As we are assured there will be enough tickets for everyone, the +3 and +4's could then buy their tickets after priority group 5, rewarding all existing STH's with the opportunity to buy their preferred seats.

Please pass this suggestion on to the club for consideration.

Many thanks.

Too late now I'm afraid, but the idea of those in Priority 1 and who want additional tickets, should have come at the end of category 4...seems a very good suggestion.

 

[southcoastdaz]

I think you have a fair point, but as the die has been cast I can't see anyway they are now going to change this system. How many years have you been a STH?

7 years.

 

[Superseagull]

You would never have a system that is totally fair to everyone. However, those supporters who have been ticket holders for 9 years and over do deserve the right to have first dibs. The plus 3 I think is way the club can make the hassle of bringing people up to the AMEX for limited number people presentations work out.

I think I'm right in saying that there will be 4 groups of 40 people a day. This means with the plus 3 rule the club could sort out a maximum of 640 season tickets in a day assuming everyone takes there full allocation (which I'm sure some won't). Over a month this will mean a around 12000 could tickets could be sold. In reality this is likely to be more like 7-10,000 tickets. So this should leave plenty to go round once all existing season ticket holders have been dealt with.

So the plus 3 rule is just a simple way of getting significant numbers of season tickets allocated over the course of the first month or two of being released. And by bringing people to the AMEX it will mean there is more chance that people will end up in the areas of the ground that suit them best as the ground plan is explained to them. We want a rocking North stand, not a stand of oldies drinking hot chocolate.

As with any new ground, it will take a few years for people to end up in the areas they want to be in.

 

[Helter]

I have posted the following on ask the club. What do people think?




The STH +3 situation has angered a lot of long standing fans. I don't need to reiterate why as this has already been stated many times on this board.

Why not limit STH's to 1 additional ticket each for priority groups 1 to 4. This will greatly limit the queue jumping we are going to see otherwise, whilst still giving an opportunity to have a family member or friend sitting with you.

If a STH absolutely has to have 3 additional tickets, why not introduce a priority group 5. These STH's can then decide if it is more important to them to be at the front of the queue, or to sit with their friends or family.

As we are assured there will be enough tickets for everyone, the +3 and +4's could then buy their tickets after priority group 5, rewarding all existing STH's with the opportunity to buy their preferred seats.

Please pass this suggestion on to the club for consideration.

Many thanks.

Pointless thread as it's to late, got my 4 tickets

 

[Lush]

Chill out people. There are loads of seats, the plus 3 can't go to the presentation unless they are also STH. It's about Member Get Member and filling the stadium and Priority 1 people are the best advocates.

I am Priority 1, will probably buy a kids season ticket to go with, and that's all.

 

[smiler]

I have posted the following on ask the club. What do people think?




The STH +3 situation has angered a lot of long standing fans. I don't need to reiterate why as this has already been stated many times on this board.

Why not limit STH's to 1 additional ticket each for priority groups 1 to 4. This will greatly limit the queue jumping we are going to see otherwise, whilst still giving an opportunity to have a family member or friend sitting with you.

If a STH absolutely has to have 3 additional tickets, why not introduce a priority group 5. These STH's can then decide if it is more important to them to be at the front of the queue, or to sit with their friends or family.

As we are assured there will be enough tickets for everyone, the +3 and +4's could then buy their tickets after priority group 5, rewarding all existing STH's with the opportunity to buy their preferred seats.

Please pass this suggestion on to the club for consideration.

Many thanks.

Totally agree

My appontment is not until 25 Jan although I am Priority 1 which means nearly 2000 STH'S can invite another 6000 NON STH'S to get a seat before me

Is this fair?

 

[brighton_girl87]

Oh wow southcoastdaz I LOVE your stoppit and tidyup avatar! I don't know anyone who used to watch it other than me!

 

[Rookie]

There has to have been a fairer solution because what we have now is blatantly unfair. Unfortunately its too late to change anything, we really should have been saying things to the club a while back. Its a shame the club didn't see what was going to happen (or maybe they did and were really not that fussed because it was going to get bums on seats)

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Well according to Insider: "The board deliberated long and hard over this (decision)". So that'll be that then. If you ask me, it's a bloody shame that they didn't take even longer if this was the best solution they could come up with.

To say I'm not terribly impressed would be somewhat of an under-statement, quite frankly.

Edit. I think I might well be changing my signiture soon, since The North Stand will probably be sold out before many would-be-Ruffians get the chance to be there.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I agree, +1 would have been enough and reasonable in most cases, but then you'd get those who wanted +2 etc.

