Away Tickets - What's the magic?

[VillaTim]

The way some people talk, you'd think I'm on some sort of gravy train and getting loads of advantages while laughing at everyone else. But going to every away game is bloody hard work. It's expensive and time consuming. People moan about season ticket prices, well it costs me an extra £1.2k a season in tickets and petrol. That's not including any hotels or matchday parking or food on top.

The amount of times we've had to sneak out of work to travel to some god-awful place in rush hour traffic, getting changed in the car in a street somewhere and not getting anything to eat till we are on our way back, not getting home till the early hours but still getting up at 6am for work, having to arrange holidays and family stuff outside the season, saving holidays at work for matches, birthdays and anniversaries on the road, boxing day and new years days in places like bloody Swansea!

Me and my mate have spent so much time cooped up together in a car that his missus is forbidden to adjust my seat!

And for a large chunk of my 14 years going away, it's been absolutely soul destroying.

So I'm sorry if some people think it's not fair that I get to keep going, and Joe Bloggs who gave up his season ticket when we got relegated and now wants back in can't. But I'm not going to lose any sleep over it just yet. 

I get what you are saying but if you don't enjoy it don't do it, nobody is forcing you and you won't get a medal for doing it. I would like to think that those that go to all the games enjoy it and get pleasure from it.

[amfy]

The mad thing is that it’s not even cheating because someone who’d missed 3 games would (rightly) still be well ahead in priority of all of those who can’t get tickets (from the club) for any.

I don’t think everyone’s cheating, I think there’s a good number of people who do go to every away game, but not as many as it looks like, & a load of others on both sides who have got trapped into working the system as it stands.

Motivation for handing on tickets isn’t just to keep a booking history, it’s to give a mate a chance of a game that wouldn’t otherwise get one.

Honestly, if I really tried I could still get a ticket for most aways, because when I do try I usually do get one, it just won’t be ‘my’ ticket. I think that’s a bit bonkers but I don’t really know the answer.

[Dogtanian]

I didn't say I didn't enjoy it, just that it's hard work.

The same can be said for a lot of worthwhile things in life!

[Dogtanian]

The mad thing is that it’s not even cheating because someone who’d missed 3 games would (rightly) still be well ahead in priority of all of those who can’t get tickets (from the club) for any.

I don’t think everyone’s cheating, I think there’s a good number of people who do go to every away game, but not as many as it looks like, & a load of others on both sides who have got trapped into working the system as it stands.

Motivation for handing on tickets isn’t just to keep a booking history, it’s to give a mate a chance of a game that wouldn’t otherwise get one.

Honestly, if I really tried I could still get a ticket for most aways, because when I do try I usually do get one, it just won’t be ‘my’ ticket. I think that’s a bit bonkers but I don’t really know the answer.

Yep, the same thing will now be happening on season tickets and home history.

Bournemouth has been causing an issue, but I believe they've taken that out of the considerations now. I know they're now including cup matches, but I'm not sure if that helps long term as it will bring those games into the can't miss bracket too.

[amfy]

Absolutely - I’m pretty much there on the home history thing. I was going to give up my ST & see how many games I got to when I moved north, but at that exact moment we got a waiting list so I kept it.

With each season it gets more difficult to get to games as kick offs move all over the place, and at the same time more and more difficult to get one off tickets so it remains an ongoing dilemma.

I always pass my ST via the club by either naming the person I’m giving it to, or selling it back. I asked the other week whether there was a limit on how many times you can do this, & the ticket office said not at the moment but that might change with the waiting list being what it is.

[Dogtanian]

If I were the club, when we expand capacity I would look to keep the season ticket numbers capped, but add a number of 'half' season tickets where you can go to 9/10 games or so spread out over the season. It would suit a lot of people who can't get to every game while opening up the opportunity for others to get in.

[VillaTim]

Absolutely - I’m pretty much there on the home history thing. I was going to give up my ST & see how many games I got to when I moved north, but at that exact moment we got a waiting list so I kept it.

With each season it gets more difficult to get to games as kick offs move all over the place, and at the same time more and more difficult to get one off tickets so it remains an ongoing dilemma.

I always pass my ST via the club by either naming the person I’m giving it to, or selling it back. I asked the other week whether there was a limit on how many times you can do this, & the ticket office said not at the moment but that might change with the waiting list being what it is.

slight aside but picking up on your point re selling the ST seat back to the club, i've had to do this a few times this season due to the KO time moving and work / family stuff colliding etc, never ceases to piss me off how the club only give you 80% back of what you paid then go on to sell at Full Price. I wish someone would raise this at the FAB

[dave.woodhall]

Absolutely - I’m pretty much there on the home history thing. I was going to give up my ST & see how many games I got to when I moved north, but at that exact moment we got a waiting list so I kept it.

With each season it gets more difficult to get to games as kick offs move all over the place, and at the same time more and more difficult to get one off tickets so it remains an ongoing dilemma.

I always pass my ST via the club by either naming the person I’m giving it to, or selling it back. I asked the other week whether there was a limit on how many times you can do this, & the ticket office said not at the moment but that might change with the waiting list being what it is.

slight aside but picking up on your point re selling the ST seat back to the club, i've had to do this a few times this season due to the KO time moving and work / family stuff colliding etc, never ceases to piss me off how the club only give you 80% back of what you paid then go on to sell at Full Price. I wish someone would raise this at the FAB

We do. Regularly. ⁰

[VillaTim]

Absolutely - I’m pretty much there on the home history thing. I was going to give up my ST & see how many games I got to when I moved north, but at that exact moment we got a waiting list so I kept it.

With each season it gets more difficult to get to games as kick offs move all over the place, and at the same time more and more difficult to get one off tickets so it remains an ongoing dilemma.

I always pass my ST via the club by either naming the person I’m giving it to, or selling it back. I asked the other week whether there was a limit on how many times you can do this, & the ticket office said not at the moment but that might change with the waiting list being what it is.

slight aside but picking up on your point re selling the ST seat back to the club, i've had to do this a few times this season due to the KO time moving and work / family stuff colliding etc, never ceases to piss me off how the club only give you 80% back of what you paid then go on to sell at Full Price. I wish someone would raise this at the FAB

We do. Regularly. ⁰

Thanks appreciated

[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

[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.

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

Oh so only 30% of the fans who went through the years you mentioned instead of the original 50%. Give up Chris Heck leave and take TV and LG with you

I'm trying to think what might be a fair system given the obvious flaws in the current regime ? Personally i'd just rip it all up and start again, have an away membership scheme which anyone registered with a booking history can subscribe to and then just go with first come first served each game . Some fans it seems feel like they are entitled to attend EVERY game and are more than happy that others get to ZERO games .

I've put the miles in when we were crap so yes I do feel I'm entitled to do the same now we are good after suffering for so long spending so much for very little return. But hey now we are good rip it up and start again to help out the "fans" that have come out of the woodwork now we are good and will probably disappear as fast if we go back to being rubbish again.

[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.

[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?

[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?

[VillaTim]

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?

those eras above are when i used to do a fair few away games then more recently had to dip out due to personal circumstances. Personally i'd only like to do 2 or 3 aways a season but it's pretty much impossible now unless you go behind enemy lines or get a ticket via the inner circle