Away Tickets - What's the magic?

[Scratchins]

Does seeing Gerry Hitchens in the F A Cup at Peterborough 1 Feb 1961 count?

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Does seeing Gerry Hitchens in the F A Cup at Peterborough 1 Feb 1961 count?

Only if you had a cardboard cut out of the Cup wrapped in silver foil. ;-)

[Gareth]

I'm lucky to be in the top category for away tickets. However, I'm now in my early sixties and having recently moved to West Wales no longer have the option of travelling with my mates in the Bournemouth Lions. It's very expensive to travel alone, time-consuming, and I must say not so enjoyable. So I'm wondering if this will sadly be my last season of travelling away to watch Villa. If so, I hope it allows a younger Villa fan to experience the highs and lows of watching us away in the future and get the same pleasure that I've had the past 45 years....UTV

I'll be 70 in a few weeks and i feel the same, i generally travel alone on coach 2 from VP, but i now have bought a static caravan up by Barmouth and try to spend as much time up there as i can. I will keep my ST but may not bother with away games....i daresay how we finish this season off may have a bearing on my decision.......part of me wants to keep going for as long as i can......but i got knocked flying by a pissed up Villan at Boro....i'm not great on my feet....so thats become issue......fcuk knows what i'll fo

Boro was terrible for pissed up people, I was surrounded by new faces and every single one of them was extremely pissed 1 couldn't go 5 mins without falling over, whilst the rest of them were constantly going to the toilet, left 10 mins before half time then came back 15 mins into the second half. They must have only seen 50% of the match at best and given how pissed they were they won't have remembered it the next day. Absolutely ridiculous to have so little chances of away tickets and when they got the opportunity they ended up like that.

Are you sure they weee pissed or were they heading off to the toilets regularly to powder their noses?

[joe_c]

Barnsley away was horrendous, night match freezing cold lost as usual, as De Mateo walked to the changing rooms they were right by the away fans and he got pelters, I knew it was all over for him that night

I thought that was the low point but my lad was at Preston a week or two later for the 2 nil battering and he still says that’s the worst performance he’s ever seen
And we took 6000 there

Then we bought in that football genius Steve Bruce
Bloody hell it was grim back then

Correction, in fact we coughed up a late equaliser as usual. Some child needlessly windmilling in the concourse knocked my pie out of my hand before the game and the guy sitting next to me on the coach spewed up all over himself on the return journey before we'd even hit the motorway. And you're all moaning about denied nights like these, I dunno...

[john e]

Barnsley away was horrendous, night match freezing cold lost as usual, as De Mateo walked to the changing rooms they were right by the away fans and he got pelters, I knew it was all over for him that night

I thought that was the low point but my lad was at Preston a week or two later for the 2 nil battering and he still says that’s the worst performance he’s ever seen
And we took 6000 there

Then we bought in that football genius Steve Bruce
Bloody hell it was grim back then

Correction, in fact we coughed up a late equaliser as usual. Some child needlessly windmilling in the concourse knocked my pie out of my hand before the game and the guy sitting next to me on the coach spewed up all over himself on the return journey before we'd even hit the motorway. And you're all moaning about denied nights like these, I dunno...

You probably got your pie back in an unwanted fashion

[HolteL4]

The system currently only recognises relatively recent loyalty . Where is the recognition for fans who went through years of stress following the team all over the place under the likes of O'Leary Lambert & McLeish.
I agree with some of the points above , recognise loyalty but maybe a larger % goes to ballot so that more people get a realistic chance. Also maybe when someone has won a ballot maybe they then can't enter another ballot for 3 months for example.

We are the ones in the closed shop mate, you know the ones that you want cut in half so that new fans can replace.... Finally Heck has revealed himself on this site.

