“City Matters” fan committee

Blue Mist said:
Anyone who is even slighty interested in City could have got tickets for Spurs this season, Cardiff went to very low points, there's 80 if you are on Platignum (which is another arguement altogether.) Bristol City away, a semi final went to open sale !! Some, not all, don't want to travel to the far away matches especially when it is on TV but moan when they can't get Liverpool away. Every League Cup and Champs League at home is open sale to fans. So points can be built up if you put some miles in or go to less popular matches. I accept that some ticketholders on high points buy them just sell them on but does that mean that fans who have been there week in week out should suffer ? Newcastle away last season, a shit January night, midweek and on tele, but they still went. There is no easy answer but to penalise someone who was going to shit games under Pearce is wrong.
Footnote. I am on 14,300 pts. so not looking to do a FFP from the inside.
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Last season, there were like 3 Premier League games that someone on a lower number (e.g. 6k) could have gone to (on a separate note, I don’t remember Bristol being on general sale but might be wrong). Even if they did go to all of them, they still would not have bridged the gap between them and those above them. The gap would have got bigger and gets bigger every year. People know that so they just buy second hand which leads to a bigger market for second hand tickets which leads to more of those with higher loyalty points selling them on. It really is a closed shop.

The consequence of this is an away fanbase that gets older and older. One of the best atmospheres last season was Stoke away (which went to a lower number) because the younger fans were able to go and because it was a rare away day for them, they made a shitload of noise. While you’ll always get a small number of younger fans (almost always getting their tickets 2nd hand), the average age of our away support must easily be one of, if not, the oldest in the league. Fair play to those who go and have been going over the years, they’re loyal fans and a credit to City but my point isn’t that they shouldn’t go, it’s that the system should still favour them but to a lesser degree. Doing that allows the younger fans more of a chance to go allowing a more varied age-range at the games and I think a better atmosphere as a result. You might think it unfair that some of our loyalest fans don’t get automatic carte blanche for every single game every single year but that’s actually the case now. There’s plenty of younger fans who love City just as much as previous generations but never get the chance to show it because of the loyalty points system (bar 3 or 4 of the hardest to get to aways of the season). That’s not fair and the system needs to change to reflect that.
 
To help younger fans City could possibly give say 25% of all away allocations to fans 16 to 25 say.

They still use the points system.
 
Fame Monster said:
Last season, there were like 3 Premier League games that someone on a lower number (e.g. 6k) could have gone to (on a separate note, I don’t remember Bristol being on general sale but might be wrong). Even if they did go to all of them, they still would not have bridged the gap between them and those above them. The gap would have got bigger and gets bigger every year. People know that so they just buy second hand which leads to a bigger market for second hand tickets which leads to more of those with higher loyalty points selling them on. It really is a closed shop.

The consequence of this is an away fanbase that gets older and older. One of the best atmospheres last season was Stoke away (which went to a lower number) because the younger fans were able to go and because it was a rare away day for them, they made a shitload of noise. While you’ll always get a small number of younger fans (almost always getting their tickets 2nd hand), the average age of our away support must easily be one of, if not, the oldest in the league. Fair play to those who go and have been going over the years, they’re loyal fans and a credit to City but my point isn’t that they shouldn’t go, it’s that the system should still favour them but to a lesser degree. Doing that allows the younger fans more of a chance to go allowing a more varied age-range at the games and I think a better atmosphere as a result. You might think it unfair that some of our loyalest fans don’t get automatic carte blanche for every single game every single year but that’s actually the case now. There’s plenty of younger fans who love City just as much as previous generations but never get the chance to show it because of the loyalty points system (bar 3 or 4 of the hardest to get to aways of the season). That’s not fair and the system needs to change to reflect that.
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Just to pick upon one point there, why did Stoke go so low ? it is easy and cheap to get to even for a mid week match ? I was really pissed off when they went down with West Brom !
Going back to your points. I accept it is very hard to get a fair system but when you have done the likes of Southampton, Newcastle and Brighton for the last few seasons you would be really pissed off if you missed out on Liverpool. Perhaps they should be graded, midweek games more than 50 miles away gets double points (and then London Blues get a benefit from doing the 200 miles every other week - Hi guys)
 
Ubiquitous said:
I think it’s interesting that this thread is dominated by chat about away ticket criteria, which affects relatively few City fans. If this is the total scope of the focus group then for most fans it will be a waste of time.
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Yeh sorry, we are kind of side tracking, their are other (bigger ?) issues I will leave it there.
 
