cleavers said:
An awful lot of people who were "loyal" then are the same ones that are "loyal" now, and the loyalty points recognises this, as it took into account the number of years you'd been a season ticket holder when it started. I know several people who have enough points to be offered the superbia, and they were all home and away regulars in division 2. I also know a few who were home and away regulars then, but have dropped away since, and while they also want tickets, they accept they have less chance of getting one, so are looking at other sources to secure one. I'm pretty sure that anyone who wants a ticket badly enough will get one if they are resourceful enough.
This is true only up to a point. My Dad was a season ticket holder for twenty years. He gave it up in 96. He received ZERO credit for those twenty years as a home and awayer. In fact, so far as I know, you only received credit if, in the year we switched over to the electronic system you were a season ticket holder that season and up to five years hence. So, as far as I understand it, if you were a season holder up until the year before the electronic system was brought in, you still received no credit, simply because you gave it up that year. Now, I cannot be certain of that and if anyone who gave up their season ticket between 96 and 2001 could correct me on that, I'd accept it with little argument. However, I know absolutely, that before 96 you got no credit at all, no matter how long you'd been a season ticket holder. I now, through cup schemes, and attending a few more odd matches, have 1,500 points more than my Dad. He's been a season ticket holder for twenty years more of his life than me. He's been to sixty away grounds with City, I'm not even close to a half of that. Let's not try and pretend the loyalty points system is a good barometer of lifelong loyalty. It's a good-ish barometer of recent loyalty.