Season ticket holders who didn’t attend (or failed to list tickets for resale) for 10 or more Prem games are being contacted by the Club’s admin at the end of the season. Those without a proper explanation might have season cards withdrawn or be given a final warning.
I think the focus is more on persuading fans in this category to switch to match day membership etc. I would just stop these people from renewing but that’s me.
I'm hoping to get season tickets for my two boys in the next window. For me it's quite special for them to have the experience of being matchgoing Blues, especially at a time, when they are older men, I'm convinced will be looked back on in a similar way that people look back on the late sixties and early seventies now.
I know having a season ticket at a young age will bond them to the club for life and it wasn't something I could've dreamed of as a kid growing up near Maine Road tbh. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't troubled by the thought that we won't make all the games. Not through not wanting to, but if you're a young family a match is a full day out, which just isn't always doable with weekend working and the kids' commitments, even if you live within a few miles of the ground.
Now, at the moment for a dad and two sons to happily see City play a bottom of the table side it costs about £100 a game with memberships, closer to £150 when mum comes too. You might only be able to see ten of the 19 home games tops, but at those prices it becomes far more economical to buy season tickets in an area of the ground where kids' seasoncards are reasonably priced and go when you can.
That potentially leaves a few empty seats when you can't make it, which no-one wants, but surely the underlying cause is that matchday tickets are too expensive for non-season ticket holding fans to go regularly, if not religiously, on an ad hoc basis. Of course, the responsible - and sensible - thing to do is relist your tickets when you can't go, but there's no guarantee that those tickets will sell to someone else if it's an unglamorous fixture.
For me, any attempt to crack down on no-shows has to go with a push for more affordable matchday tickets to acknowledge the fact there are many fans who want to go regularly but won't make every match. After all, it's often families - most likely where one person buys the tickets for everyone - who are really excited for the 'unglamorous' fixtures and will form the next wave of lifelong local, generational fans.