Season Tickets

[ChicagoLion]

Happy Birthday Amfy. UTV.

[amfy]

Yay! This is now my birthday thread!

[chrisw1]

What a surprise, they are including a Champions League Cup Scheme.
Pretty sure someone was adamant this would not happen.

I'm pretty sure someone was adamant that CL tickets would be included in the season ticket, which is what I was adamant wouldn't happen. And hasn't.

I think I was pretty clear that they would offer a CL package to ST Holders and they have.

They haven't offered a package at all.  They offered an option for people to avoid admin by an automatic purchase at the prevailing rate when tickets a released.  That's not a 'package' it's the usual cup scheme.  A package would be something like the 4 CL home games for £200. 

[chrisw1]

You can still sell it back to the club, but you only get 80% back (if it sells).

Which is fair enough.

It was fair enough when the club used to actually put them on sale.  What happened in the second half of last season it they didn't put them on sale while there was still Terrace View and Lower Grounds availability.  So it went from tickets selling virtually every time to not selling at all.

[pauliewalnuts]

You can still sell it back to the club, but you only get 80% back (if it sells).

Which is fair enough.

It was fair enough when the club used to actually put them on sale.  What happened in the second half of last season it they didn't put them on sale while there was still Terrace View and Lower Grounds availability.  So it went from tickets selling virtually every time to not selling at all.

Yeah, I thought that was a little bit unfair of them, really.

Conceptually, it's not unlike having a 50k stadium, with 49,9999 GA tickets and 1 single £1,000,000 ticket which is never going to sell, thus ruling out anyone selling their ticket on.

If they want to introduce this sort of change, ie the GA+ tickets must also sell out, it should be at the start of the season, not halfway through, as a lot of people will have made the decision to invest in a ST based on their ability to possibly sell it on if they can't go.

I know when i last had one, I missed quite a few games and used the sell-on feature quite frequently. That'd be way less of a possibility these days so it'd be a different purchasing decision.

[chrisw1]

The gangway behind us (as the last row previously) seems to have disappeared as well. Just rubbish by Villa.

Have you been moved or just the gangway filled in? 

If it's just the gangway moved, would you have preferred everyone in a block where gangways were moved were added to the 900 displaced seats and to re-apply in the free for all, or do you think it was better that people stayed broadly where they were?  It's a genuine question, as I imagine most would have preferred the latter.  If you prefer the latter, then is your issue with communication, which clearly could and should have been better, or do you think it's unreasonable for the club to evolve the seating plan?

I think it's different for people who have been split up or moved several rows or seats and I honestly don't know what the best answer for that would have been (accepting communication should have been better) but certainly, I think those that have been physically moved should get an independent relocation window with or just after the 900.   

[Drummond]

Yay! This is now my birthday thread!

60? No way!

Happy bloody Birthday!

[chrisw1]

From the comparison on the new and old designs, they have removed the "kinks" from when you first enter the lower Holte and decide to go up or down. So the seats might be almost in the same geographical location bar a metre or two, but the stands aisles are what has actually been moved.

I suspect we are all awaiting pictures of what they have done to confirm that.

As per the link exigo and Jane has posted, In not sure this is completely right. So in me and the kids situation, L2 row MM where we have for years has widened to encompass what would of been previously some of L1. L1 has as a result got smaller, but we have been moved into L1. We are going to be still on the same row, MM, but i just dont see how we will be occupying the same physical space. Our previous seats were about 8-10 seats in from the last set of stairs in the  holte lower on the right facing the pitch, the new seats look about 5 or 6 seats in from the stairs in the other direction. Thats nearly 20 odd seats space towards the corner of the Holte that I wouldn’t choose to sit in.

I’m not into the conspiracy thing normally and I get that the rail seating is being tried in the extremities of the lower holte, but I also can’t help thinking both ourselves and Jane and  Amfy in L7 are in the lower price zone. Presumably if we don’t like this we can  ask to move to a higher price zone in July.

Moving 20 seats seems unacceptable as surely those seats closer to your old position still exist, so what on earth have they done with them?

Do you think they have reduced the size of the lower price Zone so have automatically moved you towards it?  IF that is the case people affected should have been offered the option of either/or I think, although that would have been a logistical nightmare for the club.

[Des Little]

You can still sell it back to the club, but you only get 80% back (if it sells).

Which is fair enough.

It was fair enough when the club used to actually put them on sale.  What happened in the second half of last season it they didn't put them on sale while there was still Terrace View and Lower Grounds availability.  So it went from tickets selling virtually every time to not selling at all.

Yep, that was another shady move on their behalf.

[Jane]

The gangway behind us (as the last row previously) seems to have disappeared as well. Just rubbish by Villa.

Have you been moved or just the gangway filled in? 

If it's just the gangway moved, would you have preferred everyone in a block where gangways were moved were added to the 900 displaced seats and to re-apply in the free for all, or do you think it was better that people stayed broadly where they were?  It's a genuine question, as I imagine most would have preferred the latter.  If you prefer the latter, then is your issue with communication, which clearly could and should have been better, or do you think it's unreasonable for the club to evolve the seating plan?