[HolteL4]

I'm lucky to be in the top category for away tickets. However, I'm now in my early sixties and having recently moved to West Wales no longer have the option of travelling with my mates in the Bournemouth Lions. It's very expensive to travel alone, time-consuming, and I must say not so enjoyable. So I'm wondering if this will sadly be my last season of travelling away to watch Villa. If so, I hope it allows a younger Villa fan to experience the highs and lows of watching us away in the future and get the same pleasure that I've had the past 45 years....UTV

I'll be 70 in a few weeks and i feel the same, i generally travel alone on coach 2 from VP, but i now have bought a static caravan up by Barmouth and try to spend as much time up there as i can. I will keep my ST but may not bother with away games....i daresay how we finish this season off may have a bearing on my decision.......part of me wants to keep going for as long as i can......but i got knocked flying by a pissed up Villan at Boro....i'm not great on my feet....so thats become issue......fcuk knows what i'll fo

Boro was terrible for pissed up people, I was surrounded by new faces and every single one of them was extremely pissed 1 couldn't go 5 mins without falling over, whilst the rest of them were constantly going to the toilet, left 10 mins before half time then came back 15 mins into the second half. They must have only seen 50% of the match at best and given how pissed they were they won't have remembered it the next day. Absolutely ridiculous to have so little chances of away tickets and when they got the opportunity they ended up like that.

Are you sure they weee pissed or were they heading off to the toilets regularly to powder their noses?

Could have been either tbh, either way it was a ridiculous way to behave after waiting so long to get a chance of an away ticket.

[Lucky Eddie]

Be careful what you wish for or away tickets will inevitably end up in corporate hands.

[VillaTim]

The system currently only recognises relatively recent loyalty . Where is the recognition for fans who went through years of stress following the team all over the place under the likes of O'Leary Lambert & McLeish.
I agree with some of the points above , recognise loyalty but maybe a larger % goes to ballot so that more people get a realistic chance. Also maybe when someone has won a ballot maybe they then can't enter another ballot for 3 months for example.

We are the ones in the closed shop mate, you know the ones that you want cut in half so that new fans can replace.... Finally Heck has revealed himself on this site.

I think a fair system would be 70% based on booking history / 30% ballott .

[Ads]

That makes it inherently unfair to people that might have been going to every away game for 30 years, suddenly denying them a ticket to Bournemouth next time because the ballot swallows it.

[amfy]

They can’t ALL have been going to every game for more than about 5 years because this problem didn’t exist before we got relegated.

Prior to & during the championship years people could easily buy tickets for any number of games and only struggle with a few popular fixtures.

In the Championship we had a big allocations and a larger number of people started going to all the games. When we came back up, we started selling out on a full booking history where we hadn’t previously, & it’s been that way ever since.

Of course there are people who’ve been to every game for 30 years - but not enough to sell
out every away allocation. The ‘going to every game’ is a fairly recent development for a significant number.

They should still have priority though - 5 years or 30, people have put the hard yards in. I just wish there was a way back.

[luke95]

They can’t ALL have been going to every game for more than about 5 years because this problem didn’t exist before we got relegated.

Prior to & during the championship years people could easily buy tickets for any number of games and only struggle with a few popular fixtures.

In the Championship we had a big allocations and a larger number of people started going to all the games. When we came back up, we started selling out on a full booking history where we hadn’t previously, & it’s been that way ever since.

Of course there are people who’ve been to every game for 30 years - but not enough to sell
out every away allocation. The ‘going to every game’ is a fairly recent development for a significant number.

They should still have priority though - 5 years or 30, people have put the hard yards in. I just wish there was a way back.

The £30 price cap has probably made a big difference.
I myself used to be a regular away fan until it got just too expensive for me.
Now on the odd times I do go away I rely on my Villa circle of mates to sort me a ticket.

[Ads]

The people I see at Bournemouth are the same people I've been seeing going for years and years and years. We didn't have the problem before because more people picked and chose. We took smaller allocations, but made up of those that have always gone. If we had something daft like 30% of the ballot for Bournemouth then people who've been going decades are at risk of not having that loyalty rewarded so somebody else jumps the metaphoric queue.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I think you make a good point Luke.
Pre Championship we were paying £55 or £60 for Chelsea away...with transport you were looking at £100 quid just to get there and through the door.

[VillaTim]

That makes it inherently unfair to people that might have been going to every away game for 30 years, suddenly denying them a ticket to Bournemouth next time because the ballot swallows it.

that's more of a Bournemouth issue for having a poxy tinpot ground/ away end. Many fans had been going to away games for 30 years just not EVERY SINGLE ONE !!! not everyone can do that and in no way should they be penalised and excluded as is the case currently