How do we put the fans back in football?

[moomba]

Turning up for 2/3 games is too much to ask???? Or passing on your ticket for when you cant get there?

Yes it is too much to ask without knowing a person's personal circumstances.

Passing on a ticket is all well and good and if the club want this to happen (they've already received the money for it) they should come up with a better system (I haven't used the ticket exchange myself but heard it's not the answer).

If someone doesn't think they can get to at least 12 games over the season why are they buying a season ticket? They're stopping other supporters from having the opportunity to go.

Have a top exchange system and this won't happen. A person's circumstances can change a lot over the course of a year. Family, sickness, work etc.

"Well its cheaper than buying 12 individual tickets"[/I] - revert to my suggestion about cheaper tickets.

Agree that tickets should be cheaper. But they are not.

I've said the club should have discretion for certain circumstances, but when we frequently have thousands who simply cant be arsed making the effort (they've not all got family emergencies), it needs to be addressed.

Why would the club get involved in effectively chucking paying supporters out the door?

 

[ranxerox]

1. Safe standing
2. Cheaper Tickets, especially for 16-25 year olds.
3. Lose season card if it isnt activated in more than 67% of games (too many seem to buy a season ticket and go to games v top 6 and not bother against the others). I'm not saying you have to use it for every game, you can pass it on to someone, but so often we'll "sell out" and the ground will be half empty.
4. Allow us to drink at our seats (or hopefully standing space), like you can in every other country, and every other sport in the UK.
5. Improve public transport for both home and away games.

I'm not from the UK but these sound like great ideas. Every sporting event I've ever been to here at home has all of these except for safe standing.

 

[BrianW]

1. Cheaper tickets, including availability for individual matches.
2. Safe standing.
3. Much improved public transport. I see no reasons why clubs, with their immense wealth, should not contribute to this. Although public transport needs improving generally, and this will probably involve higher taxes.
4. More genuine consultation with fans. Ideally regular meetings between elected fans reps and the Board, or a sub-committee thereof. Minutes to be taken and published.
5. Bigger grounds. Literally everyone who wants to go should be able to do so. Bollocks to worrying about "empty seats" when we play Wimbledon in the League Cup. Worry about people not being able to get in when we play Barcelona.

 

[JGL07]

Yes it is too much to ask without knowing a person's personal circumstances.

Passing on a ticket is all well and good and if the club want this to happen (they've already received the money for it) they should come up with a better system (I haven't used the ticket exchange myself but heard it's not the answer).

The ticket exchange is bloody useless. I much preferred the previous system where you could set your own price and actually receive the cash. At the moment if the ticket sells, you get a credit of one nineteenth of the price of the season ticket against renewal next season.

The chances of selling are very low unless the match is sold out weeks before. Thy do not show those on the planner until very close to the match.

 

[geoff clipp]

It is too much to ask imo. Especially when individual games are so expensive. People will just stop going altogether.

The club get their money for the ticket and that money has kept us alive for decades. If they won't seats to be filled they need to find a way to make it easy for people to pass on tickets.

I think we do need to look at ways to stop people using season cards as a cheap way of block booking more desirable fixtures at the expense of others and also leaving seats empty for other games.

I don't like the idea of automatically penalising people for missing games, however i quite like the idea that it should be encouraged that you notify the club if your seat isn't going to be occupied for the game. With phone apps and what not these days it could be really straight forward and only take a few seconds to do. Then those seats could be allocated at random to a waiting list of people who wouldn't normally be able to afford games for like £5 or £10 or whatever. If you're not using the seat in a third of the games and also not making it available to someone else, then i wouldn't have a huge problem with the season ticket being allocated to someone else next season.

 

[moomba]

4. More genuine consultation with fans. Ideally regular meetings between elected fans reps and the Board, or a sub-committee thereof. Minutes to be taken and published.

Really important this. Melbourne City has a fan rep group that meets with the club regularly, it's not overwhelmingly embraced by the supporters but I think it's a positive thing overall.

We should have a person or team of people whose job is to talk to supporters, email, social media, supporter club functions etc. They should be reaching out to lapsed season ticket holders to find out why they left. They should be the first point of contact for any supporter wanting to contact the club about any issue and they should follow up to make sure that issue is dealt with.

All the feedback should go back to the decision makers at the club before major decisions are made. Sort of a fans voice within the club.

I do think it would lead to people feeling more part of the club and more involved with it.

 

[paulchapo]

Turning up for 2/3 games is too much to ask???? Or passing on your ticket for when you cant get there?

If someone doesn't think they can get to at least 12 games over the season why are they buying a season ticket? They're stopping other supporters from having the opportunity to go.

"Well its cheaper than buying 12 individual tickets" - revert to my suggestion about cheaper tickets.

I've said the club should have discretion for certain circumstances, but when we frequently have thousands who simply cant be arsed making the effort (they've not all got family emergencies), it needs to be addressed.

Before I took early retirement I worked away on ships on a week on/week off basis. This meant I could miss up to half the home games a season. I did this also at Maine Road when we were shit. Why you ask? I did it to be guaranteed to get into the games I was lucky enough to be home for. Since we moved I also like where I am and the people around me. If I would have given up my season ticket I would lose all my loyalty points and be scrambling for tickers and if I got one have to take pot luck where I was in the ground.

The club get my £650+ a year up front. For every game I couldn't or can't attend I put it on the exchange but aside from the derby or a top six club it never sells. Even the Spurs game I missed this season didn't sell. This nonsense about taking people's tickets away is just that and we would have even more empty is seats.

 

[blueparrot]

2. Cheaper Tickets, especially for 16-25 year olds.

Don't agree with this. especially many 21-25 year olds have more disposable income than older fans with families and responsibilities, As do a fair few 18 to 21 year olds too.

 

[cptaidan88]

Before I took early retirement I worked away on ships on a week on/week off basis. This meant I could miss up to half the home games a season. I did this also at Maine Road when we were shit. Why you ask? I did it to be guaranteed to get into the games I was lucky enough to be home for. Since we moved I also like where I am and the people around me. If I would have given up my season ticket I would lose all my loyalty points and be scrambling for tickers and if I got one have to take pot luck where I was in the ground.

The club get my £650+ a year up front. For every game I couldn't or can't attend I put it on the exchange but aside from the derby or a top six club it never sells. Even the Spurs game I missed this season didn't sell. This nonsense about taking people's tickets away is just that and we would have even more empty is seats.

1. You have made an effort to make sure your ticket is used at the games you can't attend yourself.
2. I don't believe the thousands that are not turning up at some games are in the same situation. The majority just can't be arsed a lot of the time.

 

[moomba]

2. I don't believe the thousands that are not turning up at some games are in the same situation. The majority just can't be arsed a lot of the time.

You have no way of knowing that. Or what efforts others have made to list tickets on the exchange.