Away Tickets - What's the magic?

[luke95]

Some of us have still got the away  attendance card that was stamped for every game you went to late 80s/early 90s ... 😁

And I am thinking that’s quite remarkable for someone borne in 95😊

I was on about my 12th ST by 95 & my names not Luke  ....😁

[Gareth]

Pretty sure ST holders used to get all home cups games free for a while in the early 80s. The special vouchers at the back of the ST book.

Remember the vouchers at the back of the book…think I used one to attend a reserve game at VP when we beat Liverpool 7-1, the Beinlich and Brietkreutz show

[john e]

Away grounds were always welcoming places with the locals asking you for the time, and even just throwing money in your direction presumedly so you had enough for the bus home

Racism, sexism and homophobia and the very real threat of violence in open display on most match days
But you could always get in without any booking history whatsoever and no one moaned about the legroom

[VillaTim]

anyone else at that game at Old Trafford (late 80's / early 90's) when that Fog descended on the way home. My uncle drove into a potato field somewhere near Knutsford he was that stubborn and wouldn't pull over even though nobody could see anything out the windscreen

[AgaStew]

What you have to consider when it goes to STH’s at 5pm is that there could be 27,000 fans trying to purchase a remaining 100 odd tickets. So it’s always going to sell out with what would appear to be 2-3 seconds.

My lad was 7 when we got promoted, he was on 0 aways, I tried for Spurs, Arsenal, Palace no joy, and then got Norwich by tickets being returned on the Thursday. Back then ticket office was open, so I placed in my basket, purchased and drove straight to Villa Park to collect.

I started like that, it would always sell out, but I’d be on the site every day and different times. I managed to get about 7 aways in. We lost every game apart from Norwich & Burnley. We went to Etihad knowing full conclusion that we’d lose. But I decided, win draw or lose, we’re going. It’s a day out.

I did all the cups, missed out on barrow, it is what it is.

By the 2022 my now 9 year old has been to every away game.

I work most weekends so I book them off, we travel on school nights much to his Mums disapproval. Our holidays are all planned around Villa games. We travel from holiday to the game and then go back.

We’ve even caught a flight back to watch a game. This is what you do if you want to go each week. Should all aways be back to zero to give a fan who has just decided he/she wants to go…? No they shouldn’t.

Is it a closed shop? - well no if a 7 year old had 0 aways, it’s clearly not.

My advice is to monitor the site all the time, often tickets drop. The only thing I will say, is they drop to the criteria it sells out which I disagree as I recall palace away where Lansbury scored & it got cancelled, I remember tickets dropping but it had sold out to the category above (I’m sure it was that game) but I recall being prevented on that basis. Phoned Villa, said I’d booked the day off, would like to go, nothing they could do. And even on the day of the game, tickets were still available. So I think come 3 days before a game, any returns should go out simply to anyone with booking history, STH/Members.

The ballots work too - I managed to get Watford in the ballot. Lost miserably 3-0 but again, you can’t pick and choose, we were crap and lost each week but I just wanted to go away with the lad.

I used to go u set MON days, stopped to have a family, kids grew old enough where I could take one.

Keep the faith guys, it’s a life circle. There will become a time where I stop going, and my son and the next fan. UTV

[john e]

Great first post mate
Hope your son gets to see us lift some silverware but if not it’s still a great Parent bonding thing which they will remember forever

[Lucky Eddie]

That's a great first post 👊

[amfy]

It’s obvious, the small allocation grounds should not be balloted.
There is no perfect system but there are too many disadvantages with the current set up.

So instead disadvantage the fans that have been going up and down the country for years no matter how bad we were at the time

The disadvantage of having a closed shop has been done ad infinitum on here.

Where were these people complaining when we had Mcliesh, Lambert, Sherwood and Garde... Same allocations that we get now and the tickets were sold using the same system they do now, but strangely no one was complaining about it being a closed shop then?

Well I don’t know about anyone else but I wasn’t complaining because I had some fantastic awaydays with a great group of mates during those times. It was pretty straightforward to get tickets so there was no reason to complain. I used to find that going to about half a dozen over the course of the season was good enough to go to the last awayday of the season every year. You didn’t used to have to go to them all to get a ticket.

I don’t argue with the right to priority for those who have gone to the most games, but please don’t presume that those of us that can’t go now didn’t bother when we were shit.

The first season it became pretty much an all or nothing deal was the first season back after the Championship, but that wasn’t because we were glory hunting Premier League, it was because there’d been twice as many away tickets most weeks the year before.

Actually, that was when a lot of people who’d been occasional attenders developed a regular habit, and when the market shrunk back down again when we got promoted, we suddenly had an entire allocation full of people who went every week. We had never had this before when we were circling the drain in the Premier League, but when we were on the march in The Championship, we suddenly had a load of new regular away fans who have kept the habit, some of them possibly as much out of necessity as desire.

