“City Matters” fan committee

[Didsbury Dave]

Good luck with it, PB

 

[squirtyflower]

The ballot for all can't be done.
There will be uproar from loyal fans who have gone home and away for years.
Also the club has sold loyalty points with platinum etc.. since we moved to the stadium.
If they scrap a scheme where they have sold points on the provisio it helps your points total for the purchase of tickets, surely they will be obliged to refund everyone who has paid £50 extra a season.
The way i think it should be done if there is a change is as follows: Have different pots of tickets for different sets of fans:

say we get 3000 away tickets it could be split something like this:

A, Existing Loyalty point members get 1200 tickets
B, Supporters club 700 tickets
C, Corporate and staff 500 tickets
D, Ballot (for members who have no loyalty points or cant purchase due to A,B,C being sold out) 600 tickets

Doing it like this, your'e looking after all sections of fans including those with existing points, supporters club and it gives those with no loyalty points the opportunity to purchase tickets.

The numbers may need to be based on a percentage rather than direct number due to changing away ticket allocations.

What you think PB?

I like you thinking.
But why do Supporters Clubs need an allocation here as they can get them through route A if they have the points or route D if they don’t. Your plan gives them three bites of the cherry.
And I wouldn’t give corporate as many as that.

 

[Bluemeanster]

I like you thinking.
But why do Supporters Clubs need an allocation here as they can get them through route A if they have the points or route D if they don’t. Your plan gives them three bites of the cherry.
And I wouldn’t give corporate as many as that.

you gotta look after all the groups who currently get tickets but add the new group for people who can't currently get tickets due to having no or low points. You need a scheme where you have buy in from all groups. Supporters club have 13000 plus members. Thats approx 25% of the attendance at a home game.
25% of 3000 away tickets is actually 750
600 tickets for people who have no loyalty or low point totals is quite a high number of tickets considering.

The supporters club run a lot of coaches to away games, if you remove the allocation to branches you potentially destroy a lot of the away travel coaches. The branches will have no gaurantee they will have enough people on them and therefore wont run them.

Cant see the club giving up the corporate allocation.

 

[BM Blue]

The ballot for all can't be done.
There will be uproar from loyal fans who have gone home and away for years.
Also the club has sold loyalty points with platinum etc.. since we moved to the stadium.
If they scrap a scheme where they have sold points on the provisio it helps your points total for the purchase of tickets, surely they will be obliged to refund everyone who has paid £50 extra a season.
The way i think it should be done if there is a change is as follows: Have different pots of tickets for different sets of fans:

say we get 3000 away tickets it could be split something like this:

A, Existing Loyalty point members get 1200 tickets
B, Supporters club 700 tickets
C, Corporate and staff 500 tickets
D, Ballot (for members who have no loyalty points or cant purchase due to A,B,C being sold out) 600 tickets

Doing it like this, your'e looking after all sections of fans including those with existing points, supporters club and it gives those with no loyalty points the opportunity to purchase tickets.

The numbers may need to be based on a percentage rather than direct number due to changing away ticket allocations.

What you think PB?

The trouble with this is that those who just miss out on 'A' and will have done many aways over the years and be longstanding season card holders are then lumped together with every other member, hardly a fair system.....

 

[Bluemeanster]

The trouble with this is that those who just miss out on 'A' and will have done many aways over the years and be longstanding season card holders are then lumped together with every other member, hardly a fair system.....

Youre never going to completely satisfy everyone. A system which caters for all groups is the fairest option, but you can't do away with the loyalty points that have been built up.

 

[squirtyflower]

you gotta look after all the groups who currently get tickets but add the new group for people who can't currently get tickets due to having no or low points. You need a scheme where you have buy in from all groups. Supporters club have 13000 plus members. Thats approx 25% of the attendance at a home game.
25% of 3000 away tickets is actually 750
600 tickets for people who have no loyalty or low point totals is quite a high number of tickets considering.

The supporters club run a lot of coaches to away games, if you remove the allocation to branches you potentially destroy a lot of the away travel coaches. The branches will have no gaurantee they will have enough people on them and therefore wont run them.

Cant see the club giving up the corporate allocation.

As I said though
I could be a member of a Supporters club on 21000 points
So I apply for a ballot on my points, and through my Supporters Club

Also of the 13000 people in the branches there are many who are not seasoncard holders so that 25% of attendance is inaccurate

 

[Bluemeanster]

As I said though
I could be a member of a Supporters club on 21000 points
So I apply for a ballot on my points, and through my Supporters Club

Also of the 13000 people in the branches there are many who are not seasoncard holders so that 25% of attendance is inaccurate

The figures are hyperthetical for the purpose of explaining how i think the scheme may work.

The rules and the criteria about what you could apply for would need to be agreed, but i would say you can only apply for one group at a time, and/or if tickets remain in a group after a deadline they can be sold in a different group.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

You always bang on about younger fans, but its not only them. As I posted earlier, I was able to get a ticket for pretty much all the away games about 5 years ago, my only away game last year was in Ukraine (and a great time was had).

Despite being eligible for most away games, I often couldn't go because I work shifts and weekends, I also live a long way from Manchester, and every home game is like an away game for me, and so I prioritise those as a season card holder. I've done all the distant away games over the years, but because I could only ever manage 7 or 8 away games a season (and most home games), I fell back points wise each season, and about 5 years ago, it became difficult to get tickets, I then dropped platinum as it wasn't worth the extra £50 as my point got further and further behind the top ones.

I'm now luckily at a position in life where I could do most home and away games (financially and work wise), but only occasionally are my points good enough for away games. My lad is 28 (so part of your younger fans, and he's done the hard years since he was about 7 or 8), and just down to having platinum he's passed my points total, but we go together, so he can get some away tickets now but I can't, and so he's also not going as often.

Something needs to change to benefit ALL groups, not just one or another group, and like PB says those who go everywhere should continue to be the first priority, but we need a system that doesn't allow some fans to buy tickets with no intention of ever going to most, but just keeping their points total artificially high so they can pick and choose the top games, and just sell on to others the ones they're not arsed going too.

No idea what that system looks like, but hopefully we can find some compromise somehow, but for ALL groups not just yours.

I always bang on about younger fans because I am a younger fan.. ...most of the points I’m talking about apply to people around my age group and I can relate to. My bad for doing that. I absolutely agree something needs to be done to benefit everyone and hopefully we come up with a system that does that. The system we have right now means lots of fans whether young or average income for instance can’t go.

However from what I see and has been shown a lot of younger people find it very difficult to actually go to games, in particular away games

 

[BM Blue]

I The system we have right now means lots of fans whether young or average income for instance can’t go.

However from what I see and has been shown a lot of younger people find it very difficult to actually go to games, in particular away games

I must be missing something, but you seem to be saying that if you're on average income you can't go to aways, so how will changing the current system enable them to go...?

 

[BM Blue]

Thinking about this, obviously there will be no change this season. However, I believe that we should await the outcome of whether there is a continuation of the £30 max price for away's because if that is scrapped then tickets will become more easy to obtain and any new method should take this into account.

Perhaps PB could inquire at one of the City Matters meetings re the £30 cap?

 

[cleavers]

I always bang on about younger fans because I am a younger fan.. ...most of the points I’m talking about apply to people around my age group and I can relate to. My bad for doing that.

It wasn't really criticism, just observation, you are bound to stick up for your age group, my point really was that it affects all.

We should celebrate that we have a diverse fan base, not try and alienate one part for the benefit of another, we're all blues, and we all make sacrifices.

My lad (28 now) has followed us home and away since he was about 7 or 8, and he's going to his least amount of away games in his supporting life now, and he could probably afford to go corporate if he so wished (lucky sod).

As for the "average income" argument, sorry that doesn't wash, away games are capped these days at £30, but only in the last 5 years. I've paid £50 a number of times in the not so distant past, and I supported that change, and went on a few protests, but ironically its actually made it much harder for me to get tickets.

 

[worsleyweb]

Thank you PB
As you know we’ve been going together for years and if there was a ballot its highly likely that one might get a ticket but not the other.
And that would happen to a number of people, couples, friends, parent/child etc
It’s not as straightforward as a single person buying a ticket, as City’s ticket website has proved this year lol
If something like that happened I’d just stop going as there’s little point in ‘seeing’ if you are successful when there are so many other things we could be doing.
I also think it means more games would go unsold.

Look at this year’s champions league fixtures, none have sold out.
Those who want to go buy cheap deals as soon as the fixture is announced. If you weren’t sure of that you wouldn’t bother going even if you were successful in the ballot.

And you’re right, there’s no one like me or Bill

The day I take mrs ww to the games regaikrly I will give up. It’s my only escape.

 

[Fame Monster]

Youre never going to completely satisfy everyone. A system which caters for all groups is the fairest option, but you can't do away with the loyalty points that have been built up.

You could do both with a ballot system.

Give those who've got the most loyalty points the best chance of getting tickets yet still make it possible for other people to get tickets without having to buy them second hand. Problem solved.

 

[RACHACE]

I'm just glad that there's a person/group of persons that have a channel to the club to actually discuss the away ticket allocation distribution. I and I'm sure others have emailed the club regarding this to pretty much no avail.

The current system is fair as long as it's policed properly. It's open to manipulation because it's not a transparent system.

I do think though that it's probably time for a ballot system to be implemented. Say 10% of the tickets so 300 for a game at Old Trafford or Anfield so that those game are still available for all no matter how many points you have. This wouldn't affect those that have 20k points so the hard core support remains looked after but it does give a glimmer of hope for those that have little or zero chance of obtaining a ticket for such a game.

Me and my wife are in our 15th season as season ticket holders. We've been part of what would be considered hard core support in the past (2 seasons every game) but we probably average 12-15 away games a season for the majority of the time we've had season tickets. Only when we were saving for house and marriage did we stop completely which was 2 seasons. My point is that 15 years a season ticket holder in my opinion is loyal enough to at least have an opportunity to apply for a ticket to Old Trafford, Anfield or smaller grounds. A small allocation going to ballot would give us that opportunity.

For me the allocation to supporters clubs needs scrapping, it's outdated and get abused. The corporate allocation and tickets that go to staff, players families etc needs to be out in the open too. That way supporters can make a more informed choice as to whether they're getting value paying for this stupid platinum thing they introduced.

Personally I'd keep the current system. police it far better and introduce a ballot of a small number of tickets so all at least have a chance.

 

[squirtyflower]

I'm just glad that there's a person/group of persons that have a channel to the club to actually discuss the away ticket allocation distribution. I and I'm sure others have emailed the club regarding this to pretty much no avail.

The current system is fair as long as it's policed properly. It's open to manipulation because it's not a transparent system.

I do think though that it's probably time for a ballot system to be implemented. Say 10% of the tickets so 300 for a game at Old Trafford or Anfield so that those game are still available for all no matter how many points you have. This wouldn't affect those that have 20k points so the hard core support remains looked after but it does give a glimmer of hope for those that have little or zero chance of obtaining a ticket for such a game.

Me and my wife are in our 15th season as season ticket holders. We've been part of what would be considered hard core support in the past (2 seasons every game) but we probably average 12-15 away games a season for the majority of the time we've had season tickets. Only when we were saving for house and marriage did we stop completely which was 2 seasons. My point is that 15 years a season ticket holder in my opinion is loyal enough to at least have an opportunity to apply for a ticket to Old Trafford, Anfield or smaller grounds. A small allocation going to ballot would give us that opportunity.

For me the allocation to supporters clubs needs scrapping, it's outdated and get abused. The corporate allocation and tickets that go to staff, players families etc needs to be out in the open too. That way supporters can make a more informed choice as to whether they're getting value paying for this stupid platinum thing they introduced.

Personally I'd keep the current system. police it far better and introduce a ballot of a small number of tickets so all at least have a chance.

It always me the number of tourists that get in our end at OT.
A few years back I was too busy, first day in new job, to get tickets for the derby and they sold out that day.

I managed to get four through a player I know. Sat next to me were two fucking rags. Clearly got their tickets through the club.

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Cool, in that case you must have seen lots of young fans there, because I have

Strangely enough at places like liverpool but at spurs the other night it was like a saga holidays convention .

 

[mrtwiceaseason]

Thinking about this, obviously there will be no change this season. However, I believe that we should await the outcome of whether there is a continuation of the £30 max price for away's because if that is scrapped then tickets will become more easy to obtain and any new method should take this into account.

Perhaps PB could inquire at one of the City Matters meetings re the £30 cap?

Thats a very good point re£30 tickets at £60 for me and the lad we can do it at £140 for london aways we are deffo out the game

 

[Alex - Not City Matters]

Cool, in that case you must have seen lots of young fans there, because I have

Whilst I don't agree with imposing a ballot, the majority of younger fans at away games get their tickets second hand. I say that because I am very lucky that as a 19-year-old, I have just over 18,500 thanks to my father taking me to games over the year the has allowed me to attain this level. All the other young lads I know gain their tickets through second hand sources - which means they ultimately never catch up.

 

[squirtyflower]

Strangely enough at places like liverpool but at spurs the other night it was like a saga holidays convention .

That sort of defeats the argument as anyone with a seasoncard could have bought for Spurs, so why didn’t all the youngsters go?

 

[squirtyflower]

Whilst I don't agree with imposing a ballot, the majority of younger fans at away games get their tickets second hand. I say that because I am very lucky that as a 19-year-old, I have just over 18,500 thanks to my father taking me to games over the year the has allowed me to attain this level. All the other young lads I know gain their tickets through second hand sources - which means they ultimately never catch up.

That may be the case, so it needs stricter control, not ballots.

I know people who I’ve been friends with for over 25 years who go to the odd game yet are still able to get tickets for the ‘big’ games. Why’s that? Because every week their tickets are sold through their branch.