Belgian Fans (merged)

[EalingBlue2]

Last time I went when I came back last year I was shocked to see a large group of fans from Cheshire behind me. They had expensive clothes and sang the same few songs, I think I saw one drinking wine before the game. Heard it was some of the players who got them tickets as they were from Prestbury and Alderley Edge. That's far more serious than a few blue brothers from over the ditch spreading the gospel and wanting to pay for flights, hotels and really go out of their way to support City.

i spent most of the game too busy whining about this to really appreciate the football.

 

[RACHACE]

Personally it doesn't bother me if tourists get tickets for home games that were struggling to sell out. Away games rarely go to low points these days and the bigger issue is how we regularly see tourists and fair weather fans at big games such as the Derby, Liverpool away and all the London games.

The club need to do a bit more with regards policing the away ticket allocation because the points system is being manipulated in a number of ways which is enabling the fans with the top points stay at the top and disabling those below from ever catching up.

Random identity checks at the turnstiles would be one way to police it. If the person trying to enter the ground isn't the person who's bought the ticket then maybe a points fine could be administered to deter the Seasoncard holder from buying and passing on the ticket.

The corporate side of it is more than likely the bigger issue though but I can't see the club doing much to reduce the amount that go to the corporate hospitality side of it. Especially for the London games.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

But they are selling home tickets to away fans, that's my point, they don't give a shit who they go to. I've had Juve fans, Barca & R.Madrid fans sat around me in the home ends. When I asked the regular lads at the next home match where they were they said when they tried to buy their regular seats they were sold...sold to away fans before City fans could buy them. Disgusting.

I'm in 209 and the amount of away fans (plus "neutrals" who don't want us to win) is irritating. I think the arse might fall out of the Premium seats at the end of the season!

 

[Tim of the Oak]

Personally it doesn't bother me if tourists get tickets for home games that were struggling to sell out. Away games rarely go to low points these days and the bigger issue is how we regularly see tourists and fair weather fans at big games such as the Derby, Liverpool away and all the London games.

The club need to do a bit more with regards policing the away ticket allocation because the points system is being manipulated in a number of ways which is enabling the fans with the top points stay at the top and disabling those below from ever catching up.

Random identity checks at the turnstiles would be one way to police it. If the person trying to enter the ground isn't the person who's bought the ticket then maybe a points fine could be administered to deter the Seasoncard holder from buying and passing on the ticket.

The corporate side of it is more than likely the bigger issue though but I can't see the club doing much to reduce the amount that go to the corporate hospitality side of it. Especially for the London games.

On the Corporate side, the Club will have to do something if the Corporates have a poor experience eg the Plebs not creating the noisy working class atmosphere they like to sample a couple of times a year.

Then the Corporates would just to continue to go to ManU, Arse and Chelski and the Club's search for global domination would need to be re-thought.

I think there is scope for the Club to look after the long serving fans and the Corporates, providing they don't take the piss like Monday night!

 

[wearethesouthstand]

the way to challenge the club on this in the first instance is for the supporters club branches at their next monthly meeting to put a proposal to the club via their own committee and get the mcfcsc committee to get clarification on this, find out why a branch is able to offer packages with guaranteed tickets weeks in advance and also to clarify if members of joes, 93:20 etc get priority for away tickets, and if so what are the circumstances ...

 

[stadiumcat]

There are two separate issues

1 Allocation of tickets for away games

2 selling tickets at the Etihad in the home end to away fans

1 I doubt we will ever get a straight answer from the Club of how the allocation is split between Players, Club, corporate, partners, ‘City in the City’, Superbia members, Supporters Clubs and those who remain and have to take a chance with the countdown how many ‘Loyalty’ points they have.

We can make a guess; say out of an average allocation of 3000 away tickets I think the breakdown will be in the region of

Players 150

Club 200

Corporate 150

Partners (Sponsors) 250

‘City in the City’ 250

Superbia members + friends 150

Supporters Clubs 750

Loyalty points 1100

Any reduction in the initial allocation to the Club will be taken out of the loyalty point pot down to say 500 on sale before they start reducing allocation to others. If tickets offered to others are not taken the Club can always pass them off as returns; this does not bode well for the likes of the trip to Bournemouth. Okay there will be No City in the City but the number of tickets in the away section is well below 3K

2 Tickets being sold to away fans in the home section is going to end in disaster, I think we saw the start of this against Monchengladbach. How would it be with Kiev or Milan supporters instead? The Club need to introduce a policy selling only to those with recognised purchase history, and develop an area for tourists similar to that the Fulham have. It can be policed and the increased in size as demand requires. The Club must already have an idea of how many ‘tourist’/away fans they sell too on given match day’s e.g. new citizen members who never come again. It may be unpopular but we could allocate say two blocks of level 3 in one of the stands especially for Chumps League games. Those who need to be moved could be allocated a pick of where they wanted in the stadium. When the North stand is built a whole section could be allocated for this exact purpose. Another alternative could be make the Gene Kelly seats at the front of east stand tourist seats that way they get on the TV and near the players.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

the way to challenge the club on this in the first instance is for the supporters club branches at their next monthly meeting to put a proposal to the club via their own committee and get the mcfcsc committee to get clarification on this, find out why a branch is able to offer packages with guaranteed tickets weeks in advance and also to clarify if members of joes, 93:20 etc get priority for away tickets, and if so what are the circumstances ...

The OSC didn't get where it is today by challenging the club.

This issue would certainly have been brought up at Points of Blue but the club ditched that a couple of years ago.

 

[RACHACE]

I don't think that the OSC can be relied upon or expected to bring the issue of away allocation up with the club.

Some of the OSC's need there to be no change at all in order to fill seats on there coaches.

The away allocation issues impact your independent away match goer more than anybody else. Those that don't want to sit on a coach for x amount of hours and prefer to do their own thing, drink where they want and socialise with who they want.

The points system is fair as long as it's not being manipulated. If you go to all or near enough all the games then you fully deserve to be among the 1st in the queue for away tickets. What's not right is a supporter on 8k points getting one before a supporter with 11.5k points because they've got access to a ticket via a mate or another source.

I'm not stupid and know that's life at times but it's got to the point where if the club really values its fans then they should look at making this current system actually work in the way it's intended to.

If they don't then they're contributing to fans like myself feeling that we have to source tickets from elsewhere in order to continue doing something we love to do and have done for years.

 

[peoffrey]

We aren't coming close to selling out home Champs League games. The main issue from the Broussia game was about segregation. If the Club can fill seats with Tourists that eg season card holders dont buy that's OK in my book. As long as the Club are not selling home tickets to away fans and tickets are reasonably priced!

The away ticket situation is a bigger problem because the Club is neglecting its own rules by not prioritising ticket point holders adequately.

One of the best atmospheres inside the ground ever was Hamburg in the Europa League. A family of four could go for £12. I'm feeling the pinch now and have no dependents.

 

[bluestevei]

One of the best atmospheres inside the ground ever was Hamburg in the Europa League. A family of four could go for £12. I'm feeling the pinch now and have no dependents.

that wont happen again, we still need to comply with ffp no matters how its bent, hopefully it will be better now that bent twat is banned. I have said it a few times, IF THE CLUB SAYS £15 FOR A CHAMPS GAME, YOU WILL GET PEOPLE MOANING IT SHOULD BE £10 AND PEOPLE WILL MOAN ABOUT IT SHOULD BE £5 the club carnt win with some of our fans, but I bet if we get to the league cup final they will pay 35-80 a ticket