Neville's Breakfast
Well-known member
3-2-2. One of our group going to Sheffield Utd but other than that we aren’t buying our three tickets. Makes the PW2 window marginally less stressful for someone.
It be interesting to know what proportion of Priority 1 places haven’t been taken up so far.
Thank you for your e-mail.
As you can imagine, we have engaged some of the best mathematical (including our own chairman!) and systems brains with the conundrum we are facing. Unfortunately, such expertise is only one half of the input we must consider. We must also take in to account legal and operational factors.
However, the biggest factor of all is our inability to determine what might happen in the remainder of the season. We may see a permitted attendance of 2,000 for the season. We may see a higher permitted attendance for part or all of the remainder of the season. We may even see full capacities restored. But we could also be forced back to playing behind closed doors.
As such, it is impossible for us to see beyond one match at a time with any certainty. This makes it impossible to rotate priority as you suggest as, however unlikely it may seem today, we must consider that we may never reach a fourth home match with a crowd, meaning that we have created an artificially unfair advantage for those systematically prioritised in the first three matches.
By the same token, there is the added complexity of those people that have grouped for the ballot and now find themselves unable to attend matches as they are in tier 3, or individual members of groups who cannot attend Monday’s match, for example, or those people who may fall in to a tier 3 area at a later stage. At what point do these people become priority group 1 again?
In summary, there is no perfect system in an imperfect situation like a pandemic where there are many key variables, almost all of which are outside of our direct control or even influence. We are entirely satisfied that a system based entirely on chance is, in the circumstances, the fairest of all. I hope this explanation helps, and good luck with the ballots.
Best wishes, Paul
Paul Barber
Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman