Ticket Points Sales Tracking

[give it to gordon]

You must have been sat next to me Gordon.

It was my lad that went ;)

 

[Eccles Blue]

City Matters did not ask for it. The club suggested it but we agreed, as the case for doing it was sound. The system encouraged people to buy away tickets and pass them on. I don't see how anyone can think that's a good idea. The people who regularly do away games do it because they want to go to the games, not because they want the points.

You simply cannot complain about the 'wrong' people getting tickets while also complaining about measures to mitigate that.

But I absolutely agree that the points system as it stands needs significant reform. It was originally meant to encourage sales of tickets when we weren't successful , but isnoe being used to ration them. It should be based on no more than the most recent 5 years attendance, which we talked about with the club pre-Covid, but they bottled, as they felt someone who had the 100th highest number of points might fall to 105th place under a sensible system. Shame they didn't apply the same sympathy to people who had their seats taken away by yet another hospitality offering.

Points should also be based on attendance rather than just buying a ticket, then not turning up.

Platinum needs fucking off, which we urged them to do but they refused, despite us suggesting alternative ways of replacing the relatively miniscule revenue (less than 0.1% now) it brings in.

They need to look at the whole system of allocation of away tickets. What worked years ago is not what works today.

But people also have to accept that, as things are, supply is not going to meet demand for most games. We're even struggling to meet demand for home games.

And how many people passed them on? More than 50% or not? If less than 50% and I believe, having done the miles of away matches over the years both before and after we stopped getting loyalty points for them, that there were not that many. Plus the 'solution' is a little bit like taking a hammer to crack a hazelnut.
How many of the City Matters group voted for it?

I am playing a bit of a Devil's Advocate here because it doesn't matter to me one way or the other these days but I do think that the fans should have been properly consulted rather than a small group.
We may not have got a result that everyone agreed with but we would (hopefully) have felt more in touch with what was happening and therefore more valued by the club. (For those who don't feel valued, of which group I am not a member. I am quite ok with the way the club has treated me personally as already stated in another thread.)

As always JMHO.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

Pre our first ‘prem’ title I used to qualify for pretty much every away game but knocked it on the head after getting weary of the experience.

I fucked platinum off around the same time and now on just under 14,000,000 points think I’d struggle to qualify for any league away game.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they introduced a ballot system of some sort within the next few years.

With 14 million points you’ll get tickets for any game mate ;)

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

With 14 million points you’ll get tickets for any game mate ;)

I was about to ask if that was a typo or some high-level sarcasm.

 

[Project1]

Platinum may one day not be worthless for finals. With the number of tickets that go to points seemingly on the decline, the day will come when simply being on the cup scheme won't be enough to guarantee you a cup final ticket. If we get to the CL final in Munich next year, I can envisage such a scenario happening - people on the cup scheme with low points would very likely miss out in a club allocation of 19,000.

I am fairly certain that is how it used to work and was stopped.
It used to be Platinum members on Cup Scheme then Gold Members then down to the same for none cup scheme members.
This was removed awhile back and as mentioned it may have been the same time that the points for away games was dropped. I do recall there being a genuine point at the time that some couldn't afford the extra for Platinum so why should they be penalized because someone else had more money than them.
For the record I have always been platinum because it ensured I kept in the ticket allocation band with my 26.5k points.

 

[Project1]

The loyalty points system was never there to encourage sales to away games. It was brought in as demand to away games was massively oversubscribed in 98/99 and ticket stubs were needed to be brought physically to the ticket office and stamped for each away purchase. Tracking was brought in to stop that which was transferred to points in 2003 using games from August 2001.

Demand dropped in early 2004 and anyone could get to most aways until the 2007 takeover, then demand slowly increased tempered by poor away form though.

The loyalty points system was abused by the club to increase demand for home games though, and now it just encourages platinum and cup scheme membership.

Excellent point Corky. If I remember they were giving 100pts for Europa games on a Thursday night when the top tiers were being shut. Similar to all those FA Cup and League Cup games when they kept closing the top tiers.
Oh how times have changed.

 

[beermusic]

Points isn’t the issue it’s the club and corporate selling on

if points was the issue away ends would be packed with diehards

which they are increasingly not

 

[Stephen230]

I don’t know what the answer is for overhauling the points system but I am in favour of change.

I know it is contentious but, from a personal point of view, I’ve had a season ticket every season since 72/73 but I now struggle to get tickets for games that I never used to.

Fulham is about the closest league game to where we live now but no chance of getting a ticket from City. The game was at a similar stage of the season last year and I paid a fortune for tickets from Fulham in their shiny new stand. This year, the tickets are way more expensive but I still can’t buy from Fulham because you have to have attended a game their in the last five years but it can’t be a one where City were the opponents, so doubly screwed.

I’m not a member of the OSC and I’m sure people with less points are getting tickets for games that I cannot, which is very irksome.

I am one of the people that travelled to away games in lower leagues but personal circumstances worked against me when I need to be collecting additional points.

Any solution or change will piss one section of the support off. Loyalty needs some sort of recognition but every genuine supporter deserves an opportunity to attend an away game.

The problem is, most people don’t want to attend ‘an’ away game. They want to attend United, Liverpool or a title decider.

There’s no system in the world that is going to satisfy a demand that is maybe five times higher than the supply.

 

[blue44]

Excellent point Corky. If I remember they were giving 100pts for Europa games on a Thursday night when the top tiers were being shut. Similar to all those FA Cup and League Cup games when they kept closing the top tiers.
Oh how times have changed.

If I remember right,we got 100 points for the Reading quarter final,Fa Cup game,the game before playing the rags in the wembley semi .

 

[Project1]

If I remember right,we got 100 points for the Reading quarter final,Fa Cup game,the game before playing the rags in the wembley semi .

You are correct we did indeed get 100 points for Reading 5/03/2011.
Also got 100 points for Aston Villa FA Cup on the 21/02/11.
Talking of Reading the away game that I always remember is a Tuesday Night after we got beat by Wigan in the FA Cup final. No Manager an abundance of empty seats and it absolutely pissed down all night.
Got a win though.