Away Tickets - What's the magic?

[VillaTim]

arriving back at Villa Park on Saturday morning at 1am - made me realise that the supporters who go to every away game, deserve all the praise.

The effort, commitment, time and money that goes to watching Villa away is unbelievable - well done to all who do it.

I enjoy the odd away journey to watch the team, but I would not be able to do that on a regular basis.

depends how you plan it out and your own time constraints etc. In more recent years pre-pandemic we were doing 2 or 3 away per season but making a trip of it and staying over . Totally agree on midweek games though if you have work the next day it can be a real challenge

[sid1964]

Just been told by a Newcastle fan - that they have a new way of issuing away tickets.

You are sent  /print off the away ticket - however when you get to the away ground a random selection of the away tickets will not work due to being a dud ticket (scanning of the ticket at the turnstile will fail) - you then have to go to a designated area to collect the real ticket, but you have to produce your ID to get this ticket.

If you don't collect the ticket you lose loyalty points and if on numerous occasions you fail to collect the ticket then you will lose your season ticket.

If you fail to collect your away ticket the club contact you the following day to ask for the reason why the ticket was not collected.

Also for home games due to demand for tickets, you have to pay an annual £37.00 membership fee - you will then be entered into a ballot / lottery for a home ticket, for some games you may get a ticket but for other games you will not.

[avfc456]

Just been told by a Newcastle fan - that they have a new way of issuing away tickets.

You are sent  /print off the away ticket - however when you get to the away ground a random selection of the away tickets will not work due to being a dud ticket (scanning of the ticket at the turnstile will fail) - you then have to go to a designated area to collect the real ticket, but you have to produce your ID to get this ticket.

If you don't collect the ticket you lose loyalty points and if on numerous occasions you fail to collect the ticket then you will lose your season ticket.

If you fail to collect your away ticket the club contact you the following day to ask for the reason why the ticket was not collected.

Also for home games due to demand for tickets, you have to pay an annual £37.00 membership fee - you will then be entered into a ballot / lottery for a home ticket, for some games you may get a ticket but for other games you will not.

For the record, I don't know how you sort this, however whenever Villa try something a bit outside the box I'm always dubious as there always seems to be an issue

I was one of the fans under Gerrard when we had Arsenal away on a Tuesday night who only received 1 of my 2 purchased tickets, a letter was sent saying one of the tickets had been held back and needed to be collected from Arsenal due to abuse of tickets and I was one of the unlucky guinea pigs, the letter said the collection point was next to the away end.

This was not the case, I arrived in plenty of time and asked the steward on the away end where the collection point was, who had no idea. 3 or 4 different stewards later, one recommended I visited the ticket office, which was roughly a 5 minute walk back on myself and in fact next to the club shop, when I questioned the Villa staff member working on the counter why the letter said to go next to the away end, I was met with a shrug of the shoulder from the girl working behind the window. 

I also remember there being an issue at Chelsea away a few seasons ago now, where tickets were not released to fans who had to use the Chelsea ticket office to collect their held back

Spurs on Sunday, walking to the Doug Ellis stand, just past the small club shop there was a bloke stood in the middle of the road with around 10 people around him distributing tickets via his phone, couldn't work out if he was selling on tickets in the home or away end, but we both thought it looked dodgy

That said I don't really get where this boom has come from, in the ten years up until relegation, I never once struggled to get away tickets, Blues and Albion used to get to season ticket holder only, places like United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton we would barely take half the allocation. Spurs and Chelsea in particular always seemed to sell poorly

[artvandelay]

The boom has come from

-£30 cap on prices making the tickets more affordable than they've been at any point in the last 25 years or so

-£30 cap on prices disincentivising host clubs from giving anything more than the minimum required allocation, as they can sell to their home fans for a higher prices

-Unprecedented demand for match tickets for all clubs in general post pandemic

-A virtuous circle, where the above factors make the tickets coveted, so those at or near the top of the 'rankings' feel the need to protect their ranking, by buying a ticket and not showing up, if needs be (a £30 hit to ensure you're able to go to any away game you want to is worth it to many)

[Marlon From Bearwood]

The boom has come from

-£30 cap on prices making the tickets more affordable than they've been at any point in the last 25 years or so

-£30 cap on prices disincentivising host clubs from giving anything more than the minimum required allocation, as they can sell to their home fans for a higher prices

-Unprecedented demand for match tickets for all clubs in general post pandemic

-A virtuous circle, where the above factors make the tickets coveted, so those at or near the top of the 'rankings' feel the need to protect their ranking, by buying a ticket and not showing up, if needs be (a £30 hit to ensure you're able to go to any away game you want to is worth it to many)

The £30 cap was in place during our first season back in the PL yet I still managed to get tickets for me and my son for several away games before the pandemic. Now? No chance.

The last two points are spot on.

Post pandemic everything has gone nuts, not just football - gigs have never been more expensive yet demand has never been higher (despite the obvious - cost of living crisis, economy fucked etc).

[VillaTim]

People still have some residue cash from not being able to do anything during the pandemic so feel flush and will spend stupid money on gigs / sport etc. This will run out soon and the bubble will burst.

[Des Little]

Our away following in Europe has surprised me - it’s not cheap to travel anywhere these days, yet our away numbers are incredible. It’s the same with England - I know lads who follow them round the world, even for friendly matches, yet they don’t have particularly brilliant jobs, they’re always there. Impressive.

[VillaTim]

Our away following in Europe has surprised me - it’s not cheap to travel anywhere these days, yet our away numbers are incredible. It’s the same with England - I know lads who follow them round the world, even for friendly matches, yet they don’t have particularly brilliant jobs, they’re always there. Impressive.

They must have a side hustle (if you know what i mean).

[Martyn Smith]

An idea. A ballot whereby the number of entries you get is the number of league away games you went to last season plus one. So if you went to all 19, 20 entries. If you went to none, one. Your entries withdrawn from the ballot once you have been picked out. At least that gives everybody who wants to go some chance of being able to and prevents it all becoming a self-preserving close shop

[Axl Rose]

People still have some residue cash from not being able to do anything during the pandemic so feel flush and will spend stupid money on gigs / sport etc. This will run out soon and the bubble will burst.

😂

[Bad English]

People still have some residue cash from not being able to do anything during the pandemic so feel flush and will spend stupid money on gigs / sport etc. This will run out soon and the bubble will burst.

😂

Didn't they all spend it helping out by eating out?

[wittonwarrior]

The craic are the magic moments when we win away at grounds like WHL. OT, even Goodison