 

[NS Herald]

I keep on seeing that Insider says the Board thought long and hard about it, but the point is that many existing STH's of several years standing who have not got 9 years service, have in many ways been mislead by the club.

The clear impression that was hammered home by the club for year after year is that to guarantee a seat at Falmer you needed to be a STH. Although that is technically true, a more accurate reflection of the system they have introduced would have been to say, "to guarantee a seat at Falmer, you have a better chance of being a non STH as long as you are a friend or relative of one in which case there is a 3 to 1 chance you will get first dibs"?

Regardless of what the club may say about how they expect this to work in practice, the fact is that potentially by the time I get to choose my seat, 6,000 plus NON STH'S could be infront of me and despite all the bollocks of there will be loads of seats to go around - that's not the point. Our staunch support for this club has effecitively been rewarded with the club finding a system that puts thousands of non STH's ahead in the queue purely for commercial reasons that are not to the benefit of a large proportion of people who have effectively been lead up the garden path.

We've put up with some right SH1T over the last few years watching some soddin dull football in dreadful conditions with the lure of what was around the corner and now we find it was a large piece of rhetoric. I would like to know what all the options were that were considered and perhaps a bit of consultation with STH's would have been a good idea.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

I keep on seeing that Insider says the Board thought long and hard about it, but the point is that many existing STH's of several years standing who have not got 9 years service, have in many ways been mislead by the club.

The clear impression that was hammered home by the club for year after year is that to guarantee a seat at Falmer you needed to be a STH. Although that is technically true, a more accurate reflection of the system they have introduced would have been to say, "to guarantee a seat at Falmer, you have a better chance of being a non STH as long as you are a friend or relative of one in which case there is a 3 to 1 chance you will get first dibs"?

Regardless of what the club may say about how they expect this to work in practice, the fact is that potentially by the time I get to choose my seat, 6,000 plus NON STH'S could be infront of me and despite all the bollocks of there will be loads of seats to go around - that's not the point. Our staunch support for this club has effecitively been rewarded with the club finding a system that puts thousands of non STH's ahead in the queue purely for commercial reasons that are not to the benefit of a large proportion of people who have effectively been lead up the garden path.

We've put up with some right SH1T over the last few years watching some soddin dull football in dreadful conditions with the lure of what was around the corner and now we find it was a large piece of rhetoric. I would like to know what all the options were that were considered and perhaps a bit of consultation with STH's would have been a good idea.

I agree with your excellent post there, NS. The bit I've highlighted (in bold) is the part that disappoints me the most.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Are there that many "angry" people out there?

From what I've read on here most people are happy with the system and happy that bums on seats is more important to the club than some false sense of entitlement for a handful of people who think they should be first in the queue.

Once the dust has settled and everyone has a season ticket with a good view, you'll all wonder what the hell you were bleating about

 

[Ken Newbury]

There are rights and wrongs of the way the club has done this but there is no foolproof method that will please all of the people all of the time.

The problem with allowing priority one season ticket holders only one extra ticket is that this would stop my two sons (12 and 9yo) from buying a ticket with me when due to their age they have only had ST's at Withdean for 5 and 2 years (which is not their fault) but it doesn't make them any better or worse a suppporter that someone who has followed the Albion since say 1974 (my first game).

The reason the club has done this is purely to ensure that a 22,000 seat stadium has around 15,000 season ticket holders to enhance income to ensure that all the overheads are paid and that there are additional funds in the pot for strengthening the team.

I guess the best "half-measure" (although it is too late to change it now) would have been to allow current priority one ST holders to buy three additional tickets with a maximum of one non-ST in that number.

It looks like we are where we are and when the dust settles and we are do actually get to sit where we want (and where we can afford) we will wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Are there that many "angry" people out there?

From what I've read on here most people are happy with the system and happy that bums on seats is more important to the club than some false sense of entitlement for a handful of people who think they should be first in the queue.

Once the dust has settled and everyone has a season ticket with a good view, you'll all wonder what the hell you were bleating about

I don't think it's about people thinking they should be first in the queue. I would suggest it's about supporters who have got off their arses & actually supported the club during their protracted time at Shitdean; & feel that their loyalty should actually count for something (by way of having some choice over where they can sit at the new stadium). That said, it evidently doesn't bother you, so perhaps I'm wasting my time here.

 

[Bad Ash]

They should have put every seat on ebay, those those in prime locations having the longest auction times.

 

[dje shoreham]

it has probably been said on one of the other threads but how many plus 3s will actually go to non season ticket holders. Not everybody will take up the plus 3 and even those who do the plus 3 surely some will be joining up with others who are priority 4 - season holding kids being an example.