Ubiquitous said:
I think it’s interesting that this thread is dominated by chat about away ticket criteria, which affects relatively few City fans.
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It doesn't, it affects all those that want to go, and while we may only get 1200 tickets for say Bournemouth, it doesn't only affect those 1200.

If they were available we could probably take 20000 to trafford, so it affects those 17200 that don't get one. We're getting 3000 for West Ham for a 3pm Saturday kick off, and we could probably have taken 5-6000 if available.
 
Could the club offer a variety of season tickets to people with a ton of points (say the top 1000) that allows them a ticket to every game home and away?

Then take the remainder of away tickets to ballot.
 
CityStu said:
Could the club offer a variety of season tickets to people with a ton of points (say the top 1000) that allows them a ticket to every game home and away?

Then take the remainder of away tickets to ballot.
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What about those fans between 1001 & 3000 who have been attending most away games for years?

I'm not one of them, by the way, as my days of attending all home and nearly all aways were in the 70s & 80s and I only attend home games now.
 
Ardwick Green Blue said:
What about those fans between 1001 & 3000 who have been attending most away games for years?

I'm not one of them, by the way, as my days of attending all home and nearly all aways were in the 70s & 80s and I only attend home games now.
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Then they get proportionally more ballot entries based on points.
 
Can I ask that we suggest to the club that they ban certain journalists/reporters/newspapers for some of the most disgusting vitriolic pieces I have seen and heard this week regarding the German newspaper reports and the disgusting statement this morning on Talksport from Mr Dillon re David Silva’s Son.
Enough is enough, I’ve followed the Blues for 46 years and the level of bias and nasty reporting on us these days is now past a joke, it is way too personal for the club to sit back and take it.
Regards
Gary

CTID
 
CityStu said:
Could the club offer a variety of season tickets to people with a ton of points (say the top 1000) that allows them a ticket to every game home and away?

Then take the remainder of away tickets to ballot.
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Why not offer everybody an away season ticket, why only the top 1,000.....
 
Thx_to_Neil_Young said:
Why not offer everybody an away season ticket, why only the top 1,000.....
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Because then rich folk can buy them up so they are certain of attending games against the big sides home and away.

I think the same happens with season tickets now and it's why we sell games out, but have empty seats.
 
Thx_to_Neil_Young said:
Why not offer everybody an away season ticket, why only the top 1,000.....
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They did offer this in the past. "Supurbia."
Think there are 30 people left. My brother has one. Hasn't missed a game(Bar russia) for 12 years.
Away ticket allocation is never going to suit everybody. Especially when they are generally sold out on the first day.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
To bump this thread, for those asking I can explain as much as I can about City Matters and how it will work.

There are currently 10 of us representing various groups, some of which overlap. We've just had our first proper meeting with the club, where we discussed potential stadium enhancements, which are the subject of about 20 Focus Groups starting next week (12th November) so that's nothing really to do with us as a committee specifically although we had a preview of some potential opportunities and ideas. I'm sure those who attend these will reveal more.

The plan is to have meetings on a 3-weekly cycle, alternating between a full meeting with City representatives present and a committee only meeting. The plan is we stand for 2 seasons as this is the minimum we felt gave us a chance to get something done as a group. Things are still in the formative stage but we're hoping to have something on the club website, together with a full communication strategy, in a couple of weeks. A lot of this relies on the IT department and, understandably, they're a bit busy at the moment. We're talking about some face-to-face activities, maybe a "Meet The Team" event in City Square or even a Forum at some point. but most of the communication will be online/digital. I represent 40,000 seasoncard holders and I know quite a few but I'm never going to be able to speak to everyone of those individually hence the website and email will be the prime channels. However this forum is a useful way of getting instant feedback and interaction so as long as people are prepared to engage in a civilised way then I plan to use it as there's some very bright people on here and lots of different experiences.

