In all my 17 years as a season ticket holder, I've known and accepted that if I miss cup games I increase the risk of not getting to a final (or a Wembley semi) if we get there. Most years it hasn't been an issue!
I get how people are pissed off at missing out. Me and my mate couldn't do the Hibs game due to an annoying, unshiftable work commitment. And we've then struggled to get european away tickets, despite a near perfect home and away record for over a decade. That's frustrating.
But then, there are plenty of people whose season ticket length of service pisses all over mine, but I get to go to away games that they maybe don't.
There should be mechanisms that reward loyalty, but there should also be mechanisms that allow new and younger support to get the opportunity to experience what we do. We can't always have the same group of people going till we drop dead, just because we've always gone.
New fans need to be able to come in and start showing loyalty, because they'll be the ones keeping the club going next time we are on our arse and us lot are in retirement homes. Parents need to be able to raise their kids the right way, so we have future generations of match-going supporters to pass it on.
There should definitely be a bigger allocation to the clubs in a final, and there should definitely be more aggressive clampdowns on those reselling their tickets at inflated prices, or buying tickets just to sell on.
But aside from that, we're talking about a large historic fanbase and a limited quantity of tickets. Whichever way that gets divided, lots of people are going to pissed off.