[HolteL4]

It’s obvious, the small allocation grounds should not be balloted.
There is no perfect system but there are too many disadvantages with the current set up.

So instead disadvantage the fans that have been going up and down the country for years no matter how bad we were at the time

The disadvantage of having a closed shop has been done ad infinitum on here.

Where were these people complaining when we had Mcliesh, Lambert, Sherwood and Garde... Same allocations that we get now and the tickets were sold using the same system they do now, but strangely no one was complaining about it being a closed shop then?

So you think it’s ok that lots of Villa fans , some not old enough to have any chance of getting a booking history will never get to see Villa away?

How do you think we got where we are, none of us have been around since 1874, it's called waiting your turn, that's what I did so why should it be different for the younger generation. The younger generation need to learn the art of waiting in line and not expect to get what they want right now.

It isn't about waiting your turn at all. I started going away in the early eighties when I left school. You turned up at the away turnstiles and paid to get in. You can't do that now.

Early 80s wasn't that the time when everyone who turned up and paid on the door got in. Now we have all seated and a maximum amount of people can go in that won't happen again.

[Des Little]

I’ve been at many, many away games where I’d have paid to get out.

[HolteL4]

I’ve been at many, many away games where I’d have paid to get out.

Same here, Wigan away in our promotion season springs to mind,  I'm still having therapy for the trauma of that game.

[AV82EC]

I’ve been at many, many away games where I’d have paid to get out.

Same here, Wigan away in our promotion season springs to mind,  I'm still having therapy for the trauma of that game.

I like to think my decision to fuck off back to the pub when they got awarded their penalty helped relieve some of the trauma.

[BC54 VFC]

It’s obvious, the small allocation grounds should not be balloted.
There is no perfect system but there are too many disadvantages with the current set up.

So instead disadvantage the fans that have been going up and down the country for years no matter how bad we were at the time

The disadvantage of having a closed shop has been done ad infinitum on here.

Where were these people complaining when we had Mcliesh, Lambert, Sherwood and Garde... Same allocations that we get now and the tickets were sold using the same system they do now, but strangely no one was complaining about it being a closed shop then?

So you think it’s ok that lots of Villa fans , some not old enough to have any chance of getting a booking history will never get to see Villa away?

How do you think we got where we are, none of us have been around since 1874, it's called waiting your turn, that's what I did so why should it be different for the younger generation. The younger generation need to learn the art of waiting in line and not expect to get what they want right now.

And just to add to the 1950s narrative the Government are thinking of bringing back conscription

...just as visionaries The Clash predicted 47 years ago.

[Pat McMahon]

I went away when 200 of us would be huddled around some open terrace watching Billy McNeill's Hapless Heroes. I win.

I went away when 200 of us would be huddled around some open terrace watching Billy McNeill's Hapless Heroes. I win.

Charlton away? I gave that one a miss as did pretty much everybody, just under 5,600 there. Thirty seven years ago to the day I was at White Hart Lane in a crowd of just over 19,000 watching us get stuffed to Spurs. just when you thought you couldn't hate Steve Hodge any more he scored two against us.
A few days earlier I'd seen us knocked out of the cup at Chelsea, less than 13,500 there. Not the best few days in London I ever had.

That game at Selhurst Park was traumatic. For a long time it was the worst I’d ever seen us play, particularly as it was a relegation 6 pointer. Losing 3-0 at home to Wigan in 2012-13 reminded me so much of that Easter Monday in 1987, though coming just 6 days after the Chelsea 8-0 game it wasn’t even the worst result of the week.

RCF mentions that 3-0 drubbing at Spurs when twat boy Hodge scored twice, and the away end that day was boosted by a small group of Pompey fans who had become mates with some Villa. There really were some awful away followings during that season, and even trekking up to Villa Park from London was often a desperate experience.

[ChicagoLion]

It’s obvious, the small allocation grounds should not be balloted.
There is no perfect system but there are too many disadvantages with the current set up.

So instead disadvantage the fans that have been going up and down the country for years no matter how bad we were at the time

The disadvantage of having a closed shop has been done ad infinitum on here.

Where were these people complaining when we had Mcliesh, Lambert, Sherwood and Garde... Same allocations that we get now and the tickets were sold using the same system they do now, but strangely no one was complaining about it being a closed shop then?

So you think it’s ok that lots of Villa fans , some not old enough to have any chance of getting a booking history will never get to see Villa away?

How do you think we got where we are, none of us have been around since 1874, it's called waiting your turn, that's what I did so why should it be different for the younger generation. The younger generation need to learn the art of waiting in line and not expect to get what they want right now.

I got my answer, thanks.