I think it's different for people who have been split up or moved several rows or seats and I honestly don't know what the best answer for that would have been (accepting communication should have been better) but certainly, I think those that have been physically moved should get an independent relocation window with or just after the 900.

I definitely think it's unreasonable for the club to evolve the seating plan and only ambiguously tell people the day before renewal. I chose that seat about 20 years ago because it backed onto the gangway and was close to the aisle. Now it's in the middle of a block with about 14 seats to the aisle which isn't really ideal for someone with claustrophobia and anxiety issues.

[sid1964]

On my moved seat in the Lower Holte from L4 to L5, just looked on the seat plan - previously there was 1 row in front of me before a gangway, If i decide to renew, in my new seat there will be 3 rows in front of me, before a gangway.

If i do renew, and I don't like my new seat (hoping for a padded cushion as part of the deal!) then this maybe my last season ticket.

It would have been a good idea for the club to have opened the ground for fans to see where their new seat position is, before they renew.

But with record numbers renewing on the 1st day, they probably don't care.

[RamboandBruno]

From the comparison on the new and old designs, they have removed the "kinks" from when you first enter the lower Holte and decide to go up or down. So the seats might be almost in the same geographical location bar a metre or two, but the stands aisles are what has actually been moved.

I suspect we are all awaiting pictures of what they have done to confirm that.

As per the link exigo and Jane has posted, In not sure this is completely right. So in me and the kids situation, L2 row MM where we have for years has widened to encompass what would of been previously some of L1. L1 has as a result got smaller, but we have been moved into L1. We are going to be still on the same row, MM, but i just dont see how we will be occupying the same physical space. Our previous seats were about 8-10 seats in from the last set of stairs in the  holte lower on the right facing the pitch, the new seats look about 5 or 6 seats in from the stairs in the other direction. Thats nearly 20 odd seats space towards the corner of the Holte that I wouldn’t choose to sit in.

I’m not into the conspiracy thing normally and I get that the rail seating is being tried in the extremities of the lower holte, but I also can’t help thinking both ourselves and Jane and  Amfy in L7 are in the lower price zone. Presumably if we don’t like this we can  ask to move to a higher price zone in July.

Moving 20 seats seems unacceptable as surely those seats closer to your old position still exist, so what on earth have they done with them?

Do you think they have reduced the size of the lower price Zone so have automatically moved you towards it?  IF that is the case people affected should have been offered the option of either/or I think, although that would have been a logistical nightmare for the club.

I might be totally wrong with the number of seats but without any info from the club i have just tried to work it out from the stadium plan with seat numbers, people have helpfully posted on here.
L2 and L1 are both price zone 4, i dont think the overall price zone has decreased but Im just cynical it seems to be people in these zones whose seats are more expendable.
If it was just me i would just suck it, but my 17 and 14 year old have had those seats since they were 11 and 8 and if the view is worse, its really poor on them.

Ive emailed the club to complain and will ring when i get a chance tomorrow but not expecting much other than i can try reallocate when the times right. I just dont understand why we couldnt just be moved a few seats along?

[chrisw1]

Agreed.  Logically the max anyone should be moved is the width of an aisle.

[amfy]

The gangway behind us (as the last row previously) seems to have disappeared as well. Just rubbish by Villa.

Have you been moved or just the gangway filled in? 

If it's just the gangway moved, would you have preferred everyone in a block where gangways were moved were added to the 900 displaced seats and to re-apply in the free for all, or do you think it was better that people stayed broadly where they were?  It's a genuine question, as I imagine most would have preferred the latter.  If you prefer the latter, then is your issue with communication, which clearly could and should have been better, or do you think it's unreasonable for the club to evolve the seating plan?

I think it's different for people who have been split up or moved several rows or seats and I honestly don't know what the best answer for that would have been (accepting communication should have been better) but certainly, I think those that have been physically moved should get an independent relocation window with or just after the 900.   

The gangway has been filled in.

It used to run across the middle of L7 (& most of the stand) at the back of row Z & in front of where the double lettering starts (cc, did, etc). The gangway stopped at L8.
Now L8 & L7 have been amalgamated and there is now gangway across L7. This has been used to create (I guess) 3 extra rows of seats across what used to be L7.

I appreciate they need to create more seats and can see how this is potentially a reasonable way to do this (I am sure it has to pass H&S/evacuation checks).

What I am not happy about is the poor communication and the sense that they don’t seem to have considered that this might trouble anyone. People in other stands have had their seats completely removed, but they were not offered a seat 20 seats away and told it was ‘comparable’ and just to use the relocation window if they weren’t happy.

Our seat numbers are only 2 seats different, but our ‘position’ is about 20 seats different. (The pitch view may be similar but the quality of the position is very inferior).

 There will actually be loads of people who have kept their same seat number but will get there in August and find their seat is somewhere else entirely. (It’s going to be chaos!) I guess we are lucky that at least we know we have an offer that doesn’t work for us while there is still some potential (I don’t know how much) to act on it!

Even in the email informing us of the change, the first paragraph only refers to changes in the other stands, like there’s nothing to see here in The Holte.

[LeeB]

I agree it's going to be absolute chaos first game, they'd do well to stick a friendly on before and give free entry to season ticket holders as a bit of a dry run.