The plan is to publish minutes after each full meeting, so on a 6-weekly cycle, and then we'll seek feedback depending on the subject. It's very much a two-way process in that the club will suggest things to us and we have things we want to talk to them about. This helps them to see things through our eyes and us to understand their objectives, strategy and limitations. As sweenyuk said above, they often don't really understand what's important to us. I have to stress and people have to understand that there will be some things we can be open about, some things we have to be a bit more cautious about & wait until the official minutes are published and some things we'll have to keep to ourselves as it's confidential information or data the club doesn't want to share. I think we've all been impressed with the way the club are approaching this and that gives us great confidence that we can make the whole business of supporting City and going to matches a better experience.

Last night we talked about ticket points and various ideas were exchanged. Some were a bit off-the-wall but some were very sensible and so we'll wait to see what the club decide to do. I don't know how quickly they will turn the minutes round but I'd expect to see the first draft early next week. Once we're happy then they'll go on the website for everyone to see.
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Cheers for the feedback
 
The away tickets distribution seems to be an endless debate on Bluemoon. But as long as demand outstrips supply it always will be. Nothing wrong with the points systems, it doesn't need tampering with. Platinum should be got rid of because it's just not right. If you're boring enough to look through your points history, like I did you'll find that the vast majority of your points come from home games. Season ticket, cup ties and cup scheme. If City promise corporate members away tickets as part of their deal then that's just the way it is. Plenty of away games go right down the points each season for people to get to away games. I'm not a high roller when it comes to loyalty points but I easily got tickets for the Charity Shield, Arsenal, Wolves, Cardiff and Spurs this season. Ticket criteria for Watford is going to go down to low points. On the flip side I desperately wanted to go to Anfield but there was no chance. Find it quite funny that the over 50's are in some way responsible for the lack of singing at away games. There are plenty of "youngsters" at away games but no one can hear you singing on the concourse.

City Matters should be putting pressure on the club over issues like
  • The ridiculous queues that no other ground in the country has
  • The leaking roof
  • The crappy ticket office
  • The crappy website
  • The continual rise of season tickets
  • The outrageous price of one off match day tickets
  • The pathetically slow agency bar staff
 
The points system is by far the most suitable system, its the abuse of the system that is the problem.what is needed is a foolproof way to ensure that the points holder is the end user.
One option could be a photo ID loyalty card which is presented to City rep just prior to entry to check, and allocate points via RFID like entry to our stadium; no card-no points, disagreement on photo-no points. The card could even be your normal season card; where you have the option at the start of the season of having your photo on IF you think you MAY attend away fixtures, and want your points. No need for photo if you don't intend away fixtures or want points.

There is also another drain on tickets that has little mention, the tourist allocation. The high profile games such as Anfield, Old Trafford, and Stamford bridge will have a good number of 'tourist' as part of our crowd, Having been next to some on several occasions they do not even know which team is City! Come to fixtures such as the recent Spurs and they are nowhere to be seen. The tickets they get are not singles but groups and sourced through the Club. This allocation has to stop.
 
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stadiumcat said:
The points system is by far the most suitable system, its the abuse of the system that is the problem.what is needed is a foolproof way to ensure that the points holder is the end user.
One option could be a photo ID loyalty card which is presented to City rep just prior to entry to check, and allocate points via RFID like entry to stadium, no card no points, disagreement on photo, no points. The card could even be your normal season card; where you have the option at the start of the season of having your photo on IF you think you MAY attend away fixtures, and want your points. No need for photo if you don't intend away fixtures or want points.
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I agree this is a sensible option, but the Ticket Office would need to send the tickets out sooner so that if you cannot attend you still have time to return the ticket for a refund or have the ability to cancel prior to receiving them (West Ham tickets already arrived so that is an improvement over recent matches).
 
Thx_to_Neil_Young said:
I agree this is a sensible option, but the Ticket Office would need to send the tickets out sooner so that if you cannot attend you still have time to return the ticket for a refund or have the ability to cancel prior to receiving them (West Ham tickets already arrived so that is an improvement over recent matches).
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Yes, my West Ham ticket arrived in the post Friday, a definite improvement.
 
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