Away tickets

[RACHACE]

The minutes are on the Official MCFC website. https://www.mancity.com/fans and community/club/city matters

Thanks pal.

 

[The blue phantom]

Note the 'Maybe's. I'll be there no matter what. I was trying to predict the potential outcome on our away support.

Obviously predicting the future is impossible. If I'd known that you were going to sell out the hard core of our away support I wouldn't have voted for you.

What did you expect?

I mean how the hell on this planet did anyone agree to that 5% cut out of an already poor 60% away allocation, just to please the younger fan. Lets leave Corporate, OSC's and internals 40% alone. Fuckin criminal what's gone on there.

They should hang their fuckin heads in shame.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Note the 'Maybe's. I'll be there no matter what. I was trying to predict the potential outcome on our away support.

Obviously predicting the future is impossible. If I'd known that you were going to sell out the hard core of our away support I wouldn't have voted for you.

I'm part of a Supporters Club entryist plot. Didn't you know? Ferran Soriano thinks he runs the club but the reality is that Big Kev does.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

If you recall that was a collect your ticket game.
I was there with a mate who had no ticket. He asked about returns and Lisa Eaton said they had had a few but couldn’t pass them on.
Even though he had a Supporter number and his passport she wouldn’t let him have a ticket. So one rule for one, another rule for someone else?

I agree your mate should have got a ticket. I think I advised a BM poster on the morning of the game to get down to the hotel to see if they could have a return. The more Blues in the ground the better.

 

[GortonBlue62]

I'm part of a Supportrs Club entryist plot. Didn't you know?

Don't be so hard on yourself; your just useless.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

What did you expect?

I mean how the hell on this planet did anyone agree to that 5% cut out of an already poor 60% away allocation, just to please the younger fan. Lets leave Corporate, OSC's and internals 40% alone. Fuckin criminal what's gone on there.

They should hang their fuckin heads in shame.

We didn't agree and got the decision reversed so the tickets will now come off the top.

 

[GortonBlue62]

Sad times City fans turning on each other

Nonsense.

These are important and emotive issues which need to be debated.

As long as we're honestly expressing opinions, without being offensive, anything that needs saying should be said.

 

[Ardwick Green Blue]

PB is getting a lot of unfair stick here in my view.

The fact is the club can do exactly what they want with away tickets and it’s clear that business / marketing factors are at play here. There is a pecking order of desirable supporter for the club and that is as follows:

Seasonal corporate hospitality member
Tourist
Younger supporter

All of the above either spend more or have the potential to spend more than the group at the very bottom of the pecking order:

Hardcore, long term supporters (many of whom have big loyalty points) as they are set in their ways.and generally spend less on merchandise, food & drink etc.

Although in theory the club shouldn’t make money on away tickets they can and do use them as incentives to bring in more of the first three categories I’ve listed. They can listen to (or pretend to) City Matters representatives all they choose to and then do exactly what they planned to in the first place. City is a business first and foremost which is why large numbers of level two supporters were turfed out of their seats to make way for more corporate hospitality (which is proving hard to shift) for example.

 

[Maccblue]

So next season, no points will be awarded for away games but points will be awarded for home games when the ticket holder actually attends the game.

I'm a mid points holder (~20K points), who hasn't missed a home game since 1976 and who always goes platinum. So if I'm understanding things correctly this means that I am now stuck at the same place in the pecking order; there's no downside to missing the odd away game now and no incentive to go the extra mile and be there.

Maybe I'll skip Sunderland/Leicester/Swansea midweek League Cup games. Maybe I'll skip one or two other of the less glamorous midweek fixtures and not use all my holidays following City. Maybe a few other diehards will miss the odd away game too. Maybe our away support for the non important games will collapse.

Maybe the club don't give a fuck?

Correct, what's the incentive for me to take an afternoon off travel to Newcastle and get back home at 2-30 if there no loyalty rewards. I'm self employed too so may as well stay here earn money and watch on TV if that's the future then everyone can have a ticket.
As I also did this season for Leicester, Oxford, Burton and many more last season and the ones before that

Apart from the ones that cant make it this week due to the excuses-
Got school in the morning
The cats isn't very well
There's no-one to feed the gold fish
etc etc

 

[GortonBlue62]

I'm of the opinion that my representative isn't representing me particularly well, so I'm not going to contribute on this thread anymore.

I will take my grievances direct via email on the City Matters website. I suggest if anyone else feels the same they do likewise; you never know, the club might listen.

FWIW - I'm alright Jack - once the new system has frozen the status quo I will still be able to get to Old Trafford and Anfield and nearly every away game I want to. I will also be able to miss a few if I choose without dropping down the pecking order. What a joke.

A truly meritocratic system that rewarded loyalty over a long period of time (which predated the money arriving) is about to be fucked over by a club that doesn't recognize or understand its core support with the contrivance of well intentioned but ineffective busybody committee representatives. All that was required was to introduce a rolling system (5 years perhaps?) that would address the one major flaw - it's difficult to catch up now.

Two predictions. Firstly our away support will 'soften' - the points hierarchy is now set, there is no incentive for people to try and catch up and no downside to missing the odd one. Secondly, increasing the number of 18 to 25 year olds at away games will lead to a marked rise in trouble, it was lads from this group that started the trouble outside the King Power stadium recently ('Where's Your Chopper Gone?') and the ugly scenes at Newcastle etc.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Part of the reason it is so difficult to keep everyone happy regarding Away tickets is that going to away games is addictive. I’ve missed a few Aways this season for the first time in years, due to a change in circumstances. I’ve been in bits around kick off time but thankfully, for example, we were 2 nil up at West Ham in minutes that calmed me down.

I think this addiction brings out the self interest side in many of us. That’s not to say there aren’t improveY that could be made to away ticket allocations.

 

[Maccblue]

I'm of the opinion that my representative isn't representing me particularly well, so I'm not going to contribute on this thread anymore.

I will take my grievances direct via email on the City Matters website. I suggest if anyone else feels the same they do likewise; you never know, the club might listen.

FWIW - I'm alright Jack - once the new system has frozen the status quo I will still be able to get to Old Trafford and Anfield and nearly every away game I want to. I will also be able to miss a few if I choose without dropping down the pecking order. What a joke.

A truly meritocratic system that rewarded loyalty over a long period of time (which predated the money arriving) is about to be fucked over by a club that doesn't recognize or understand its core support with the contrivance of well intentioned but ineffective busybody committee representatives. All that was required was to introduce a rolling system (5 years perhaps?) that would address the one major flaw - it's difficult to catch up now.

Two predictions. Firstly our away support will 'soften' - the points hierarchy is now set, there is no incentive for people to try and catch up and no downside to missing the odd one. Secondly, increasing the number of 18 to 25 year olds at away games will lead to a marked rise in trouble, it was lads from this group that started the trouble outside the King Power stadium recently ('Where's Your Chopper Gone?') and the ugly scenes at Newcastle etc.

Here Here!!

 

[Maccblue]

I'm of the opinion that my representative isn't representing me particularly well, so I'm not going to contribute on this thread anymore.

I will take my grievances direct via email on the City Matters website. I suggest if anyone else feels the same they do likewise; you never know, the club might listen.

FWIW - I'm alright Jack - once the new system has frozen the status quo I will still be able to get to Old Trafford and Anfield and nearly every away game I want to. I will also be able to miss a few if I choose without dropping down the pecking order. What a joke.

A truly meritocratic system that rewarded loyalty over a long period of time (which predated the money arriving) is about to be fucked over by a club that doesn't recognize or understand its core support with the contrivance of well intentioned but ineffective busybody committee representatives. All that was required was to introduce a rolling system (5 years perhaps?) that would address the one major flaw - it's difficult to catch up now.

Two predictions. Firstly our away support will 'soften' - the points hierarchy is now set, there is no incentive for people to try and catch up and no downside to missing the odd one. Secondly, increasing the number of 18 to 25 year olds at away games will lead to a marked rise in trouble, it was lads from this group that started the trouble outside the King Power stadium recently ('Where's Your Chopper Gone?') and the ugly scenes at Newcastle etc.

Here Here!!

 

[jrb]

The. club f***ed up.

When they launched the Tunnel Club they didn’t have to include away tickets as an extra incentive to get people/fans to sign up for the Tunnel Club. They could have offered cup final tickets as an incentive instead. Unfortunately they can’t change it now. People have bought into the Tunnel Club expecting an away ticket, for the derby, etc. If they can’t go they will just pass the ticket on to a friend or sell it on.

That ill thought out decision shows that the club put higher spending fans in-front of the bread and butter fans. If you have to point the finger and blame anyone, blame those people at the club who are making these decisions and getting them OK’d by people above them.

You only have to go back to the NS expansion email survey and the prices and incentives the club put forward in it to realise they haven’t learnt anything, or aren’t listening to the fans again. 6000 extra seats aren’t going to be filled at those prices quoted in the email survey.

If there is another season ticket price rise next season are you just going to absorb it once again? Possible 10 season ticket price rises in the last 11 seasons. I hope PB and the other selected City fans make a very strong case against another season ticket price rise on the back of extra TV money, Prize money, numerous new sponsorship deals(I can list them), and a new Puma kit deal. There’s absolutely no need for a season ticket price increase next season.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Correct, what's the incentive for me to take an afternoon off travel to Newcastle and get back home at 2-30 if there no loyalty rewards. I'm self employed too so may as well stay here earn money and watch on TV if that's the future then everyone can have a ticket.
As I also did this season for Leicester, Oxford, Burton and many more last season and the ones before that

Apart from the ones that cant make it this week due to the excuses-
Got school in the morning
The cats isn't very well
There's no-one to feed the gold fish
etc etc

Or the ones who say “what’s the incentive for me”? The incentive is watching City live but I’ll give you the background to this.

The club asked us to come up with some ideas around the points system and away tickets, which we discussed as a group and came back with a number of suggestions that we all agreed on. These were the ballot for younger seasoncard holders, dropping points for away games and dropping Platinum. As regards away points, the club's counter-proposal was that they'd like to give points for away games where the selling criteria drop to all seasoncard card holders. That seemed fair enough so we went with that.

On Friday, three of us attended a working group meeting with Danny & Lisa, together with some other club staff representing various parts of the ticketing process. At that meeting, those people (who are closest to the systems) said it would be technically impossible to do that currently with the new system. In doing that, they killed the proposal from the club's more senior managers who weren't close to the day-to-day working of the system. They said it had to be all or nothing and so we had to decide it would be nothing. At some point, we may be able to resurrect that proposal if future system developments permit. The club wanted it, we were happy enough with it but we just can't do it for moment. Also the 18-25 ballot might not be as simple as people think, for technical reasons again, as the system doesn't support ballots.

Now I'm sure that one or two of the people who see conspiracies in everything (I'm not supposed to call them 'loons') will claim the club has constructed this elaborate charade wherby Danny Wilson, Lisa Eaton & Omar Berrada have put their heads together with the IT & ticketing guys and said "Let's pretend we care about the fans by suggesting something that sounds great on paper but we know is impossible to implement". If Elvis turns up to the next meeting riding Shergar then i might think that myself but until that happens I'll continue to believe that it's just a case that people suggesting things aren't aware of the impact of the things they'd like to implement.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

As long as we're honestly expressing opinions, without being offensive, anything that needs saying should be said.

Quite right.

I'd known that you were going to sell out the hard core of our away support I wouldn't have voted for you.

Don't be so hard on yourself; your just useless.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

This

Remember the comment pages back about the guy in Paris who said Kev Parker sorted him out.

To me, Parker's behavior above all else should be raised at the next meeting.

LOL. You've clearly got an open mind on this.

Lisa Eaton refused to sell a ticket on the day of the PSG game. She was right to do so as UEFA rules forbid this so they're the problem not Lisa. Maybe UEFA try to make purchases via secret shoppers, in order to test whether clubs are adhering to the rules. Let's suppose that she did sell a ticket and UEFA brought a case against us, finding us guilty and either stopping our fans attending an away game, severely restricting the number of tickets or insisting we do what Chelsea have to do and get each fan travelling to a European away to fill in a form with all sorts of details on it, which they have to sign so the club can compare signatures when they pick up tickets. I can guess what people would say on here about Lisa and her perceived stupidity around breaking the rules.

Maybe Kevin had a spare himself or, more likely, knew of an SC branch that did and it was too late to return it to the club. Or maybe he asked the club, who had a number of returns, and they sorted him out. I don't know, you don't know and frankly I've no intention of asking him. But you've jumped to a conclusion without knowing the facts or even if the story is true. Are you a police officer by any chance?

 

[blue corby]

Or the ones who say “what’s the incentive for me”? The incentive is watching City live but I’ll give you the background to this.

The club asked us to come up with some ideas around the points system and away tickets, which we discussed as a group and came back with a number of suggestions that we all agreed on. These were the ballot for younger seasoncard holders, dropping points for away games and dropping Platinum. As regards away points, the club's counter-proposal was that they'd like to give points for away games where the selling criteria drop to all seasoncard card holders. That seemed fair enough so we went with that.

On Friday, three of us attended a working group meeting with Danny & Lisa, together with some other club staff representing various parts of the ticketing process. At that meeting, those people (who are closest to the systems) said it would be technically impossible to do that currently with the new system. In doing that, they killed the proposal from the club's more senior managers who weren't close to the day-to-day working of the system. They said it had to be all or nothing and so we had to decide it would be nothing. At some point, we may be able to resurrect that proposal if future system developments permit. The club wanted it, we were happy enough with it but we just can't do it for moment. Also the 18-25 ballot might not be as simple as people think, for technical reasons again, as the system doesn't support ballots.

Now I'm sure that one or two of the people who see conspiracies in everything (I'm not supposed to call them 'loons') will claim the club has constructed this elaborate charade wherby Danny Wilson, Lisa Eaton & Omar Berrada have put their heads together with the IT & ticketing guys and said "Let's pretend we care about the fans by suggesting something that sounds great on paper but we know is impossible to implement". If Elvis turns up to the next meeting riding Shergar then i might think that myself but until that happens I'll continue to believe that it's just a case that people suggesting things aren't aware of the impact of the things they'd like to implement.

Am I correct in the following ? Apologies if I’ve got it wrong
The club can’t implement the points proposal for away games for around 3000 fans but they can implement a system where fans that don’t attend home games can have these points removed ?
Also for certain Euro away games the selling criteria stated that the points would only be awarded once the ticket had been scanned into the stadium . Apparently the system can deal with this ?

 

[its a Barm]

the only chance i have of watching city away apart from tv is going to wembley sad and annoying use to go to many aways with my sad 11000 points.

 

[blue corby]

I'm of the opinion that my representative isn't representing me particularly well, so I'm not going to contribute on this thread anymore.

I will take my grievances direct via email on the City Matters website. I suggest if anyone else feels the same they do likewise; you never know, the club might listen.

FWIW - I'm alright Jack - once the new system has frozen the status quo I will still be able to get to Old Trafford and Anfield and nearly every away game I want to. I will also be able to miss a few if I choose without dropping down the pecking order. What a joke.

A truly meritocratic system that rewarded loyalty over a long period of time (which predated the money arriving) is about to be fucked over by a club that doesn't recognize or understand its core support with the contrivance of well intentioned but ineffective busybody committee representatives. All that was required was to introduce a rolling system (5 years perhaps?) that would address the one major flaw - it's difficult to catch up now.

Two predictions. Firstly our away support will 'soften' - the points hierarchy is now set, there is no incentive for people to try and catch up and no downside to missing the odd one. Secondly, increasing the number of 18 to 25 year olds at away games will lead to a marked rise in trouble, it was lads from this group that started the trouble outside the King Power stadium recently ('Where's Your Chopper Gone?') and the ugly scenes at Newcastle etc.

I have just done the same , but the club will only listen if our points are put forward for discussion and not just the points of the reps attending the meetings. Having read both sets of notes from the previous meetings it seems to be the only points put forward are those of the reps not the wider fan base they represent.