The Ballot

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

There should be a ballot opportunity for the many thousands of loyal fans who don't currently get an opportunity for away tickets. Accepting GA+ will get at least 10% and potentially more with the way the club is being run these days, a figure of up to 30% is not unreasonable for ballot, to give fans who live locally to some of our away fixtures and youngsters with their parents a chance to see Villa on the road. I include European fixtures in this also. With the erosion of ssn ticket value vs club member status being promoted, don't be surprised to see greater parity between the 2 going forwards for away tickets (see Preston away).

[Clampy]

I think the current ballot (when there is one, there isn't for some games) is 50 pairs of tickets which is nowhere near enough. I may be wrong about that though.

[GarTomas]

Strong rumours that away tickets will be:

10% for GA+
20%? (Loyalty points)
70% ballot.

Not sure if anybody else has heard this, but have to say it's really put an absolute downer on the end of season. I feel like 30+ years of loyalty and effort, when for a good 25+ of those it was easy to get a ticket, is being flushed down the toilet.

The likes of Goughie, Hatchet and Julian who run the biggest  independent coaches/clubs will be decimated. Mates for decades and decades linked by a common addiction and dedication.

I feel more gutted at the possibility of this than when we got relegated.

I’ve a lot of respect for your post and you as a poster Ads.

Through work and living abroad recently my away history has been hard to build back up and it doesn’t sometimes feel like a closed shop. Anecdotally and others have said, there are always away tickets available; not suggesting these are being touted for profit but it’s clear there are tickets routinely bought with an ID with that person having no intention to attend.

There has to be some sort of better allocation method though, I feel the massive drop for each release doesn’t help. I’ve a season ticket holder and probably miss 3/4 games a year at home for various reasons, work, holiday etc but o can reassign or sell it back to the club with no loss of booking history per se since I can renew at the end of the year. I guess if I’d reassigned my seat for every game there’s an argument I should lose my right? That being said the years I worked and lived in the US I kept my season ticket (and others using it was seen as less as an issue given it was 2014-2016 and demand was much lower!

Certainly the booking history needs to be more long term, I feel the Championship years skewed things a lot since the number of tickets we’d be allocated then vs the average 3k now means supply now is massively lower.  But can understand going further back in the Lambert years it was much easier to get tickets (when I did lot of London games due to living there)

The percentages you are quoting are way too high, the trouble with such a low percentage ballot is if you are trying to break into the club it can be difficult, especially if you want to go with 2/3 others all in the same boat - you can’t enter as a group to share costs of travel etc.

The allocation to GA+ for a start is a total joke. You pay more for you ticket as you get extra benefits; why this gives you a leg up to the away scheme is nonsense.

Its disappointing that after what has been another great year hopefully finishing on a high it’s left you feeling this way.

[dorsetvillian]

I wonder if the already small allocation to Lions Clubs across the country will be changed? For a smallish club like the Bournemouth Lions there are normally 3-5 cars travelling up to every home game. Mostly season ticket holders.  There are usually one or two cars at away games. With 5 or 6 in the top tier for away criteria.  Everyone relies on others getting away tickets to make travel costs reasonable. If only one or two got tickets in a ballot I don't think the away travel would continue as costs would be too much...

[Holte L2]

I'd heard the same rumours as you Ads. Would be gutted if true.

For what its worth the bloke on MOMs reckons (based on discussions with the FAB) that the rumoured 70% ballot isn't true.

But as others have said, they club seem to like teasing a worse case scenario so the actual changes they bring in aren't as badly received.

Or maybe someone starts a baseless rumour and it all kicks off from there.

It's what's come out of the FAB meetings. I've not just made it up.

[VillaTim]

Extending the ballot is only fair , it's just a question of what the %'s look like .

[algy]

I wonder if the already small allocation to Lions Clubs across the country will be changed? For a smallish club like the Bournemouth Lions there are normally 3-5 cars travelling up to every home game. Mostly season ticket holders.  There are usually one or two cars at away games. With 5 or 6 in the top tier for away criteria.  Everyone relies on others getting away tickets to make travel costs reasonable. If only one or two got tickets in a ballot I don't think the away travel would continue as costs would be too much...

This is a very good point, and I hope it doesn’t change for the worse - I appreciate the chance of getting to games that are relatively local to me. I’m sure there’s many others in a similar situation to me that rely on those as a route to getting to local away games.

The figures Ads have posted are preposterous. The GA+ ones in particular are worrying - how long before that starts creeping up to swallow up the vast majority of the 70% ballot allocation?


This is wrong. It’s not going to help the majority of fans get to away games - it’s just siphoning them off and making them a perk of GA+ types

[Flamingo Lane]

I don't see how the vast majority of people who pay the extra for the GA+ package at home games are likely to be attracted to attending away games that presumably will have no such GA+ things. And I also couldn't see fans being cajoled into paying the significant extra for home GA+ just as a means of having a better chance of gaining a ticket to an away game.

[UK Redsox]

I don't see how the vast majority of people who pay the extra for the GA+ package at home games are likely to be attracted to attending away games that presumably will have no such GA+ things. And I also couldn't see fans being cajoled into paying the significant extra for home GA+ just as a means of having a better chance of gaining a ticket to an away game.

Unless clubs bring in reciprocal GA+ benefits for away fans (eg private bar area)

[Somniloquism]

Not every club has the facilities for private areas for their own fans, let alone away ones. As an aside, has their been a breakdown of GA+ for the new Everton ground?