Away Tickets

[artvandelay]

A timely thread. As a season ticket holder for many years, living in London meant that I was able to attend a large proportion of away games without the hassle of a whole day devoted to home games. Hammers, Spurs, Palace, Charlton (a while ago now), Chelsea, Fulham, Arsenal, were all regulars, until I was obliged to miss a few due to circumstances beyond my control and since then have simply not had a look in. The result is I've never been to the new Spurs ground (would love to), nor the West Ham ground (not so keen) and am denied on average five or six away games a season, on my doorstep. This is something the club should look into in order to give devoted fans (myself included) a fair crack at securing a ticket.

Just join the lions club, they have a reserved allocation and you’ll get to at least one of them

[AlexAlexCropley]

A timely thread. As a season ticket holder for many years, living in London meant that I was able to attend a large proportion of away games without the hassle of a whole day devoted to home games. Hammers, Spurs, Palace, Charlton (a while ago now), Chelsea, Fulham, Arsenal, were all regulars, until I was obliged to miss a few due to circumstances beyond my control and since then have simply not had a look in. The result is I've never been to the new Spurs ground (would love to), nor the West Ham ground (not so keen) and am denied on average five or six away games a season, on my doorstep. This is something the club should look into in order to give devoted fans (myself included) a fair crack at securing a ticket.

Just join the lions club, they have a reserved allocation and you’ll get to at least one of them

Which in itself is wrong

[claret+blue ed]

It must be difficult to come up with a system that recognises the supporters who go to every game regardless and it not be a closed shop

I’m someone who used to go to around 8 aways a season prior to relegation and in the championship, as I’m only a member, I don’t even look at the away sale dates as I have absolutely no chance

I appreciate some might say that you could have gone to Chelsea away in the cup or other examples, but it also not practical to plan for this as you generally don’t get the chance of a ticket until a few days before, which means you probably can’t go due to work commitments

We definitely need something better than 50 ballot tickets as I suspect there will be a lot who had previously the same type of away history as mine and all love a good away day

UTV

[john e]

I’ve got the luck of Legion on them flipping ballots
Entered loads not been picked for a single ticket yet

[Des Little]

There must be the data at the club on the numbers/percentages involved in away ticket buyers.  I think something along the lines of Marlon's 80/20 rule can be set up and operated without too much difficulty, and like him, this would impact my chances of getting tickets, but it does seem fair, possibly using the Lions allocation too.

One thing I would like to see would be less young dickheads acting like idiots, but sadly I don't think that's a realistic wish!

[Dogtanian]

I found this very interesting as I hadn't realised they publish this information;

https://tickets.avfc.co.uk/usercontent/documents/pdf/A2223%20Bournemouth%20Info.pdf

You can see the number of us who qualify for each category. So 2,404 fans have 18 or more away game credits for last season. I suspect that would take up the majority of tickets for most games.

[chrisw1]

I found this very interesting as I hadn't realised they publish this information;

https://tickets.avfc.co.uk/usercontent/documents/pdf/A2223%20Bournemouth%20Info.pdf

You can see the number of us who qualify for each category. So 2,404 fans have 18 or more away game credits for last season. I suspect that would take up the majority of tickets for most games.

And so it will go on, because they'l be the only ones who can get 18 this season too.  That's why they'll continue to buy them and sell them on when they can't go.  The criteria is self defeating.

[Drummond]

There's no system that will keep everyone happy.

As we become more successful there will be more demand too. Lots of people buy and sell tickets to maintain histories etc too.

My preference is a mixed system, one that reflects the loyalty if those who go all the time with the ballot that's open to others too. The question is what ratio Xand again that's hard to define.

I've added nowt.

The Lions clubs do get some, but not every club does, and they only get a couple when there are clubs with a lot of fans.

[chrisw1]

Hmm, if those Bournemouth figures are right, then it would seem that 13,985 people went to at least 6 home games last year.  Fuck knows how they managed it, but if that is really the case then maybe the problem isn't as bad as I thought?

I still think if they lower the threshold for the first tier it would reduce the jeopordy of not going to every single game and may have a positive overall effect?

Hmm, if those Bournemouth figures are right, then it would seem that 13,985 people went to at least 6 home games last year.  Fuck knows how they managed it, but if that is really the case then maybe the problem isn't as bad as I thought?

I still think if they lower the threshold for the first tier it would reduce the jeopordy of not going to every single game and may have a positive overall effect?

<edit> - as pointed out by Dave my assumpion was entirely wrong and only 3,158 people managed to go to 6 aways or more.

[Dave P]

I think those figure are a total i.e. 600 have been to every game and then 1804 are in the next group, including the 600.  Therefore 3158 went to 6+ aways last season.  That shows the closed shop it is.

[Dogtanian]

I think those figure are a total i.e. 600 have been to every game and then 1804 are in the next group, including the 600.  Therefore 3158 went to 6+ aways last season.  That shows the closed shop it is.

Well spotted!

[artvandelay]

One of the issues that nobody seems to have touched on yet is the £30 price cap is actually self defeating in some ways.

It means that clubs have no incentive to increase the size of the away allocation, as they can sell the seats to their own fans at whatever price they like.

On top of this, it keeps the tickets to a price that people are happy to 'eat' the ticket to keep their booking history up.

I think the solution would be similar to what I've seen at twickenham and at concerts, your ticket is a QR code which refreshes every 15 seconds. You can't screenshot or transfer it, unless through the App (presumably the App owner can block a transfer). That way you can also track if people aren't actually using the tickets. Of course, this would require each team to agree on a unified ticketing system for away tickets, but would solve many of the problems listed here.

[Dogtanian]

One of the issues that nobody seems to have touched on yet is the £30 price cap is actually self defeating in some ways.

It means that clubs have no incentive to increase the size of the away allocation, as they can sell the seats to their own fans at whatever price they like.

On top of this, it keeps the tickets to a price that people are happy to 'eat' the ticket to keep their booking history up.

I think the solution would be similar to what I've seen at twickenham and at concerts, your ticket is a QR code which refreshes every 15 seconds. You can't screenshot or transfer it, unless through the App (presumably the App owner can block a transfer). That way you can also track if people aren't actually using the tickets. Of course, this would require each team to agree on a unified ticketing system for away tickets, but would solve many of the problems listed here.

I think you are right about the price cap. Though be prepared for accusations of pricing out the common man!

[wittonwarrior]

One of the issues that nobody seems to have touched on yet is the £30 price cap is actually self defeating in some ways.

It means that clubs have no incentive to increase the size of the away allocation, as they can sell the seats to their own fans at whatever price they like.

On top of this, it keeps the tickets to a price that people are happy to 'eat' the ticket to keep their booking history up.

I think the solution would be similar to what I've seen at twickenham and at concerts, your ticket is a QR code which refreshes every 15 seconds. You can't screenshot or transfer it, unless through the App (presumably the App owner can block a transfer). That way you can also track if people aren't actually using the tickets. Of course, this would require each team to agree on a unified ticketing system for away tickets, but would solve many of the problems listed here.

Not self defeating I remember pay £57 at Stamford bridge so good riddance to that

[Dogtanian]

Surely the away ticket price will rise. It's now cheaper to see us away than it is at home, and every other week thousands of fans of other clubs are coming to Villa Park and paying less than our own Zone 6 survivors are being physically forced to pay.

The away fans are in Zone 2 seats, so that's £9.50-14.50 per adult we're not recouping.

How many Premier League clubs charge casual home fans £30 a ticket?