Prestwich_Blue said:
Not necessarily. I'm not certain how the system works exactly but I assume that at some point the Branch Secretary has to supply supporter numbers for the tickets allocated. But that doesn't necessarily mean that those tickets go to those supporters. So a supporter with 10,000 points might allow their number to be used but not go to games. But that's no different from someone buying a ticket privately then selling it on.
The way it works is this:
The club has a website which the branch logs on to. On this website, you have all of your branch members names and supporters numbers saved to this online database.
Using the example of the coming fixture list:
The club will email the branch with dates they must submit there members names by. So on the first email, my guess will be Newcastle 18th July, Arsenal 10th August (they do it in small groups of games).
The branch will submit from the database the names who have applied for Newcastle. Let's say that your branch had 30 members apply for Newcastle.
Within about 3 or 4 days, the OSC will know the amount of tickets they have received from the club.
It's then down to the OSC how these tickets are distributed. I suspect there's a bit of favouritism involved in this, but for arguments sake, let's say that all branches get 70% of what they applied for.
The OSC will then email the branch telling you that you've been given 21 tickets from your 30.
It is down to the branch who gets the tickets. When I was with my branch, we did it down to who the people running the branch thought should get them. Nothing to do with loyalty points. REPEAT - NOTHING TO DO WITH LOYALTY POINTS. Not that this ever happened, but if some attractive lady was dead keen to go to united away, I could easily get her a ticket because I'd could apply with a members number and chose her over Barold McWhathisface with 9,580 points.
I did the branch allocations for three seasons, and although I definitely sorted out a lot of my mates with tickets for big games over the years, I still feel like having this doesn't fit in with "loyalty points" for everyone else.